EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION DAY 2001 REPORT
Summary of Highlights/Activities:
· "We the People" theme in recognition of James Madison's 250th birthday
· 1,181 people attended events during the day
· 70 workshop sessions were scheduled
· Games and Mr. Madison impersonator during the picnic
· Free movies in the morning and afternoon at Grafton-Stovall Theater
· Free billiards in Taylor Down Under
· 150 door prizes, including a Grand Prize: two round-trip tickets to Cancun
This year’s Employee Appreciation Day was held Thursday, May 17. Our theme for this year, in conjunction with the celebration of James Madison's 250th birthday, was “We the People”. The logo was used on the EADay brochure, the web page, and the buttons. 1,181 people registered in advance for workshops and/or the lunch. Because of wet weather, the picnic was held in the Convocation Center this year. Attendance for the lunch was down from last year's 1,331 and approximately the same as 1999, with 1,200 registered participants. However, more employees registered for workshops this year: 888 employees registered for workshops, as compared with last year's count of 819, an 8.4% increase. Employees were allowed to select up to ten workshops this year, listing their order of preference, and the EADay Registrar placed them in as many classes as possible. There were time slots designated for four morning sessions and four afternoon sessions.
Evaluation forms were mailed to participants along with their workshop/lunch confirmations and their buttons. Evaluation forms were also available at the Hospitality Table all day and at the lunch. Of the 176 evaluations returned, 94% agreed or strongly agreed that the variety of activities was sufficient. 97% agreed or strongly agreed that the confirmation package included everything needed for the day. All those who returned evaluations agreed or strongly agreed that attending Employee Appreciation Day was worth their time and that the Day should be repeated next year. Specific comments received are included with this report.
Workshops:
Fifty-one workshops were scheduled (70 sessions), 22 were new and 29 were repeated from last year. 26 workshops from last year were not offered again this year. Thirty-four sessions were full, and five sessions were cancelled. A listing of the workshops from the web site is attached. 888 people registered for at least one class, and 293 registered for the lunch only. Employees registered for 1,799 seats in workshops (an average of 2 workshops per person).
Of those who returned participant evaluations, 95% agreed or strongly agreed that the workshops were well-organized and informative, and the workshop locations were comfortable and appropriate.
Shuttle bus service was arranged for eight of the workshops (a total of nine sessions) in addition to the shuttle service from the Godwin bus stop to the Convocation Center for the lunch. Although the picnic was moved to the Convocation Center because of wet conditions, it was left up to presenters' discretion about whether to cancel an outside workshop. After some morning sprinkles, we had no more rain the rest of the day, and all outside workshops were held as planned.
The workshop subcommittee was co-chaired by Jane Beach and Bonnie Burt. This subcommittee has a tremendous amount of work to accomplish over the course of the year in planning for the workshops, and the co-chair arrangement worked very well. Jane and Bonnie did an admirable job, in a well-organized and professional manner.
Special activities scheduled this year included free billiards in Taylor Down Under throughout the day and the Virginia Blood Mobile. New this year were two movies sponsored by the UPB in Grafton-Stovall: Mission Impossible II in the morning and What Women Want in the afternoon. Also new this year were the games on during the lunch (bingo, the dunking booth, and James Madison Trivia). We had an outstanding number of door prizes, including a fabulous prize donated by Carlson Wagonlit Travel: two round-trip tickets to Cancun!
Picnic:
The committee decided on the following menu at $7.20 per person:
Roasted pork BBQ
Baked macaroni & cheese
Vegetarian broccoli salad
Potato chips
Ice cream
Assorted sodas
The cake cost $400. The official time of the picnic was 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., and unofficially people were allowed to begin going through the lines at 11:00 a.m. This strategy continued to work well as in past years, with very little wait in food lines. The EADay buttons were used as the employees’ admission to the lunch again this year. We recommend continuing this practice.
The Convocation Center was used as the rain location this year because of wet conditions, and the food was set up and served with no problem. There were some tables already set up in the Convocation Center in preparation for an event to be held there the next day, and we set up chairs with the tables. Many employees commented that they liked having tables and chairs to sit at rather than just the bleachers or chairs in the stands. For future planning in the event the picnic must be held in the Convocation Center again, however, arrangements need to be firmly understood with Facilities Management about helping Willie with the set up and clean up after the event. He had no one to help him, and it took hours to clean up and set up for an event to be held there the next morning. With a little bit of cooperation, this task could be accomplished with minimal effort.
Of those who returned participant evaluations, 86% rated the picnic location as good. This is down from last year's rating of 100% when the event was held on the Quad. 88% percent were pleased with the lunch, down significantly from last year's rating of 99%.
Budget:
The amount approved by the President's Office this year was $17,949. Items were donated by departments, including the morning coffee and afternoon lemonade at Taylor Down Under, door prizes from various departments on campus as well as from many community businesses. The design fee from the publications office for the work on the brochure was waived, and the printing cost was donated by Color Graphics Corp. Expenses for 2001 are $15,342.21. The expense for the lunch was lower than anticipated because participation was not as strong as we had expected. The official lunch count was 1,170 rather than the projected 1,350. We also saved money with payroll for the wage registrar. The registration system under Esther's supervision ran smoothly, and our registrar was needed only 200 hours rather than the 300 that we had originally planned. The final budget report is attached, as well as the budget request for 2002.
