L'Orologio Logistics

If you are here for more than 1 month, ask for the same price for 1 month of internet connectivity for your whole stay or it will be 8 euros/day after the month.

Get a monthly bus pass. It is for the calendar month, so time it appropriately. Get it at Porto Nuova near the Center.

Ask for a) a kitchen towel and b) a rack for drying your clothes (if you don't plan to use the very epensive service at 8 euros/blouse and much more for other items.

Ask Maurizia Gibbone at the Center to arrange transportation if you are flying in-out of Malpensa. It is far cheaper than a cab or the car service the Town House Hotel uses.

Try to stick to bus #12 at the stop at Vespucci. It runs frequently in the mornings. The evenings are more tricky. The 58 and 58b come to our stop, but not consistently and I haven't figured it out yet.

Share a cab with Carmela and Artur on late event nights. They are on your way home. Carmela will reimburse you for the fares and then she will be reimbursed by UNM.

If our contract is back on for sure when I leave in Feb., I will leave some things for you: decent knife, cutting board, tongs, veggie pealer. I'll leave them at the Center and let you know where to find them.

Work with Paola Sera at the Center. She is an angel and you will love her instantly. They don't speak much English here at L'Orologio so she can help you work through any interesting situations like a lack of hot water or lots of water leaking from underneath your tub. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice place. But, like most multi-tennant buildings, it has its challenges.

Ok, brain drain just set in...

Team Dynamics

Call me at home at 407.240.7414 when I get back (10/26).

Typical work tasks

In the last 5 weeks I have been asked to:

Document
Review others' documentation
Provide coaching on others' documentation
Write/review assignments
Design
Review all kinds of stuff for English: brochures, UNM's new web site
Share thoughts on how UNM can improve efficiencies
Share thoughts on how UNM can rise to the next level
Explain the philosophies behind certain of our methodologies
Recommend music for play lists for events
Brainstorm themes for events
Run production
Process facilitate
Create training materials (for event roles like "development advisor"
Create and maintain the straw dog (using UNM's template)
Help create reports (select pix, clean pix)
Review reports for creativity and English
Find articles and/or studies for pre-read and assignments
Help clean up the production area after events
Find quotes
... I'll let you know if I remember more.

Learn the Language...

... or at least try....

Everyone here really appreciates it if we attempt to learn Italian. I have a monster dictionary and a decent CD set that wasn't very expensive. It has helped tremendously with not only my survival, but also with bonding with our colleagues.

Final Report Sample

GAM%20Report%20V01.pdf

Documentation

Here are some tips for documentation and a sample.

(These are in addition to the notes I added previously.)

Note the day, module, title and speaker at the beginning of each new section. Sometimes they want the sections in separate files. You'll have to figure it out event-by-event.

They do 1 space after a period, but I'm old fashioned and still do 2. Only Oli notices so now I do it just to bug him.

Of course you need to step up for other roles as needed, but everyone understands if you prefer to review your documentation after each round while your memory is fresh. They love having it immediately following an event so they can do their reports.

If there are other documentors who are not native English speakers, you are invited and expected to correct their work (efficiency) as the native speaker and then give them feedback (effectivness). Wait for the invitation to give feedback. Some welcome it more than others.

You will be asked to review every assignment to make sure the English is correct. This gives you a great entree to join the design process if you don't have one already. Michael, based on what we have told them about you, they expect you to give input on design. They didn't expect me to design when I first came here, but assignments gave me an opportunity to open my big fat mouth and, of course, I did.

Fix the English. As non-native English speakers, it takes some many, many, many words to make a point. Just get the point. They appreciate it. I try to leave in a bit of the speaker's personality...

The well just went dry, I'll upload the final report that the sample (attached) documentation was used in so you can see it.

GAM%20Documentation%20Final.doc

Coffee & Meal Ettiquette at UNM

Ciao amici! Here are a few tips about coffee and lunch breaks with our friends at UNM.

First, just do it. Coffee and other meals are very social rituals. It doesn't matter if we will work until 2:00 am, we will stop and have dinner together. Go out with everyone for coffee and lunch as it is great bonding time and it will be perceived as an odd act not to do so.

For morning coffee, wait until everyone has arrived, then go together. (There is an upstairs "everyone" and a "downstairs" everyone, so go with whichever floor you are calling home for the day. When logistics work out right, both floors go together. I bounce around depending on which tools, colleagues or environment I need for my work on that day or at that hour.

One person pays for all the coffees. They are really cheap, so don't sweat it. Plus, the UNM gang will do everything possible to try keep me from paying so I have to rush the counter now and again...

Cappuccino is only for mornings. If you want milk in your coffee later in the day, order a machiatto. Or, be crazy like me and order cappuccino just to embarrass your colleagues (they love it) and see how the server reacts. Today my server belly laughed and offered me chocolate with my lunch time cappuccino as compensation for all the hell the gang was giving me. It was delicious!

When there is catering for events, you still ask everyone in sight if they want to go for coffee, but it's less of an "event" since you're not going out. The caterers know I like cappuccino and delight in serving it to me any time of day so now we're all acting like mad people together. It's a fun game we play.

Lunch during events can be in pairs, threes or solo because we're all rushing around like crazy. But, dinner is still a group ritual.

When there is catering for learning labs and events other than ours, we rush the buffet after the "clients" have finished. Get there before it all runs out! On some days we need fresh air so we skip the free lunch. Go with whichever floor crowd you're hangin' with that day.

Lunch out of the office is always a nice break. The Italians mostly eat veggies and/or pasta with very simple and light sauces at lunch. There is no shortage of fennel, eggplant, carrot and zucchini here. It isn't unusual for us to have whole plates of only veggies. For the flat, try to get to the mercato on the street during the week (nearly impossible) or on Saturday as the produce at the Standa Supermarket leaves plenty to be desired. The caterers also have lots of cooked and raw veggies.

At lunch we almost always get 1-2 large bottles of water to share. One person picks up one or both bottles. Again, cheap and they don't like for me to pay for it. So, beat them to the counter a time or two so you can cover your share.

If you go for ice cream, again only one person pays for all. Again, it's cheap.

Our colleagues here are very sweet and will help you translate the menus. So, you won't starve. If you express a desire to learn about the culture, they will teach you all these and other protocol secrets.

Enjoy your stay. It's hard not to.