Merry Christmas

All of the the News and Media team would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Beth, Linda and Helen take time out of a hectic Christmas Eve in the Grange for a pic featuring our Derek Acorah adorned Christmas tree. 

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The student experience

I’ve been working for the News and Media department here one day a week for six weeks now so we thought it was about time, just before Christmas, to have a think about how its been going. As a PR student at Leeds Met, I started this year (final year, where’s that’s gone?!) needing to find a placement and some work experience. Over the past two years I’ve managed to get a couple of bits of work experience but these have both been agency based, so I fancied a bit of a change and wanted to look more in-house. The university seemed a logical option, seeing as I’m here anyway, and have the added bonus of being able to walk in from home.

Although only one day a week, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to my teeth into a couple of little projects and lend a hand where possible. Working on the magazine has been good fun and is definitely something that I’d like to continue with in the future. I managed to make a few (small) contributions to the magazine and was even given the opportunity to attend the CIPR awards in November supporting the team in their nomination for Best Magazine. Unfortunately we didn’t win but award evenings are always fun, especially when free food is thrown into the mix, so let’s hope we get that opportunity again.

Last week was the Winter Graduation and I was fortunate enough to be around while that was going on. This gave me a chance to see the goings on on a day like that, and hopefully, a taster of my own graduation this summer! It was great to help out and speak to a few graduates about their experiences at Leeds Met and what they plan for the future.

I’ve enjoyed working on a range of different topics in the short time I’ve been here and not being used as a tea boy (not actually drinking tea might be a contributing factor), and in comparison with other placements I’ve had I’ve got a few good pieces for my portfolio already. It’s certainly been a good way to spend my Fridays (although I’m a bit gutted to not be able to stay up and watch the Ashes on a Thursday night) and to get an idea to what goes on behind the scenes at the university.

I hope to continue into the New Year and get involved in some more projects in the future.

Andrew Carroll

BA (Hons) Public Relations

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Autumn colour

Enjoying the autumn colour on campus at the moment, here's a brief selection of what's about, Beech and Maple are pretty impressive. My advice is step away from the screen, wrap up warm and catch the display before it disappears.   

Linda G

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One day my 'prints' will come

Now I’m not one to moan…but…isn’t technology supposed to be getting better through the ages? Yet over the last few months our office has seen a huge turnover, for whatever reason, in printing machines!

Once upon a time (why it was only earlier this year) we had a speedy, high-quality, colour, laser printer which did us just fine; I mean yes it had its occasional technological tantrums, but it faired us well over the years and even survived the office move from the fifth floor of City Campus all the way up yonder Headingley Campus to our current location in the Grange. However, it took just one fateful day…and a suspect ‘water meets printer’ episode courtesy of Duncan Worth…to finish it off forever. We tried in vain to fix it, pressing all its buttons and even attempting the age-old trick of ‘turning it off and turning it on again’, but to no avail. Sadly we had to call it a day and waved goodbye to our beloved printer as it was wheeled away by members of the Computing Services team.

It wasn’t long before our colleagues from CS were back, only this time they came to deposit a gift – a replacement model to our former printer. It wasn’t quite the same, it didn’t look as advanced but in its favour it was a little less cumbersome. Of course, like many things, it didn’t work straight away; in fact it seemed to take weeks before it was ready to spawn our documents. In the meantime we were hooked up to another one of our ex-printers, situated in a neighbouring office and now belonging to our Corporate Projects team mates, which was great apart from when the team left for the day and locked their door (not to purposely halt our use of their machine I hasten to add).

Once our own new addition to the team was ready to roll we set our digits to Control>P and awaited with anticipation the results of our printed work. As the first sheet churned out there were gasps of horror as our once crisp and clean documents came out streaked with yellow ink. We hoped it might just be a teething problem and the streaks would eventually fade, but things went from bad to worse as the weeks went on and our words became almost illegible. Drastic action was needed and after numerous complaints from our leader Helen, the CS team returned with a third printer.

Once again there was a delay between sending to print and actually receiving the work at the other end…about three weeks on this occasion! By the time the printer was ready to install I had travelled over 2000 miles to my holiday in Egypt and back, so I hadn’t missed anything revolutionary print wise then!

