General staff work miracles at UQ

Quiet achievers had no chance of slipping under the radar at UQ’s annual Miracle Workers Awards luncheon, held on Wednesday, September 10, at the St Lucia campus.

Chancellor Sir Llew Edwards acknowledged the outstanding work and dedication of 18 UQ staff members, who were nominated by their colleagues or supervisors.

President of the Secretaries and Office Professionals Association, Karen Hendrickson, said the annual event provided an opportunity for the University to recognise its many high-achieving underdogs.

“It is a wonderful way to publicly recognise staff that continually go above and beyond expectations, inspire, deliver and are generally outstanding but are rarely acknowledged,” Mrs Hendrickson said.

“It gives people's colleagues a chance to nominate and thank the Miracle Worker for doing what they do best.

“As president of the UQSOPA, I lead the UQSOPA Executive Committee in making these awards happen.

“We have done everything from develop the nomination form, get the call for nominations out there, ask Sir Llew to present the awards, organise the venue, design the certificate and take payment for non-miracle workers attendance at the ceremony.

“It’s been a monumental group effort but well worth it -we had 83 attendees at the lunch.

“Special thanks to Robin Smith (ISSR), Claire McCafferty (BACS Faculty), Anne Webber (School of Land, Crop and Food Science) and Lyndel Curcuruto (VoiceOps) for their assistance.”

Established in 1995 by the Scitech General Staff communications group, and now run by the UQSOPA, the Miracle Workers Awards consistently identify UQ’s most dedicated, and quirky, characters.

“One supervisor claimed their nominee was so dedicated that, if he were to cut himself, he might leak chemical fluid instead of blood and would then want to model it,” Mrs Hendrickson said.

“There are some very clear themes repeated again and again: willingness to go the extra mile, professionalism, great communication and willingness to share their knowledge and best practices.”

Mrs Hendrickson advised staff to keep an eye an out for potential 2009 Miracle Workers.

This year’s winners include:
Kathy Lyons – School of Physical Sciences
Sheryl Budgeon – School of Nursing and Midwifery
Fiona Meek – Centre for Marine Studies
Keitha Brown – School of Social Science
Deborah Sunners – School of Medicine
Sue Fixter – Information Technology Services
Janey Saunders – Learning Hub
Gus Wiles – Chemical Engineering
Alice Schwarz Brunold – OMC
Robin Smith – ISSR
Lyn Minhinnett – School of Veterinary Science
Gail Walter – School of Integrative Biology
Amanda Carozzi – Institute for Molecular Bioscience
Rachael Long – UniFi Project Office
Wendy Mahon – Advanced Water Management Centre
Stephen Prowse – School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences
Tim Sudholz – UQ Library
Petra Sedlak – Queensland Brain Institute

Media: Mrs Hendrickson (07 3346 7754, k.hendrickson@uq.edu.au) or Penny Robinson at UQ Communications (07 3365 9723, penny.robinson@uq.edu.au)