Hot Cross Buns

Here's something a bit different!

We're having a few people over for Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday. If you know me, then you are welcome to join us. Just drop me an email and I'll forward you the details.

Meeting with Paul Sherlock

I'd been thinking over the weekend that it would be polite to contact Paul Sherlock - the Director of UniSA's ISTS to let him know that I'm not planning to move over to their new Learning and Teaching Systems team. However, he beat me to it! He rang to ask if he could drop by and have a chat. Paul has always been friendly and cordial when I've had anything to do with him previously, and today was no different.

I told him that I was planning to leave UniSA, and not move out to the new position at Mawson Lakes. I've already mentioned here previously that the way I see ISTS function is not a place that I see myself fitting into.

He asked about my plans for the future, and also enquired about handover plans.

Handover won't be easy, as the new team doesn't exist yet, and I'd guess it would be at least another month by the time they advertise and fill the other positions. The best I can do is try and get RJ up to speed on as many things as I can think of (as he's indicated interest in the new team), and maybe make use of that nice Wiki software we now have.

It isn't easy picking up other people's work. I experienced this first hand when Roger left our team last year. Picking up after me will be harder, as I've got 13 years of "legacy" applications behind me :-)

The meeting ended positively, with Paul wishing me well for the future. I appreciate that. You never know when your paths will cross again, so I think it's preferable to leave on good terms.

Change Management update

This afternoon, there's a meeting of all staff from the Flexible Learning Centre to discuss the plan for restructuring the unit. If there are no major stumbling blocks then the final plan will be published next week and the changes will start after that.

If there's been one positive thing to come out of this whole "managing change" process, I think it has brought us closer together as a team (specifically the Online Services and IT teams). We've been having more lunches, morning teas, and spontaneous chats about how we are going. As well as wanting to know colleague's plans for the future, I sense there's also a bit more caring going on - making sure people are ok (or as ok as you can be).

Unfortunately for me, I've ended up missing most of this week being sick with a really nasty throat infection. It was good enough that the Doctor decided antibiotics might be helpful. One strange side-effect of being sick at home for a few days is I now have Justine Clarke's "Watermelon" song running around in my head, due to watching too much ABC Kids TV programmes :-)