|
In late November 2005, Joe Pappalardo attended a meeting of senior managers in the office of student financial services to develop a strategy to support Columbia 's 59th Annual Community Service Appeal Campaign (CCS). The campaign collects donations from University faculty and staff to support local neighborhood agencies in their work with the elderly, the homeless, the unemployed and children.
Now, less than three months later, the student financial services team can boast of a 94 percent pledge rate from the departments' 45 full-time employees. Pappalardo, the manager of budgets and administration, shares the credit for this with two of his colleagues and fellow CCS co-captains, James Williams and Ava Gardner.
Pappalardo had recruited Williams, an assistant billing manager for student accounts, and Gardner , a student accounts coordinator, after learning of their strong outreach and customer service skills.
"I'm happy they picked me to help," Williams said. "This is a worthy cause, and I love doing it."
"I like interacting with others and this gives me the opportunity to become more involved," Gardner added. "I've enjoyed explaining the importance of the campaign to my co-workers."
The three co-captains divided up their colleagues and made it a point to sit down with each person to explain the mission of the community service campaign.
"It's usually best to let them know about CCS before asking for a contribution," Williams said. "That way, they feel comfortable about giving. People like it when you tell them where their money is going."
Along with traditional solicitations, the three financial services colleagues decided to make use of some old office equipment in their department.
"We had some used computers in our office that we were debating what to do with," Pappalardo explained. "So I suggested to our boss, Michelle Brown-Nevers, assistant vice president of student financial services, that we raffle off the computers and donate the funds to CCS. She eagerly agreed."
The raffle, which was held last month, raised an additional $200 for CCS.
The exemplary leadership displayed by these three employees earned the following words of praise from Brown-Nevers: "I am proud of the work Ava, Joe and James have done to get the staff even more motivated. Their dedication to this cause has increased the participation in CCS by student financial services beyond our expectations." |
