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Chantal Clément, right, marketing and communications officer for the Faculty of Arts, listens to her University of Manitoba counterpart Nancy Windjack. |
On April 28, 2006, University of Ottawa support staff members welcomed about 40 colleagues from the University of Manitoba, who were taking part in a professional development field trip in the nation’s capital.
The trip, the ninth such visit to be initiated under the aegis of the University of Manitoba’s Support Staff Endowment Fund (SSEF), provides an opportunity for support staff to exchange ideas with their counterparts from Canada and the United States.
The Manitoba visitors spent a full day on campus and were paired with colleagues in similar jobs at the University of Ottawa. The list of participants provided a glimpse of the breadth of tasks accomplished by support staff, from IT management, engineering, security and library services, to teaching and professional development, recruitment, faculty support, and external relations.
“We share the same ideal of service to the university community,” said SSEF co-chair Kurt Christoph at an early morning meet-and-greet breakfast. Through these exchanges, “we bring something back home that can effect a change.”
The Human Resources Service helped organize the campus visit and the staff pairings, after Manitoba made initial contact in the fall 2005.
It was an opportunity for participants to “get a more global idea of their work,” said Louise Pagé-Valin, associate vice-president, human resources. “It’s often when we reveal ourselves that we become aware of the importance of what we do.”
Field trips are just one of the activities of the SSEF, noted Christoph, who is supervisor of security services at the University of Manitoba. The fund, started in 1988 with a grant from a support staff member, also provides awards and grants to individual staff members to upgrade their skills or pursue specific projects.
