Department - [Administration] | Subject - [no entry] | Requestor - [no entry] | Assigned to - [Operations]

"Hi!" 

"Hi, good to see you!"

"You too. Thanks for setting this up."

"Absolutely! It's always good to connect." 

"That's right."

"And, by the way, I'm sorry I was late—I was caught up in something right before coming here and it caught me off guard."

"Yeah, sure, no problem at all. And, actually, Jennifer said she couldn't make it for this, so she won't be joining us."

"Oh! Okay, well that's okay."

"I told her I'd sit in and cover as best I could but that we could possibly revisit this if there are still some action items we can't circle back to fully without her."

"Of course. Absolutely."

"And she may have some questions as well that I can't get to."

"Yeah, well, you know, I'm always available. Either you, or Jennifer, you can reach out to me anytime."

"Likewise. So, this was—I was brought into the email discussion over this earlier this week."

"Right, I had connected with Jennifer."

"She included me while I was out of the office, so I've been catching up this morning."

"Sure! Well, me too, actually. I was reviewing the conversation earlier, too."

"Okay. Well, it seemed to me—there was some discussion around..."

"Yes, this got sent to me by Chloe on my team—"

"Based on what I read in the email this had to do with—" 

"I actually didn't get filled in on the specific request you had made, so—"

"Oh. Okay. I think that gets at the front end of my question which was that initial request."

"Right."

"Because I wasn't sure where the request originated, because I hadn't submitted one."

"I see. So. An inquiry came in from—well the system actually didn't cite who," 

"Not from me."

"Right, okay. I see. An inquiry was made and so I came back to Chloe and asked her."

"Okay. And Chloe is on your team."

"Chloe is our vice associate of managerial oversight." 

"I see."

"I asked her what the inquiry was in regards to, and she couldn't say, so I asked—"

"Chloe couldn't say?"

"So I asked how we should proceed and she said, 'oh, just go ahead and take the meeting and we can confer to see what you needed,' so—"

"Oh, okay! So, an inquiry was made—  in your system."

"Correct."

"It was an anonymous inquiry, or— ?"

"Not anonymous, no. But from our view, we can't see the submitting party."

"So you wanted to schedule the meeting to get clarity on the inquiry."

"Exactly."

"So what was the inquiry?"

"So, that was kind of what I was hoping this meeting could cover."

"The inquiry?"

"Exactly."

"Okay so that gets at some of my confusion since the message I received from Jennifer didn't seem to clearly indicate what the topic of this meeting was."

"For us either."

"So that's why I was reviewing this before you got here, was because— I wasn't sure what the inquiry was."

"Okay. Yeah, an inquiry was made but the name submission wasn't filled in."

"Was this an initiative for the administrative team, or... ?"

"The department for the inquiry ticket was auto-generated."

"And, just to clarify, it was submitted by administration?"

"Hold on, let me check. And. Yes. Yes, it... okay it's telling me— yes, it appears so."

"But not who from administration."

"And... okay, no."

"And there was no memo included with the inquiry?"

"It says. And I'm checking, I'm sorry."

"Sure, no problem."

"It says. Let me open the inquiry. It says— it says department - administration, it says subject - no entry. It says requestor - no entry. It says assigned to - operations. And for the notes it says— okay, here's what it says, it says 'Requesting additional information with regard to initiating a discussion on notification levels on attached items,' and... I don't see an attachment..." 

"Do we know when the inquiry was made?"

"Let me just check—32 weeks ago."

"Okay. So... okay let's see, 32 weeks ago would have been... when?"

"And that's partly why this was so surprising. I wasn't aware this inquiry was made until. Let's see..."

"Alright. It's February. So..." 

"Okay. I had received the automated prompt to review this inquiry last Tuesday."

"Here, let me pull up my calendar. ...26, 27, 28, 29... okay, looks like it would have been back in July sometime?"

"That's when I asked Chloe, and we wanted to get some clarity before proceeding."

"Yeah. So maybe mid-July."

"I guess so." 

"Well, like I mentioned, Jennifer was unclear, which added to my confusion—"

"Totally. And Chloe thought that we should touch base just to see how we could collaborate—"

"Is there anything you've been working on with administration since July?"

"Well, sure. Yeah, I think so. I don't know about since July, but, there's been the promotional verbiage we've been collaborating with Regina with."

