Emily'sSandbox

A Message from the Director

I’m happy to present the second edition of the At Your Service newsletter. We will continue to provide this newsletter as a way to stay in touch between Forum events.

At the Forum held on September 27, we continued our discussion on how to engage you better and showed you VOILÀ, a new tool we’ve developed in response to your request for a single, integrated system for sharing information from the School. You also gave us valuable feedback about capacity planning for courses. For me, though, a real highlight of the last Forum was a panel discussion on talent management for non-EX employees and the great questions you raised in that discussion. A summary of all of the conversations at the September Forum is included in this edition of the newsletter.

The next Forum event will be held virtually, through our GCcollab portal VOILÀ, on December 14. We really appreciate your flexibility as we adapt to the space crunch we’re experiencing as we share Asticou Centre with the students and staff of École secondaire Mont-Bleu, whose own facility was severely damaged by the tornado that touched down in Gatineau on September 21, 2018. We’ll give you more details on just how this “virtual Forum” will unfold in the agenda for the event.

The December Forum will focus on two key themes. First, we will invite representatives of the School’s data and reporting teams to join us so they can help respond to some of the concerns, questions and comments you have raised. Second, we will continue the dialogue you have requested about defining and differentiating the roles of PoCs and RTCs. I’m also really hoping you’ll let us know what you think of the newsletter, VOILÀ, and the changes we continue to make in how we engage with you.

In closing, I want you to know that I’ve been thrilled with the dynamic engagement so many of you have brought to VOILÀ. As of November 15, 2018, this new platform had 160 members. I hope we can make that number grow rapidly and make VOILÀ our primary channel for sharing updates and facilitating dialogue among all the players in the world of public service learning.

Looking forward to connecting with you on December 14!

Linda MacMillan
Director, Client Service

In case you missed it…

In case you missed the September 27 Points of Contact and Required Training Coordinators Forum—or if you want to go back and catch it again—a video recording of the session is now available. The link to the webcast and timeframes for Forum topics are in the “September 2018” sub-folder in the “PoC/RTC Forums” folder under the “Files” tab of VOILÀ.

Service Strategy engagement update

As part of our commitment to engaging you better in 2018–2019, the School held in-person and online consultations to inform the School’s next multi-year Service Strategy. We focused on four key areas identified as requiring greater attention:

• data and reporting
• learning delivery modes
• the learner experience
• how to better engage organizations in service

In-person sessions were held on June 19, 20, 26 and 27, and online participation opportunities were available through the Canada School of Public Service GCconnex group and VOILÀ on GCcollab from September 12 to October 5. We are currently reviewing and analyzing the input and will report the findings to you in the New Year.