Education Portfolio Town Hall 14 February 2019

[Start transcript]

[Belinda]

Welcome back. Many of you have been back for a long time. We've been back since the second of January, but it still feels like Christmas and last year just feels like an absolute age ago. I don't know about you, but it's almost it's [inaudible] *00:00:22 much. I can't believe we're going to be entering into autumn, and given what the weather is like at the moment, it feels we're in autumn already, très disappointment. We have had weather that goes from 47 in my backyard on one day, all the way down to, I think it was 17 degrees. Isn't that berserk? Don't you think it's berserk?

It's very difficult on the clothing front. You go to the wardrobe, you look at the weather app. The app tells you one thing. You come to work dressed like this and you go, oh, it's actually going to 19. So, it's very Melbourne people say to me, [inaudible] * 0:00:55.7 every week. I must have missed that memo somewhere. But let's start off first with our acknowledgement to the land that we're standing on. I want to do something slightly different, because normally someone will stand up in front here, and they will do an acknowledgement, or I'll ask someone else to do it, but what I'd like you to try and to do today is to do an acknowledgement yourself, but do it to the person you're sitting next to you.

In your own words, and in your own way, it doesn't really matter if you're not going to be able to acknowledge the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung of the language [inaudible] * 0:01:31.9. I don't expect you to fully have memorised it. If you have, that's fantastic, and as we go through this year, I'm expecting that all of us will become really confident, and have that ability to be able to do an acknowledgement, and do it in their own words and in their own way, and in a way that demonstrates the relationship to country. But what I'd like to do today is just to get you to turn to the person next to you, and just both of you, do your best to do your acknowledgements in this moment just to each other. Thank you.

[Background conversations] * 0:02:03.8.

[Belinda]

I hope you had a go at doing that. You'll notice in the DVC update, I've put out a challenge to the portfolio, to not only undertake cultural training. I know some of you haven't yet done that, and will you please do that? That's a great first step. But also, there's a new micro-credential out, and I'd really like our portfolio to be the portfolio that can actually do an acknowledgement of country and demonstrate our relationship. Now, that micro-credential, the assessment for that, because there is an assessment task, is to write your own, personal acknowledgement to country.

And it will take you on a journey. It will take you about two hours to do it. Please, I've asked all managers here to put into work plans. Let's get that done, because I would love to be able to turn up at one of these Town Halls and say, who'd like to do the acknowledgement to country? And one of you will step forward, because you've done that micro-credential, and you will demonstrate that to the rest of the group. It's just such a great opportunity for us to really learn from and connect with country. I know over the holiday break I started reading a fiction book, a story, an actual story. A book is such a pleasure.

I used to read so much, but when I came into this role, my reading is now reduced to official papers. But every summer, I usually read two or three books. This summer I've started, I haven't quite finished it yet, but Bruce Chatwin's Songlines. I don't know if any of you have read that, but it's a fantastic story about what the songlines mean to our indigenous people, and I've always been entranced and enchanted by the idea that you can sing your way around a landscape. It's a form of symbology in a way, that our indigenous people's, through the different language nations will sing their way, and that's the Songline, through the landscape, and that was their map and way of charting and understanding the landscape.

Aspects of the landscape will have obviously have different meanings, and so, indigenous people will be calling out the story of how the region that they were in was developed, and what the law is of that region, where the burial grounds are, originally. They know the landscapes, so it's a Songline. But, it's also how they basically translate, if they need to, how they understand to tread softly, or softly to respect the land they're on. It's really interesting, actually. If anybody wants to have a little read of that, I'd love to have some people who do read it so I can talk about it with them. It's called Songlines, and it's by Bruce Chatwin. If anyone does get to it, let me know. I'd love to have coffee with you.

Now my holidays, do you remember going back to school, those days back in school, you know, that thing the teacher used to do, she would get out her paper and pencil, and the first thing you'd do is, what do I do on my holidays? Now, everyone had a break of some kind, because I know I encourage all of you to basically take 13 days of your leave, and some of you added more to it. I'd love to hear some of your holiday stories, and I bet some of the people around you might also like to hear a bit of your holiday stories. The next thing I'm going to ask to do is, if you had to finish the sentence of, what did I do on my holidays that was-- I don't know.

Did anyone get married? Did anyone have a baby? It is Valentine's Day. Have you got flowers today? Anyone get flowers? Nice. Did anyone get a Valentine's card? You two? No, this is desperate. You are romantics. Did anyone give a Valentine's card, an anonymous one? Did anybody give an anonymous Valentine's card? No? Now this is like a classroom, now, you two need to [inaudible] *00:06:10. That's really desperate, isn't it? I didn't get any either. I was courted by my husband with roses on every payday, and I used to get a message from the office of the school that I worked at, where the secretary, she used to go, Belinda, the flowers have arrived, and it was in that tone.

I would walk up and get the flowers, [inaudible] *00:06:31 but having been married now for 14 years, have I seen some flowers? He got me in the bag but didn't actually follow through. So, now I buy my own flowers which is true. So, all of you, if you're out there, if you haven't had any Valentines who would love to, actually buy yourself some flowers on the way home. Get your own box of chocolates, and take them home and say, when you're asked, whom did you get that from? You can go, never you mind.

All right, I'm hoping that you will sort of share holiday stories with each other. I'm not going to put you through the indignity of doing some music activity, but I will at some point. I'll let you warm up through the year, before we do. I do want now, though, to introduce some of the leaders in the portfolio, to talk about what they've been doing, have a bit of a Q&A if we can, but I've given them two minutes to do their pitch about what they are up to, and what they are doing, just to get the year cracking. I'm going to be very strict on my timing. Where's my phone? Here's my phone.

I'm going to be very strict on timing so as soon as the bell goes "Ding, ding, ding," you must stop when you [inaudible] *00:07:44 and then, we'll do some impromptu questions. I've already had someone to me today and say, you're not going to ask any hard questions, are you? We'll see where we go. All right, who is new here? Who is new to the portfolio, at the start of the year? New people, come up in front.

[Crosstalk] * 0:08:15.0. Here's some new people, too. Excellent, come on down. [inaudible] * 0:08:35.9. Here are all of our lovely new people. I'm not going to make you all sing. You can shuffle along a bit if you'd like, though, but I'm going to ask you the holiday question. What did you during the holidays? That would be interesting, wouldn't it? What other question might we ask? You can tell me. What question would you like me to ask new people?

