Katy Dickinson

Mision Cristo Rey

At the end of 2007, I was touched and honored to be invited to the annual awards service for Mision Cristo Rey, a Spanish-speaking congregation in Watsonville, CA. Cristo Rey was one of the missions of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real with which I worked when I was Convener of the Department of Missions (2003-2007). It was a triumph when, through the efforts of a great many dedicated supporters, Cristo Rey was finally welcomed into union as a diocesan Mission at the October 2007 convention. The plaque is "For the great effort on helping us become a mission. Thank you - we will always remember your hard work!"

Rev. Mario Macias Hauttecoeur at Mision Cristo Rey

Rev. Mary Lou McKenney, Padre Mario, and me

Plaque from Mision Cristo Rey

Images Copyright 2007 by John Plocher and Katy Dickinson

Posted at 09:16PM Jan 23, 2008 by katysblog in Church  | 

Sun Heart Walk 2007 Awards

On 9 January 2008, the American Heart Association had a party for sponsors of its Silicon Valley Heart Walk 2007 event (which was held on 16 September 2007 at De Anza in Cupertino, CA). Sheri Kaneshiro represented Sun at the party and came home with two awards. The two plaques are now in the Sun Menlo Park Fitness Center. Sun's CTO Greg Papadopoulos sponsored our Heart Walk participation. See my Sun's Heart Walk - Photos blog entry for more. The awards are:

• Heart Walk Silicon Valley 2007 - Top New Company - Sun Microsystems
• Heart Walk Silicon Valley - Super Star Area Sponsor - Sun Microsystems 2007

Two Heart Walk Plaques for Sun

Sheri Kaneshiro with Sun's plaques

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 06:26PM Jan 23, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

PreSEED Mentoring Program Announced

Tanya Jankot and I have been working for many months to develop a new version of Sun's popular worldwide Engineering mentoring program. Yesterday, PreSEED was announced to the 5 Software Director groups which will be in the pilot term! Hooray! PreSEED applications will be accepted starting 27 January 2008. The web pages will be available for review but not submission in advance of 27 January 2008. The first fifty complete and verified applicants will be accepted.

Software Chief Technologists Bob Brewin (Distinguished Engineer and Vice President) and Tim Marsland (Fellow and Vice President) are PreSEED's pilot term Champions. Greg Papadopoulos (Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development) is the SEED program executive sponsor.

What is PreSEED?

PreSEED is a new mentoring pilot program aimed at helping Sun Engineering staff who have been getting almost all "Sun Standard" annual performance ratings onto a path which may lead them to higher engagement. One way to think of PreSEED is as a preliminary to the successful SEED Engineering worldwide mentoring program. Since 2001, the CTO-sponsored SEED program has a proven track record of strong diversity, very high satisfaction, high regard by management, and high retention. SEED participants as a group earn more promotions and higher performance ratings than Sun overall. The first PreSEED pilot term is March-September 2008.

PreSEED is not a rotation program, meaning that the participant continues to report to their home manager throughout the program. During the 6-month PreSEED term, Participants (Mentees) work with Mentors for 1 to 2 hours every two weeks (or more, they want).

Why create PreSEED?

Research indicates mentoring of "solid citizens" like Sun Standard performers will have a greater advantage to Sun's bottom line than mentoring of the rising stars who are already the focus of SEED. The SEED program staff regularly receives many suggestions for improvement and expansion. PreSEED is being piloted to meet some of the most common, long-standing, and energetic of these suggestions.

Selection

PreSEED's four General Selection Criteria are:

1. All Participants are in Engineering.
2. Only regular Sun employees may participate.
3. All annual performance ratings in the last 3 years must be "Sun Standard" (a 2) or better.
4. Manager support is required.

More information on the SEED Engineering mentoring program is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Posted at 04:05PM Jan 23, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  |  Comments[2]