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Congratulations! Emily Phillips is our new SECC solicitor for 2009.
DCL Birthdays September • Scott C • Michelle • Erin • Darleene • Pat W
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Issue No. 15
Aug. 31, 2009
UNCG Division of Continual Learning The AASTC: Tweetering on the Edge
by Bob
Marketing people, as we all know, are an unstable idiosyncratic lot who occasionally have a good idea—even if the idea doesn’t seem so to the people who would have to implement it. The idea was to communicate the camp experience to outsiders, i.e. parents, using the tools of social networking: Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Pitched at camp as “spy on your kids,” parents received a flyer at check-in telling them where they could tune into the various social media we were creating. All of us were regulars on Facebook but prior to this time, only Kisha had a Twitter account. Adding Twitter to our arsenal was a little intimidating at first: trying to come up with clever (and acceptable) things to say that might appeal to our intended audience and knowing that what we tweeted would also show up on the camp’s very public home page (thanks, David). During our staff orientation I switched my little Nikon Coolpix from picture to movie mode and became the social media videographer for the rest of the summer. Matt continued to snap stills and filled up Flickr albums all summer long. Kisha used her Twitter expertise to celebrate camp happenings and retweet Matt’s and my posts of new photos and videos. She was also the only one who could instantly upload pictures directly from her omnipresent BlackBerry to Twitpics. We really didn’t know if anyone would look or even care but it didn’t take long to find out. Some of my awful first-effort videos were getting hundreds of views on YouTube. Similar responses were being recorded for Matt’s and Kisha’s pictures. But what was most amazing was that people were talking back to us. People who obviously had never been on Twitter before were signing up for accounts just so see Tweetering, page 3
Kitchen Clean-up Crews Sept/Oct • 1st Floor • Bobbie • Jane-Marie • Robin Sept • 2nd Floor • Michelle • Nora • Scott B
Salesforce “Hands-On” Sessions
by Trina
Join me every 3rd Tuesday from 2:30–3pm in the upstairs conference room for hands-on use of Salesforce. As we cultivate DCL’s culture of evidence, these sessions will allow for practical experience in data collection, data integrity and reporting. Come share your ideas for improved use of the tool. Date September 15 October 20 November 17 December 15
Topic Getting Started Adding Information—Finding Information Reporting Tools Design your Dashboards
UNCG Cube City Courier
Top Twitters
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August 31, 2009
Technology Corner
by Bob
Who Twitters or Tweets in DCL? A recent completely unscientific survey of office Twitters produced some interesting numbers. Scott B is the undisputed Twitter King with second place going to different people depending on what you’re comparing. How do the rest of the DCL Twitterers stack up? Here are the top 25 Tweeters by followers and by Tweets. Name Scott B Ryan R. Adam David R. Bill H Bob Kisha Leerie Matt F Colin Emily P. Erin Greg R. Matt McF Michelle Bryan H. Trina Alex Beth Nadia Josette Kerry Pat L Cati John M.
Username JrMozart ryanrobbins Adam10 davicho mls_prof allarts1 allarts_Kisha leeriejinx allarts_matt colinUNCG PurpleCricket ehest gdrobbin mtmcfarl soler_ml thebriggins tgabby axhu80 bboyett d33rheart hippyjojo 1fastred patricia2127 cati70 jmotenson
Followers 2383 545 403 314 236 179 142 131 130 114 102 93 88 83 82 52 48 46 42 35 35 33 29 28 28
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Tweets 16388 1032 3924 9864 6 763 451 274 262 1027 1021 1138 198 1009 222 208 283 134 136 389 224 98 26 123 37
iPhone Alley It’s official: The second floor east offices (Scott B to Bill H) is now iPhone Alley. The last holdout, Kathleen, got an iPhone for her recent birthday and now everyone on that side of the building is iPhone enabled. Kathleen advises her fellow employees not to ask her any difficult iPhone questions until she’s had an opportunity to practice. Are you cool enough to be an iPhone person? iPhone users are encouraged to provide testimonials in this space under the title: Why I Love my iPhone. Blackberry owners may have something to say about their technology as well.
snacks provided
Snack-n-Learn #1 Are you aware of all the benefits available to you as an UNCG employee? Come and join Cati for a Snack-n-Learn about the many benefits and services available to University employees. Wednesday, September 2, 2:30pm
Snack-n-Learn #2 Stricter Ethic Rules New ethics rules dictate that State employees may not accept gifts of any value from “interested parties,” which includes vendors as well as lobbyists. Anyone who wishes to do business with DCL—an office supplier, marketer, printer, computer sales person, etc.—is considered an interested party. Not even a coffee mug.
Join Pat L for an overview of what we do to market iSchool to schools, students, and parents and how to give top quality customer service so they come back for more! Thursday, September 10, 2:30pm
UNCG Cube City Courier
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August 31, 2009
Tweetering (continued from Page 1)
they could follow and reply to us (and most of them still haven’t posted a picture). At Friday Festivals, parents regularly told us how much they enjoyed seeing the camp pix, flix and Tweets. I now have regular exchanges with some of the parent Twitter followers and a couple of them are now Facebook friends too. As dubious as I once was about this experiment in the beginning, I enjoyed the experience and look forward to doing it again next year—maybe with some better equipment and using the lessons learned this summer. If you get sentimental about the summer just past, pop over to our Flickr and YouTube pages to relive it all over again.
