Seabrooks and Boyd oversee MCC-Penn Valley

Joe Seabrooks, president of MCC-Blue River, has been appointed interim president of Penn Valley. Seabrooks will retain his position as president of Blue River during this interim assignment with additional assistance from Blue River’s deans and leadership team. Bernard Franklin tendered his resignation as president of Penn Valley this week.

Margaret Boyd, executive director of the Institute for Workforce Innovation (IWI), has been appointed as the interim executive director of the Health Science Institute (HSI). Boyd has been charged to work with Director Sandy McIlnay to create opportunities and build bridges between allied health, nursing programs, and area health care employers. She will also retain her position with IWI.

Happy Holidays from MCC-Longview.

There were plenty of snowflakes and holiday cheer going around at the MCC-Longview Holiday Luncheon hosted by president Fred Grogan on Thursday.

Media specialist Clay Bussey was busy taking holiday photos of the faculty and staff (as Campus Life and Leadership demonstrated above). The most creative ones, as voted by the campus, will be getting their own copies of their photo for free. Those photos will be available on the shared drive later this week.

In the meantime, enjoy a few photos from the event and this holiday greeting from MCC-Longview!

Employees - Important dates for December

Friday, Dec. 17 - Live test of MCC Alert

Monday, Dec. 20 – Grades due by noon

Friday, Dec. 24 – Jan. 1 – MCC offices closed (yippee!)

Test of MCC Alert - Friday, Dec. 17

The MCC police/public safety department will be conducting a test of the MCC Alert emergency notification system this Friday, Dec. 17. A test alert message will be sent by email to all students and employees and will be posted on the front page of the MCC website.

Those students and employees who have opted in to the MCC Notify Me emergency text message system should also receive a text message. Additional information about MCC’s emergency notification procedures can be found at the new MCC Alert web page. If you encounter any technical problems with the test, please contact the MCC TechLine.

Note: this test is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday and will be clearly labeled as a test. In the event that an actual emergency should occur on Friday, please heed the warning of any notification that is not marked as a test.

MCC-Blue River staff celebrates the holidays with giving

Today, MCC-Blue River colleagues will celebrate the holiday season with a festive luncheon. The celebration will include tasty food, delectable desserts and a great time hanging out with Blue River colleagues.

A Party with a Purpose
Instead of a gift exchange, generosity of another sort is taking shape. The Blue River team is stepping to the plate to help others. Several opportunities to help others include:

• Adopting an ornament from a BR Christmas tree. Each ornament represents a family experiencing difficulty this holiday season.
  
  
• Giving a cash donation
  
  
• Bringing canned goods for Holiday food baskets for the adopted families

One Blue River department has found a creative way to “pool” resources for greater impact. For instance, the campus Bookstore has challenged all departments to follow their charitable lead. Here's how it will work: they each will “chip” in to buy a gift for a family on the tree. “We would like to challenge everyone to do the same; this way, nobody has to pay for it all by yourself” says Tracy Leeper in a recent email.

The staff and faculty holiday luncheon is today at 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. in EC110.

Offices will not close during the luncheon.

MCC welcomes new employees

Elizabeth Prindle, Academic Graduation Advisor, MCC-BTC

David Ford, Custodian, MCC-Longview

David Thomasson, Custodian, MCC-Longview

Bonita Werner, Techline Specialist II, Administrative Center

The MCC-Maple Woods Family Celebrates the Holidays

This digital slideshow created with Smilebox

AC Annual Holiday Lunch

Each year, the AC Staff Association organizes a holiday lunch for all Administrative Center employees. The last few years, all the administrators have pitched in to buy the main course, while employees bring in a side dish for all to share. Thank you administrators!!

Roger Banbury usually organizes some fun sing-alongs, and he pulled through once again this year with his versions of Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Chancellor James is Coming to Town), Jingle Bells (a song about retirees) and White Christmas (I’m dreaming of a Chiefs playoff).
To watch the video of Chancellor James is Coming to Town, click the video below.

Penn Valley crowns chili and soup kings and queens!