[Participant]

Did they buy flowers or not?

[Belinda]

Yes, [inaudible] * 0:09:00.1 Peter. Peter, who are you?

[Peter]

A flower buyer.

[Belinda]

Now you're really sucking up. Did you really buy flowers?

[Peter]

Not yet.

[Belinda]

So, Peter what are going to be doing in the portfolio?

[Peter]

That's a good question. What am I going to be doing? I'm the Executive Director of Vocational Education. So, I will be driving the direction of vocational education across the three colleges for vocation.

[Belinda]

Peter, where were you working before?

[Peter]

I was in the College of SEH. I was the Executive Dean of the School of Vocational Engineering and Health and Science.

[Belinda]

What did you master in?

[Peter]

[inaudible] *00:09:48.

[Belinda]

What did you do on your holidays that was fun, exciting and extraordinary?

[Peter]

I went to Bali.

[Belinda]

Nice one, you can sit down now. Thank you. Welcome, Peter. Give him a round of applause.

[Applause] *0:10:04.2.

[Belinda]

Sherman, where do you hail from?

[Sherman]

How long have you got?

[Belinda]

There's always one, isn't there? There's always one.

[Sherman]

Most recently?

[Belinda]

Yeah, most recently.

[Sherman]

I'm from Sydney.

[Belinda]

Ooh. Whereabouts in Sydney?

[Sherman]

I lived in Coogee.

[Belinda]

Oh, nice, that's nice. Eastern suburbs.

[Sherman]

But I knew Coogee when it was -- there used to be a big hotel which was the druggie epi centre, and burnt-out wrecks of cars.

[Belinda]

You didn't know that, did you? You did. That's probably too much information. Sherman, what's your last name?

[Sherman]

My name is Young.

[Belinda]

What are you going to be doing in the portfolio?

[Sherman]

I'm an Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor of Education.

[Belinda]

What do you think that involves?

[Sherman]

Whatever you tell me to do.

[Applause] *0:10:54.8.

[Belinda]

He gets points for that, right? He gets serious points for that. What was fun, spectacular and amazing about your holidays?

[Sherman]

My partner and I have a lot of books. At last count, probably four or five thousand. We did not move four or five thousand books to Melbourne. My holidays were spent culling, giving away, donating, storing, and packing books.

[Belinda]

Was it a bit sad?

[Sherman]

No, not really. I wrote a book a long time ago called, The Book is Dead.

[Belinda]

That was actually quite controversial, wasn't it? Did you receive hate mail after that?

[Sherman]

No, I received none. [Crosstalk] *0:11:41.4.

[Belinda]

Oh, really? Okay, well, welcome to the portfolio, Sherman. We look forward to working with you.

[Sherman]

I'm excited.

[Belinda]

You can sit down, too. Let's welcome Sherman.

[Applause] *0:11:52.8.

[Belinda]

Okay, so I've just asked Joel his name three times. Joel, come forward, come forward. So, Joel, when did you join the portfolio?

[Joel]

I didn't [inaudible] *00:12:12.

[Belinda]

[inaudible] *0:12:13.8 you're still here.

[Joel]

That's true, maybe not for much longer.

[Belinda]

Do you think this could be a career limiting conversation?

[Joel]

That depends on [inaudible] *00:12:25.

[Belinda]

Who's your line manager?

[Joel]

This is really bad, but I'm not sure.

[Belinda]

There's something you need to know. On the staff, you know, whole survey feedback we quite often get feedback that we don't know who are in our teams. We don't know who's in the structure. Whoever is Joel's line manager, do you know who you are? Who's line managing Joel? Who does he work for? What are you in Joel?

[Joel]

Giving [crosstalk] *0:13:02.7 student records.

[Belinda]

[inaudible] *0:13:04.5.

[Participant]

He's a casual in our enrolment [inaudible] *0:13:08.2 and we move him around a little bit.

[Belinda]

Oh. See you know an [inaudible] *0:13:14.3. You are loved, you have somebody who knows who you are. What did you do--

[Participant]

[Crosstalk] *0:13:20.1.

[Belinda]

[inaudible] *0:13:24.7 she might even get you flowers. Right now, tell me what was spectacular about your holiday break?

[Joel]

I went to a cruise to New Zealand, I really enjoyed in Milford Sound, it's very beautiful.

[Belinda]

Milford Sound. Who else has been to Milford Sound? Yeah, yeah, nice place and part of the world. Well, welcome, Joel. I think you should go straight up to your line manager and sit next to them, so you know where you belong. Welcome to the portfolio.

[Applause] * 0:13:50.9.

[Belinda]

Hello. Who are you?

[Kim]

Hello. My name is Kim Reis. I work on the Equity and Diversity team in the larger condition of Student Wellbeing and Inclusion, and I'm an advisor of Diversity and Inclusion.

[Belinda]

How interesting. How long have you been with us?

[Kim]

I've been here since the very end of November.

[Belinda]

Okay, so a little bit more time. Did you get a break? Did you get a holiday?

[Kim]

I did, yes. I spent my first Christmas in Australia, as a newlywed.

[Belinda]

That's romantic. Did you get flowers this morning?

[Kim]

I didn't get flowers, but I did bring chocolate from [inaudible] *00:14:33.

[Belinda]

Oh, okay, that's a really nice line manager-y thing to do, isn't it? Feed the troops. Chocolate, it's good. Did you have a spectacular holiday break?

[Kim]

I did, yes. I've been having a really nice time here, at RMIT. I miss my family from the US. You couldn't tell from my accent. It was hard to be away from my family for Christmas, but I had a great time, here. Thank you.

[Belinda]

What part are you from the US?

[Kim]

I'm from Los Angeles, born and raised, but I've lived all over the US.

[Belinda]

What's the best city so far?

[Kim]

San Francisco.

[Belinda]

So, career limiting. What is the best city so far you've lived in?

[Kim]

Outside the US, surely Melbourne.

[Belinda]

Welcome to RMIT. Let's give her a big round of applause.

[Applause] *0:15:19.7.

[Belinda]

So, tell me who you are?

[Arouna]

I'm Arouna [inaudible] *00:15:29.

[Belinda]

Just put that a bit closer.

[Arouna]

I'm Arouna [inaudible] *0:15:31.3.