I have now been back just over a week and in that short space of time have seen printer no.3 fail to install, install, fail to print, print perfectly, shred documents, Computing colleagues come and go and finally the installation of printer no.4! But despite a few minor install/print issues earlier today we are now once again up and running and able to publish many thanks to Spencer and co from Computing Services for their efforts and their saintly patience!

Beth Hallam, News & Media

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Autumn chill

Today the News and Media team are feeling the cold. As Cris nipped out for his lunchtime run in a bid to warm up, the rest of the team rummaged through the dressing up box and coat stand for a few extra layers to see us through chillsome times. Laura, visiting from Leeds Business School, was on hand to witness the sorry sight. 

Linda G

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Plane Crazy

As a stay-at-home dad on Fridays, I sometime struggle to find interesting and worthwhile things to do with my nineteen-month-old son. He's at that awkward age where he has started walking and (almost) talking, but also still needs two naps a day and is prone to needing his nappy changing at inopportune moments.

One of his current obsessions (like most small boys of his age) is mechanical things such as diggers, cranes and lorries. We were driving through Yeadon a few weeks ago, when I wondered whether he would be interested in watching the planes taking off and landing at Leeds Bradford Airport. At the very least, the noise of jets passing overhead would keep him occupied for a while.

After a quick search on the internet, using the power of the iPhone, it became clear that there is a one major spot where people in Leeds with a lot of time on their hands go to watch planes. I headed for the cheerfully-named Cemetery Road in Yeadon, where a layby overlooking the runway offers great views of passing air traffic.



Strictly speaking, no-one is supposed to park there, because it's double yellow lines. As a fellow plane-spotter sagely observed to me, if a traffic warden wandered up there, they'd have a field day. But it seems to be pretty well-established as a local tourist attraction, complete with an attendant ice-cream van. It's a pity people don't look after it a bit better though - the ground is littered with broken glass and litter, and people clamber over the cemetery wall to get a better view of the jets passing overhead. It must be a bit galling if you've driven over to put flowers on your grandmother's grave, to then have to weave your way past plane-spotters eating Soleros and playing loud trance from their Honda Civics.

There is also a hard-core of plane-spotters who clearly spend a lot of time hanging around this spot armed with enormous telephoto lenses and and ham radio equipment. They spend a lot of time in their cars, fiddling with antennae and listening to Leeds Bradford air-traffic control. They also serve as a useful early-warning system for when a plane is about to take off or land, because they get excited and twitchy, dashing out of their cars and scanning the sky with binoculars.

Now, call me a nerd, but watching a 40-ton jet flying over your head at a few hundred feet is undeniably quite exciting. Landings are quite a surreal experience in this particular spot, because the plane's engines are running at lower power, therefore its approach is quite silent. It arrives out of nowhere, and suddenly the sky is filled with a huge aircraft, seemingly headed straight for you. It's a heady experience.

Takeoffs, when the wind is in the right direction, are equally exciting. Depending on which way the windsock is blowing, the planes taxi very close to the waiting spectators, before gunning their engines to full power. At that close range, you can really feel the force of jets, like standing next to the bass speakers at a concert. It seems at the moment inconceivable that the huge plane in front you will actually be able to leave the ground. Then the roar deepens, and slowly, the plane begins to rumble down the runway, gathering speed until it leaves the ground.

I'm not a fan of flying in planes - given the choice, I'd much rather stand on the ground watching them. Hanging around with my Max Power and CB Radio chums gave me a fresh perspective on this phobia. I think flying in planes is actually too exciting to be an entirely comfortable experience. It actually doesn't feel right that people are sat reading Heat magazine while thousands of pounds of thrust are preparing to blast you three miles high into the stratosphere.

I wouldn't go as far as Will Self, who suggested that the inflight movie plays the 'Beyond The Infinite' sequence from 2001 as you take off, but I think a bit of razzmatazz definitely wouldn't go amiss. Just so long as I didn't have to sit next to a fellow plane-spotter throughout the entire flight.

