Tuesday, February 05, 2008

The Administrator's Bookshelf

Colleagues and I are starting a publishing and seminar company focused on helping us all do our work with less stress and greater happiness and success. Our first venture is a series of “how to” booklets for college administrators we are calling The Administrator’s Bookshelf. Designed to provide new and seasoned academic administrators in all levels of college operations with a sort of Cliff Notes on various aspects of college administration, the series provides quick, practical and applicable tips, insights, and best practices in 20-25 page booklets that are written in direct, uncomplicated language.

I see this as a direct extension of customer service to colleagues.I hope you will join in so we can all provide service to one another and make our jobs better and easier.

The inaugural book, Day 1, is to be a collection of short pieces and recollections of college administrators, directors, managers and faculty first days on the job. Many of us came to our demanding roles as academic administrators without formal management or administrative training. A wing and a prayer and on-the-job training often resulted in stress, confusion and even failure before we finally learned how to successfully navigate the demands of our positions. Our intention with The Administrator’s Bookshelf is to provide useful resources that can ease the strain for others. These articles will become the introductory edition and will provide a roadmap for topics the series will cover.

If you are interested in being considered as an author in this first volume, all you need to do is let me know you are interested and submit a brief article (up to 5 pages) about your first day(s) on the job as a college administrator, staff member or faculty. You may also want to consider writing one of the booklets on an area in which you are particularly accomplished or have some special hints, tips, or tricks of the trade that would make a difference for others.

In addition to the booklets, each topic will have accompanying webinar and an online forum for frank and honest discussion of the issues we all face. A wiki will provide in depth explanations, vital information, case studies, experiences, solutions and an implementation guide to ensure a thorough understanding and easy implementation of successful strategies in each topic area.

We hope you can see the possibilities of this project and that you will add your expertise to The Administrator’s Bookshelf. Please feel very free to invite colleagues to write as well. This is a co-operative venture for us all after all. (Authors will be compensated for their work in future volumes. Contact us for details.)

Neal Raisman

Marylin Newell

The Administrator’s Bookshelf

www.adminbookshelf.com

info@adminbookshelf.com