[Belinda]

And Arouna, whereabouts you work in the portfolio?

[Arouna]

So, I work in [inaudible] *00:15:36 team and I think Sherman is [inaudible] *0:15:38.8.

[Belinda]

She knows who [inaudible] *00:15:42. You get a little tick for that one. She's already getting brownie points, this is good. What do you do in the team, like what's your role?

[Arouna]

I'm a senior staff [inaudible] *00:15:51 and I do work for student learning and performance. I have access to the students' data. And the learning analytics team, we are like aiming for improving student learning and performance.

[Belinda]

So, tell me, what is fabulous about numbers?

[Arouna]

Numbers are fabulous because it shows you various patterns, which can move around and give various kinds of insights and knowledge. So, the numbers are amazing.

[Belinda]

It's so nice, isn't it? Welcome to the portfolio. Let's give her a round of applause as well.

[Applause] *0:16:30.5.

[Belinda]

Come a little-- I'm not that scary. I don't ask that hard a questions, really. What part of the portfolio do you work in?

[Michelle]

Enrolment and student records.

[Belinda]

Do you know who your line manager is? Who is it?

[Michelle]

Yes. Jay Willingston.

[Belinda]

Oh, where is he? Nice to see you. And what's your name?

[Michelle]

Michelle Deborah.

[Belinda]

And where did you work before you worked at RMIT?

[Michelle]

University of Melbourne.

[Belinda]

Ooh, nice snatch, nice snatch. Nice snatch. The registrar is looking happy. What's the best university to work at, in Melbourne? Ahh! How long have you worked here?

[Michelle]

18th of December, I started.

[Belinda]

All right, well we've got to get you to the point where you actually just go, RMIT. Okay, let's practice it. What's the best university to work in, in Melbourne?

[Michelle]

The University -- sorry, RMIT.

[Belinda]

Welcome to the portfolio.

[Applause] * 0:17:34.2.

[Belinda]

Hello. So, tell me who you are and what you did that was spectacular over Christmas?

[Marita]

My name is Marita. I honestly didn't do anything spectacular for Christmas. I did nothing, and I loved it.

[Belinda]

That's quite nice. Did you have a staycation?

[Marita]

Yes.

[Belinda]

Yeah, I love staycations. That's quite nice. And what do you do for us?

[Marita]

I work in Shared Services, for RMIT Connect.

[Belinda]

Okay, and do you know who your boss is?

[Marita]

Esther.

[Belinda]

Where is Esther? There's Esther. Oh, that's nice, yeah, yeah. Did you bring your team chocolates, and flowers, and stuff, today? I think the benchmark has been set elsewhere. Just a little tip for you, later. How long have you worked for us?

[Marita]

I started in January.

[Belinda]

Oh, okay, so you're quite fresh as well.

[Marita]

I'm fresh, yeah, yeah.

[Belinda]

Well, look, I hope you enjoy working in RMIT. Let's give her a round of applause.

[Applause] *0:18:26.7.

[Belinda]

Thank you, you new people for doing that. It's nice to introduce you. I don't do that every time, but that was fun on my behalf, maybe not for all of you.

So, let's move on. The next thing that I'd like to do is get the managers out. I haven't forgotten the order now, have I? Do you know what I did yesterday? I had to do two speeches. I rolled up to one speech. It was about 200 academics in the room who are specials in industrial relations, looking up at me, while I'm up on the stage, at Storey Hall, waiting for me to do an acknowledgment and a speech.

I did the acknowledgment. I had what I thought was my speech in my hand. I looked down at my piece of paper. You know how you have that second where the world stops, and it feels like it's going on for a very long time, but it hasn't really. I looked down. People hear me say a lot, keep your cheekbones high. So, I looked up, cheekbones high, smiling, and started to ad lib, ad nauseam, about industrial relations. It was all good. About five minutes into what I was talking about, I actually fessed up and said, actually, I've got the wrong speech. I've got another speech. But anyway, it went okay.

And this speech that I was supposed to have read was read a bit later. But it's just one of those moments. Sometimes when you stand up in front of people when you're really busy, and you know how you just pull a bit of paper out. I didn't check it, I didn't have my glasses on, and then, when I looked down, it's that moment in public speaking where you really feel like you wish the floor could just swallow you up.

But I'm going to introduce my colleagues now, who are going to tell you what's fantastic and wonderful in those areas. First of all, Sherman you're going to be first up today. Now this could be a career limiting moment, you did get a brownie point before, you could lose it, so be careful. Up you get, Sherman. Okay up you get, you're welcome to use the microphone, or this one, up to you.

[Sherman]

Okay, so I was briefed today that I had five minutes, not two, but that's okay.

[Belinda]

No, you do have five.

[Sherman]

I do have five? Excellent. I was told the first thing to do was just to tell you all a little bit about myself, which I will do. Before I do that, I just want to say I've been here now for two weeks, and two days, not that I'm counting, and it's been fantastic. I've been made to feel incredibly welcome. I've met a lot of terrific people, the teams have been fantastic, lots of enthusiasm, and lots of great work being done, and it's been really terrific. This is going to sound a little bit Valentines Day-ish but I feel like I belong. It's just really nice. Thank you, everyone that I have met, for making me feel so welcome, it's been really fantastic. And thank you for the team in the education portfolio, and more specifically, in the office of the AD VCE, for making me feel like this is home, thank you.

But I thought, okay, I've only got a few minutes. How can I introduce myself to you in a way that shows a little bit about who I am? And I misremembered something. Many of you probably are familiar with Spicks and Specks, the game show, who knows Spicks and Specks? There was a game on it called, What's the story? and I thought that What's the Story was about was, the one panel having to look at some facts, and then, telling Adam Hills whether or not it was true or not.

That's not strictly true, I think it's actually three stories, and then, the teams have to say which one's true, which one's false, and which one's untrue. It's actually not What's the Story, it's actually the British TV game show, Would I Lie To You? So, I'm going to, using the backdrop of Spicks and Specks, which was misremembered, give you three facts about me, and I would like you to tell me whether I'm lying to you, and we'll just do a show of hands we don't need the tech. Okay, first one, I used to play in a George Michael covers band, who thinks that's true? Who thinks that's false?

