• But I’m not Looking for a Job!
• Creating Harmony Between Work and Life
• Digital Identity: Who do you want to be online?
• Getting around TUIT
• Inspiration doesn’t care about your 9 to 5
• Inspiring staff with access: what the Library offers
• ITS Easier Than You Think
• Kindergarten to Professional Life- has much changed?
• Multi-Campus Administration 101
• Putting the I in FIPPA
• Ramping Up Your Social Media Strategy
• Take a Shortcut: Comfortable Keyboarding for Happy Shoulders
• The face of Laurier: working together to strengthen our brand
• Volunteering in the Community
• What is DAPC, SPAT and LAP?

Session Times:

10:30-11:45
2:30-3:45

Session Description

But I’m not Looking for a Job! Using LinkedIn Effectively for Professional Development and Networking

Have you heard about this thing called LinkedIn? If you’ve created an account, are you using it to its fullest? Contrary to popular belief, LinkedIn and networking are not just for job seekers. Come to this workshop and join our discussion on how to use LinkedIn and its potential for building community at Laurier, and to see that networking is an opportunity for continual improvement and professional development.

Participants will not only take away tools and strategies to build their LinkedIn accounts but will also have an opportunity to develop new relationships at Laurier. You don’t need to have a LinkedIn account to attend, but it will sure help.

Find new ways to ‘Link’ with other Laurier employees and build connections across campus.

Facilitators:

Laura Bolton is a Career Consultant at the Waterloo Career Development Centre and a graduate of Laurier’s Brantford campus. In her role Laura leads workshops and also meets one-on-one with clients –students, alumni and staff - to assist with career exploration, career planning, goal setting, and employment preparation. Prior to starting at Laurier in 2012, Laura worked as an independent consultant and coach, connecting people with their passions.

Neither Jessie nor I are LinkedIn experts, but we’ve both been working on our profiles and would love to share some of the tips we’ve learned along the way!

Jessie Eulenberg has been working at Laurier for almost 10 years. She spent the first nine years supporting students with disabilities in the Accessible Learning Centre and shifted to the Career Centre in September 2012. She is a graduate of the Master of Social Work program. In her role as Career Consultant Jessie enjoys connecting students with career development resources and opportunities. If you had talked to Jessie a year ago, she wasn’t even on LinkedIn, but since starting with the Career Centre team, she’s converted to a LinkedIn believer!

Session Times:

10:30-11:45
2:30-3:45

Session Description:

For many, finding work-life harmony is the number one stressor in life. Whether juggling a family, supporting aging parents, engaging in professional development, or managing a combination of challenging roles, the demands and pressures can be significant. This interactive workshop is designed to help participants identify what ‘harmony’ means for them and learn how to create and maintain a life that is personally fulfilling.

Participants will:

-Learn strategies and techniques to ensure a level of harmony that is personally ‘just right’
-Recognize how relationships are effected by the different ways people act and react when they are struggling to find balance
-Identify ways others prioritize roles and responsibilities


Facilitator:

Melanie Will is a mother of three and a half year old twin boys, works full-time, recently completed her Masters of Education as a working mom and tries to find time for crafting and exercise while maintaining work/life harmony.  Melanie has worked at Laurier for over 11 years as a Residence Life Area Coordinator, Manager of the Student Leadership Centre and currently as Manager, Learning and Organizational Development.

Session Times:

10:30-11:45
2:30-3:45

Session Description:

It is increasingly common for people to be asked to join the online social media world at work and at home. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram are all tools that are entering the workplace as the use of social media in business and higher education explodes.

However, participating in the digital world means more than signing up for Twitter or creating an account on Facebook. It requires formulating an online identity. The objective of this workshop is to introduce social media "newbies" to the issues they need to consider before setting up social media accounts. Those that have already joined social media can get a deeper understanding of the identity they are presenting to the world. Participants will discuss and plan their social media personas in small groups.

Facilitator:

In 2012 Shawna was rated one of the top three knowledge mobilization influencers in Canada, according to a survey by Knowledge Mobilization Works. To view the results of the survey, click here.

