Nominee: Jane Doe, Senior Administrative Assistant
Nominator: John Smith, Supervisor of Jane Doe
Nomination submitted for “Visionary Award”:
Jane has always been excellent at looking forward / anticipating issues and hurdles. But never have I been more thankful for Jane’s strengths in this regard than this past year.
The Department of Sample is in the middle of a major renovation project which began at the beginning of July 2019 with a scheduled completion date of June 2020. Jane has been the Department’s point person for this project, coordinating with staff, clients, and construction crews both directly and through online communications.
This is by far the largest construction project we have experienced in many, many years. It has gone extremely smoothly, due in large part to Jane’s ability to look ahead. Well before the start of construction Jane took it upon herself to develop a plan for relocating furniture throughout the Department. She compiled a list of every furniture item that could be impacted by the project and categorized according to items that could be relocated within the Department, those that would have to go into offsite storage, and those that we would not have any future use for and therefore should go to TR&S for repurposing. Then when the time came Jane oversaw all of this, coordinating with the outside moving company, TR&S, and the Construction company. This all went without a hitch because Jane had the foresight to develop her game plan well ahead of time.
Right around the time that construction was beginning Jane anticipated that there would be a need for a new room reservation system since many new rooms and a team-based learning room were going to be a part of the project. Jane once again took it upon herself to start looking into options, setting up meetings with colleagues and the School. We haven’t made a final decision yet but are very close. I’d hate to think of where we would be at this time if Jane didn’t get the ball rolling early on.
Recently Jane has mentioned to me that she is compiling a list of items that will have to be taken into consideration either as we get closer to June or shortly after the close of construction. Again, great anticipation that will help to avoid stress down the road!
There are many other examples I could list - both relating to our current renovation project and in her day to day work - where Jane takes a long-term view, demonstrates clear vision, anticipates, and finds practical solutions. But I chose to focus on these few examples. I hope that you will agree that they are excellent examples of the qualities that you are looking for in candidates for the Visionary Award.