It's actually true. Way back in a former life, I used to play keyboards. We got a musical alignment, we could form a band, and it was ultimately a very unsuccessful band, but we did have a residency at the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, does anyone know Sydney? Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, we had a residency there on Friday nights, and it wasn't just George Michael covers, we did other stuff like The Style Council, but it was very much an early 90s covers band. The only claim to fame is that our singer in the band actually went on to form another band, a really famous band called Run Silent, but they had a top 10 hit in Indonesia. That was my distant claim to fame.

My kids have heard recordings of my time as a musician, and I am now publicly banned from both singing, and dancing. No musical activities for me. Second fact, I was involved in a dot-com start-up that killed Australia's only weekly news magazine. Does anyone know what Australia's only weekly news magazine was?

[Participant]

The Win.

[Sherman]

No, no, way back.

[Participant]

The Bulletin.

[Sherman]

The Bulletin, way back. See, way back, we're talking [inaudible] *00:24:48. For those of you who are under 25, there used to be these things that people printed, and you'd go to these things called newsagents, and you'd buy them and read them and there was a magazine called The Bulletin which was originally incredibly racist, and then, evolved into a slightly more interesting news magazine. I was involved in a dot-com start-up that killed The Bulletin, true or false? True? False? Okay, it was true, it was also true. Before I became an academic, I had a bunch of companies, I suppose, and one of them was a multimedia developing company, and one of the side hustles we did was all these business ideas that, I think these days you call them start-ups, but we just thought they were business ideas.

We thought it would be a really good idea to sell real estate using this new digital technology stuff, but we thought that the way to do it was to use this technology called CD-ROM, because the internet, at the time, involved telephones, and it took minutes to download a picture, so we thought, no, the future is CD-ROM. And we convinced the publishers at Australian Consolidated Press to stick a CD-ROM on the back of The Bulletin with hundreds of real estate listings on it. The fact that The Bulletin in is no longer around, and that little start-up business is no longer around, is a testimony to how successful that was.

Intriguingly, a suburb away, another company was trying the same thing, but they decided that this internet thing had a future, and that company was RealEstate.com. That's my time.

[Belinda]

We want to see the third one.

[Sherman]

Okay, third one, okay. My dog, whom the kids name Bear once ate a Toblerone bar and had his stomach pumped. True? True? True. Yes, that's true, but he didn't have his stomach pumped because my dog can eat anything and survive. He ate an entire box of muesli bars last week, and a pizza, and he is fine. I challenge anyone in an eating competition to bring their dog and have an eating competition with mine. The challenge is there. Anyhow, that's me, very briefly. Do I need to talk about what our priorities are in the office?

[Belinda]

Well, not now. You kind of skipped-- Your brownie points are gone.

[Applause]* 0:27:26.9.

[Belinda]

That was actually quite fun, Sherman. I think you should do an entire session on that. That was good, I liked that. Next time, you might want to talk about things that you do at the university. Right, next two people are Tristan-- pardon.

[Sherman]

That was what I do.

[Belinda]

That's what you do? How excellent. No, no, right let's get Tristan and Simon up. You're both going to tell us about what's happening in the academic registrars group, aren't you? One of you could have that, and one you could have this. Is that okay if I organise you, or you could have self-organised, potentially?

[Tristan]

Thank you, ma'am.

[Belinda]

I've got a timer.

[Simon]

Thanks, Belinda. Tristan, just looking around, it seems to me that this is a bit like education portfolio as my kitchen rules, so I just wonder whether or not we give these people a preview of the academic registrars' winning banquet.

[Tristan]

This group looks pretty hungry, Simon, let's do it.

[Simon]

We'll start off with a review of three critical processes: student conduct, student complaints and student appeals, making sure that we make the right decisions, and the best decisions for the students that we encounter in those processes. Over to you.

[Tristan]

Sorry guys, I thought I had a diagram to work off. It was very impressive, in illustrating our 2018 achievements, which were many. In terms of our 2019 projects, there's so many, we only have two minutes so many projects. I thought I'd walk you through some of my favourites. Where's the Academic Governance and Quality team? Where are they at? Eh! Okay, so they are working to establish a new in-house portfolio for RMIT Online and reconfigure the structures of the university itself to acknowledge a new DSC vocational education school, a new academic unit for the education portfolio itself, and the reorganisation of RMIT Vietnam.

How amazing is that? All right, I did it last year I got away with it, I'm going to do it again. When I get excited, I go "woo," and then you go "woo." All right, good, we've got that. Enrolment student records, where are you? Our wonderful enrolling student record teams, they're going to implement enrolment commissions' functionality, which is going to be huge. The schools will be able to manage individual student enrolment transactions, amazing. Woo.

[Audience]

Woo.

[Tristan]

Where's our operations team, and our single and short courses people? They're going to deploy the education course builder for short courses. That is going to be huge for the university. Woo.

The portfolio-- sorry, the portfolio, yes, but the academic registrars group is going to provide leadership to project pie. And as part of that, and I have an announcement. I'm actually going over to the project on March 1st. So, we're going to have to come up with a sadder woo. Woo. But I think it's a great demonstration of our commitment to the long-term. So, Connie, thank you for getting behind that. And I also I wanted to acknowledge that we have a lot of people at the work day design council, today. So, we're already putting in the hard yards. We're going to influence strategic projects and external policy, which is actually code for us getting professional development in terms of how to deal with government departments, with external partners. So, I'm really excited about that. Woo. And finally, Simon's already covered it, he's sorted out complaints in the student conduct and everybody goes, woo!

[Simon]

All right, so Belinda we think we've got the win meal, and we're ready to take on any contenders.

[Applause] * 0:31:19.5.

[Belinda]

There was sort of a range of woahs and woos and wooers. Tristan, you're not quite finished.

[Tristan]

I'm not?

[Belinda]

No, no. There's a taxonomy and a hierarchy to your-- I'd need to understand it. Sometimes you went, I don't know, "Whoa."

[Tristan]

Thank you.

[Belinda]

Can you just do that again?

[Tristan]

It's actually a project management methodology. The amount of work involved--

[Belinda]

Do we have to stand in a particular way?

[Tristan]

Oh, not necessarily. You'll feel it. When you're talking about something, and you feel really excited, you just go, woo!

[Belinda]

Woo!

[Tristan]

And then, you're thinking about something that you know it's important, but you're not sure that -- so the ARD does a lot of stuff that's been called boring, but necessary. So, you know it's important, but other people might not, so you go, woo.

