Good morning Colleagues

Where did all the warm weather go?! Yesterday, I walked around my house wearing layers of clothes and even put on socks. I never wear socks this early in the fall! Stay warm and dry today, everyone.

What I learned last week

• On Tuesday, I presented a draft version of the McMaster IT Strategic Plan to Provost Council. The meeting went very well and it was a great discussion. This marks a major milestone in the final stages of the planning process. The next steps are:
  • I will hold 1:1 meetings with members of my IT Strategic Planning Steering Committee to get their direct and individual input on the plan.
  • On September 24, I meet with the full IT Strategic Planning Steering Committee to share the final edit and to get their endorsement and support.
  • On September 27 I meet with the VP Research, Karen Mossman, to share the draft plan with her for input.
  • On October 4 I will meet with the IT Executive to share the plan for their endorsement. Once the IT Executive has provided their endorsement, we will begin to share the plan more broadly.
  • I will be presenting the IT Strategic Plan to the IT community during the IT Forum on October 11.
  • From there we will begin discussing the implementation of the plan. This is a three year outline of strategic initiatives. Some are already underway. Excited to share this more broadly very soon!
• Budget planning continued to draw on much of my time through last week. I submit a first draft of our 2019/2020 projections on September 24.
• I called into the regular ORION University Advisory Group meeting on Tuesday afternoon. ORION presented their new draft strategic plan. This isn’t yet ready for public consumption; similar to my approach, ORION is gathering input and fine tuning their strategy based on these discussions. One of their goals is to be more communicative and open about what they do and to create more awareness of who they are. You can learn more about ORION on their Blog page.
• Richard and I held a discussion with one of our vendor partners, Longview, and then with our Microsoft colleagues, to explore their ideas related to rolling out Microsoft Office 365 to the campus. Very early discussions, however we will be continuing to explore strategies for rolling out the platform and will be engaging others from across the IT community in these conversations as well.
• I met with some colleagues from University of Guelph, including their CIO, Dave Whittle, to discuss activities we are both undertaking. The main topic was Data Governance, however we touched on a number of other items including IT Strategy, IT governance and strategic planning (surprise!)

What I read last week

Maybe it is the fact that it was a short week or because I am actually turning the page rather than listening to an audio book this week, but I didn’t finish my book! I finished two books the week before, so I will give myself permission to be human and keep reading into this coming week. The book? Discover Your True North by Bill George. All about becoming an authentic leader. It is a great read with lots of true accounts and examples of leaders that have found success through their own authentic leadership journey, and also stories about those who have lost their way. Either way, great learning.

What I am up to this week

• We have an Infrastructure and Information Security Committee meeting on Monday. The agenda is available for your awareness on the Confluence site.
• Provost Council is back into full swing, with regular Wednesday meetings.
• My update meeting with David and Roger takes place on Tuesday afternoon. The agenda is full!
• I will be at the TRT meeting on Thursday.
• We have the first Learning and Technology Committee of the semester this week.
• The Dean of Humanities, Ken Cruikshank, and I are scheduled to meet later in the week, kicking off my regular 1:1 meetings with all of the Deans.
• I am meeting with Michael Webber to discuss his web marketing strategy and necessary tools.
• The Chief Librarian, Vivian Lewis, and Chris McAllister and I, will be meeting with Linda Coslovi on Wednesday to discuss Classroom Technology.
• I have a number of regular update meetings.
• More budget preparation to do!
• Planning for the McMaster IT Forum is underway. As stated above, I will be presenting the first look at the McMaster IT Strategic Plan to the IT community at Connectivity 2018, on October 11th. This year’s event is sponsored by my office, the Office of the AVP & CTO, and it will once again be a great opportunity to learn, share and connect. I am very much looking forward to the rich discussions that will occur. Register and find out more about the program!
• I am taking a week of vacation, starting this Friday, September 14. I will return to work on Monday, September 24. I am off to France to spend a week with friends. I don’t want to rub it in but the weather looks much more seasonal! My specific destinations are Nice and Lyon. If you have been there and have some ‘must dos’, please feel free to share before Friday! I won’t be writing my update next week but will fill you in the week after. Bon jour!

Have a great week, everyone!
gg