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Why You Really Need This Paper

Welcome to Working@Duke - your source for useful news, features and information about working at Duke.

You might be thinking, "Why is Duke sending me more paper about stuff that does not affect me and I do not have time to read." The truth is that we're actually sending you less paper with more concise and better information. Let me explain.

This new publication evolved out of work by a Duke-wide committee that spent more than a year assessing internal communications across the university. In its 2004 report, the committee wrote that "many members of the Duke community now feel overloaded with e-mail messages, newsletters, and other information while, at the same time, feeling uninformed about developments that affect their lives."

The conclusions led the committee to a self-evident truth - communication is more than a process of distribution. And it shouldn't be a scavenger hunt, either. The burden so far has been too much on you to find information and connect the various dots to see the bigger picture of Duke and to make sense of it. Since the committee's study, much work has gone into improving the flow of information and rethinking how best to connect people with the information they need and want from across Duke.

As a result, several initiatives are under way. They include the new online newspaper, Duke Today; a publication called This Month at Duke that features events and Duke's community outreach efforts; and this new publication. Working@Duke will consolidate information currently included in several department publications, including Benefits Advantage. Working@Duke also replaces Dialogue as the primary internal publication on campus. Thus, less paper.

David Jarmul, who chaired the internal communications committee and is associate vice president of news and communications, believes that all members of the Duke community will benefit from these changes. "This new package of printed and online materials reflects what our committee heard from faculty, staff, students and others across the Duke community," he said. "We've taken a hard look at what we've been doing and made significant changes to help people get the information they need."

We hope Working@Duke provides you with a better way to find out what's going on at Duke and gain a better understanding of issues that affect your daily work and the resources available to support you. For instance, in this first issue, you will learn about tax assistance the Duke School of Law provides at no charge to many of our staff. You will also read about an innovative health program that may help do something few, if any, employers have done in recent memory - lower the cost of health insurance for their employees.

In Working@Duke, we also plan to share stories about the work of you and your colleagues, stories that highlight the many ways in which you contribute to the education, research, and health care missions of Duke.

We know your time is valuable, so we designed Working@Duke to help you quickly find and make sense of information. We also will point out where to seek more information if you need it. In each issue, we will dedicate space to answer one of your questions - a question that perhaps may be on the minds of others, too. While names and contact information of those who helped create this newsletter are listed here, we do not consider this "our" publication. Rather, it is yours, and we invite you to contribute to its success. We welcome your feedback, your questions and your insights. Effective communication is a two-way street, as they say, and you have the right-of-way.

- By Paul Grantham
Director, Office of Communication Services