[Belinda]

Woo.

[Tristan]

There you go.

[Belinda]

It's a bit like a dog. Woof. Is this going to work with Martin?

[Audience]

No.

[Tristan]

What do you reckon, folks? Should we give it a go? Can I get a woo!

[Audience]

Woo!

[Tristan]

Hey, there you go.

[Belinda]

I think they need convincing. You can sit down now.

[Tristan]

Thank you.

[Belinda]

Woo. Woo. Woo. Okay, where's Deborah? Okay, you're going to talk to us about the library today, because your infamous leader is tripping the light fantastic somewhere fabulous. Do you want to use this one?

[Deborah]

Thank you. Okay. Great, diagram. Thank you very much. The library has a huge year ahead of it, this year. We spent a lot of time last year talking to students, staff, and stakeholders about what the future library should be. This year, we actually have to deliver it. This diagram represents part of our operating model. It's just a really good tool for talking today about what we're going to do.

We're going to build the future-fit library this year. We're going to build a library that has a student at the centre, that takes the library to our students and staff, where they're working, and that's easy to use. That's our vision for the year. There's a number of ways we're going to do that, and I'm just going to touch on some of them today. In the blue circle in the middle, it says, "Digital first." This is a huge transformation for us and it's going to be really important this year. We are going to shift from building a face-to-face first service models to digital first.

We're not entirely sure how we're going to do that yet, but the first thing we're going to do is develop a digital strategy, and then, an implementation plan around that. The large white circle around our services is another huge piece of work this year. We are going to redesign all our services, our service models, and particularly integrate all our services. So, one of the things we heard from students and staff last year quite a lot was, we don't know what you do. We know what the traditional library services are, but we don't know about all the other things you offer.

And particularly, since we've had student support, and information management and archives, and academic peer-mentoring join the library, the definition of library is much broader now, but our customers don't know that. We've got to get so much better at having a clear service catalogue and communicating what we do. So, that's one of our big challenges for this year. That includes building at our research support services and building out our teaching and learning support services. We also need to transform our culture and our workforce.

And that's the blue circle, around the outside. We identified a real need to be agile, more collaborative, more integrated, and much more innovative. So, we've got a big program around cultural transformation which links in with some of the focus areas and building our leadership capability, too. That's one of our big emphasis, for this year. And finally, down the bottom and right around the outside, there's some stuff around operational excellence, and continuous improvements. We've got a lot of work to do around that. And one of our key focuses for this year in that space will be getting much better at how we collect and use data to demonstrate to the university what value and impact the library has on the lives of our students.

[Belinda]

That sounds pretty good, actually.

[Applause] *0:35:53.9.

[Belinda]

Was it you who said to me, will you ask me hard questions?

[Deborah]

No.

[Belinda]

No.

[Deborah]

No, it wasn't.

[Belinda]

Then I can.

[Deborah]

Go for it.

[Belinda]

I won't do that to you. Look, it's a really big agenda of work, and I know that there's been a lot of change that has happened, so far. What has been the most challenging thing about the change to date?

[Deborah]

To date, the most challenging thing is continuing to deliver service right now with our staff that's been reduced by 25%. While we still want to focus on the future, we don't want to get down in the weeds. We want to be thinking about the future. We want to be designing our services, but we've just got to get out there and keep working with our students.

[Belinda]

I remember standing in front of the library group and everybody here before saying that something along the lines of that, if you could make this happen, then we would have, truly, a vision for a library of the future. Even the word library, it's contentious in this, isn't it?

[Deborah]

It is. Last year, we were Library and student success. Through the visioning process, we've heard that student success was confusing for people. Student success is everyone's business in the university, and not just ours. We've rebranded as Library. It is contentious, but what we're going to be marketing this year is, "Drop in to the library for," or "Go online to the library for," and it'll be a whole range of things that people didn't expect.

[Belinda]

This is more of a personal question, because we all deal with change differently. When you think about the uncomfortability of the change, of what you were just describing before, we've got to keep the business going. We're looking to the future. We've got less staff. We're doing more with less or doing differently with less. How do you reconcile the uncomfortableness of that?

[Deborah]

Personally, I'm not uncomfortable. I'm really, really excited, and I just can't wait to get there. I hope that enthusiasm is translating through my team, but across the library there's varying levels of comfort with that. We're stepping up a lot of support for our staff, a lot of opportunities for our staff, and a really big staff engagement program to help people get on board at whatever level works for them, and then, build up the enthusiasm.

[Belinda]

I didn't expect you to say that. I expected you might say something like, it's just one day at a time, it's one step at a time, just to see how it works out. To hear you say you're excited about it, that's great.

[Deborah]

There's a lot of us who can't wait to get there.

[Belinda]

Good, okay. Well, look, I think that you've got the whole portfolio behind you, as you do this change. It's really nice to see you talk about it. I think as we go through the year on the Town Halls, another area of the staff survey that we talk a lot about is that we don't do change well. Change is really hard, and I don't think you won't go to any organisation and see it done 150% perfectly. There are things we've even learned from the change journey that we're doing with the Library change. But we might get you back to talk to us a bit more about how that's going, and how people are managing coping with that, because that, then, help others, too, think and consider how change plays out.

So, thank you very much for that, Deborah.

[Applause] *0:39:11.6.

[Belinda]

John, you're up next. Who are you, John?

[John]

Who am I?

[Belinda]

Who's John?

[John]

I do have a couple of bits of information relevant today. I didn't buy flowers. I do know who my line manager is. I have no affiliation with George Michael. I don't have a dog. What was your third?

[Sherman]

Start-up.

[John]

Start-ups? Yes, I've been involved in a start-up. One of the challenges today was to condense the breadth of activity that we undertake in the office of the DVC into two minutes. I've called out five things to talk through quickly, today. The first one is the alignment with the focus area, so everybody should be aware of the five focus areas for the university for 2019. One of our roles in the office is to make sure we're really clear about our accountabilities as a portfolio to deliver support necessary for those areas of focus to be successful. In some cases, a range of activities, in other cases, that's providing resource and subject matter expertise into each of those areas of focus Tristan spoke about today.

Next one is creating visibility and alignment of activities. The breadth of the activities across the portfolio is quite immense. The portfolio has grown in the six months that I've been here. What we're looking to do is really invigorate the education planning network which brings together the planning leads across all of the groups within the portfolio to create more visibility and alignment of activity across from end to end.