The MCC-Penn Valley Staff Recognition Committee hosted the Third Annual Chili and Soup Cook-off on Dec. 10.

For the first time, there was a tie in the Chili category. Winners were Irving Brooks for his Blistering Boulevard Chili and Jerry Kitzi for his Chuck Wagon Chili. They each won $25.

Second place in the chili category went to Terry McDaniel for his Just Great Chili.

In the Soup category, first place went to Jennifer Wood for her French Onion Soup!

Second place in the soup category was awarded to Rachel Dickey for her Organic Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Congratulations to all who participated!

And this year’s winners believe a MCC Chili and Soup Throwdown is in order with the other campuses at next year’s MCC October In-service! However, it should be noted that according to Mr. Kitzi, “I don’t see how you can call it a contest. Once Penn Valley’s outstanding chefs enter the room, the contest if over!”

So what do you think AC, Blue River, BTC, Longview, Maple Woods? Are you up to the challenge?

PHOTO CAPTION: (From left to right) Irving Brooks, Jerry Kitzi and Jennifer Wood celebrate their victory!

MCC-Longview says farewell to retiring faculty and staff members

Doug Washer, retiring philosophy instructor, could not wait to dig into his party cake at the MCC-Longview retirement reception this past Friday.

Along with Washer, MCC-Longview president Fred Grogan also honored retiring faculty member Brian Mitchell,



Lee Heggy, retiring media services coordinator,



and retiring administrative assistant Marge Kelly.



Thank you for your dedication and years of service to MCC-Longview.

For more photos from the retirement reception, check out of photo blog at Flickr.

Chancellor James is coming to town

Metropolitan Community College Chancellor, Mark James, launched the first of several campus tours in August, beginning with MCC-Blue River. He has since visited BTC, Penn Valley and Longview. James uses these visits as an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to ask questions and chat with him about things happening at the campuses and across the district.

Visits have been scheduled through June 2011:
Jan. 25 - MCC-Maple Woods
Feb.22 - MCC-Blue River
March 29 - MCC-Business and Technology
April 26 - MCC-Penn Valley
May 31 - MCC-Longview
June 28 - MCC-Maple Woods

Mark your calendars. Meetings are scheduled from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Reminders will be sent out from your campus president's office.

Call for help with the push of a button

MCC students, employees and visitors now have a way to call MCC police/public safety with the push of a single button. As part of ongoing district-wide efforts to ensure student and employee safety, the emergency preparedness task force implemented a reprogramming of one of the quick-dial buttons on every phone in the network (including employees' desk phones) to dial the MCC police/public safety control center.

In the event of an emergency, anyone who is near a phone will now be able to simply press that button, without even picking up the handset, to reach MCC police/public safety. The button will is now labeled EMERGENCY. This change was made to all MCC phones so that anyone with access to a phone will be able to quickly call for help.

MCC-Blue River holiday performance a success

On Saturday, Dec. 11, MCC-Blue River's Metropolitan Chorale of Kansas City performed at the First Baptist Church in Independence, Mo.

Don Reimal, the mayor of Independence, and his wife attended the performance, as did good old St. Nick.

Chorale conductor, Rebecca Johnson, describes the evening as "a lovely and peaceful interlude in the holiday season."

The chorale will perform again in the spring. Mark you calendars for April 30, 2011.

More details on the Chorale's website at http://mcckc.edu/blueriver/humanities/music/index.html.

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Other articles featuring the Metropolitan Chorale:

"Rediscover the Magic..."

"Around Town..."

"A Brand New Season..."

Health Science Institute selection for simulation study featured in KC Nursing News

The KC Nursing News recently covered the MCC-Penn Valley Health Science Institute's selection to participate in the landmark national simulation study.
The article discusses how the study's outcome could possibly changing the delivery of patient care. To read the article, click here .

MCCKC ranks near top of most-searched list on Google

MCCKC is the second fastest-growing search term in Kansas City, according to Google's annual Zeitgeist list of fastest-rising search terms.

In an article in yesterday's Kansas City Star, MCC was mentioned among other popular terms like "Staley High School" and "kcmo.org" as the top rising searches in the Kansas City area.

