Your ‘not-so-regular’ update from the Vice President Product
Vice President Product is a great job!
I get to work closely with the Advisory Groups throughout the year and, some 9 months into the role, I remain astounded and impressed by the energy, enthusiasm, expertise and commitment of the PAG members.
There has been much to do over the last few months – preparations for Alliance ’15 and the PAG/TAG Summit are well underway. Track Chairs (and Assistant Track Chairs) have been busy working with Michele Thibodeau, our Alliance ’15 Programme Chair, to schedule the sessions into timeslots – those sessions that this year YOU helped to select! Much thought, and a little negotiation across the PAGs, goes into this process to ensure that whatever your specialism you will see a great agenda.
At the same time, the Advisory Groups have been working through the new PAG/TAG nomination and election process. Again YOU have played an important role in selecting the PAG members who will work with the HEUG Board and each other to represent you as a community in discussions with Oracle and to ensure you have the most up to date and relevant information to help you get the most out of your Oracle technology; and also to provide you with some great educational opportunities. We look forward to welcoming our new members onto our monthly calls from January and especially to the PAG Summit in Nashville!
If that was not enough, the Advisory Groups continue with their education and advocacy work. The PAG Chairs have recently provided me with a mid-year report of progress towards their goals. I am delighted to say that these were overwhelmingly reports of goals achieved and on target. These goals address each aim within the HEUG Strategic Plan and indicate specific targets around: educational activities such as webinars and regional conferences; communications such as newsletters and blogs; best practice sharing using the listserves, and production of ‘how to…’ guides and white papers; global outreach activities aiming to engage a more diverse set of constituents and monitoring Oracle application usage in the Higher Education sector globally; and of course working with Oracle strategists to continually enhance and improve the products we use.
I’ll say it again… I remain astounded and impressed by the energy, enthusiasm, expertise and commitment of the PAG members. Great job!!