Next one is to support the quarterly planning cycle. You may or may not be aware that RMIT as an enterprise is shifting from an annual to a quarterly planning cycle, so we've got some work to do there to make sure we align with the operational and financial cycles involved. We've got a meeting this afternoon with the planning network leads and the EPMO to commence that activity.

The next one is to improve ways of working and a focus on performance impact. This is what I'm really passionate about and that's our ability to really clearly map our activities against the drivers of performance across the portfolio. That relates to the scorecard KPIs, the supporting KPIs, and any other associated metrics across the portfolio. That's really about making sure we place our bets in the right locations. So, deliver more from less kind of mentality, it's making sure we've got our resources applied in the right locations.

The last one there is project oversight, incremental improvements. So, to give you a sense of scale there, we've just done a report where Danielle has at least summarising our project management activities for 2018. And as a portfolio, we sponsored close to 40 projects worth $38 million last year, so there's a significant piece of work there around governance, but also important for 2019 how we improve incrementally. That might be the way we kick off projects, the way we focus them on delivering against committed outcomes, but also then how we successfully transition those projects into BAU. There's a bit of an opportunity there I think for us to improve. That's it within three minutes.

[Belinda]

Great, fantastic, John. Just give him a round of applause for that.

[Applause] *0:42:42.4.

Just one question. You're the second person that's mentioned, because Debra also mentioned it as well, around data and why data is important, and you were just mentioning that as well. Do you want to give me your insights to why data is important for how we manage our resources in particular?

[John]

Yeah, sure. Perhaps the example I'll lean back on to answer that is our scorecard KPIs. They're quite intricate if you like. I'm quite passionate there about us being able to unbundle those and understand the drivers of those and using data to allow us to apply our activities in some sort of scientific way to make sure we're impacting them. So, I've got a meeting this afternoon on net promoter score. We know we've got some challenges there in Singapore, probably an uplift in SCA, but making sure we're using the data that's available to us to inform the allocation of our resources.

[Belinda]

Good, thank you, John. All right, another round of applause and let's get Michael up.

[Applause] *0:43:40.3.

[Michael]

Hi, everyone. Can you hear me okay? All good?

[Belinda]

Yes.

[Michael]

As the slide suggests, the one that was just there, I'm Michael Cassidy, I work at RMIT Connect and Student Life, more particularly on student belonging in transition. What you'll see behind me pretty much encapsulates what RMIT Connect and Student Life is all about. Two happy tribes, staff and student. It really does reflect what our 2019 goals and vision are. I can probably summarise it in three main points. First, the way we do things, we co-design and we like to co-design and deliver a socially and culturally inclusive student life experience for what's a pretty large and diverse student population at RMIT, which is a fantastic challenge to have.

Number two, we want to support that first goal or objective with accessible and efficient services that are delivered at scale across the university. And importantly number three, look after ourselves and each other as a group so that we're happy, productive and actually able to do these things and support our students. It's only February, but it's a pretty busy time of year for us as we support students transitioning to RMIT. We've already started to breathe life into a lot of activity towards these goals.

For example, over the last two weeks or so, we've rolled out a program called, How to RMIT, which is essentially a RMIT 101, which tries to raise awareness for new students around, basically, what they need to know and what they need to have done by now as they transition to life at RMIT. To figure out its quirks, things like random building numbers, and the conventioning of our building levels 80.07.01, making them realise it's not a date. It's a diverse student cohort, but there's actually a lot of universal or common challenges that they face, so How to RMIT is trying to work on that.

In the last two weeks, we've had around 1,500, mostly VE students attend a range of How to RMIT sessions that have been integrated with the programs as well as standalone sessions, which is fantastic. Those sessions will continue until the end of March to support our HE students as they transition as well. We've got a bunch of welcome events to roll out, two of which we've already done for our VCE students and our Brunswick VE students which had great uptake. In fact, we've got about 4,000 student registrations for seven or so welcome events across the transition period, and in fact, our city VE welcome kicks off today in alumni courtyard. So, head up there check it out, it's a good thing to go and see the students as they experience life socially as they transition to RMIT.

The other thing to call out is our Connect for Access outbound calls that welcome new students to RMIT. Our team has averaged around 850 calls to new students per week. I believe they're up at around 3,000 calls to date. And 40% of those calls they actually have a conversation with the student and nudge them to a service based on that conversation, and we're getting really good feedback, and the satisfaction levels are around 95% for that. We've also on boarded around a hundred or so new student casuals to our teams in RMIT Connect and Student Life.

And those casuals, those student casuals are fantastic because they inject a lot of energy into our area. They have some great insights and they challenge our assumptions of what we think we know is important to students and in the students’ experience. They also help us achieve these kind of outcomes, like fantastic welcome days and How to RMIT induction sessions, and they remind us pretty much what it's all about. As I said, only February, but we're well into breathing life into those goals which I guess just to reiterate, socially inclusive and quality student experience for a diverse in population and basically making sure that we have the support services there to achieve that and the people able to reinforce those services. Yes, so that's us.

[Applause] *0:48:31.5.

[Belinda]

Just one question. What's the best thing a student has ever said to you? It's a hard question on the spot.

[Michael]

This is actually going to feel a bit sappy, but I think it's really important that two things that by just getting involved at all the things at RMIT. One, they felt like they belonged here, and number two, they felt like the university actually valued them. That they had a value here and it wasn't just coming along as part of a larger cohort and student numbers. Like I felt-- the student said, "I felt like an individual, I felt like this was my place. I made the right decision and I was important, and I was valued."

[Belinda]

That's nice. Congratulations.

[Michael]

Yes, thanks very much.

[Belinda]

Give him another round of applause.

[Applause] *0:49:25.3.

[Belinda]

Now next Lara and Melanie.

[Melanie]

Do you want to take the mic or how do you want to do this?

[Belinda]

One of you [inaudible] *0:49:35.9.

[Melanie]

Is that one turned on?

[Speaker]

It's not on?

[Melanie]

Yes.

[Belinda]

Can you just flick the switch?

[Melanie]

I knew that.

[Belinda]

See? Would you like to have a try for practice? Can I do? I can teach you. No, but if I teach you and do it, that means you've not learned it. Why don't you experiment?

