The event featured sweet treats, conversations, and a little summertime fun as part of an ongoing effort to create more opportunities for employees across the department to connect and participate.
Photo: From left, Nadine Gayle, Brandi Baylor, Dnika Russell, Krystal Watson, and Shakia Ingram enjoy the Administration and Finance ice cream social Aug. 11 at the SMC Campus Center.
For Krystal Watson, the Administration and Finance (A&F) annual ice cream social was an especially timely event.
It was only her second day on the job.
Watson, a travel and expense analyst in the Office of the Controller, had recently arrived in A&F after working at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She said she had researched UMB before making the move and was already impressed by what she found.
“Honestly, it’s a great organization to work for,” Watson said. “ You started this all for all of us, and I like your core values.”
Asked what flavor would represent UMB, Watson didn’t hesitate.
“Neapolitan,” she said, pointing to the three flavors packed into one scoop: strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla.
“It’s just a whole melting pot, and I enjoy it thus far.”
That idea of different people and departments coming together was a recurring theme on Aug. 11 as A&F employees gathered on the second floor of the SMC Campus Center for the third annual ice cream social.
The event is one of the ways A&F is working to create opportunities for employees from across the department to connect outside of their everyday work, while making those opportunities accessible to employees whose schedules and responsibilities can sometimes make participation difficult.
Organized by Lisa Crawley and Danielle Hill, with volunteers Latoya Ludd, Karen Park, and Bianca Thornley, the event offered employees a chance to step away from their daily routines, enjoy some ice cream, and spend time with A&F colleagues they might not normally see.
For Meredith DiIoia, a senior specialist in Project Delivery and Change Management, that was part of the appeal.
“I love ice cream, and it’s always fun to catch up with people I don’t normally see on campus,” she said.
DiIoia also appreciated the message behind the event.
“It’s nice to be appreciated, and this is a great way to show that UMB is interested in building community amongst the different departments,” she said.
Additional Sessions
Creating that sense of connection across A&F also means recognizing that not every employee works a traditional daytime schedule or can easily step away from a post or station to attend an event.
To broaden participation, two additional sessions were held in the evening for security officers, safety professionals, and second- and third-shift employees. Crawley said the additional sessions were intended to make sure employees who couldn’t easily leave their posts or stations had an opportunity to participate.
Denise Meyers and Marquitta Weems hosted one evening session for environmental services employees, while Vanessa Harrington and Chelsea Jarrard coordinated ice cream deliveries for police, security, dispatchers, and administrators working during the day.
That effort mattered to employees such as Donta Lewis, a custodian with Environmental Health Services who has worked in A&F for three years.
Lewis has attended previous ice cream socials, including while working evening shifts.
“I just like to come out to have fun,” he said.
For Jasmine Jones, a housekeeper with Facilities Management in Operations and Maintenance who has been in A&F for nine years, the attraction is equally obvious.
“To enjoy ice cream and get out of the building,” she said.
And then there are the toppings.
Jones said one thing she remembers from previous socials was the variety of ice cream and toppings. When asked what UMB’s official flavor should be, she chose vanilla, simply because it’s her favorite.
Others took a more philosophical approach to the question.
Syreeta Haskins of Disbursements chose vanilla for a different reason.
“Anything goes with vanilla,” she said. “You can add anything to it.”
She saw the flavor as a metaphor for UMB itself, with its history providing a foundation for the many people and departments that make up the University.
“It all starts with vanilla,” Haskins said.
Room for Everyone
David Brooks, a project manager with Design and Construction, also connected ice cream with the diversity found across the University and within A&F. He suggested an official flavor that would be “a conglomeration of everything together,” because “UMB is so very diverse.”
That diversity is reflected within A&F itself, where employees work across functions ranging from finance and construction to environmental services, public safety, facilities, and administrative operations — often on very different schedules and in very different parts of the University.
Nick Wellnitz, an assistant radiation safety officer with Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), offered another distinctly Baltimore interpretation.
“Berger cookies flavor,” said Wellnitz, who has been in EHS for 22 years. “Because Berger cookies are a staple of Baltimore.”
For Wellnitz, the ice cream social was also an opportunity to participate in an event he normally might have missed.
“It’s like the town halls,” he said. “It’s a group thing that I can finally attend.”
After more than two decades within EHS, Wellnitz said the people and the University’s commitment to its employees have helped keep him here.
“I like working here. I like Baltimore. I like the people here,” he said. “I see there’s a buy-in from leadership that they actually care about their employees. I’ve seen that progress. I’ve seen things improve over the past 20 years, and it’s kept me here.”
That sense of connection was echoed by Shakia Ingram of General Accounting, where she has worked for nearly three years. She said the ability to move between departments and UMB’s benefits have helped keep her at the University.
But when asked what an event like the ice cream social means to her, she offered a simpler answer: “Togetherness with my co-workers.”
Maybe that’s the real flavor of the A&F ice cream social.
Whether someone works in finance, facilities, construction, environmental services, public safety, or another part of A&F — and whether they’ve been at UMB for two days or more than two decades — events like the A&F ice cream social are intended to make a large and diverse department feel a little smaller.
For a few hours on a summer afternoon — and again for employees working later shifts — titles, schedules, and departments mattered a little less.
There was ice cream. There were toppings. There were old co-workers and new ones.
And there was a table with room for everyone.