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The Connection
Issue 16: December 2019

Welcome to the December issue of The Connection! 

It is hard to believe that in just a few short weeks, we will be celebrating the holidays and working our way to a new year.  Due to many of your efforts including time, energy and expertise, the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC) has made much progress in 2019.  Key highlights include:

  • Implementation of Blackbaud for our Advancement Teams
  • Implementation of Oracle Finance for our entire institution
  • Significant work towards the implementation of Oracle Human Resources/HCM, going live in 2020
  • Integration of well-being strategies to improve safety, foster institutional cultures of well being and improve personal health
  • Created Shared Services for Accounts Payable Services for our member colleges
  • Move to our new GMHEC home in Shelburne, Vermont
  • Created new roles and hired great people to support our member colleges

Deep gratitude and respect to all of you who have worked so collaboratively and passionately to benefit our member institutions.    


The GMHEC Team

Update
 
Looking forward to 2020, we will go live with Oracle HCM/Human Resources. You will have easy access to your own personal information such as address, benefits, payroll information and time worked. Much more information will be shared in preparation for training and transition.  

In early 2019, we implemented Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT for the Advancement teams. Recently, one of the colleges received 13,000 new home addresses on records which needed updating. In the past, this process was completely manual. Now, with Blackbaud NXT, the process was completed in less than an hour. Better yet, this process will now run every three months, ensuring continual improvement in reaching their constituents.   
 
Earlier this year, we also went live with Oracle Finance.  Already, we have gone through three upgrades, have made improvements in workflows and are building our report library. 

With all of our new solutions, we continue to learn and strengthen the functionality each day for the end user experience and value to each institution.
 
Cloud Graphic

Oracle or Blackbaud Question?


Check out the GMHEC Knowledge Base for information on questions related to:

Institutional Benefits Update

Bird in Winter
During the last several months, the Benefit Teams from Champlain College, Middlebury College and Saint Michael's College moved forward with the implementation of new benefit offerings for all colleges. These strategic changes were designed to support employee needs and continue to manage long term costs for the institutions, and employees. A particular acknowledgment to Debra Dayman, Cheryl Mullins and Kim Boyarsky for their dedication and engagement of many years leading to these benefits.
 
"We are excited that 2020 is almost here and the benefit programs through GMHEC are now available for eligible participants. Through GMHEC, it has been possible to offer a variety of benefit options to meet your and your family's needs. Take some time to review your benefits to ensure you understand the value and options of the plans." 

Debra Dayman, Champlain College

Well-Being Updates

With the new year right around the corner, it's time to start thinking about what we want for ourselves as we move into a new year and a new decade. Many of us forge into the new year with a resolution to lose weight, quit smoking or save money. While those are all fine goals, what I’m talking about is something bigger. What I’m talking about is taking action toward being the kind of person we want to be, the kind of person who lives in accordance with her values. The kind of person who chooses everyday to move toward self-actualization, towards excellence.     

As a health coach I often talk to my clients about their values and who they want to be. So often people tell me that they value things like health, family, kindness, compassion and service to others. If I were to follow these people around all day with a hidden camera, would I know for sure that these were there values? Unfortunately, for too many people I would not. What I would more commonly see is a value on being busy, on comfort, instant gratification and distraction. Values are not what we say. Values are what we do. They are not some arbitrary ideas but instead are guiding principles we can use to direct our lives. When we are clear about our values and choose to live in alignment with our values, life becomes simpler.  

This year, I challenge you to get clear about your own values and what it would look like for you to truly live those values. Aristotle said, “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” If we want to be excellent, to be the person we want to be, we must be intentional and make choices based on our values.  

Marshall Goldsmith, world-renowned business educator and coach, suggests that we engage in a daily questions process to measure our commitment and to help us stay focused on what is most important. You can read more about his process here. Taking action toward being who we want to be is like watering a seed and watching it bloom. Small, consistent attention and care will enable us to reach our potential, to be excellent and live a life that truly brings us fulfillment. I wish nothing more for you this year and beyond.

Rebecca Schubert
Well-Being Program Coordinator

The Consortium is Hiring!

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