CN
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Nature ramblings

Our relocation to Headingley Campus last December presented the opportunity to enjoy a daily walk to work from Kirkstall through a variety of green spaces and up through Beckett Park to the Grange. Walking the same route everyday makes you much more aware of the effects of seasonal change.

Despite the wintry weather that greeted our move, Beth and I wasted little time in making the most of our new location and donned our wellies for our nature walks through the adjacent woodland.

It's satisfying how quickly you become accustomed to the sights and sounds and during our first nature walk a familiar tapping in the treetops was deftly located and identified as a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Result! They’re regularly seen in this part of the woodland but a sighting never fails to raise the spirits. 

Winter saw the landscape transformed with snow and ice. The beech saplings retained their paper thin autumn leaves throughout, and provided a picturesque backdrop for the feathered residents of the wood. 

With the coming of Spring, my favourite sights included the emerging downy Beech leaves and flowers, also the Willow catkins in the hedgerows near Headingley train station and in the gardens of South Lodge that attract bees and butterflies, the early springtime pollinators.

Spring gradually transforms the stark landscape of Queens Wood, with its bare branches and dead brambles into a world of verdant foliage.  Patches of native bluebells temporarily carpet the ground. 

Summer saw the butterflies arrive in force, Speckled Woods in the dappled clearings, whilst Meadow Browns, Peacocks, Ringlets, and Commas preferred areas such as the tall grassy patches to the right of the Grange which are specifically left uncut by the Estates Team to provide habitats for wildlife.

Towards the end of August, the combination of sun and rain brought out an abundance of weird and wonderful fungi on Beckett Park grassland and underneath the Beech canopies.

The marquee is currently being constructed on the Acre and later this week we welcome our new and returning students. This will be our first autumn at Headingley Campus, despite the prospect of having to dig out a fleece and gloves to wear on my daily walk, I’m looking forward to seeing the campus and surroundings take on an autumnal hue and to the forthcoming events associated with this particular season.  

Find out more about the Grounds & Woodland Management at our university, and includes details of the Biodiversity Action Plan 2006 - 2016.  The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a great source of information about places and activities in the region. 

Bye for now

Linda

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Flying high

One of the more bizarre moments in my Leeds Met career was at Graduation one year when Paul Brow had offered to take some aerial video footage of the festivities at Headingley Campus. After a few phone calls Paul was up in the air hovering above filming from his helicopter. Sir Ian Botham was receiving an honorary degree at the time and had attracted a lot of media attention and the helicopter was drowning out the interviews taking place. To cut a long story short after a lot of running around I managed to get a message through to Paul via the airfield he operates from and the helicopter finally buzzed off.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago when I was looking for people to feature in the staff magazine and I knew Paul was involved in filming from the air for a whole raft of television programmes including various news programmes, The Lakes and The Politics Show. It’s these kinds of stories behind our staff that make the making, and hopefully the reading of the magazine so interesting.

After the magazine was sent to print almost out of the blue Paul got back in touch with the offer to experience his obsession first hand with a short flight above Leeds. To be fair the thought of getting into a helicopter initially filled me with trepidation, I’ve not got the best head for heights but Paul assured me that while he also hates being at the top of ladders or on the edge of a cliff, flying is different.

So it was I found myself in a field in what seemed like the middle of nowhere with a shiny blue helicopter awaiting my arrival. Also there was one of Paul’s colleagues Alex, who was fulfilling his girlfriend’s dream of a helicopter ride. After a brief introduction to the machine and the requisite safety checks we were ready for the off. As the helicopter blades were thudding overhead and we started to tilt forward to take off I realised there was very little to hold on to and having been given the front seat I was almost completely surrounded by windows with no distraction from the ground below. I had a silent talk to myself to be brave and braced myself. 

Once we were up in the air, the ride became a lot smoother, the weather conditions were perfect with very little cloud and soon we were high in the sky. All my previous fears slipped away as I became mesmerised by the goings on below, crossing the A1 and heading towards Leeds. The view was amazing, I’ve always thought of Leeds as being very hilly but the ground looked relatively flat with the city almost encased in a bowl. For the next 30 minutes or so we took a tour, seeking clearance with Leeds Bradford Airport to fly over Headingley Carnegie Stadium where a cricket match was in full flow across to Headingley Campus where a wedding party was gathered on the Acre taking photos. It was weird also seeing my own house, which I had left full of nerves just a short hour or two earlier, from the air.

