next »

[losemygrip]

I second the Doodle nomination.  A faculty member just recently turned me on to it.  It's great.

It's crucial to have a calendar system that's synched to your cell phone.  I have a Palm Treo.  The Palm software is so intuitive, I've never had to use to manual to do anything.  I use the calendar function on my office computer for all my meetings, and then synchronize them every couple of days.

I also used I-Cal to build the schedule (and I have about 40 faculty members and almost 600 majors).  I made a new calendar for each room, and then I could overlay selected rooms to see how things were interacting. 

Whips, chains, and manacles are also useful from time to time.

[resis]

Copernic Desktop Search (freeware). Finds everything I need with the right search terms.

[terpsichore]

I use iCal. It syncs to an iPhone, a PDA, or an iPod, and you can share your schedule with other people (if you want to). It's pretty well connected to e-mail so that you can pull meetings from the body of an e-mail into iCal.

My campus phone system can send voicemails as attachments to e-mail.

In addition to the TARDIS and cattle prod, you may find a printing press capable of producing currency to be helpful.

[sinatra]

Blogs are useful devices. You can post articles on student achievements, highlight graduating seniors, spotlight faculty accomplishments, etc. And since they are relatively public (most of the blogs are anyway), potential students/faculty can use them to evaluate the department quickly and easily. As for the TARDIS, it's a great tool...just too bad it takes so long to grow/manufacture one!

[captainwillard]

I have found by far the most useful and powerful technology for department chairs in the current world, but it's working so well for us that if I told you what it is I'd have to kill you (recruiting and retention being, you know, the name of the game).

[bacardiandlime]

I have found by far the most useful and powerful technology for department chairs in the current world, but it's working so well for us that if I told you what it is I'd have to kill you (recruiting and retention being, you know, the name of the game).

It's a harpoon gun.

[nottooinlovewacademe]

Thanks for the ideas again! Came back to check it out and there were new entries. I am quoting and giving credit to each of you during the presentation at the Chairpersons Conference next month. Will also send participants (hope some come) to the forum to continue the discussion.