The WIT Crowd | 07/23/2019

UMN WIT Executive Committee Elections

For those who have been in UMN WIT for a while, you may know that our Executive Co-Chair seats are up for election on a 6-month cycle. This year, we are also opening the elections to any chair that sits on the Executive Committee. 

This term will run July 2019 - July 2020. Next steps:

The current WIT Exec team will review the nominations and invite nominees to the August WIT Executive meeting. These meetings are usually one hour over lunch on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and the date for this meeting will be announced before the end of July.

We hope you’ll consider putting your name in the ring or nominating a colleague!

Upcoming Events

WIT & You: Finding Your Place in Technology - August 6, 2019

  • Lunch is $14 or you can bring your own.
  • Excellent speakers on topics including:
    • Professional Advancement
    • Promoting yourself and others
    • Emotional Intelligence in the Tech Industry
    • UMN Tech Women in History panel presentation

The next Coffee Hour is Wednesday, July 31, 10 AM. Join us at D’Amico & Sons in the McNamara building on the East Bank. 

Committee Updates

Communications

The Communications committee have been working with Events promoting the upcoming WIT conference. The WIT website will be migrating over to Drupal 8 Lite sometime this fall. We are currently looking for more members to join the Communications Committee to bring more ideas and suggestions on increasing membership and diversity and improving engagement; feel free to contact [email protected].

Events

The first ever WIT conference is coming up quickly. If you’d like to help out, reach out to Elleni ([email protected]) today!

Mentorship

The spring mentorship cohort is now at an end. Remember to complete the mentorship program reflection survey if you were a mentee or mentor!

Finance 

Do you enjoy writing informative and inspiration proposals? If yes, we are in need of help on the Finance committee. We are looking for someone interested in searching out and helping to submit grants for future WIT initiatives. Feel free to reach out to [email protected] if this strikes a chord with you.

Partnerships & Collaboration

We are finalizing our plan to implement a UMN women in technology profiles website. Also, we will post a summary of the WIT IT Experience Survey results in the next newsletter.

BTAA Women in Technology Peer Group

BTAA Women in Technology is looking for participation in BTAA Peer Coaching Groups. Are you interested in meeting with colleagues from other Big Ten institutions to discuss your goals? If so, the Big Ten Academic Alliance Women in IT group is facilitating cross-institutional Mastermind groups.

A Mastermind group is a peer coaching group. Each group will be composed of less than six people who share similar career interests. The working goals of the group should be determined by its members and can vary but are typically related to professional growth and development. For example, a group might study professional development materials together, act as an accountability group, etc. The group will come up with a consistent meeting schedule and format.

For our inaugural year, predetermined topics will include:

  • Accessibility
  • DevOps
  • Honing presentation skills
  • Management Skills
  • Setting Boundaries
  • Leadership Skills
  • Teaching & Learning Technologies
  • Usability/Customer Experience
  • Web Hosting
  • Work/Life Balance

To participate, please fill out the Google form by August 2.

BTAA WIT is also offering: “Leadership Journey in Higher Ed Technology” with Sue Workman:

Join us on Thursday, August 8, 2019 at 1 p.m. for a BTAA WIT Virtual Session. Register in advance for this webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Sue Workman Vice President for University Technology and CIO at Case Western Reserve University, will share highlights and challenges of the path to her current role as a leader in higher-ed technology administration. Workman's leadership journey describes pivotal moments and key influences that informed her development as a leader.

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