The technology community of the University System of Georgia has a rich tradition of shared governance and collaboration. That rich tradition manifested itself in several communities and ceremonies going back 40 years:
- CIO Council: Quarterly, the 36 public sector CIOs met to discuss strategic initiatives and create an opportunity for shared governance.
- CISO Council: Quarterly, the 36 public section CIOs met to discuss how to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. Accountability, audit, and privacy were also frequent topics for shared governance.
- GALILEO Council: Quarterly, public sector leaders within the GALILEO Virtual Library System met to discuss how to strengthen not only GALILEO but the university and college libraries operating at the 36 public universities in Georgia. Side note but I was responsible for GALILEO from 2009-2014.
- Georgia Summit: Annually, the business users of technology would gather at the Augusta Waterfront Marriott to share best practices, new business processes, and collaborate to advance higher education in the state of Georgia. Approximately 1,000 business users would attend this conference.
- Rock Eagle: Annually, the technologists of the 36 public universities would gather at the Rock Eagle 4H camp to discuss, collaborate, and celebrate our work to advance higher education in the state of Georgia. 300-500 technologists would attend.
All of these shared governance groups and communities were under attack in 2010 due to the recession, envy of political opponents, and ignorance of the importance of shared governance in higher education. I resisted calls to cancel the meetings and events and instead we held them virtually in 2010.
From 2011-2015, the traditions and attendance flourished. I spent every drive from Athens to Atlanta talking with potential sponsors of the events and the events were profitable. We added a mobile app to the Rock Eagle and Georgia Summit events. We strengthened the core team supporting shared governance and the conferences and they did an amazing job.
Within the CIO Council, we transitioned away from the entire meeting being dominated by the system office briefing the universities and more to a more equal discussion between peers with the same mission of advancing higher education in Georgia. The joint task of building the technology procedures manual united the CIOs as they would be audited by this standard. As a side effect, many of us became lifelong friends and colleagues.
Within the CISO Council, Stan Gatewood and the USG CISOs built a systematic survey and dashboard on cybersecurity maturity at each of the 36 universities. This helped all universities advance their cybersecurity defenses. Like the CIOs, the CISOs were heavily involved in the USG Procedure Manual which similarly united them as a community.
Within the GALILEO directors, Merryll Penson and her colleagues focused reinventing physical library space statewide, making Georgia more affordable through electronic textbooks, statewide physical repositories, and constant battles with electronic subscription services who often acted like monopolies. Some of our most difficult contract negotiations annually involved electronic subscriptions.
Georgia Summit and Rock Eagle created space for the 36 universities to collaborate and innovate to make a real difference in the success of their institutions. Thousands of micro-innovations occurred across the system and the success and failure of different approaches was shared. I’ll highlight two vignettes:
- The conferences often brought into focus strategic partners that were growing business across the universities where a systemwide contract might be appropriate. In one example, nearly 20 of the universities were using a particular software package. Some institutions were paying $0.81 a license (Georgia Tech) and some were paying $12 a license with the other 18 institutions scattered all over the place. There was no rhyme or reason other than the ability of the negotiating team. By negotiating a statewide contract, we lowered the cost for everyone including Georgia Tech.
- At one Georgia Summit conference, the band was insistent that I sing a song with them in front of 1,000 attendees. I told them I could not sing. They insisted. I said fine and tried to sing “Sweet Home, Alabama“. When I left the university system, my team presented me with an award for destroying the song publicly and somehow still being hired in Alabama.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow
Melody Beattie. Closing line of the Gratitude Poem
I have always liked Melody’s Gratitude Poem published in 1992. I would note, that the symbolic value of thank you is multiplied if done in public and become exponential if done in front of a spouse, partner or child.
A new ceremony I started within my organization was inviting groups of 20 or so employees and their spouses over to the house for hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, and a cold beer every quarter. It allowed me to thank the employees in front of their spouse or partner and highlight the innovative work they were doing on behalf of Georgia higher education. It allowed every employee the opportunity to chat with me outside the office and see me as just a grateful leader flipping burgers and serving drinks. The team would play pool and ping pong together and young employees had a free night out. I paid for the events personally and ten years later, I still receive notes of thanks for these personal ceremonies of gratitude. I would do two variants of this personal thank you in my next job at UAB.
The cumulative effect of these initiatives was a golden age of shared governance innovation, and advancement within these communities.
If you are reading through this website sequentially, the next chapter is Religious Wars. No, it is not a story of Spanish Inquisition or Crusades. A religious war is a conflict where the facts do not matter. Changing a learning management system is a religious war.