Support Sustainability at UVA with "Hoos Making an Impact" Competition

Interested in making a difference in the UVA community? Then why not participate in the “Hoos Making an Impact” (HMAI) competition?

What is HMAI?

HMAI was developed by Staff Senate Co-Chairs Adam Griggs and Patrick Wood, President Ryan and his Executive Staff, and the Staff Senate.

“The competition’s inception was born from the idea that staff needed to be active partners with leadership in the crucial conversations that impact staff University-wide,” Staff Senate Co-Chair Patrick Wood explained when asked about HMAI. 

The goal of this competition, held annually, is to enable staff members to share their ideas for process improvement and to participate in implementing those ideas. Though subsequent years will not be themed, Sustainability was the chosen theme for the competition's first year since the University is working toward the 2030 Sustainability Plan goals.

Proposal Submission and Prizes

The submission portal is open to all Academic Staff from now through October 7th, 2022.

Staff members with the top ten submissions will present their proposals to a screening panel composed of representatives from the Staff Senate, and from the offices of the President, Provost, COO, DEI, and Sustainability.

The panel will choose up to three winning process improvement proposals to implement. The winners will receive $1,000 (teams split the reward) and a lunch in their honor with President Ryan, his leadership team, and the Staff Senate Co-Chairs. Winners will also be featured in UVA Today.

More information on the competition is available on the Staff Senate website.

Watch President Ryan's Video About Staff Senate Elections

 

Staff Senate: Advocacy and Service

Why join the Staff Senate?  Click
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UVA’s staff senate is a forum through which UVA staff members can provide input on policies, procedures, and programs. It also provides the opportunity to interact with colleagues across Grounds, to stay aware of current issues, and to play an active role in shaping our “Great and good” University.

“This is an organization intended for staff to feel empowered, and to have a resource,” says Kristie Smeltzer of Organizational Excellence, who serves as Co-Chair of the Staff Senate.

Their priority of staff advocacy has the staff senate focused on some important projects:

• Collaborating on UVA’s 2030 Strategic Plan, working with the President’s Office, the EVP-COO’s office, and HR to achieve a strategic plan initiative: “Cultivating Staff Success.”
• Increasing two-way communication with constituents (that’s all of you reading this!), enabling senators to connect consistently with staff members as the senate represents them and shares questions and feedback.
• Continuing the partnership to improve Education Benefits, collaborating with UVA HR to advocate for continuous improvement in this area.

Staff can visit the website at staffsenate.virginia.edu to interact with a host of helpful resources, to view upcoming meetings (which are open for staff to attend) and minutes from past meetings, and to find out who their senator is.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to partner with other groups across Grounds to improve the staff experience at UVA,” says Smeltzer.

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UVAFinance, meet your Staff Senators!
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Opportunity to Serve on the UVA Staff Senate

We need you! There is currently an opening on the Staff Senate for the Alternate Staff Senator position representing the Finance area, The Office of the University Architect, Real Estate and Leasing Services, and State Governmental Relations.  The Alternate to the Staff Senator is encouraged to attend all monthly Staff Senate meetings and can serve in leadership positions, including committee co-chairs and coordinator positions. The Alternate’s term will start in July and runs for three years.  However, the term for Chris Doran, the current Senator for our area, ends in June 2017, so there will be an opportunity at that time as well to step forward and serve. Whomever fills the alternate role this summer will be eligible to run for the open Senator seat next spring.

Chris will be sending more information in the next few weeks, but if you have an interest now and would like to learn more than you can find at http://staffsenate.virginia.edu, please contact Chris, Mike Ludwick (retiring senator), Lynn Galasso (retiring alternate) or Kobby Hoffman (retiring alternate) with your questions.

As a reminder, all things Staff Senate can be found on the Staff Senate webpage, including an outstanding list of Staff Resources and an anonymous Suggestion Box. If you use Facebook, you can connect with the Staff Senate that way, as well.

November Staff Senate Highlights

• The Staff Senate now has a website. Listed there are profiles of Senators organized by areas they represent, committees, meetings and minutes, bylaws, and a suggestion box. Have a look.
• HR is researching early retirement options. More information should be available in the spring.
• 12/14 is the deadline to use your 2014 educational benefit if you are a bi-weekly employee. 12/21 is the deadline if you are paid monthly.
• W-2s will be available electronically on 1/16/15. Send an email to askhr@virginia.edu (if you have not already) to consent to receive your W-2 electronically. Otherwise it will be mailed around 1/31/15.
• If you do not submit a timecard by the deadline—that is, by 10am the Monday following the end of the pay period—you will not be paid until the next pay period. (If you submit your time card on time, but your supervisor does not approve it timely, your time card will go through anyway and you will be paid.) Make sure to submit your time cards as instructed by the HR person in your area.
• Chris Holstedge, past Faculty Senate Chair, spoke about the organizational structure of the Faculty Senate and its committees.

Staff Senate: October 16

Guest Speaker: Pat Hogan 

Mr. Pat Hogan spoke to the Senate on numerous topics, but stated that he was more interested in what was on our minds. He spoke at length on the role of leadership and the role of the manager at UVA, the educational initiatives that are currently in place for training, and role clarification. He also shared his thoughts on how the use of creativity and innovation by staff, and faculty will do much to push UVA toward excellence. He asks that we all commit to being innovators, and as senators, we must keep this in mind as we move forward.

Mr. Hogan feels strongly that managers and staff need to be empowered in order to have ideas bubble up to the surface, where they can be considered and acted upon. In his words, he feels that no matter what your job is at UVA, each person has ideas for constructive positive change and we need to have all staff engaged in being creative. We need to change the culture, he suggests, as well as not to settle for complacency or mediocrity.

Mr. Hogan spoke about the fact that we have too many silos at UVA and quite a bit of duplication of effort. He states that he is committed to merit increases every year of his current 7 year plan, however, he asks something of us in return: that we work with him to change the culture to one of innovation and excellence.

We have to modernize the way things are done at UVA. He described his point of view on the organizational structure, which he feels is best compared to a pyramid shape, where information and requests for ideas flow well up and down. However, at UVA, he described what he believes is more complicated: we have not only a pyramid but also an inverted pyramid below, such that the middle layer becomes the place where information sharing can become congested.

• He suggests that we need to ensure that we have managers who enable people to innovate and that we need to offer training to managers to support these efforts
• We need to continue to invest in technology (used the new phone system as an example)
• We need to continue to provide funding for research
• We need to invest money in getting updated servers
• He encourages us to all work together to ensure innovation and creativity
• He is committed to the safety of our students and staff and discussed the work of the new task force on safety