[Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes, March '07

[Elizabeth Thomson]

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from March 20, 2007*

Our guest speaker at this month's meeting of MIT Editors' Club was 
Kirk Kolenbrander, Vice President for Institute Affairs and Secretary 
of the MIT Corporation. Some 40 Editors attended. That's HUGE, folks: 
"regular" Editors' Club meetings usually attract about 10 of you.

*What He Said*

I asked Kirk to tell us about what he *does* as VP for Institute 
Affairs, Secretary of the Corporation, AND the President's Chief of 
Staff. To turn it around a tad, here's one thing he does little of: 
sleep (my inference).

First, however, I wanted to share with you what I thought was the 
most important part of Kirk's talk: his passion for MIT.

"It is not an overstatement to say that when airplanes fly into the 
World Trade Center or a hurricane slams into New Orleans the federal 
government really does pick up the phone, call MIT, and say 'how can 
you help us?'" Kirk said.

So: "when we fail to share the story of MIT (its research, etc.) to 
the world, everybody loses."

Here, of course, he was alluding to the importance of WHAT WE DO as 
communicators.  "We have to make science, engineering, and management 
compelling" to the public, he said.

*What He Does*

These minutes could go on for quite a while if I accurately 
summarized Kirk's job(s) and goals over the next year or so, so I'll 
simply pick out a few highlights:

First, as Dr. Hockfield's chief of staff, "probably the most 
important function I have is to help her build her senior team." 
You've all read recent announcements about MIT's new general counsel, 
new VP for human resources, etc. Kirk says there's one key slot left 
to fill: that of VP for external affairs, which is a new job at the 
Institute. That search is moving along well, he said.

Kirk handed out a list of his goals for the  2006-07 academic year 
organized by each "hat," or job responsibility.

For example, with respect to internal communications, he wants to 
build on our process for responding and communicating about the 
inevitable crises that come up. Specifically, the idea is to move 
senior leaders such as the President out of day-to-day communications 
management.

With respect to goals underlying "all of our activities," Kirk's list 
concluded with: Share the fun of MIT with the world.

"We change the world every day around this place, and by golly that 
ought to be fun!"

*Take the Survey!*

Just a reminder: if you haven't done so already, take the 
communications survey Kirk distributed earlier this week to the MIT 
community. It is titled: Help MIT improve Institute communications.

*Next Meetings*

The next meetings of MIT Editors' Club will be as follows. All 
meetings are in the News Office, 11-400, from 12-1, unless I invite 
another rock star, in which case I'll alert you to the new venue.

Thursday, April 19

Monday, May 21

Friday, June 22

Elizabeth


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Elizabeth A. Thomson
Senior Science and Engineering Editor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<<mailto:thomson at mit.edu>thomson at mit.edu>

<<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
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