Laurier webpage: http://www.wlu.ca/homepage.php?grp_id=13335

Session Times:

10:30-11:45
2:30-3:45

Session Description:

Reminder emails are not working, and you have begged and pleaded… How do you get your student staff/volunteers motivated to take initiative??  Lets review the reasons why students volunteer and examine how our motivational techniques can provide purpose and commitment. Creativity is key, and I will demonstrate some fun activities to boost team spirit!

Facilitator:

Bailey Gross graduated from Laurier in '08 after completing 3 years as a Residence Life Don, 4 years as a Leadership Ambassador with the Student Leadership Centre, 1 year as a WLUSU
Video Productions Coordinator and on top of that, completed a double degree in Film & Communications Studies and a minor in Psychology.  She has worked on the Brantford campus (Residence Life) , the Kitchener Campus (Practicum Office) and is currently the Coordinator at the Student Leadership Center on the Waterloo Campus.  One thing that has been a constant in her life at Laurier has been her interest in motivating students!

Session Times:

10:30-11:45
1:00-2:15

Session Description:

Inspiration doesn’t care about your 9 to 5: Cultivating a culture of creative problem solving

Have you ever envied that friend or co-worker who always seems to be full of ideas? What if creativity were a skill you could develop like any other workplace habit?
Whether you work in a traditionally creative role or not, developing your creative side can help you face challenges, engage with your work, and have more fun. Learn how simple daily habits can build the creative thinker in all of us and inspire solutions that work.
Participants will be guided through a self-assessment and will leave this session with a personalized plan for sourcing inspiration and supporting creative development within their team.

Facilitator:

A self-diagnosed internet nerd, Kat Lourenco has spent the past five years playing on Facebook at work. Somewhere in between posting photos of her cat and watching Taylor Swift videos, she has also accumulated extensive experience in content-driven interactive marketing for the campus and entertainment markets. She currently leads a team of creatives as the Director, Marketing Communications for the Laurier Students' Union.

Session Times:

1:00-2:15
2:30-3:45

Session Description:

This interactive computer lab session will introduce you to materials you never knew the library offered to the Laurier community, such as access to ‘paywalled’ newspapers, research databases, and image archives.

Learn how you can interact with us, take part in a group discussion of what we can do for staff on campus, and find out what librarians and staff really do all day (we wish we could find more time to read too!)

Facilitator:

Anne Kelly has been at Laurier since 2005, and has almost 40 years’ experience working in many different types of libraries. Keenly interested in the intersection of teaching and technology, her research interest involves innovation and entrepreneurship in the library.

Session Times:

10:30-11:45
1:00-2:15

Session Description:

ITS Easier Than You Think: How to Engage ITS to Find the Right Solution for You

If your computer breaks down, you can contact the ITS Service Desk and IT Support personnel are available to come to your desk and get you up and running.

But who should you contact when:
- You're tired of having to track everything in a spreadsheet manually when you know there must be a system out there that can automate it for you?
- You want to replace an aging, out-of-date system with something that better meets you and your department's needs today?
- You want to consult ITS in bringing your tech-savvy idea into life?

In this session, you'll find out how to engage ITS to help you address projects of any scale.  We'll walk you through all the steps to getting an IT project off the ground successfully including how to:
- Submit a project proposal to ITS
- Document your requirements and processes
- Track the project progress
- Launch successfully

Let us work together - ITS Easier Thank You Think!

Facilitators:

Louis Mastorakos is the Business Process Analyst for ITS. A Computer Science graduate of the University of Waterloo, Louis worked IT jobs in corrections, video game console support, and real-time computer animation before his start at Laurier in 2009. An avowed computer nerd and technophile, his current position is right up his alley as he helps people and departments at the University to make their own work easier through innovative and forward-thinking IT solutions. Louis is currently pursing his Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA ®) from the International Institute of Business Analysis, as well as an English degree in Rhetoric and Professional Writing.


Andres Diaz is a Senior Project Lead with the ICT Renewal Project within ITS. Andres joined us in March and manages enterprise-wide projects at Laurier. He has over 25 years of combined I.T., Project Management and Business Development experience across a variety of industries in companies such as The Co-operators, Sun Life and Hibernia. He holds the Project Management Professional (PMP)® designation from the Project Management Institute, a Master's Degrees in Computing Engineering and a Master's Certificate in Project Management.

