12:03:12 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : What is VOEN 12:03:36 From Jaime White-James : Vivarium operational excellence network 12:03:53 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : got it thanks (newbie here🙂) 12:04:15 From Gerry Cronin : www.voenetwork.com 12:04:22 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : it includes monkeys this year, too!! 12:05:10 From Michelle Gillespie : CALAS here :) 12:05:32 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : no magnets or carabiners available at this time 12:07:49 From Sonja Wallace (she/her) : Order early - they run out of items quickly....especially the free items. 12:08:11 From Jaime White-James : mine just came today and came in about a week. 12:08:56 From DOEI8G : Even the paid magnets, or just ran out of free ones? 12:09:14 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : They have bags and posters left as of Monday 12:10:12 From Isela Lopez : Can someone send a link for tech week swag orders… thanks! 12:10:23 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : no magnets left-paid unpaid and she said they won’t reprint because they wouldn’t get until after tech week 12:10:47 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : i’m bummed -like Jenn i like to collect one magnet for myself 12:11:10 From Renee Thompson : https://www.aalas.org/certification/technicians/tech-week 12:12:19 From Jaime White-James : Shannon sometimes my techs don't want them so If you collect, I can see I have any left over 12:12:41 From Heather Zimmerman : We don't have a budget for our people, so everything we do is out of our own pockets 12:12:57 From Amanda Zubke : same! 12:13:23 From Isela Lopez : Thanks for link👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 12:14:20 From Holly Turner : No budget here, just 3 techs, so all out of my pocket. 12:15:12 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : Mcdonalds will do breakfast burritos or biscuits for $1 each 12:15:22 From Jaime White-James : I have reached out to vendors to aske them to sponsor breakfast with a small 3 person staff it may be easy to get from them 12:15:32 From Gary Pattison : Donated Gift Cards from Vendors help the budget. 12:16:12 From Ashley and Janel : Last year we changed to Tech Month, and did a food and game each week 12:16:38 From Jess Schiavo : check with your legal department re: vendor-sponsored items. 12:16:39 From Mary Zabonik : we have vendors sponsor breakfast/lunch 12:16:39 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : for free ideas-give a longer lunch or dinner break one day; tech profile for a book to share with all team or in a newsletter; post it corner for PIs and mgrs to post encouraging notes of thanks 12:16:39 From RiveraA : We spread the fun out over 2 weeks. We don't want it to be stressful to attend the events. 12:16:43 From Dawn Olson : We celebrate over 2 weeks to not load anyone down with stuff 12:18:27 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : Charles rivers has giveaways-stuffed mice, monkeys, pens 12:18:34 From Julia Krout : make the decorating a contest 12:18:54 From Mason Garnett III : We hide stuffed NHPs all over our facility. 12:19:09 From Monica Maxwell : We have a Kudo board posted outside the facility and invite the PI and research staff to come and leave post-it notes to appreciate their designated technicians. 12:19:09 From Connie Campisi : We rented a mouse costume and put the big guy in it for a lunch 12:19:13 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : techs paint 12x12 canvases for posting around conference room or eating areas 12:19:28 From Johnathan DenHerder : We brainstormed a photobooth with props during breakfast - capes, wands, magician hat, stuffed animals, etc... 12:19:29 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : love the mouse costume 12:19:35 From Shannon A. Stutler : For final day, we have done a lunch with a movie for the techs while the manager and vet staff does the afternoon work responsibilities. 12:19:45 From Renee Thompson : We did a home made photo booth one year! 12:19:54 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : Kingcakes since close to mardi gras!! 12:20:23 From cr202818 : Made mice out of laughing cow cheese! 12:20:28 From Jodi Scholz : The vets make breakfast burritos and bring in for the staff 12:20:33 From Arrow Megginson : I reach out to vendors to get freebies. Last year I did Bingo for the big prizes. I made the bingo game and split up enough cards that I did some analytics with on how quickly they would win. I wanted my first winner by wed. Everyone won something. I drew a number every hour out of a box and sent them to my team over Microsoft Teams. Then my boss gives us $100 and we get Jimmy Johns. 