The following exhibitors will be in attendance:

• American Standard
• Business Mechanical
• R.W. Beckett Canada
• Charles Jones Industrial Ltd.
• Emerson Climate Technologies
• Fluke Electronics Canada
• Gerrie Electric Supply
• Grundfos
• Ideal Industries
• Moen Inc.
• Nelson Education
• S.A. Armstrong
• Snap on Tools
• Tegs Tools
• Tenaquip Ltd.
• Walters Inc.
• Walter Surface Technologies
• Westburne

Mohawk College graduate Rick Phillips lost his job in March 2009, ending a 13-year career in the steel industry. A casualty of the recession, Rick joined thousands of other people that suddenly found without a job during the worst economic downturn in decades. Two years later, the economy is slowly recovering and Rick has a new career working as installer for The Green Method, a local company that specializes in green energy products such as geothermal heating and cooling units, solar panels and solar hot air units. Want to know more? Read the article in Mohawk Magazine.

 
(left) Carl and Kate Turkstra, Theresa Furey and Mohawk College President Rob MacIsaac pause for a photo under Conrad Furey's 11-metre mural, titled Working Together. Originally commissioned by Turkstra to celebrate the millenium, the mural hung in front of the family's Mill Street store in Dundas until it was taken down in 2009 to avoid further damage from the weather. The mural was then restored and donated to Mohawk. It now hangs in the Awarness Theatre at the College's Skilled Trades Apprenticeship Research, Resources and Training Institute in Stoney Creek.

Conrad Furey died of cancer in 2008. Founder of the Tiger Group of painters, Conrad's work can be found in important public and private collections. His murals can also be seen in the halls of Hamilton’s hospitals and the city's central library.  

In keeping with the college theme you could call the STARRT communications project, Communications 101. Wayne and his team are looking at how news and information gets shared at the STARRT campus after staff and faculty identified it as a priority during the Simply the Best workshops.

 “People made it clear that they want to be better informed about what’s happening at the campus,” says Wayne.

The information is there but accessing it is an issue. It’s not always clear where to go for information, and as employees move about within the College there’s some confusion about who to go to for information, he says.

Wayne and his team are taking inventory of the sources of information at the campus and determining whether those sources are working or not. Later this month the team plans to meet with staff and faculty to update them on the project’s status and to get their input on what does and doesn’t work.

“Openness and transparency will prevail throughout the project,” says Wayne. “There is a core team, but anyone is welcome to provide their opinion. All of the team meetings will be open to anyone at the campus who wants to come and share their ideas.”

Another outcome of the project will be to create a who’s who list at the STARRT campus and develop a process for updating that list as people move around. They’ll also be looking at developing email etiquette practices to smooth out communications between individuals and groups and possibly eliminate the unnecessary use of email.

Pulling it all together will be the job of the STARRT Communications Team who will develop a communications plan, put it into action and then be responsible for measuring its success, he says.  The plan will be in place by the end of September, even though some of the processes will still be under development at that stage.

Team members Rebecca Weylie, Laura Side and Judith Johnston agree that success means everyone will feel informed about what is going on at the campus and around the College. Surveys and feedback sessions will be used to measure success.

The team is also test-driving a new approach to project management that will become the standard for all projects at Mohawk College. Projects advance through a series of “gates” that introduce checks and balances to the process and help make sure that the project stays on track and focused on what it was intended to do. The STARRT team is happy with the approach. Team members agree that it was particularly helpful getting the project started and keeping it focused on its key objectives. 

The STARRT team is made up of a cross-section of faculty, support and administrative staff. Rebecca and Judith are two of the support staff members of the team. Laura represents admin staff. The other six members include faculty representatives Todd Elliott and Brad MacDonald and support staff representatives Karen Brown, Kym Mcreary-Stewart, Maria Segato and Amy Petsche.

Communications is an issue for all of Mohawk’s campuses. The work Wayne and his team are doing will likely serve as the blueprint for a college-wide redesign of how information is shared with staff, faculty and students.

For more information about the STARRT communications project contact Wayne at ext. 5249. For more information about any of the Simply the Best pilot projects contact Carol Mushing in Human Resources at ext. 2174.

Team members Kym McCreary-Stewart and Todd Elliott talk about their involvement in the Simply the Best STARRT communications project.

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