There were many familiar and not so familiar landmarks to see from a new perspective and but the highlight for me was the sensation of being in the opening credits of Emmerdale as we approached and flew over the soap’s village stage set in the grounds of Harewood House. As we headed back to base it was time for Paul to have some fun with us doing some sharp turns and manoeuvres bringing on the first hint of any kind of air sickness and making the disappointment that it was all over a little less disappointing.

I absolutely loved my time in the sky and know I was grinning like an idiot from the moment we took off until late into the day. Thanks Paul for the amazing experience – I think you may have another convert on your hands.

For anyone interested in their own helicopter experience flight then please contact Paul for more information.

Joyce


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Carrie on Researching!

Realising that I’m now the only person in the team not to have written a blog entry yet, my colleague Mark asked me yesterday if I’d like to write something about what I’ve been up to lately.  I felt a bit daunted by the idea and had thought about it a number of times and then chickened out and got on with something else.  Today I decided I should go for it and let everyone know about the ongoing feature I have been working on for the staff magazine, LS126. 

It is called ‘Carrie on researching’ (I did chuckle to myself for probably an embarrassing amount of time after coming up with this so it had to stay!) and involves me meeting up with Leeds Met researchers all over the university to chat with them about what it is they do.  I’ve met up with 7 people so far and every time I’ve got back to the office with a big grin on my face, really excited about the amazing work people are doing and just loving how many completely different things are going on in the place where I work.  This is really important to me in a job and I am quite spoilt working for a university where I can be surprised almost every day.

Well, that could be a completely different story but what I want to write about is the amazing people I’ve met so far through ‘Carrie on researching.’  For the edition that has just been printed, I met up with Alan Edmondson in the Microbiology Group and Colin Pattinson from the new Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology.  Alan was so full of enthusiasm as he talked and he agreed to do an experiment for us to test 2 different types of mop used at Leeds Met to see which allowed the most amount of bacteria to grow on it after it had been used and cleaned.  The results were amazing! (You’ll have to have a look in the magazine to see for yourself – I know, that’s a bit naughty but it’ll be online by the time this goes up.)  After meeting with Alan I felt really excited about science, which actually happens to me quite a lot really. I always have a tiny regret at abandoning sciences after GCSE in favour of a perhaps unnecessary 3 language A Level choice.  Later I met up with Colin and was really surprised to find out how much work he and his team are doing to trial and test potentially massive energy-saving IT systems in this university that we may end up being able to use ourselves in the future, saving us money and doing a lot for the environment.

I’ve already met up with the researchers for the next edition but I will keep that secret for now.  I will just say that they are completely different subjects again, one closer to my own heart (literature) and one that absolutely amazed me and had to be explained to me quite a few times for my head to take in what it was hearing!

That’s all really… I’ve written more than 500 words which may explain to Mark why I felt reluctant to start writing a blog entry as I’m not one for being able to just write 200 words!

TTFN!

Carrie


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Inside the Carnegie Pavilion

If you’re driving through Headingley, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to drive past the new Carnegie Pavilion without noticing it. Standing proud above a sea of red-brick Victorian terraces, it’s about as bold an architectural statement as you’ll find in Leeds.


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Chuckle Visionaries

Well as it’s been a wee while since any of us News & Media types penned our thoughts in the blog, I thought it was high time that one of us got pen to paper…ok fingers to keyboard in this instance…and let our adoring public once again in on our world, and what better time than pre Leeds Met Intramural Rounders tournament…

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Coo-ee!

Well what a rollercoaster of emotions it’s been in the News & Media hub over the last couple of weeks. I can safely say there’s never a dull moment in the office here in The Grange.

Excitement has been building for the lads playing in this weekend’s Carnegie Challenge Cup third round battle against Batley Bulldogs and I personally can’t wait to get on the sidelines to offer my support – cue taunts of ‘get yer hair cut’ and ‘all we want is a decent referee’!

