University Communications and Marketing

You Can Nominate Staffers for "Pete the Perch" Awards
As a way of supporting the FISH! Philosophy, each month at the full staff meeting "Pete the Perch" (yep, a stuffed perch … read about the importance of play!) is awarded to a deserving, hardworking, pleasant UCM staffer. At the end of each month, Pete is passed on to another deserving member of the UCM staff.

The Pete-the-Perch recipient is nominated by a colleague in the department, a client or a member of the university community. If you’d like to nominate a member of the University Communications and Marketing team for this award:

1. Stop in the lobby of the Administrative Services Building, fill out a form and drop it into the fish bowl at the receptionist’s desk.
2. Download the PDF version of the nomination form, complete and fax to the department at 330-672-2047.

You Can Nominate Students to Receive UCM “Guppy" Awards
It’s a great big ocean out there, and sometimes it’s difficult for little fish in the big ocean. UCM staffers understand the big picture and help students “get their gills wet” by providing them with real world job experience and offering help along the way. It’s part of the FISH! Philosophy – be there with the right attitude.

UCM’s "Be There" team created the "Guppy" Award as a tool to help support the FISH! Philosophy. Each month, staff members nominate one student employee who exemplifies the qualities and principles established by the FISH! Philosophy to receive the award.

"Guppy" Award presentations will be on a monthly basis, so remember to nominate a deserving student each month. Student employees have varying schedules, so award presentations will occur when the student is at work and announced via e-mail thereafter. Be sure to listen to the intercom and join the UCM staff at the monthly, impromptu gatherings to congratulate our student employees on a job(s) well done!

Nomination forms are in the kitchen by the shredder!

UCM Presents Catch of Month Award to Departments Across Campus
Each month, UCM's "Make Their Day" team (see our FISH! Philosophy) seeks nominations for its Catch of the Month award. The recipient of the catch of the month is a team, person or department that team UCM would like to thank or recognize for its contributions to a marketing project. The catch of the month winner receives lunch, a basket of cookies or other goodies.

Team UCM staffers can nominate a client for a range of reasons, from being the 1,000,000,000th job entered into our FileMaker project tracking system to recognizing the beginning of a major project, to a department/client group that makes UCM's day! A new list of winners is added monthly to the announcements section of our Web site. Scan our archived announcements for a list of previous winners.

Background About FISH! Philosophy
At a UCM staff retreat a film that launched the FISH! Philosophy movement was shown. There, the department discovered why Saturn, Spring, Southwest Airlines and many other organizations worldwide have already subscribed to this workplace movement.

According to the FISH! Philosophy Web site (at http://www.fishphilosophy.com), "Seattle's World Famous Pike Place Fish is an otherwise ordinary fish market that's extraordinarily successful. The work is hard and the hours are long—yet these employees make a personal choice to bring amazing passion, playfulness, commitment and a positive attitude to work every day."

The UCM staff agreed. And, upon leaving the retreat and returning to the office, the staff continues to implement the four driving principles behind the FISH! Philosophy, including:

• Play;
• Make the customer’s day (be it a colleague in the department or an external client);
• Be there; and
• Choose your attitude.

According to their Web site, "FISH! has created a new vocabulary of what our jobs could be about. It's so simple that it's profound. It won't just change how you view work; it may change how you view life."