2017 BBQ and Employee Awards

Posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2016

The following is an edited transcript of Cheryl’s remarks at the 2017 BBQ and Employee Awards:

Thank you so much, Phil and Monique.

Good morning, everyone. Bonjour. Kwe.

And thank you everyone for joining us today. Before I get started, I hope you won’t mind if I just say a few words of personal thanks:

To all of you: faculty, support staff, admin, students, all of you, no matter what you do — thank you for being here today for this great Algonquin College tradition.

To our Board Chair and the Board:
-Kathyrn Leroux
-Jay McLaren
-Sherryl Fraser
-Pam Auchterlonie

To our Foundation Board:
-Amy Desjardins
-Peggy Austen
-Denise Siele
-Jeff Turner
-Rodney Wilson

Our Union Presidents: Christine Kelsey and Pat Kennedy (and also a shout out to my friend John Hanson, I will miss working with you and will now look forward to working with Christine).

To my office team: Tracy, Kathy and Victoria and, until recently, Suzannah — I couldn’t do any of this without you.

To our Algonquin College family: Greater Ottawa, Perth, Pembroke and Kuwait communities … I know many of you have travelled in today just to be with us, and we’re glad you’re here. And if you are watching us via the web, know that you are here in spirit, because we have lots of that to go around.

And, of course, to my family (which now includes my sweet new granddaughter).

And I also want to take a moment to thank some people who are not here, but who made it possible for us to be here. And that is all the men and women who came before us, and whose shoulders we stand upon today.

As we celebrate our 50th, it’s a time to party, but it’s also a time to reflect. So, before we get to the celebrations, I want to share a story with you. Take a look.

And what can I say to follow that? It’s an incredible story, and just one of many we’re going to be sharing this year. And I want to invite all of you to meet Mr. Shoultz this Saturday at a special reception in ACCE Building — there’s lots of info on myAC — I hope you’ll join us as we pay tribute to this remarkable man and his legacy.

And while we’re talking about our history and our 50th anniversary, I want to invite you to take a look at our new Legacy Project down the hall at the Four Corners, across from the Courtyard. You’ll find some fascinating artifacts and memorabilia from days gone by, and I want to give special thanks to our two Applied Museum Studies students, Angelica Cantorpineda and Betty Ming, who have put this together. It’s our very own museum, and I hope you’ll all take a moment to stop by and enjoy it.

And just for a moment, I want to focus on the future and remind everyone to be sure to take a look at the renderings that are posted here of the new Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Learning Centre and Institute for Indigenous Entrepreneurship. I know I keep telling everyone that all of this will be worth it, but I think when you have a look at these images, you’ll see for yourself what an incredible project this is. It’s going to change our College in so many ways, but it’s also being built with all of our history and traditions in mind.

As I said earlier, this annual barbecue is also a great tradition. And we are talking a lot about tradition this year, our 50th anniversary year. And I want to say that, no matter what, our strongest tradition is the quality and caliber of our employees. Without you, the other traditions don’t hold up.

And that’s what today is about.

You.

When I accepted the Key to the City from Mayor Jim Watson last month, I made it clear that I was accepting that recognition on behalf of Algonquin’s employees, past and present.

And that’s because, even though you didn’t lay a brick 50 years ago when the College was born, and even though you are not out there with the construction crews in the courtyard now, you, every one of you, built this college and made it what it is today.

You, and the students you guide on the journey of learning and to lifelong careers, are the cement that holds our College together.

Every. Single. Day.

And I want to remind you that your work is reflected in the success of our learners and alumni who this year alone:

•Came home with gold, silver and bronze medals from Canada’s largest skilled trade and technology competition

• Won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for animation

• Were on bestseller lists for the culinary arts

• Got top honours at the Mayor’s Cybersecurity Challenge

• Pioneered groundbreaking new research in multiple disciplines

• And, most important of all, gave back to our community, whether it was our paralegal students raising funds for the hungry, our hospitality students raising funds for cancer research, our health students offering free dental clinics for Syrian refugees, our Event management students raising $1 million for the Children’s Wish Foundation or all our campuses joining together to help the United Way.

This list could go on forever.

But my point is that in teaching and mentoring and guiding our learners, you are building not just the College, but our community.

And it’s important to me that you understand that I am not the only one seeing results – we are getting noticed in so many ways, by so many people:

• We have been noticed with funding for dozens of fantastic employee-driven ideas, from our new Algonquin College Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Learning Centre and Institute for Indigenous Entrepreneurship to a new Data Analytics Centre to continued funding for programs like our Indigenous Cook Pre-Apprenticeship course.

• We are getting noticed by other institutions, who are reaching out to us because they want to collaborate with us. Just this past year we signed agreements with Nunavut Arctic College, Nipissing University, St. Paul University, Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, Cambrian College, Mohawk College, and many more.

• We are getting noticed by the media, with stories about Algonquin College appearing in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Maclean’s and in publications at home and abroad. CBC Radio has done more than 20 stories on Algonquin College in the past year alone.

• We are getting noticed by governments, who are partnering with us in new and creative ways. In just the last 12 months, we have had visits from the Premier of Ontario, the federal finance minister, the leader of the opposition and more than 16 federal, provincial and municipal elected officials, more than doubling visits in any previous years.

Finally, I think we are really starting to notice each other. Not just with the awards today, but by listening to each other in new ways, too.

I’m thinking of our new employee collaboration centre, the many contributions you all made to the new strategic plan, and your participation in this year’s Employee Engagement Survey.

And it’s your involvement in that process that is leading to positive change.

Workday, a new software system, is set to replace our many out-of-date human resources, finance and payroll systems. In past engagement surveys, you told us we had too many outdated systems and too many paper forms. We heard you. Workday will transform business processes and put your information in your hands, where it belongs.

Finally, I can tell you that we’re going to keep getting noticed because of the work that you’re doing. And we’re also going to be noticed in just a few more days because of some very exciting news that has, as the posters say, been 50 years in the making.

Here’s a sneak peek.

Now, I’m not at liberty to give you all the details just yet, but let me just say that it was worth the 50-year wait. Because it is something that is really about our employees and the learners they help every day.

It’s about us. And it’s about our identity as a College.

You may have already guessed what it is, but I want you to know that when you hear the news, in my mind, it is meant to reflect all the things that employees have done over the years to make us what we are today.

And what I am today is very proud. Proud of you, your accomplishments and all that is still to come. I hope that as you enjoy this highlights video, you feel the same way.

Thank you. Merci. Miigwetch.

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