ABA NEWS

Reprographics Teams Up with Roberts Family Development Center

Earlier this year, Reprographics Services partnered with the Roberts Family Development Center (RFDC) on a project that touched the lives of over 600 students. The project: a collaborative scholar works booklet, containing information about the RFDC’s Freedom Summer program, as well as dozens of pieces of literature and art produced by students.

As their mission statement states: “The Roberts Family Development Center provides services with a holistic approach focusing on early childhood and parent education, economic empowerment, and technology literacy.” To help deliver on these promises, Daryl Roberts, Co-Founder of the RFDC, reached out to Sacramento State early on. Mr. Roberts contacted President Nelsen because many of the employees and volunteers of the RFDC are students and alumni of Sacramento State. Their goal was to produce something tangible for the students of their summer program to share with their friends and family.

That goal lead to the involvement of Reprographics Services. Laura Locket, director of Reprographics and Mail Services, took on the project after seeing that the RFDC "creates a nurturing environment.” To help with this project, Ms. Lockett tapped several former Sac State design students. She provided the RFDC portfolios from several students to choose a style that matched theirs; they found one in Dawn Palmer who designed the booklet.

The booklet created spans four different schools, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Technology Academy, Leataata Floyd Elementary, H. Allen Hight Elementary, and Bell Avenue Elementary. Each booklet contains a collection of works, with topics based on prompts and commentary from student leaders of the RFDC. In total, 850 booklets were created, one for each student, as well as additional copies for RFDC staff, and Reprographics Services.

Celebrating the RFDC Freedom Sumer 2017 program, the booklets meant a lot to students, staff and volunteers alike. “It was like a yearbook of their summer program,” said Ms. Lockett. This culminated in a recognition event held on October 28 of this year, which President Nelsen attended.  “The president is supportive of children understanding that with hard work anything is possible and to always chase your dreams,” concluded Ms. Lockett.

New Employee Onboarding Program

Some of you might be familiar with a new program SPQI has been working on all year. As of August, SPQI was able to launch a dynamic program for new, permanent staff members in ABA, called the ABA New Employee Onboarding Program.

Onboarding is really about the experience a new employee goes through in their first 12 months on the job. It is how their team welcomes them, how prepared the team is to train the new employee and how well the employee acculturates to the campus. Many will say that it takes at least a year for a new employee to feel “comfortable” in their new position.

What this program hopes to do is give the new employee more tools to be successful and hopefully make that transition to feeling “comfortable” easier and faster. Here are some interesting components of the program:

1. New employees will receive a welcome toolkit with a welcome card with a Sac State Swag Bag
2. New employees will be connected with a seasoned ABA employee, a sponsor, who will help guide them through the process of being in the ABA family
3. New employees will be offered resources like a monthly meet and greet with other new employees, as well as an opportunity to participate in a walking campus tour through the Welcome Center

If you are either a new employee who would like to connect or a seasoned employee who is interested in being a sponsor, please contact the SPQI Office at 8-7460 or come visit us at Sacramento Hall, 267.

ABA Frights in Halloween Contests

Ghouls and goblins could be spotted all around campus this past Halloween, and to celebrate the holiday known for tricks and treats, many in ABA participated in Halloween contests. Conducted by University Staff Assembly, the contest sought to award members with the best overall costume, as well as best small office decorations, large office decorations, and best office combined costume and decorations.

Congratulations to the winner of the best overall costume, awarded to ABA’s own Raymond Keck, from Facilities Management. His costume, depicting the 80s hit Ghostbusters, even included his car, fashioned with Ghostbusters-specific decorations. “I’ve had a Ghostbuster costume, which I made myself, for a few years but had never entered a contest with it, so thought ‘what the hell?’” said Mr. Keck. He explained how Halloween is a major event for his family: “I’m probably biased but Halloween has always been a favorite of mine. My family is ‘that house’ in our neighborhood of Davis, and we spend days decorating.” Runner up in the overall costume category also hailed from Facilities Management: Joey Martinez for his Sarah Huckabee-Sanders costume.

