Positive Energy Flows in New Directions

By Chris Malins

After a one year hiatus, Directions is back! The last issue of Financial Management’s quality-focused quarterly was published in the Summer of 2001. Since that time, there has been much discussion about the future of this publication and the best way to communicate the Quality achievements and vision of FM to the division, the University, and the broader community. This “new look” Directions is the happy result of those discussions.

Since Financial Management publishes Directions as a "Quality Chronicle", the focus of the articles will be on divisional and departmental quality efforts, i.e. the Dashboard, the Diversity Teams, recognition, and process improvements. The Quality Chronicle concept helped to determine the various sections that will comprise the new Directions.

The regular sections in Directions are as follows:

Headlines -The feature stories of each issue
Innovations - A new section that will attempt to capture the early excitement and energy that staff and leaders pour into improving processes before the improvement is recognized formally.
Kudos - A look at the many thank yous and appreciations that are bestowed upon financial management staff by process partners and customers
Search - Search the issue for keywords or names
RQT/Awards - Articles on recognition awards, new RQT initiatives, or changes in RQT membership
Calendar - Only available on the web version, a forward calendar that tells of future trainings and events
Archive - Read past issues (Directions has been published since 1990)

Like any high quality periodical, Directions is organized with an Editor in Chief (in this case there are two) and a small group of highly capable editors, each responsible for a specific department or departments. Each editors job is to "shake the bushes" to uncover quality efforts in each office, from TOPS awards to the very earliest rumblings of quality. These editors will either write articles or recruit others to write them.

Kate Riley and Chris Malins will share the role of Editor in Chief and are responsible for the overall content of Directions. Kate will focus on the quality orientation of articles and Chris will provide general editorial functions.

The new editors with departmental responsibilities are:

Randi Adair - Equipment Inventory and Travel
Diane Cooley - Student Fiscal Services
Kristi Dunne - Financial Accounting, Payables Admin, Tax Office
Sharon Langlois - Payroll
Chris Malins - Treasury
Cecilia Pittman - Grant and Contract Accounting and Management Accounting and Analysis
Kate Riley - Quality Improvement Program

Beginning this issue, Directions will be available in two formats and both are available through the Financial Management Quality Program website. The first format is the regular printable format that will be familiar to those who have read Directions before. The second version is web-based and has Hypertext links to each article in the issue.

Finally, the overall look and layout of a successful publication is the key to its success. Michael Fero, FM's resident graphics guru, will act as design consultant for the new Directions. Michael has been involved with Directions since the beginning and has generously offered to devote his time to making this new effort as visually stunning as previous offerings.

We hope that you enjoy this first issue in the new era of Directions in Financial Management.