The fourth annual Team 2020 Celebration will take place on Jan. 27 at 8:30 a.m. in the Don Taft University Center Arena to recognize NSU employees.
The celebration for full-time employees will include breakfast, videos, skits, remarks from President George Hanbury, recognition of employee milestones, raffles, giveaways, surprise performances and an MC and small gifts for each attendee.
Executive Director of Community Engagement Barbara Packer-Muti said the event is generally regarded as a team-building and engagement event.
“It’s important to celebrate our employees,” she said. “We believe that an engaged employee is most likely to create a sense of engagement for our students.”
Packer-Muti said this year’s celebration will be different from past years because the theme is “NSU and our future.”
“With our theme in mind, all of the videos and skits have a future focus,” she said. “Also new this year, three employees will be recognized for their community outreach service.”
Mark Schuknecht, digital video solutions architect at the Office of Innovation and Information Technology, the videographer for the event, said a video bio has been created for each individual who has been with NSU for at least 25 years.
“It’s great that we can recognize individuals who have devoted years of hard work at NSU,” he said. “The videos are shown at the live event and then placed on the Team 2020 website, so they can show friends and colleagues.”
Schuknecht said that three years ago the name was changed to the Team 2020 Celebration, and that’s when the video skits and recognition videos were created.
“It’s nice that the administration is recognized; it’s a lot of work but well worth it,” Schuknecht said. “The whole event is coordinated by employees and is a good example of NSU collaboration.”
Bill Adams, associate professor at the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences who serves on the Team 2020 committee, said the planning for the event takes an entire year.
“After each celebration, we meet and talk about what worked and what didn’t work. Then, we brainstorm ideas to make it fun and worthwhile for folks to enjoy,” he said.
Adams said the Team 2020 Celebration Committee is comprised of energetic, hard-working and enthusiastic people all working towards one goal: a great event.
“The committee is a microcosm of the NSU workforce with members from regional campuses, arena staff, faculty, IT people, facilities – you name an area, and there’s a representative there,” he said.
One of the many entertaining activities at the celebration is karaoke, which Adams participated in last year’s event.
“I performed some very bad karaoke with several law professors, and we became friends. Building bridges and learning what other people do at NSU is really cool,” he said.
The celebration will be broadcast to NSU’s seven regional campuses via videoconferencing. This is the first year the event will be streamed to the employees who can’t attend.
Packer-Muti said, “The employees are able to connect with their peers from other colleges and schools. Sometimes this is the only time that employees get to see each other.”
Adams said, “This is an appreciation event for all who keep NSU running.”
For more information about the celebration, contact Packer-Muti at 954-262-5398 or packerb@nova.edu.
Photo Credit: nsunews.nova.edu
