Birthday Lunches

One of the activities that I have most enjoyed since coming to Joyner has been the monthly Birthday lunches. I can not take credit for the idea—the University Librarian at Appalachian State, Mary Reichel, came up with the idea, and it worked so well there that I thought I would emulate the practice here.

Each month, usually on the last Wednesday of the month, I ask all of the people who had birthdays during the past month to join me for lunch. Sometimes we go out to a restaurant, but most times it works best to have the food brought into us. Selecting by birthday creates an unusual grouping, often including people who don’t know each other well. This month’s group included David Hursh, Sheri Black, Amy Smith, Ken Harbit, Gloria Bradshaw, Maliha Farhadi, and Hazel Lucas. Of course, our three TRC folks knew each other well, but David and Ken had never met.

As we begin eating, I explain the ground rules—tell the group the date of your birthday, a little about your history at ECU and Joyner, and something about your life and interests. After the round robin in which we all learn a little bit about one another, I ask the hard questions: In your opinion, what is going well at the Library? What is not going so well? What advice do you have for me? This produces some interesting comments and observations. The April participants, like past participants, all seemed to like and enjoy the Birthday lunch and the opportunity to meet and mix with colleagues outside of their service unit. I received a number of positive comments about the open communication that we are experiencing in the Library, although we all agreed that we can never do too much to enhance it—especially sometimes between supervisors and employees.

Some specific suggestions included: public lockers, public book carts, a ramp from the rear employee entrance, and more add money machines near copy machines. I will explore all of these suggestions and report back to the Library. Someone also asked about the availability of laptop computers to replace desktop workstations—again I will try to follow up. As you can see, the Birthday lunches present a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know a little bit more about individuals at the Library—and I hope the participants feel like they get to know me a little bit more.