Hi Friends!
I hope you had a great week and are taking care of yourselves as we head into the fall. Here are the week's reminders and what's going on in the RAC.
🗨️Community Chit-Chat
Join the conversation! Lacey has posted the start of not one, but two great conversations about Workload Measurement and my favorite topic: Effort and Distribution. We want to know what you think!
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Where do you see effort reporting breaking down most often in practice?
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If you could scrap the current system and rebuild it, what would it look like?
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How do you balance compliance with the reality of faculty workloads?
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What’s the most common “workaround” you see in your department or institution?
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Do you think effort reporting should be primarily an audit/compliance tool or a management/planning tool?
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What would make effort reporting feel less like “utter trash” and more like a useful accountability measure?
Check out the Management and Leadership circle for Lacey's post on Workload Measurement, where she poses some thoughtful questions about capacity and award complexity, you know, the stuff that impacts our day-to-day.
🌟 Events & Calendar: reminders
👉 Community Login: optimumdept.com/login
Monday Mornings with Minessa Konecky
Join Minessa for Office Hours—a dedicated space for research administrators at all levels to get expert advice on navigating challenges, understanding policies, and managing daily tasks in research administration.
➡️ Direct sign up page: here
Events Calendar
Our events calendar highlights webinars, training, and networking opportunities hosted by institutions, federal agencies, and partner organizations—resources we think RAs will find useful. You can also add events you know about.
- 📅 Submit an event
- Coming up: our next networking event is on October 2, 2025. Registration details are on the events calendar. There are also some external events that you might not want to miss.
🚀 Call to Action
We would like to host a Proposal-Palooza: a 1-hour show-and-tell where members share how they approach pre-award workflow and budget development. Three presenters will have 20 minutes to demo their system and procceses and inspire ideas for other community members.
👉 We’re still looking for 1–2 pre-award heros to share their setup—interested? Reply to this email or drop a note in the community.
More to come.
Sincerely,
RAC Admin Team
Lacey Rhea
Minessa Konecky
Sarah Trimmer
Responses