Meeting of the Operations Management Task Group
2^nd June 2008, 2.30pm, University of Westminster

In attendance: Carole Pickaver (Chair), Martin Carbonell, Jenny Cefai, Yvette Dickerson, Caroline Fletcher, Vicky Kontou, Judith Preece.

Apologies: Cathy Phillpotts.

Jenny Cefai is replacing Roddie Shepherd and was welcomed to the group. The group expressed gratitude to Roddie for his contribution and wished him well for the future.

Minutes: Approved as an accurate record of the previous meeting.

1. Update on 2007/8 activities.

Reflective Practice (21.02.08). Caroline arranged a second, more practical session, which was very well received. A whole day session will run in September 2008. It should attract a mixed audience as the previous sessions included those working in head of service and library assistant roles and this worked well.

Space Planning (16.5.08). This was put on by Martin at the Nightingale Centre, Kinston University. The full day event involved presentations and a tour of the centre. Excellent feedback was received and there was a good range of speakers covering Martin’s broad remit.

Visit to Kingston Hill (TBC). Martin will aim to organise this over the summer.

E-learning in context. (TBC) Vicky and Cathy are looking to run this event in June 2008 or in the Autumn term.

Visit to National Monument Record Centre. Cathy is advised to either run this over the summer or to add the visit to the 08/09 list of events.

 
2. Planning for 08/09

Project Planning. The group suggested that Judith and Yvette look at examining a few projects in detail. SPLASH (Surrey), the Kubrick Archive and Middlesex’s Hendon campus may be approached for speakers. Both small and large projects should be covered. The event will take place in either late 2008 or early 2009.

National Digital Archive. Martin and Jenny will work on moving this forward towards a November / December date. The cartoon archive at Kent was suggested as one interesting digital project to include and the JISC website may also provide some ideas.

Change Management. Caroline has been working with Ash Charlton to develop an event that will look at the ‘people’ element of change. The administrator will liaise with the Personal Effectiveness task group in order to avid any clash with their programme.

Collection Development Policy. Vicky volunteered to arrange an event in March 2009.

Customer Service in the Commercial Sector. Martin will investigate business renowned for good customer service with the preference being to combine a visit with a presentation from one or more companies. Due to take place in January 2009.

Basic Enquiry Skills. The group expressed an interest in tackling this topic. Wolverhampton was cited as a possible example.

Working Patterns. Various possible approaches were discussed – human resource management, timetable and supervisory issues and the experience of the staff working taking part are options to cover in an early 2009 event.

AOB: Carole is unable to attend the Steering Group meeting in July. Caroline agreed to represent the Operations Management Task Group.

Next meeting: TBC October.