12:20:39 From Melissa McPherson : We've done waffle bars where we make waffles and then have a topping bar... we've done the same with ice cream and topping bar, and one year we did a nacho and topping bar... we like toppings! 12:20:45 From Vanessa Stanton : A taco bar is usually pretty inexpensive to DIY 12:20:48 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : there is a bingo generator online 12:20:49 From DOEI8G : We do one food item each day - Donuts, Pizza, Ice cream social and then 1/2 day off last day 12:20:57 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : cupcake bar too 12:21:00 From Jennifer King : we will provide a box lunch. We also got the AALAS bags and will fill with candy 12:21:06 From Monica Maxwell : I raise my own beef, so host a burger bar or taco bar for the staff. I cook for them and have a smorgasbord of toppings for them. 12:21:20 From Heather Zimmerman : I will work with local cottage bakers for cookies - a bit expensive, but my group loves food :) We also try to do a breakfast thing (usually Panera), a lunch thing (one of the local sandwich shop they really like), and a dessert thing. 12:21:32 From Jaime White-James : we had a mouse piñata made this year 12:21:42 From Allison Ostdiek : For our small vet tech group we often do a crockpot soup for lunch 12:21:45 From Sarena Stogden : We had planned on doing breakfast but since our team is over 65 techs, it was not approved. Our team is not as pleased with the sweets though because so many people brought them in for the holidays. We can't figure out what to provide to such a large team. 12:21:50 From Johnathan DenHerder : We also do a waffle breakfast, sausage and veggie casseroles, coffee, juice. 12:21:50 From Monica Maxwell : Also have a snack each day with some sort of corny phrase (Donut I'd do without you! Thanks for your commit-MINT) 12:21:56 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : pizza goes a long way-most for $$-sometimes if you do a letter for donation they might give for free if not too many techs 12:22:12 From Heather Zimmerman : A fun thing is to give each person (we only have a dozen people in our department in total) 10 100 Grand candy bars and tell them "You're on in a Million!" 12:23:03 From Melissa McPherson : We go bowling most years... we've also rented out an old school arcade and the techs can play games and hang out for a couple hours around lunch time 12:23:26 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : Technician Survival Kit-fill bags with and label: Tootsie roll – for the essential role you play! Laffy Taffy – for your sense of humor Smarties – to help you make smart decisions Lifesavers – for making the Center a “hole” lot better Starburst – for that sudden burst of energy at the end of the day Peppermint Pattie – to help you to keep your cool. 12:23:35 From Stephanie Womack : This is my favorite rat coloring book: https://www.amazon.com/Serotonin-Potatoes-Rat-Stooges/dp/B09KN45SWM/ref=sr_1_20?crid=1W1CM3KKQJU3H&keywords=rat+coloring+book&qid=1673457789&sprefix=rat+coloring+boo%2Caps%2C139&sr=8-20 12:23:39 From Arrow Megginson : I have a team of 3 with a couple techs that don't really care and the other one loves all the stuff. 12:24:05 From Katie Bott : This is the best event the staff love the mini golf contest! 12:24:43 From Ashley and Janel : PPE relay race 12:24:44 From Jennifer King : This year we will have a secret timed activity based on the theme. It will be announced and they will have 2 hours to make a wizard hat and wand out of items commonly found in the animal rooms. Snap a pic and send it to the judging team. 12:24:50 From Gerry Cronin : We did a Hunger Games theme; each team competed against each other: Fluffernutter Building contest; marshmallow shooting contests; PPE Rally, etc 12:24:51 From Arrow Megginson : I need another idea for a small team other than Bingo. 12:24:53 From Heather Zimmerman : Has anyone done a "virtual escape room"? 12:24:57 From DOEI8G : We have done a pie eating contest and a PPE race 12:25:00 From Erika Troy : We have done gingerbread house making and create an toy from office supplies 12:25:13 From k394c949 : We did an on-site escape room last year and our team loved it! 12:25:16 From Melissa Hostrander : How did you do the scavenger hunt? 12:25:34 From Melissa Hostrander : we can;t take pictures on site 12:25:44 From DOEI8G : Would love someone to share their escape room plans - that would be awesome! 