Nela Petkovic is a Director of ICT Renewal Projects with Laurier's ITS department.  She joined Laurier in 1995, and currently manages large enterprise projects for the University, and implements project management standards and processes.  Prior to coming to Laurier, Nela worked as an IT professional for Fiat Serbia, and the Aeronautical Technical Institute in Belgrade.  Nela holds a Master's Degree in Electronic Engineering, and is a designated Project Management Professional (PMP ®).

Session Times:

10:30-11:45
1:00-2:15

Session Description

Share! Listen! Play well with others! These are golden rules we heard time and again when we were in kindergarten, but how well do we apply these rules in our professional lives? Common lessons that were re-enforced when we were younger still apply today. How do we adapt these simple rules into our complex workplace? Come learn how marshmallows, spaghetti and playing well with others can come together to help us develop as strong communicators, and collaborators through activity-based learning.

Facilitators:

Tina Tellis and Necia Martins met each other through their passion for extra-curricular involvement as students at Western. Both women reunited and worked together for three years at Laurier in Residence Life. Together they have experience facilitating team building and collaboration sessions for professional staff and regularly contribute at their provincial association conferences. Both are currently working in 202 Regina in their respective administrative roles, and completing their graduate studies. They both still enjoy finger painting and nap time.

Session Times:

1:00-2:15
2:30-3:45

Session Description:

Multi-Campus Administration 101 or Everything You Wanted to Know about Multi-Campus Administration but Were Afraid to Ask

Most people on campus have heard about the Multi-Campus Governance Report and Task Force.  However, many staff and managers are unsure about the specifics of these and how it may impact their work environment.  The objective of this session is to teach staff and managers about Multi-Campus Governance at Laurier with a particular emphasis on administration.  Through a presentation and panel discussion, the leaders of this session will provide an overview of the state of multi-campus administration across the university with a particular emphasis on their units.  Furthermore, they will outline the challenges that are inherent in a multi-campus environment as well as strategies for success.  Finally, they will present some specific examples of those who are meeting with success in multi-campus administration at Laurier.  Participants will leave this session with a stronger understanding of what multi-campus administration means at Laurier.

Facilitators:

Julie Topic spent most of her career working in the IT department for a global chemical company for 24 years in a multi-cultural multi-location environment before coming to Wilfrid Laurier University. She started as a programmer and worked her up through to Director End User Support. Julie joined Laurier’s ITS department in 2011 as the Director of ICT Support. Her areas of responsibility include delivery of top quality IT Service Management, the Employee and Student Service Desks, Employee and Student Technical Support teams, and the Teaching/Computer labs for all campuses. 

Holly Cox started at Laurier’s Brantford campus in 1998 with the Student Recruitment office.  After the campus’ 10 year anniversary, Holly took on the challenge of amalgamating Laurier’s Admissions and Recruitment offices and now shares her time between Waterloo and Brantford.   Recruitment & Admissions oversees undergraduate student recruitment and admissions for domestic and international students, at both the Brantford and Waterloo campuses.  The LEAF programs (undergraduate in Brantford and PreMBA in Waterloo) are also under the R&A umbrella.

Kevin Crowley is the Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University. He joined Laurier in 2007 after a 20-year career in journalism. As a member of the Office of Communications, Public Affairs and Marketing (CPAM), Kevin manages institutional communications and media relations.

Session Times:

10:30 - 11:45
1:00 - 2:15

Session Description

Are you nervous about collecting personal information?  Do you receive questions from parents and wonder what you can say?  Not sure what you should put in an e-mail? Are you hesitant to share personal information with other departments?  If you said yes, this workshop is for you! 

In the spirit of supporting a culture of service, this workshop will describe the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and explain how it affects you.

Using Laurier-specific examples, staff from the Privacy Office will share tips and answer questions about privacy and personal information in an interactive way.  Using clickers, workshop participants will work together and with Privacy Office staff in examining specific examples staff encounter.  Ample time will also be given to answering questions.  Topics covered will include sharing information with other departments, collecting private information, properly communicating confidential information, privacy breaches, access requests, and e-mail security.

