It has taken me much longer to add another submission than I would have liked. Here’s a few things that have occurred.
ALIA
I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend, as an observer, the March board meeting in Canberra. There are certainly quite a few very important issues on the ALIA table that will need to be dealt with over the next year or so. A number have been highlighted by Derek and Sue in the annual report, while there are other issues that are quietly bubbling away in the background. If you’re an ALIA member & wish to keep informed I urge you to read Incite & regularly visit the ALIA web site.
The new Board, under the presidency of Jan Richards,will have its first meeting on 19 May, the day after the AGM. the current Board’s last meeting will be on 17 May. It will certainly be a big three days as we farewell the retiring board members and welcome the two new mebers, Kate Siniclair and Gillian Hallam. Gillian is no stranger to the Board as she is a former national president.
Brewing
The was quite a bit for fermenting activity during February but not much since. I’ve put down three beers since my last entry – a Bar n Brew bitter (a tub developed by the local brew shop), a Vienna larger and one of my favourites, a Belgian Saison. The bitter was basically a quick and dirty brew – add the wort, a bit of boiling water, fill up the fermenter with cold water, add the yeast & hey presto in about a fortnight you can bottle the beer. Its not a bad brew its light in colour, well carbonated, light in flavour but not much depth. The Vienna lager is a European amber lager and demonstrates a number of the characteristics listed in the BJCP style guide for a Vienna lager Its a mid-strength beer of about 4.3%. The Belgian saison is a beer that packs a punch. I accidentally put a bit more malt in than needed and let the yeast really attenuate with the result that its a full strength+ beer coming in around 8.1% ABV. Its certainly a beer for drinking at home!
Golf and Cycling
I’ve been playing more golf than cycling of late as my wife has taken up the sport. So we’ve been having quite a few rounds together after work and on weekends. I’ve drifted out to 8 and have even managed to play to it a few times. I’ve gone through a phase when I’ve been hitting greens in regulation so that makes playing to ones handicap a bit easier. I’m back on the bike and am regularly cycling to work.
Work
Work as ever is busy. I currently have responsibility for the Library, Academic Learning Support Unit (ALSU), English Language Centre (ELC) and Curriculum Design (CDDU). The Library and ALSU are my two key areas of responsibility. It looks like the ELC will be realigned to another area within the univeristy, and I’ll be staying with CDDU until a Director is appointed.
Each of the areas have their own tensions caused by different drivers:
The Library is currently focussnig on supporting the Office of Research with the HERDC and ERA submissions. Our involvement is centred on the utilisation of our repository, ACQUIRE.
The ELC is focussed on recruiting enough students to balance the books – its key activities are ELICOS, IELTS testing and hosting study tours.
ALSU is currently battling the problems of too much demand. STEPS enrolments have have increased signnificantly on 2008 numbers, and with an increase in domestic numbers demands on the Communications Learning Centre have also increased.
Curriculum Design is heavily involved with the implementation of Moodle. It is caught between supporting normal operations and supporting the implementation of the new LMS.
Over the past month I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to attend ACODE and CAUL meetings. ACODE was in Melbourne and CAUL was in Newcastle. The ACODE focus was primarily Web2.0 and much of CAUL was focussed on research support.
In other news I had a couple of weeks off around attending CAUL in Newcastle. We drove down rather than flew and visited Gunnedah, Nelson Bay, Musselbrook, Sydney, Orange and Tenterfield over a couple of weeks. Today I was diagnosed with a mallet finger & it looks like I’ll have the middle finger on my right hand in a splint for about 6 weeks. Whats a mallet finger & how did I get it? Well check this link out. The example they provide as a possible cause is exactly what happened to me – last time I make a bed!