One of my days last week went from the sublime to the ridiculous – I accompanied a colleague to interview the Melbourne Storm players who were training on campus, ahead of their victory over Leeds Rhinos in the Gillette World Cub Challenge (sniff sniff and sad face), and boy was that a treat! I got to share a room with a number of what I can only politely describe as being rather dishy, fit, Australian men; it certainly made my day when one of the players decided to get changed in front of my very innocent eyes!

From the morning delights to a somewhat different, but nonetheless enjoyable, afternoon. I headed down to Civic Quarter (or should that be City Campus?) to do some research into my next feature…on…ahem…self defence. Without going in to too much detail and spoiling my next rambling, the session was fab, fun, if somewhat tiring, but ended in a way that I wasn’t quite expecting; we were asked to put together a sequence of some of the moves that we had learnt over the two hour period, one of which included ‘poking the eyes’ of your attacker…and for this we naturally used a half-cut orange to demonstrate what poking your assailant in the eyes might actually feel like! Well at least I can say, despite all the blood, sweat and tears of the session, I came away smelling sweetly!

But where there have been some great highs there have also been lows. The mood in the office took a rather sombre turn when feathers were spotted between The Grange and Cavendish and sightings of our beloved visiting pet pigeon Palaquin became no more. News on the grapevine is that whilst holidaying with his wife in Rome, Mark Dorey may have been solely responsible for the alleged death of our feathered friend. We think that Palaquin may have become so distressed by the absence of our chief fancier in the field, that he may have suffered some kind of pigeon breakdown and ceased to be. However, these are merely unconfirmed reports with no solid evidence to back them up and there is still hope for the life of our pet.

As we expected Mark has been distraught by this possible news since his return: Composing himself he said: “I think Palaquin may have faked his own death in order to take a break of his own.” But whether he is keeping the faith or just in denial it’s hard to tell at this early stage.

Mark caught up with News & Media colleagues Linda Gilhespy and myself during an impromptu visit to Carnegie Sports reception to hear our thoughts on the matter...


05/03/2010 Search for Palaquin goes on

There are mixed views in the office as to whether Palaquin will return to our ledges, but my own view is that much like Arnie in the Terminator, he WILL be back, bigger, stronger, badder and better than ever!

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Kung hei fat choi!

Nei hou from Hong Kong,

Well one graduation down and one to go!
I'm here with colleagues from across the university to organise and run our graduation ceremonies here in Hong Kong which are taking place through our partnership with the VTC in the city.
Dave, Dom and Mick from the Awards and Exams team, Netti from Innovation North, Richard from Business & Law and Bobby from our event partner Logistik are like my new family - there's nothing like being taken our of your usual surroundings to help you bond with people.

I normally get excited at our UK graduations, and it really serves as a good reminder why we're all here, but in Hong Kong although we are running the event in the same way, it is so different. Students bring flowers with them, teddies, and even want to have their photos taken with us  (although Richard has been the most popular so far!!!) which is kind of strange but brilliant at the same time. Chinese New Year has also been celebrated this week, so it has been an extra special celebration.

This experience has been (and still is!!) fantastic and besides being able to explore a new city, fabulous food and culture, I have a newfound appreciation and understanding of just what goes into running our graduation ceremonies. Although our team are always involved in Graduations every year, our role is quite specific in terms of looking after PR including website and photography, but this time around I have been an usher and have the extremely important job of directing the students down to the stage at the correct time! It sounds easy but really, when you speak a different language and even gestures can be easily misunderstood, it's not as straightforward as it sounds! Luckily last night's first ceremony went well, and hopefully tonights will too.

Today was fabulous - we had a free morning and after breakfast Dave and I headed up to the Peak - the highest point on Hong Kong island, on an old tram which almost felt like it was ascending vertically!!! The views were fantastic though, it was definitely worth it.