Attendees will leave the workshop with tip sheets, an understanding of FIPPA at Laurier, and an increased confidence when working with and sharing personal information within the university.

Facilitator:

Session Times

1:00-2:15
2:30-3:45

Session Description

What does poutine, the Sir Wilfrid Laurier statue and analytics have to do with building a social media strategy? Lots!

In this workshop, we will discuss how the social media team of two in Laurier’s Communications, Public Affairs and Marketing Department have been able to steadily grow the institutional Twitter, Facebook and YouTube platforms with minimal resources – and still managing to get non-social media work done.

We’ll talk about some of our mini-campaigns, as well as our tips and tricks for maximizing content on a daily basis. We’ll also briefly discuss the beauty of analytics in helping to reduce the effort you need to put into your strategy.

The workshop hashtag is #LaurierSM. Feel free to tweet us your questions ahead of time, or even after the workshop. We also invite you to follow Laurier on Twitter: @LaurierNews, Facebook: www.facebook.com/LaurierNow, and YouTube: www.youtube.com/LaurierVideo.

Facilitators:

Lori Chalmers Morrison

Since uttering her first words, Lori Chalmers Morrison has loved communicating with people. That love led to an undergraduate degree in psychology, a graduate certificate in public relations, and an 18-year career in communications that ranges from writing and editing to media relations, crisis communications, strategic communications planning, and over the last few years, has included social media.

Lori uses her communications background to develop social media strategies and social media guidelines, challenges her editing skills to whittle her words down to 140 characters, and has a passion for creating engagement with people through Twitter and Facebook.

Connect with Lori on Twitter: @Lori_CM

Sandra Muir

As the Communications and New-Media Officer for Laurier’s Department of Communications, Public Affairs and Marketing, Sandra Muir spends a lot of time tweeting, posting, linking, liking and following via the university’s main institutional social media sites.

Sandra has more than 15 years of experience as a writer, editor and communicator, and more than four years of experience in the social media realm. A former web reporter with a degree in broadcast journalism, she uses many of the same skills to create content – written and visual – to engage with the community. She also understands how to utilize content across a variety of social media platforms.

Currently in the part-time MBA program at Laurier, Sandra also enjoys photography. She co-hosted a photography session for the 2012 Staff Development Day. Connect with Sandra on Twitter: @sandramuir or Linkedin: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/sandramuir

Session Times

10:30-11:45
1:00-2:15

Session Description

This hands-on session will teach staff how to keep their hands off their mouse! We'll be demonstrating how to optimize your use of keyboards and mice with shortcuts to make typing more comfortable and fun! Come reap the ergonomic benefits that come with varying the ways in which you input material into the computer and learn how to make writing and navigating documents more efficient. Along the way you'll also learn a few tips and tricks to help you make documents more accessible.

Facilitators:

Jane Fridrich is currently the Assistive Technologist with the Accessible Learning Centre.  She helps students with disabilities use technology to overcome environmental barriers.    She has also assisted staff with setting up adaptive software and hardware.  With over 15 years experience working with adaptive technology, she loves experimenting with various input methods including voice, touch input, mouse and keyboard  to find interesting and convenient ways to get information into computers. Away from campus, she loves cycling, martial arts and taking courses.  Next up on her bucket list: welding. 

Lynn Kane is the Employment Equity and AODA Officer in the Diversity and Equity Office. She’s (fairly) new to Laurier, having recently moved back to Ontario after completing a Master’s in English from UBC. Her research there focused on critical disability studies including disability policy, and the politics of representation and inclusion. On the weekends Lynn can be found baking, hiking, reading a book, or attending weddings as the assistant to the photographer (her brother).

Session Times: 

1:00pm-2:15pm
2:30pm-3:45pm

Session Description:

Brands like Coca-Cola, Nike and McDonald's are recognized world-wide because of their strong commitment to brand identity. They've developed a look and a logo, and all their advertising, marketing and public relations pieces includes that brand consistency. While it may be difficult (and some might say boring!) to always use the same colours and fonts, organizations do it to enhance brand recognition - and it works!

