Keep your chargers handy, UC Davis, because we’ll be playing this game for 36 hours straight, on our phones, tablets and laptops (and desktops, too). It’s “Envision UC Davis,” wherein all of us — students, staff and faculty — are encouraged to go online to brainstorm our university’s future.

The game, scheduled from 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, to 11 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, is for the Davis and Sacramento campuses, and all other UC Davis locations. You can preregister now at envisionucdavis.org.

“Join thousands of others at UC Davis in a future forecasting game,” says the teaser video from the nonprofit Institute for the Future, which is running the UC Davis game and did the same for UC San Francisco in 2014.

The “game” — with a time limit and points — interjects some fun into the planning process. And the more players we have, the more ideas we’ll see, and the more back-and-forth we’ll have, as people comment and build on other people’s ideas — all in rapid-fire, Twitter-like fashion, 140 characters or less.

“Push yourself to think boldly, make the leader board,” the organizers said, referring to a listing of the game’s top-trending ideas. You can play as an individual or form teams and gather for group play — meet up, play the game on your mobile devices and talk among yourselves.

The Institute for the Future will provide gamemasters to scan the fast flow of ideas, looking for and synthesizing key themes that push the boundaries of today and stretch into the next decade and beyond. Highlights will be featured on the game blog so you can quickly see which ideas are rising to the top.

Next step: Preregister at envisionucdavis.org.

‘Reimagining Our Work’

Davis campus Staff Assembly is leading the ROW initiative, a day to give staff across the university a chance to breathe, to take stock of the work they do, to do it more efficiently.

This came up at Breakfast with the Chancellor, a monthly, Staff Assembly-sponsored event, and the chancellor gave the go-ahead, allowing department and unit staffs to take a day to envision the future of their work — and thereby further contribute to the University of the 21st Century.

“ROW can be used to build partnerships and strengthen teams, or for staff development, and generally give staff a day of more autonomy over their workload,” Potts said.

ROW is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 29, at all UC Davism locations. Every department and unit decides for itself how to spend that day. You need not spend the whole day on this activity, and your unit might even want to pick a different day.

So, what’s your unit planning for ROW Day? The organizers hope you’ll let them know, so they can post your ideas on the ROW website to inspire others all around UC Davis.

The site already lists these examples:

• Host a staff meeting to review business practices and identify opportunities to improve efficiency.
• Facilitate a fun, team-building activity to help foster stronger relationships.
• Support a staff-choice day by empowering staff to decide how to use the day to best improve their effectiveness.
• Moderate a strategic planning meeting with all levels of your department.
• Set aside time for staff to better organize individual and shared work spaces.

Next step: Send your ROW Day plans by email to staffvoice@ucdavis.edu.

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