This past month has been a whirlwind, good thing we got an extra day. We have been knee deep in RA and RD interviews as well as moving forward with heading to TPE and NASPA. My mind is spinning, but somewhere in there somethings have become all to clear. My job is to take care of #PacificHGL and give the students that call our facilities home the best damn experience possible. However, my passion is to find ways to sustain our profession well beyond when I am gone. There is no better way to do this than connecting people to each other, and highlight just how expansive our web of #awesomesauce actually is. Earlier this week I was on a video chat with @carolyngolz @sjiwamiya and @craigbeebe when Carolyn melted my face off with this thought - (roughly paraphrased) "networking is not about finding the next job, it is about helping you do your current job". I'm still in a bit of an awe state of how simplistic that is, yet how profound that is. So, as I work to fulfill my professional passion, I must work to connect those I work with to others. Help them spread their web so that ideas can flow. Yes, this will set them up for future success, but in the short run it will set my department up for immediate returns.
Last night a little exchange was happening on the tweets and I felt another one of those light bulb urges. @tbump set out the challenge to get people connected. I have some plans to do some very intentional connections - in the hopes that people can find others to help support, mentor and sponsor them. But, within that is the challenge of getting all of my folks connected. #PacificHGL will be rolling deep to #NASPA12 - and I'm very excited for that. What I am more excited for is letting my current web get the chance to see my universal web - and when that combines I can just hear harmonious angels singing!!! I intend on reaching out to my tweeps and friends in #sachat to see who is going to be at #NASPA12. If you are going to be there and want to help me connect my Pacific family let me know. I will put your name on random bingo boards. From there I will give these boards to my staff to go forth and search. If they find the people they can engage in a quick hello and conversation. If they get their whole board filled up they will win a grand prize from me. Yes, the will receive something tangible, but also their is an intangible prize in there; the fact that they are now connected to one more person in our profession - can't ask for much more than that!
If you want to help me with this exercise please feel free to hit me at @torrybruce or email me at torrybruce@gmail.com. I'll put your name, twitter handle, etc.
Not to challenge you, but @kevincleary said if he is on the board and someone finds him that he will buy them coffee (I'll put that on the board as encouragement for my staff to seek him out...I think he will be more popular than normal!)