"Okay that makes sense. If we're talking about promotion, Regina is the executive director of promotional affairs so I would've recommended her initially, anyway."

"We've also been contributing to some donorship clauses that... those were initiated by Molly, but I'm pretty sure those have been vetted by HR. Aren't you with Regina's team?"

"Regina? No. I used to be. I made the transition to Jennifer's team, oh, November? Not last year, but the November before?"

"How many weeks ago was that."

"I can check. But I haven't submitted a ticket."

"Oh! No, I wasn't saying—"

"Or an inquiry, I mean. Not a ticket."

"I didn't mean—"

"So, for my understanding, coming away with some action items I can look at with Jennifer when we're working on next steps for this— what we're really looking for with this... inquiry is... what, exactly?"

"Um. I think what we need is— scope."

"Okay, review scope of inquiry..."

"Just a general... kind of project overview on— what was requested. Who was requesting it. Kind of, just, what they were looking for, how we can help..."

"Okay, sure. And, I mean likewise— a lot of times we work with Regina's team on some of their initiatives, you know. We collaborate, but usually if it's promotional they own those processes."

"Sure. And, totally, Chloe and my team is so happy to collaborate and work together on things. That's really why we wanted this discussion so we could just see— you know, how we can help!"

"Of course. Us too!"

"Great."

"So. Okay. Well, I've got this down. Review scope of inquiry. Getting a sense on who submitted it... oh, right, back in July, let me write that down."

"Yes July, I think. However long 32 weeks ago was."

"So who submitted and what... what they needed."

"Exactly."

"Good."

"Great."

"So. Well, I'm sorry if I wasn't able to provide much context, but, like I said, I was kind of brought into this... actually just a few hours ago because I was out of the office when this originally came in!" 

"Same! Well, I found the inquiry last week and Chloe said we should connect..."

"Right." 

"But, yeah, it didn't— it didn't really highlight a lot of the key questions we really look to answer when we're reviewing our inquiry cache."

"Makes sense. Well, I'm glad we could— at least meet and start the conversation happening."

"Absolutely."

"Was there any other topics we needed to... ?"

"Um. No. Not that was on my agenda. Did you—?"

"No, this covered it. For the most part. I think."

"Okay, well. Great!" 

"Oh!"

"Yes?"

"Okay, well— so I don't know if this is related."

"Okay."

"Let's see, back in July. It wasn't July exactly, but something came up for me back in... when was it?"

"Something for operations?"

"What was her name. There was someone in operations at that time and I think I heard that they left, recently."

"Jackie?"

"Jackie. Jackie was facilitating a deep-dive on a topic our team was overseeing."

"Back in July?"

"You see, it wasn't July, though. Unless someone from administration was anticipating that operations would need to review it pre-emptively? Or, it would've been later than that, so the timing wouldn't have worked. Or would it?"

"I don't know."

"What was that all about? I can't seem to locate it in my inbox..."

"Try searching for Jackie?"

"What was Jackie's last name?"

"It was. Oh my god..."

"When I search 'Jackie' a whole bunch of other Jackie's come up for some reason."

"I'm completely blanking."

"You know what's funny?"

"Funny?"

"Not really funny so much as— like, I wonder if people at my old job can't find me in their inboxes."

"Oh. Like Jackie?"

"I don't know."

"Yeah, I guess that's funny."

"Sorry, I can't seem to find what that was about."

"That's fine."

"It probably wasn't even related."

"Probably not."

"I don't think I had anything else."

"Okay. That covers it for me, as well."

"Great. Well. Let's see, I guess I can give you the rest of your time back."

"That's okay. Next I've got to tackle this issue that came in right before I was able to break away for this meeting—"

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Just. Just a bunch of stuff."

"I know how that goes."

"Absolutely. Well. Thanks again for making time."

"Oh yeah, sure. Happy to."

"We'll be in touch."

"Right, and if we end up learning more—"

"I'm always available. My calendar is up to date and you can view it underneath my signature."

"Okay, well, awesome. I'll look into that. And like I said, Jennifer might have something specific she was hoping to cover. She just couldn't be here."

"Of course. She's welcome, too!"

"Great."

"Okay."

"Thanks again."

"Absolutely."

"Bye."

"Bye-bye."