Many ABA employees participated this year, understanding the fun to be had. “Ours is a smaller office without direct student interaction.  Nevertheless, we still participate for the fun of it,” said Budget Analyst Norman Kwong. Some people think fun is restricted to hours after work, but life is too short for that.”

Mr. Kwong’s office, Budget Planning & Administration, also participated in the small office decorations contest. That award was given to Reprographics & Mail Services for their “Spider Invasion” theme.

Another office that participates every year is the Bursar’s Office. Either with themed costumes, office decorations, or both, the Bursar’s Office always goes all out. “It’s a tradition, said Associate Bursar, Nicole Rogers. “Our office has participated for as long as we can remember.” This year, they won best office costume with their “villains” theme.

Congrats to all of the participants this year! ABA nearly ran the table!

ABA Gives During Annual Charitable Campaign

Cheers to ABA for the generous response to the California State Employees Giving at Work “Our Promise” Charitable Campaign!  A call for donation was put out to ABA for “Stingers Up and Wallets Open” and the responses were great! Sacramento State was the highest giving campus in the CSU System in 2016 at $67 thousand  The second was San Diego State at $34 thousand in 2016. 

University Enterprises, Inc. was the campus division responsible for the organization of the 2017 Our Promise Campaign.  The Campaign ran from September 1 to September 30 on campus; and, statewide through October 31, 2017.  They are still pending the final data to see if the campus met President Nelsen’s desired campus goal of a 10% increase in donations in 2017.  

There are a multitude of organizations and agencies to donate to. ABA was awesome in supporting so many worthy non-profit organizations in and around our community and within the entire State of California. The photo below shows some of the selected agencies that we contributed our hard-earned dollars to help others and be part of a collective, giving campaign that is bigger than us!

MLK Statue

In October, Sacramento State hosted a 50th Anniversary event commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Sacramento State in 1967. President Nelsen led students, faculty, staff, as well as Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Sacramento City Councilman Eric Guerra in a Unity march that ended at a commemorative plaque and tree that had been installed by ABA’s Facilities Management.

The plaque near the tree reads: “…this tree symbolizes our institutional commitment to creating avenues of understanding, equity, and inclusion. With our diverse strengths as a University, we embrace the ideas of belonging and equality for all through acts of social justice and expressions of empathy.”

Zone Manager Kimberly Donaville-Davis provided insight on the undertaking of this commemorative project: “The installation of the memorial plaque by our Multicraft department took a bit of intricate planning and coordination on all our behalf. The plaque itself was procured by Student Affairs as a custom order and the arrival date cut extremely close to the celebration. We were able to compensate by being flexible and planning around its arrival for fabrication of the concrete monument and installation of the memorial at the Broad Fieldhouse.”

The tree near the plaque, a dogwood tree, was hand selected from a local nursery by Grounds Management, and is estimated to grow 20-30 feet tall.

Planning for this event, as well as the installation of the plaque and tree took committee planning. “I joined the MLK Celebration Planning Committee and attended weekly meetings to ease the process of coordinating facilities functions with the group,” said Ms. Donaville-Davis. “Most importantly, I worked closely within Facilities Management to summon the help of our Grounds, Multicraft, and Sign Shops, who in turn made everything facilities-related happen in a timely manner.”

A job well done by all in Facilities Management! The plaque, tree, and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit will live on for another 50 years!

Facilities Management Improves Athletic Facilities

In October, construction began on a new project to bring concessions and permanent bathroom facilities to the soccer and softball fields on campus. These new facilities will replace existing portable bathroom stalls as well as a secure storage space for the Sacramento State Softball team, including gear and concessions.

“Permanent restrooms provide a clean, secure facility with sinks and hand dryers,” said Administrative Analyst/Specialist, T.J. Moon from Facilities Management. “And the concession stand will have the capability of providing more choices for the patrons.”

While the project is slated to finish in February, depending on weather, it provides much needed facilities to the area. The new concession building will be multi-use as well. “The building will provide a central hub for telecom for the possibility to provide Wi-Fi in the future. Live game streaming will now be available,” added Mr. Moon .