Did you know? Did you know that the social media and especially the Twitter venture was experimental? We knew it would work... but not entirely sure how to prove it. For example—we have no way of measuring metrics (site statistics) on Twitter.com. But tinkering around with the API (Twitter’s code to the public), we were able to create a custom Twitter page that lives on our UNCG servers with Google analytics (to measure hits and other fun stuff) of not only one Twitterer... but three: Bob, Kisha, & Matt. Did you know that in a short amount of time the camp Twitter page became the #4 most visited page on the AASTC Camp site?! Add on top of that a whopping 3+ minutes of average time on that page (which is A LOT)! It may be a fad... but today we are riding it in style! =D
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UNCG Cube City Courier
Scribe to the Stars
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August 31, 2009
by Pat L
When Michael Jackson died, Dr. Maya Angelou, Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University, wrote a poem entitled “We Had Him.” At the funeral service, Queen Latifah read it. When I first heard it I thought it would be great written in calligraphy and presented to the Jackson family. Strangely enough, about 3 days later I received a phone call requesting to see samples of my work to do the calligraphy for Dr. Angelou who wanted to present the framed poem to the Jackson family. I was one of 3 area calligraphers they contacted. Dr. Angelou’s niece came to interview me and I was chosen! The poem was quite long and Dr. Angelou was very specific about how she wanted it done. When her niece came to pick it up, she informed me that Dr. Angelou had changed her mind and did not want “by signature” excerpt from Pat’s work with the date but she wanted to write her name and date herself. So I had to re-do the entire second page. I decided to do an additional copy in shades of blue which many people prefer when the subject is deceased. I gave both copies to the niece for Dr. Angelou to decide. The niece loved the one in blues since it was artier looking but Dr. Angelou absolutely wanted the traditional look. I told the niece she could keep the one in blues since she loved it so much. In appreciation, Dr. Angelou sent a signed copy of her book “Letters to My Daughter” for me and a thank-you note. She also sent personally signed children’s books for my twin grand girls. So that is the story. The piece was framed and sent to the Jackson family from Dr. Angelou. So I am thrilled to have been a small part of history! To read the full text of the poem, go to http://mayaangelou.com/ news/3/
What is the UNCG Staff Senate? The purpose of UNCG Staff Senate is to provide for awareness of and involvement in the University community by SPA and EPA non-faculty employees; to encourage professional and personal development of the staff; to improve communication within and between all staff and faculty within the University; and to participate in University governance through representatives appointed by the Chancellor as recommended by the Staff Senate Executive Committee to serve on appropriate committees of the University.
Chess Tournament
Page 4 by Matt F
Adam and I are organizing an office chess tournament. Whether you’re a new player or you just defeated Bobby Fischer last year in the World Chess Cup, all levels of players are welcome to play. Games will be played during the lunch hour and will be timed. There will be prizes for several people playing (not just the overall winner). We’ll assign games by a random drawing when we have enough players to begin. I am posting a sign up sheet on the outside of my cube on the 2nd floor. If you are interested, the last day to sign up for this round is Wednesday. We’ll have more concrete rules and explanations as we figure them out.
Are You Ready to Make Someone a Star? UNCG Staff Senate encourages all staff, campus-wide, to recognize employees whom they observe being kind, thoughtful, helpful or considerate. It’s simple...To make someone a Staff Star, please tell us who these caring employees are, where they work and what they did that was special at: www.uncg.edu/staff. groups/senate/stars/ The Staff Star receives: •A certificate signed by the Chancellor •A letter of appreciation •Information posted on our website
UNCG Cube City Courier
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August 31, 2009
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Some Q’s & A’s from July Final Friday Origin of common phrases (2 pts for the meaning, 8 pts for origin) Pull out all the stops Meaning: Make every possible effort. Origin: The derivation of this phrase is from the fact that pipe organs have stops which control the air flow and that pulling them out increases the volume. As mad as a hatter Meaning: Completely mad. Origin: Mercury used to be used in the making of hats. This was known to have affected the nervous systems of hatters, causing them to tremble and appear insane. Neurotoxicologist now know that mercury exposure can cause aggressiveness, mood swings, and anti-social behavior. Mercury poisoning is still known today as ‘Mad Hatter’s disease’.
Overlapping names Frankenstein on the Poseidon Mary Shelley Winters A Traitorous Governor Benedict Arnold Schwarzennegger
Movie trivia—The Godfather (the original): Who wrote the novel? Mario Puzo Who directed the film? Francis Ford Coppola Where does Luca Brassi sleep? With the fishes What was Sonny Corleone’s real name? Santino Who played the dirty cop that Al Pacino’s character Michael killed? Sterling Hayden