Join Laurier's Creative Services team to learn about the importance of a strong, consistent identity and how they can help you ensure your unique pieces are both successful and best represent the face of Laurier.

Facilitators 

Helen Exley, Associate Director: Marketing & Creative Services and the design team from CPAM. Emily Lowther, Janice Maarhuis, Justin Ogilvie, Dawn Wharnsby with over 55 years of combined experience in the graphic design profession.

Session Times:

10:30-11:45
2:30-3:45

Session Description:

Interested in volunteering in the community, but not sure how to:

    Find the right organization?
    Find the right position?
    Get started?
    Get the most out of the experience?
    Make the most positive impact?

Please join Shannon (Laurier Centre for Community Service-Learning, LCCSL), Jane and Dianne (Volunteer Action Centre of Kitchener Waterloo, VAC-KW) for a presentation and conversation about Volunteering in the K-W Community!

We'd like to share information with you about volunteerism and tell you about the partnership between VAC-KW and the LCCSL/Laurier Career Centre that allows you to search and sign-up for volunteer positions using a Volunteer website and portal just for Laurier.

Facilitators:

Shannon Pennington has been a Coordinator with the Laurier Centre for Community Service-Learning (LCCSL) for 4 years.  Her interest in volunteerism and passion for community involvement lead her to this role and she is thrilled to be able to support other Laurier staff members who are interested in volunteering as well.

Jane Hennig has been Executive Director of the Volunteer Action Centre for the past 10 years. She has participated at a national level as a board member for the Canadian Association for Community Service-Learning Steering Committee and has worked with Laurier's Centre for Community Research Learning and Action (CCRLA) to evaluate Laurier CSL from Community Partners', faculty, and students' perspectives.

Dianne Boston-Nyp has been Community Engagement liaison at the Volunteer Action Centre for the past six years. Dianne works in the "front line" alongside volunteer managers from within organizations, businesses and education sectors to help create better ways to connect volunteers with community organizations for mutual benefit.

Session Times:

1:00-2:15
2:30-3:45

Session Description:

There is a misunderstanding of what our faculty do in their week. There is a perception that they teach for the 6 to 9 hours they are in the classroom and then are off for the rest of the week. The truth is, Faculty are required to teach, engage in scholarly activities and professional and/or academic service.  There are three types of full-time faculty positions: Professional Teaching Position, Tenure-track, Limited term and tenured.  There are four types of ranks: Lecturer, Assistant, Associate and Professor. We will explain the differences between these appointments and ranks. We will also cover the hiring  process through to tenure. There will be three full-time faculty participating who will speak to their life as an academic and how they chose that career. One faculty rep with speak to teaching, ie, preparing for a course and the process to the end of the course. Another will speak to the research process beginning to end and other will speak about what service could be and what service they have be involved with. Each faculty member will speak briefly about their own research interests. They will also talk briefly about why they chose this career and what they had to achieve to reach that goal. 

Facilitators:

Kendra Young has been a valued member of the Laurier community since 1988. Throughout the years, she has held a variety of administrative and supporting positions that eventually led her to her role as Administrative Manager: Faculty of Arts, and later Administrative Manager: Faculty of Science. Her current position is Administrative Manager: Faculty Relations.

Patricia Goff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Laurier. She currently serves as Director of the Balsillie School joint PhD in Global Governance program. She specializes in international political economy, international relations theory, and international organization, with a particular interest in trade, intellectual property, and the cultural capacity of international organizations.

Adam Crerar teaches Canadian and North American history, and the philosophy and methods of history, in the Department of History.  He is writing a social and cultural history of the relationship between rural and urban Ontario from the 1890s through the 1920s for McGill-Queen's University Press, and will become the Department's Graduate Officer this summer.

Ken Maly obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from Queen's University in 2002.  Following an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the Université de Montréal, he joined the Department of Chemistry at Wilfrid Laurier University as an Assistant Professor in 2006.  In 2011 he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.  His research program, which focuses on the use of methods in organic chemistry to prepare new materials, is funded by NSERC, an Ontario Early Researcher Award, and an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Grant.  His teaching at Laurier has ranged from large first year introductory chemistry classes to senior level and graduate courses in organic chemistry.