Happy December! 

As we look to the end of the semester and a restful winter break, we finish out the year with a few sessions on leadership development, wellness, and exam stress relief for students.  

We continue to share curated offerings from HRDQ on leadership development including: First or Worst: What Builds and Breaks Leaders; and Taking the Lead: Five Things Every Supervisor Needs to Know. These webinars are free through HRDQ, and you can find all of their offerings here. 

We also continue our collaboration with the USM Learning and Talent Development Committee by offering all campuses the USM Winter Wellness event on December 20th. There are 14 separate workshops during this day-long event, including “Communicating Without Conflict with Your Significant Other”, “Managing Holiday Stress” and “Emotional Eating: The Connection Between Mood and Food.” Select all, or just one or two, to get you on the path to wellness this winter. 

This collaboration with USM also extends to our students. This month, UMD extends a welcome to all USM students for a workshop on wellness techniques to ease end of semester and exam stress. More information and registration can be found at https://go.umd.edu/micro-moments. 

Have a safe and pleasant winter break!

Retriever Essentials needs your help!

We need folks to help pack meals each day at 1:50. Meet at True Grits, pack up some meals, and bring them to our pantry in RAC 235!

We also need volunteers for Thursday's Free Farmer's Market (especially the 2:30 shift). Meet in front of AOK Library, under the trees near Parking Lot 7.

Can't make it this week? Keep an eye out for signups for next week. Hope to see you soon!

We will only be open two days this week: Monday and Tuesday. Please do your shopping between 12-6 PM today or tomorrow.

Additionally, we will not be having our Free Farmer's Market this week.

We hope you stay safe and warm over the long weekend!

-The Retriever Essentials Team

Please contact Patty McGonigle at mcgonigle@umbc.edu if you are interested in one of the kits. 

Join us for a celebration of service!  The Department of Human Resources cordially invites you to the 2022 Annual Service Awards Ceremony. We hope you will join us in the Retriever Activity Center (RAC) for this celebration of service on Thursday, December 8, 2022, from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

This year, we are returning to an in-person event to shout out, support, and honor our colleagues in a celebration of their important milestones at UMBC and with the State of Maryland. We have planned a fun, exciting, and engaging experience that will include heartwarming stories, recipient award acknowledgements, fabulous prizes, delicious refreshments, and the return of the interactive trivia game Kahoot!  – remember to bring your phone to participate! For more information, please visit the HR Service Awards website.

Happy Monday!

I have attached the agenda for our meeting tomorrow at 10am via Webex.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Helena and I look forward to seeing everyone.

Best,

Desiree

Happy November! 

As we continue our focus on retention and engagement, we highlight several developmental opportunities. We encourage your participation and engagement! Please share this information widely so that we may reach all faculty and staff in our community. 

The USM Professional Development Week activities were well attended with a high level of engagement and appreciation for the topics presented. If you, or your faculty and staff, were unable to attend some, or all, of the sessions, I encourage you to check out the instructions for watching the session recordings. There are sessions for everyone--leaders, faculty AND staff. 

Attached is a PDF of our November Training Opportunities. This PDF has links to register for each of the events listed. We look forward to seeing you at many of these events to engage you in a community of learning. 

Volunteers needed! Did you know that there are folks in our community who experience high levels of food insecurity and don't have access to hot meals?

Want to help get ready-to-microwave meals in our pantry for folks in our community who need them most? Sign up to pack to-go meals at True Grits and bring them to Retriever Essentials! 

Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D49A8A82AA3FDC70-frnxretriever

This program is in partnership with Food Recovery Network and Campus Dining. We will be doing this every Monday through Thursday, so keep an eye out for future signups as well.

Due to a high volume of no-shows, we have cleared the volunteer list for this week. Please go here to sign up for a shift!

See you there!