AVP & CTO Update, April 30, 2018

Good morning everyone

Some of you know that I have been shopping for a new car – well I bought one this weekend! I am the proud owner of a 2018 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hatchback. I pick it up on Wednesday. You can see a few pics attached. 🙂

What I learned last week

• I spent a majority of my time in IT Governance committee meetings. Rather than providing an update here, I want to remind you that you can check out all of the committee agendas and notes by clicking on the committee buttons at the top of the screen when you log into Confluence.  One proposal was approved by the IT Executive and that is the Short Term Wireless Phase II – to finish the wireless installation in Thode, Mills and MUSC this summer.
• The McMaster IT Strategic Plan Steering Committee had its first meeting on Tuesday morning! We had an amazing session. We meet again in mid May and then will begin to engage the community. I will be posting information on the IT Strategy along with updates on my website in the next week to provide an update to the community.
• Remember all those amusement park rides that were on campus for the Last Night? Well there is a video so you can see what happened! I don’t think it rained… but looks a bit chilly.
• Have you read the Guest Blog on my site – written by Daniel Agostinho, one of our departing Co-op students – he wrote a great account of his time with UTS.
• Tanya Reid is our new Manager Communications and Culture! She will be joining us on May 14, 2018.

What I am up to this week

• I am meeting with colleagues from the MacPherson Institute to talk about D2L
• I meet with the Dean of Science, Maureen MacDonald
• I will be attending the ORION THINK 2018 conference in Toronto on Tuesday and I will be attending the ORION Advisory Group meetup. I am on the Higher Ed CIO Advisory Committee but this will be my first actual activity.
• Paul Muir and I will be attending the Audit Committee to provide the latest security update
• I have the Enterprise Admin Tech committee meeting this week – the only committee meeting that was NOT last week!
• I will be doing some follow up from last week’s IT Strategic Planning session
• I have a number of regular meetings, including Provost Council, CTO Exec, etc.
• I will be holding my end of year discussions with some of my team.

Book of the week

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Frederick Douglass.

This week I read an old Edgar Rice Burroughs book: The Monster Men. Very campy old sci-fi and I think it was a nod to Frankenstein – inventing monster men. My brother-in-law gave it to me a few years back with a few other vintage reads; he owns a used book store in London call City Lights which is a great book source. I get a kick out of Burroughs books – when I was a kid I really liked At The Earth’s Core , and The Land That Time Forgot. I wouldn’t necessarily say this book has aged all that well – but its a quickie!

Also, if you like Podcasts, I recommend Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo from CBC. A heart breaker but so educational. It kept me company on a drive to and from Owen Sound on Wednesday.

Have a great week everyone!

Best regards,
Gayleen