Email sent to all FD staff from Ann Allen, Director of Campus Innovation and Development, on Thursday 31 August.

I hope that you are enjoying the summer – despite the varied weather!- and finding some time to relax. I know that August and September are two of the busiest months of the year for many of our teams including Marketing, Sales & Communications, Maintenance, and Residences as we prepare to welcome new and returning students. Thank you for all that you’re doing. 

I’ve been so inspired this month to read about the Gryphons Abroad volunteering scheme run jointly by colleagues in Sport & Physical Activity and Leeds Trinity University. Through the scheme, staff and students are helping children in South Africa to travel to school safely by creating a bike hub and teaching children to cycle in rural areas. Working collaboratively with the Bambisanani Partnership, a charity based in Menston, near Leeds, our contribution is led by Andrew Lockwood, Assistant Head of Sport. What a fantastic initiative – thank you Andrew and team. 

Cast your vote

As autumn beckons so does awards season, and I’m very pleased to share that Conferences & Events have been nominated for three awards in the Meeting Industry Association Awards. Head of Conferences & Events Sam Glenister-Batey is nominated in the miaList Individuals award, and Jacob Seddon, our Conferences and Events Assistant, in the Rising Star Award. I’m thrilled for Sam and Jacob – well done! 

The third nomination is for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Leading Positive Change and focuses on the team’s initiative to promote Communication Access training for people who have difficulties communicating. This award is decided by a public vote and you can cast yours here: https://www.mia-uk.org/Voting

Progress on key projects

I’m pleased to report great progress with our work to create a Net Zero campus as detailed in the FD’s business plan. The business case for this is progressing through University channels and I’m confident that we can start the extensive work that includes electrification of large areas of the campus in the near future. I’m looking forward to meeting prospective suppliers in a town hall event in October. 

I’m also pleased that work is continuing on testing Planon, and more information will be shared soon about timings and training. 

Employee Engagement Survey 

By now some of you will have been told about the results of the Staff Survey for your teams and I’ve asked heads of service to consider action plans so that we can learn from the results both at a team level and a whole FD level. This isn’t just about working out how to address the less positive scores: where we score highly I’d like us to consider what we are ‘doing right’ so that we can maintain that good practice and share it. The results are a great opportunity to learn and build for the future.  

FD Staff Social 

The next FD Staff Social is on Tuesday 5 September in the Great Hall, 9-10am and I hope you all enjoy catching up with colleagues across the Directorate. Unfortunately I’m on holiday that week but my colleagues from the FD senior team will be there and are looking forward to seeing everyone. 

I hope you all saw my email last week about Gareth Hughes joining us as Interim Director of Campus Innovation: Infrastructure, Construction & Delivery. I’m really looking forward to working with Gareth and I know that you’ll make him very welcome.  

Thanks again for everything that you do. 

Ann Allen,
Director of Campus Innovation and Development