[Melanie]

How is that going? Is that working? No?

[Belinda]

Yes.

[Melanie]

Okay, we have a slide to present today, so Lara and I, the assistant directors in the Student Wellbeing and Inclusion portfolio. I want to pick up on the music theme of today. I've been thinking that maybe every business unit could come up with a theme song.

[Belinda]

Nice.

[Melanie]

And so, I just--

[Participant]

[inaudible] * 00:50:13.

[Melanie]

Yeah, well, you know, it could be a Georgia song, but I was actually thinking ours could maybe be looking at these goals heal the world because that's very much what we're trying to do. We'll have a bit of a chat about that. We got told we had three minutes, so we tried to do 30-second chunks, but we're happy to do two.

[Belinda]

[inaudible] *0:50:34.8 microphone on took at least 50 seconds.

[Melanie]

Yeah, well it did, that's true. So, what we just wanted to present from our goals were probably a couple of good news stories that will be happening across 2019. For our students to be aware of and can access support, a couple of key things happening that you may not have heard about yet is actually that we've got a new city campus medical centre opening in semester two, 2019.

[Applause] *0:51:00.7.

[Melanie]

It will be located between the Commonwealth Bank and RUSU Realfoods if you want to cast your mind to that space down there. It's going to provide bulk and direct billing for our domestic, and international students, and our staff members, so it's going to be a fantastic initiative. It will have a diverse range of GPs to cater for student and staff demographics. Keep an eye on the coms in that space. The second one is that we're going to be introducing Skype counselling for our students, which sounds like a simple initiative, but it's not at all a simple initiative because we actually have to train up our counselling staff to deliver a different method of therapeutic counselling.

That will be starting to happen in semester one as well to provide just an additional mode of delivery, particularly for our RMIT online students who may not be on campus, and for students who actually will have the option to self-nominate that they would prefer to have a Skype counselling session instead of coming on campus for their session. So, that was point number one. Point number two belongs to our Student Mental Wellbeing team. A lot of area of focus this year will be actually building strategies and professional development programs so that our staff in the university are confident to support students in distress.

So, there was a lot of work done last year and a lot more work to happen this year. We'll be in contact with you about that, but there's actually a draft professional development program that builds on the work that happened last year about how you can respond to students in distress, but also look after yourself as well, which has come through really clearly today that there is a focus, not just on student wellbeing but also how you care for yourself when you're actually managing quite distressing and confronting situations.

[Lara]

I'm just now thinking about reducing sexual harm and it isn't a service delivery thing, but it really is right at the heart of who we are as a place to work and study. I think we've all got a role to play in that and that's really the key message here is that I guess you'll see more of the rollout of the communications and events campaigns for students, and also embedding material about respectful relationships and bystander action within the courses which is really exciting.

That program of professional development for staff and continuing to strengthen our support, and response, and justice pathways for those who've been affected by sexual harm, but it's really about also considering how do we eat, live out this commitment to eliminate sexual harm and respond appropriately here on campus? We're asking everyone to complete the responding two disclosures module so that you are equipped about how you should respond and how you should refer. We're also asking everyone to model that inclusive and respectful behaviour, but also take action.

If you see something that's inappropriate, that you challenge it, that you do step in and take that action at that time. Also, if we have got another moment, Belinda, to think about priority groups. You'll be familiar, of course, with our work to increase access, to broaden the diversity of the student population. Just a couple of things to think about and just responding to your question, Belinda, about the nicest thing that I've heard a student say to me. On the day that I took our proposal to the VCE about supporting people seeking asylum who've been just totally locked out of education.

I think this is an emblematic example of the place RMIT is that we could have this spirit of collaboration involving so many of us here across the various units to say, this is a real systemic issue. Let's fund some fee waiver places. Let's provide support services. Let's provide access to jobs and employability development. And on that very day that the VCE approved that proposal, I got an email from one of those students saying, this has just been so transformational, so life-changing. My whole vision of my future has changed. I am so thankful for the opportunities that have been provided and the support that I've received. So, it really does speak to that transformational power of education.

[Applause] * 0:55:18.3.

[Lara]

And just one final one in terms of developing our people, I do want to talk particularly about responding to the staff survey. There's always this thread among the professional staff about opportunities for career development and for professional development too. And so, this year we've engaged with our colleagues in careers and employability to design this bespoke career development program, but where we're providing individual career development sessions for our staff in a series of workshops and other resources. It's really affirming that we want to have that conversation among our people and that we really support that actively.

[Belinda]

Yes, well done.

[Applause] *0:56:00.6.

[Melanie]

That was actually me that asked you not to ask the hard questions this morning.

[Belinda]

Well, no, I'm not-- it was you, wasn't it?

[Melanie]

Yeah.

[Belinda]

Yeah, see? And I didn't give you any hard questions at all.

[Melanie]

No, you didn't.

[Belinda]

All I asked you to do was to turn the microphone on.

[Melanie]

The microphone on and that was so difficult.

[Belinda]

All right, well, thank you both of you. Lovely to hear that student comment as well. We're just running two or three minutes late. I just have one more person to talk to us about VE and then we'll be able to go, but if anyone does have to leave, please sneak out quietly. I won't notice. Who was that leaving up there?

Please, Peter, would you like to come and give us a few moments?

[Peter]

Thank you, Belinda. Can you hear me okay?

[Participants]

Yes.

[Peter]

Just going back to what you said, what is the nicest thing a student has ever said to me? A really good story. "Peter, I really, really love what you've done for us today, but just excuse me, I've got to go and start a riot." That was in a maximum-security prison.

I understood, by the way. I'm not getting in your way, so I'll help you if I can, but I can't go to the riot. Sherman, just getting back to what you said. Just a little bit about me. I've spent most of my life in the automotive industry traveling the world. I've been involved in health and retail as well. And for my crimes, not literally, but I've been involved in three maximum security prisons over that time as far as organising services, and education, and looking after a lot of the inmates. Some really, really funny times, but some very sad times as well. VE, Simon, and Trista, I can actually blame you for this because we had a discussion just before I came, and I said, I really need the punch line with this group. I think I said probably the best thing for me to say is what a great bunch of people everyone is in the education portfolio and how smart they all are, and I said that will go down well. That'll really be good to say that.

[Participant]

Woo.