"This means Google is definitely one of the major gateways for gaining attention for MCC as a whole," said Mike Ekey, public relations coordinator at MCC-Longview and a close watcher of MCC's cyber footprint. "All of the work we have been doing to increase our page rank and realign our information over the past six months is worth it," Ekey said, referring to search engine optimization efforts led by the MCC web team and the district-wide marketing and public information teams.

MCC-Penn Valley Health Science Institute conducts simulation training at Iowa hospital

Members of the MCC-Penn Valley Health Science Institute(HSI)recently traveled to Cass County Memorial Hospital(CCMH)in Atlantic, Iowa to conduct a simulation training for hospital staff.

The hospital staff connected with HSI faculty during a VHA Mid-America Nursing Executive Conference highlighting HSI's use of simulation in the clinical setting to improve critical thinking skills.

CCMH used the Sim Lab to train for two different medical situations – shoulder dystocia during a birth and complications from congestive heart failure.

Intellectual Property Task Force making progress

A multi-campus task force is wrapping up its research phase and is in the process of finalizing recommendations that will help MCC implement policies and procedures related to intellectual property.

The Intellectual Property Task Force, co-chaired by Beth Lindquist, dean of instructional services at MCC-Longview and Mary Northrup, reference librarian at MCC-Maple Woods, assembled the team in September and will present the group’s recommendations in February 2011.

“This group has worked diligently to examine the purpose and definition of intellectual property and how the college might administer issues related to intellectual property and copyright,” Lindquist said. “The complexities of this subject matter require attention to detail and forethought. The task force members have done a great job in moving this information forward.”

The task force received its charge from Vice Chancellor of Instructional Services and Information Technology Paul Long and Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services, Enrollment Management and Student Development Tuesday Stanley. According to the charge, the task force is to recommend policies governing intellectual property and to recommend procedures to ensure the fair implementation of the policies. Specifically, the group will provide:

• Key definitions related to intellectual property
• Standards of ownership and compensation
• Identification of common types of intellectual property
• Processes governing copyright requirements
• Applications of Work for Hire considerations
• Revisions to PRPs governing intellectual property

The task force will meet at least two more times before it officially hands over its recommendations.

Task force members include:
Christina McGee, Patricia Amick, Gary Schieber, Dan Ascheman, Lisa Bonneau, Joel Conway, Deanna Poudel, Melissa Marr, William Allyn, Kathy Walter-Mack and Jerry Kitzi.

The Almond Throwdown at the AC

The accounting/financial services department at the MCC Administrative Center competed in an Almond Throwdown this morning. Team members were given the secret ingredient -Almonds – and talented individuals went to work creating dishes of almond delights.

Employees at the AC stopped by for small samples and voted on their favorite treat.

And the winner is….. Steve Frommelt , and his Better than Robert Redford dessert.

MCC-Maple Woods crown twelfth class of trivia buffs

MCC-Maple Woods recently hosted its annual Brain Drain trivia competition - 25 teams competed for cerebral supremacy in categories ranging from art to history to science to the brain-busting potpourri round. Maple Woods' Social Science-Business division has been hosting Brain Drain on the first Tuesday of December for the past 12 years.

Brain Drain Winners:

First Place
Tim Robertson
Joy Robertson
Mark Ingersoll
Matt Campbell
Bill Ferrell

Second Place
Ryan Payne
Gail Payne
Jeromy McGee
Kern McGee

Third Place
Paul Hough Team

Fourth Place
Cathy Donahue
Linus Drees
Kelly Larson
LuAnn Currence
Gary Miles

MCC-Maple Woods December Employee of the Month: Samantha Nolker

Samantha works in the Biology Lab as a student worker. She is taking a full course load with many science courses, she serves as Phi Theta Kappa’s secretary, and she also volunteers at Ray County hospital.

Samantha comes to work with a smile and a “let’s go get ‘em philosophy." She works diligently and always goes above and beyond what she needs to. When she is finished with her assigned duties, she always asks what she can do to help others finish their tasks. Samanthan will be leaving MCC in May to attend UMKC.