Tomorrow is our last day in Hong Kong and we'll fly home tomorrow night, arriving back at Manchester early Monday morning. Most of us have been living on 5 hours sleep a night if that, which isn't down to what you think - anyone who has ever had jetlag will know exactly what I mean! It's a strange feeling knowing that it is hours past your bedtime, you are geting up in 4 hours, yet you aren't tired. I'm sure my body clock will begin to adjust just as we're ready to leave!!

As well as getting to know colleagues from various departments across the university, some of whom I'd never even met before, it's also been nice to talk to academics out of their usual settings and have somewhat less formal conversations with them. It really feels like were one big team.

Anyway, it is 4.15pm now and we need to get suited and booted ready for the ceremony starting at 7 - we're packing down tonight so it might be another late night...

Helen
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Sheepskin coats

My role here at Leeds Met means I'm tasked with raising the profile of sport at the University and I'm proud of some of the advances we have made in recent months.

Our Twitter updates keep a growing number of sports fans up to date with the latest scores and goings on within University Sport and links into our well-established Facebook page. We've continued to develop our audio offerings on our Soundcloud page, interviewing players and coaches to highlight their successes.



One of the projects that I've been most excited about this year has been the redevelopment of the University Sport website. With Leeds Met finishing third in the BUCS overall tables for the 2008/9 season, it was clear that the website was in need of a redesign in order to showcase our successes and better represent our stature at the pinnacle of British university sporting achievements.

The new site www.leedsmet.ac.uk/sport has been launched this week and I'm really pleased with the look and feel of the new design. Thanks and doffing of hats must go to, Andrew Ramsden, Duncan Worth, Glenn Herbert and Pete Butler who have done a sterling job in designing and putting it together and putting up with my constant prodding, questioning and hassling for the last six months! The new navigation means that (hopefully) you'll be able to visit each sports club's information with ease, using the fancy icon scroller Pete & Andrew designed. The images that Vicky from Icon took for the site headers are awesome as well and add a real wow factor to the user experience.

Since September 2009 I've been working with the University's excellent video production team to produce a weekly sports video. In the seven episodes since its inception, Carnegie Sports Weekly has registered over 11,000 hits on Leeds Met's Youtube channel which I'm absolutely chuffed with. We've covered a variety of sports from hockey to volleyball, football and boxing and I've relished the opportunity to get in front of camera and make a fool out of myself! It's only when you work with a camera pointing in your face and a script that you can't remember, that you realise the skill and talent that a TV presenter must possess. Without this natural talent, I've had to make use of the camera technicians' patience and quite a few takes to get it right (well over 20 is the norm!)

Last week though, my best John Motson commentary skills were put to the test as we trialled a new project and a first for University sporting action...a live broadcast!

Following the success of our students' involvement with the Northern Ballet Theatre's production of Peter Pan before Christmas, we decided to let them loose on our sports teams. Netball provided an ideal platform to trial this new coverage and a crunch match against arch rivals Loughborough to see who finished at the top of the league was too good an opportunity to miss.

We duly managed to rope in a number of students to film, direct and produce the footage and ex-England international Tracey Neville kindly agreed to commentate on the game. I was expecting to front the coverage as usual, but in the end managed to get promoted to the dubious privilege of being the second commentator for the game!

Despite a real lack of technical knowledge of the game, (despite a few sneaky games a lifetime ago at school) Tracey put me at ease and we had an absolute ball in the end. I soon got used to the swing of the match and for the first time was able to appreciate the various nuances of netball and the skill and speed at which the elite game is played.

The four 15 minute quarters flew by and the game had a dramatic climax as Leeds Met were able to hold off a Loughborough comeback and win the game by a point! I was really proud of everyone who was involved in the project and the students did a fantastic job aided by our incredibly capable in-house video production team. I'm really looking forward to continuing our live coverage and have definitely got the bug, so Motson you better watch out!

Well I'll finish my ramblings and leave you in peace, but on a final note there are two issues dominating office politics at present. One is the new office pet, Palaquin who has received a mixed reaction from colleagues and the other is the seeming obsession with the American television series Glee which also has completely divided opinion. Spare a thought for us as we grapple with these two heavyweight issues...