The budget request for 2002 is $17,286.00, just under this year’s approved budget of $17,949.00. The picnic costs will increase next year to $8.00 per person for one entrée and four sides. Two entrees (chicken and barbecue beef) with four sides would cost $10.00 per person. The 2002 budget for the picnic and food anticipates 1,250 people at $8/person and the cake at $400. If the committee would like to offer two entrees next year, the cost would be increased by $2,500.
Registration:
In accordance with the recommendations from last year's committee, this year's registration was entirely a mail-in process using a section of the brochure for registration as had been done in earlier years. This provided a fair and equitable method of registration for ALL employees and eliminated the burden of having to create a web registration. With last year's attempt with a web-based registration, we found that too many employees felt disadvantaged in the process because they did not have a desktop computer or ready access to computers. The paper registration process worked well. The brochures were mailed out the week of spring break, and we accepted registrations through the end of March before beginning to assign participants to workshops so that everyone had an equal opportunity to get their registration forms sent in. We established a separate MSC for the EADay Registrar and did not accept phone, e-mail, or fax registrations until after the initial pre-registration period. Late registrations (for new employees, for example) were accepted by phone or e-mail.
We had planned to start our EADay Registrar the week of spring break, but because of the temporary hiring freeze, we were unable to start someone until late March. We were fortunate to hire Lynn Powell as our wage Registar. Lynn was extremely capable and competent, and she and Esther Nizer, our registration coordinator, worked well together to accomplish the registration process. They used an Access database to track registrant and workshop information. As classes were filled, Camilla Washington, our webpage coordinator, included that information on the website. The database is set up and ready to go for next year's event. We recommend that the wage Registrar for next year be hired eight weeks before EADay, working 30 hours the first three weeks, then 20 hours per week thereafter, 8 hours during EADay, and one or two days thereafter to run reports, for approximately 200 total hours. Esther did a fantastic job coordinating the registration process, and she has agreed to be the registration coordinator again next year. The Access database is set up and ready to go.
Publicity/Brochure:
We were immensely fortunate to have the publication design fee waived for the brochure and the printing costs donated by Color Graphics Corp. We are hopeful that at least the publication design fee will continue to be waived in subsequent years. The brochure was modified from last year to include the registration form as a tear-off piece. The front panel included brief comments from Dr. Rose, and the remaining inside and back panels described the workshops, the schedule for the day, transportation information, registration information, the list of steering committee members, and the EADay Registrar's phone number, e-mail address, and MSC, and the EADay website. The brochures were sent out the week of spring break. The media relations office did a fine job of getting publicity out to the campus.
Entertainment:
Tracy Morris chaired the entertainment subcommittee. Entertainment this year once again included the Staff Infection, which has performed every previous year. The Staff Infection continues to be popular, although some employees still comment that the music was too loud and interfered with conversation during the picnic. Of the participants who returned evaluations, 92% reported that they enjoyed the entertainment, the same as last year's favorable rating. David Taylor served as emcee for the sixth year, and Mr. Madison introduced Dr. Rose for his address to the employees during lunch.
The Mr. Madison impersonator mingled with employees during the lunch, and a member of the entertainment subcommittee accompanied him with a Polaroid camera to take pictures of Mr. Madison with employees.
Games were planned for the Quad, but after the picnic was moved inside, the games were still held inside and just outside of the Convocation Center: James Madison Trivia, Bingo and a dunking booth. Volunteers who agreed to be dunked at the dunking booth included: Lori Miller, Zeb Davenport, Larry "Chumley" Huntley, Brian Charette, Tony Smith, and Mark Warner. The bingo and dunking booth were extremely popular.
The entertainment committee also worked diligently, along with the hospitality subcommittee, in obtaining a record number of door prizes this year. There were 150 door prizes, including the Grand Prize. Tracy and her committee did a truly outstanding job!
Hospitality:
Pam Fischer chaired the hospitality committee, which was in charge of obtaining door prizes as well as organizing the hospitality table and obtaining morning and afternoon refreshments. Since all registrant names were automatically entered in the drawings for prizes, there was no need for a separate entry form and drawing for hospitality door prizes, so all prizes were awarded during the lunch instead of later during the day. Evaluation forms were made available at the hospitality table as well as at the lunch.
EADay Web page:
Camilla Washington developed and updated the web page. A separate section on the web page is included with this report. The web page included:
updated announcements on the registration process and the change in location for the picnic, the schedule for the day, a section on entertainment, information on the bus schedules, a complete list of the workshops and locations, updates on which classes were filled, and a list of the door prizes. There was also an evaluation form that employees could print out and mail back in. The web page was well-designed, informative, and was updated regularly.
Recommendations for EADay 2002:
· Recommended date for Employee Appreciation Day 2002: Thursday, May 16. The Convocation Center, the University Center, Wilson Auditorium, Godwin Gym, Hillside field and Godwin field have been requested.
· Registration:
v To provide a fair and equitable method of registration for ALL employees, continue with the mail-only registration process with web updates and information.
v The wage EADay registrar should be hired to work eight weeks before EADay, working 30 hours the first three weeks, then 20 hours per week thereafter, 8 hours during EADay, and one or two days thereafter to run reports, for approximately 200 total hours.
v Continue with separate MSC, phone, and generic e-mail for the Registrar.
· Picnic
v If the picnic is held at the convocation center, set up the announcements so that it is through the main address system. The sound system that we use for the band isn't suitable for the announcements.