[Peter]

Woo. Probably the first thing, and I did say and I can say, it was very authentic about what I've seen is that coming into the education portfolio, I've been absolutely amazed by how tight everyone is as a group, and the level of talent that is actually in the education portfolio. It is absolutely astounding, and I say that very sincerely because there is such a lot of really, really tight-knit people that have pulled together for a common theme around what has to be done within this group. It's really fantastic and it's great to be part of it. so, VE, I know I've only got a short amount of time.

So, what are we trying to do? My role in the portfolio as the executive director for vocational is really to be able to pull together, and I call them silos, the three colleges or three silos in vocational to come together under a common process where we will deliver compliance, quality, innovation, the best student experience and align ourselves to industry. And by 2024, which is part of our VE growth strategy, we will be seen as the most prestigious VET operation in Australia if not internationally. That's our aim. Ambitious, but that's where we want to get to.

What are some of the challenges? Certainly, for us it is around competition in the market. Private RTOs, the level of interlink with government and changing policies, et cetera have made the market very difficult, and it's made it very complex for everyone. Compliance, quality, provisions overlaid by industry. And probably the biggest key issue for all of us and particularly for me coming from industry and I have a strong background outside is, how do we, as an educational provider, stay ahead of what industry actually wants and be relevant in what we're doing? That's probably our biggest challenge right at the moment. How do we become authentic, relevant, and add a lot of value to the students? And that's really what we're about. I suppose from a VE perspective, getting pushed down from government, the overall point that we need to get to from a VE perspective is outcomes and jobs, and that's really what we're here for is to educate the workforce of the future. How's that?

[Belinda]

Thank you very much, Peter. Give him a round of applause.

[Applause] *1:00:31.7.

[Belinda]

Just one question. These are pretty tricky space to operate in because it has so many stakeholders who have their fingers in the pie. What do you think is the most challenging stakeholder to manage?

[Peter]

I think overall, anything to do with the regulators are probably the most challenging because you've always got the limitations around rules and the boundaries around rules are pretty well not blurred. So, I'd say at the moment, the expectations from government, so State government and the Feds, but also, I think for all of us as we've experienced lately ASQA. So, the regulatory compliance coming on to VET operations is becoming stronger and stronger, so I'd have to say that's our biggest challenge, yes.

[Belinda]

And we've all got a role to play in that one and I think over the coming weeks and months, you'll see where we're all having to contribute to that. I can see some very serious faces on some of my VE colleagues. They've been very weighed down, they went through this. The ASQA audit happened last week on campus, and I think everyone's still a bit exhausted and reeling from that, but they'll be more news on that as we move forward. So, thank you very much, Peter. A round of applause for Peter.

[Applause] * 1:01:50.9.

[Belinda]

Now we are nearly at our end, but someone did say that it was a bit unfair of me not to let Sherman tell you what his goals are for the year. They did. Somebody actually wrote that, they said, just give Sherman some time, he's got to tell us his goals. How do you feel about jumping up here? We'll give you 60 seconds. Can you do it in 60 seconds?

[Sherman]

I have a slide.

[Belinda]

Oh, no, he's going to slide. All right, off you go.

[Sherman]

So, I spent the last two weeks and two days mainly listening and learning. This is a very high-level summary of where I think my goals are for the next little while at the very least. There's a lot of work that we need to do around our learning environment. There's a lot of great work that's been done. The Canvas work was fantastic project rewire. A significant uplift we're hoping to this year, but also, I want to think about the physical spaces as well. If we're really serious about the blended environment, we need to deal with both the physical and the virtual, so there's some work I want to do there.

Program design. I am, from an outside perspective, staggered by some of the quantity of offerings that we have. I would really like to think about how our programs are architected and considered in the sense that they should be designed for students in the first instance, and not just because it's what we've always done. There's some thought there. Around program architecture and really creating those connections between what the students need and what they expect in terms of their employability.

Now, both of those projects have, I suppose, strong roots in the areas of focus. So, the student area of focus is a vehicle, a mechanism, if you like, for really thinking about how we deal with our digital environment or our learning environments both physical and digital, and also what we do with our programs.

Integral to the program is employability. Fantastic, WIL work done here already. I'd really like to see WIL deeply embedded in curriculum. I'm a huge advocate for WIL and I'm also a huge advocate for the fact that WIL has three letters and the third is learning and we can't forget that. So, it really is an educational project and very keen to ensure that our careers and employability agenda is deeply embedded in curriculum, and we work towards great outcomes because we know our students want jobs. That's what they really want to do.

Our learning and teaching practice, we need to work on professional development. We need to find fantastic ways to reward and recognise the already existing great work that our colleagues in academics do, and we need to provide opportunities for innovation, and really structure a framework for ensuring that our learning and teaching practice is best practice both nationally and internationally.

And then, underpinning all that is data. Some real work around using analytics to inform and enhance everything we do in the learning and teaching space and underpinning all of that is some real work with engagement. We've got a great team. I want to work together with that team to really make sure that the vision and values are co-created in a way that we're all heading really enthusiastically to do the best for our students and our colleagues. And I want to make sure that we reach out to those colleagues across the institution, across the colleges. Peter mentioned silos. One of the big challenges I think we really need to do is to really work and break down those silos and co-create across the institution, again, in the interests of student outcomes and student experience.

And along those lines, students need to be in the middle of everything we do. One of my pet projects is to make sure that we get students involved in everything in whatever way we can. So, that's two weeks and two days of listening and learning. It will evolve, it will interact, but hopefully, there's a sense of what we hope to achieve in the portfolio.

[Belinda]

Sherman, if there was one thing that people could do to help you get into the institution, what is it that you would ask of this group of people?

[Sherman]

Come and have a chat. Tell me your story. Tell me stories about RMIT. The story of university is the story of its students and its staff, and that's what makes a university. Really understanding that at an individual and deep level will help me understand the culture and spirit of RMIT and I love it.

[Belinda]

Welcome to RMIT, Sherman.

[Sherman]

Thank you.

[Applause] *1:06:35.6.

[Belinda]

Okay, that brings us to an end today. I'm sorry we've gone over a little bit. I haven't managed our time as well as I should have. Thank you to all our colleagues who presented today. It's very exciting to hear what's going on in the portfolio. The year is away, go forth, go work hard, have fun, enjoy our students. Thank you, everyone.

[Applause] *1:06:56.9.

[End transcript]