Mark


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I can’t believe we’re in the last week of January, which means I only have two weeks left in my placement with the news and media team. Since I started in the team five months ago I have been exposed to the world of communications and learnt so much. From the smallest tricks in copy writing, writing lengthy features on volunteering and wellbeing to becoming a daily tweeter. (I now follow over 100 tweeters, mainly universities, the voluntary sector and social media bloggers.)

I now understand what it is like to work in the hub of our University. Our phones tend to be always ringing, whether it be with media requests, staff from our faculties asking for their news story to make the top banner, or photography requests. I have always enjoyed the phone conversations, trying to help people out and offer advice. Dealing with the media requests adds another dimension to your day. I’ve been able to find out about the vast range of academics we have at our University and some are extremely popular in the media world.

Engaging with more students and staff through social media and how we are moving forward has been a topic of discussion throughout my placement, especially since I got the twitter bug. Leeds Met hosts its own twitter page with a feed of our latest news and most of our faculties, library and Carnegie sport have entered the world of social media too. It’s been great to see this week we have broken the 1,000 fan members on Facebook with the Leeds Met fan page and we have more students and staff interacting with it, such as posting snowy photos of Headingley Campus and asking what it’s like to study here.

I have spent time learning to record, edit and interview for podcasts to support the web stories. My latest podcast was from the Leeds Year of the Volunteer Launch, where I found out how students and staff can get involved in volunteering and become part of the campaign.

Staff volunteering at Leeds Met - find out how you can get involved. by leedsmet

As I begin to look forward and prepare for my new placement with the people development team in corporate HR, I can take forward everything I have learnt and integrate it into my new placement. I will certainly miss a few things from the team - the milk saga every morning, cake mountain (which hasn’t been well stocked recently), lavender fairy wishes to give our washing up a sparkle, the wellie wearing weather, Betty our office goat - and that for the last few Tuesdays I have bounded into the office singing songs from Glee. Although everyone pretends they have no idea what I’m talking about, I know they are secretly watching it.

They’ve been a great team to work with and I know I’ll always be singing their praises.

Ash

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I'm not a great fan of New Year. Take New Year's Eve celebrations for a start. Rather than partying the night away in some crowded nightspot, waiting for hours to get a taxi, and being wholeheartedly overcharged in the process, I'd much rather stay in with good company and fantastically calorific food, washed down with a bottle of champagne. And then comes New Year's Day and our obsession with New Year resolutions. And so I become frustrated as every year, people scrabble around to find new ambitions or 'resolutions' ie the things they wanted to get round to last year but never did.

Ok, so I might sound totally miserable now, but I like to think I'm the kind of person who doesn't need to wait for one day out of a possible 365 to set myself new goals and objectives, and re-examine my expectations.
However it cannot be escaped that a new year brings new challenges and opportunities and, undoubtedly, reflection on the previous year which has gone. The past year at Leeds Met has certainly been one to remember, and one that has kept the press office busy. The unprecedented media coverage has warranted constant objective setting, re-evaluation, and reflection and has certainly been a challenge for the New & Media team - one which the team has coped with impeccably. We have seen one Vice-Chancellor go, a Chief Executive come in, a new Vice-Chancellor appointed, the business school move in to the Rose Bowl, the Faculty of Arts & Society move into Broadcasting Place, two new Deans, a royal visit, unprescedented success at student sport, new student accommodation launched, and much more (all of which is reported daily on our news site).

The New Year at Leeds Met brings much more to look forward to. Our new Vice-Chancellor started this week, which is the beginning of a new era for our university. Professor Price has already said that the priority will be to develop a new strategic plan, which I know will be the subject of much interest. It will then be down to teams like ours and our colleagues across the rest of the university (we have 3000 staff!) to put the plan into action. We'll be working with the new Vice-Chancellor on a monthly e-newsletter, launching blogging at the university, the new university sport website will go live, and we will be launching our eagerly awaited staff magazine. We're also keen to develop a social media strategy to ensure we are engaging with our key stakeholders in the most appropriate ways, so whether you log on to facebook, twitter or you tube, we will be there!

All in all, lots to look forward to and even more to do. A busy year ahead. Happy New Year!

HG

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