Flex Day and Strategic Summit: Listening, Learning, Contributing–and Playing Bingo!

(SEE PHOTOS) It was a comprehensive two days of learning about different areas of the college, getting updated on current and future programs, being involved in the college’s strategic planning, playing educational Bingo (twice!)–and getting a surprise visit from a U.S. Congressman. The Spring Flex Day began with a fun game of Classified  Bingo to see how many staff members everyone knew. Then President Burns updated the large crowd about what’s new, beginning with recognizing the newly tenured faculty members Rosa Perez, Daniel Lawson, Charity Clay, Thomas Renbarger, and Elaine Wallace and announcing the Classified Senate’s newly established monthly award with the first one presented to Kinga Sidzinka.

Flex Day went on with information on ILO’s, update on a union case Janus vs. AFSCME, explanations of the District’s new ONEPeralta and Starfish programs, a talk on how to prepare for a health emergency (with Lee Peevy giving a surprise demonstration), a curriculum review, adopting OER materials for classes, a presentation on Risk Management, and a conversation about Guided Pathways.

The Spring Strategic Planning Summit gave the chance for the entire Merritt community to learn the ins and outs of how this is done, from the conceptual framework to learning of data trends, to goal setting, and the sustainability and operationalizing of the Strategic Plan. The day began with a lively game of Acronym Bingo to help learn the many acronyms that Merritt uses on a daily basis, and was interrupted by a surprise visit from Congressman Ro Khanna (visiting from an earlier Cybersecurity conference on campus) who spoke very briefly about the need for the government to spend money on making the country more educated.