12:25:50 From Heather Zimmerman : Same! 12:25:50 From Mary Zabonik : we are doing a marshmallow launcher where your target is the supervisor in with a bullseye on a face shield and you can earn points for creativity and how it pertains to tech week! 12:26:04 From Erika Troy : We have also done bridge building where two teams had to discuss how to connect each portion of their bridge to the other teams without seeing it. 12:26:04 From ekmain : PPE Fashion Show 12:26:07 From Melissa Hostrander : Escape room would be really fun !!! Does anyone have what they did? 12:26:25 From Gerry Cronin : We did an invisible ink scavenger hunt where word puzzles were written on husbandry walls in invisible fluorescent ink, and teams had to sole the problem in the dark with blue light flashlights. Mind-blowing. 12:26:34 From Monica Maxwell : Working on the QR code scavenger hunt right now for this year! 12:26:39 From Arrow Megginson : My previous place rented the entire bowling alley and took all 150 of us with Pizza. We had 3 charter busses 12:26:59 From k394c949 : This is our local escape room and they have a "mobile escape room" your local escape rooms may have something similar https://www.breakoutlawrence.com/ 12:27:12 From Tiah Schwartz : We have golf carts to get around our large facility, so we had a golf cart decorating contest and then we paraded the decorated carts around campus 12:27:37 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : how does QR code work for scavenger hunt that is sooo interesting!! 12:27:39 From Shannon A. Stutler : For most any sized group, can look at the "Minute to Win It" games online- some of them are also great team building exercises. 12:28:27 From Renee Thompson : We have done bridge building activities, team building activities of decorating animal cut outs, PPE contests 12:28:38 From Ashley and Janel : Guess the poop, Guess the PI, Crossword puzzles, Word scramble, Where's Waldo 12:28:49 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : survey your techs and put their answers in bingo or jeopardy or have a book with everyone’s answer that year; also do awards with voting by techs on Most Concerned for Animal Well Being; best Rookie, etc 12:29:07 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : the winners just get a paper cert so low cost but high pride 12:29:10 From Gerry Cronin : https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/how-to/make-marshmallow-shooter/ 12:29:12 From Monica Maxwell : Shannon, I'm finding it to be a little tricky, but fumbling my way through to try to make it work out. I'm told by my friend who teaches elementary school that once I get over the learning curve it's easy. Be glad to let you know how it goes. 12:30:25 From Benjamin Madden : tower building challenges 12:30:45 From Julia Krout : So easy! you can make them free!. Scan QR code when they find it and answer questions 12:30:55 From Holly Turner : Can all these great ideas in the chat be shared with attendees afterwards? There are so many I can't keep up! 12:31:08 From Holly Turner to Steven LaMacchia(Direct Message) : Can all these great ideas in the chat be shared with attendees afterwards? There are so many I can't keep up! 12:31:20 From Tiah Schwartz : This year we are doing a speaker panel "What Keeps the Magic Alive" - to go with this years theme. The panel is made up of techs who have been in the field for years and still "have the magic". They will share their personal career journeys. This event costs nothing!! 12:31:22 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : I would LOVE to do a Hot Ones challenge but i think that might not be great for participants oh well 12:31:26 From Jaime White-James : human Hungary hippos was done once but you need young healthy participants 12:31:28 From Brian Auyoung : We asked our PIs via email to fill out a quick survey with “words of appreciation” and then dripped out that feedback throughout the week via email to all techs. Everyone loves those warm words of encouragement and thanks. 12:31:37 From Julia Krout : www.tinyurl.com can shorten your link to site and provides QR code 12:31:39 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : definitely brian! 12:31:47 From Brianne Hibl : Trivia bingo (encorporates ALAT/LAT type questions with a standard bingo board). First bingo, X, U, T, and blackout gets a prize 12:32:14 From Steven LaMacchia to Holly Turner(Direct Message) : Hi Holly, yes our program committee will be reviewing the chat Friday and it will be posted with the recording on our website under the webinar tab! 12:32:49 From Heather Claybaugh : themed mascot building with lab supplies. winning departments are added to the plaques for voters choice and management choice(judged) 12:33:09 From cr202818 : Hi Heather! 12:33:16 From Benjamin Madden : candy guessing jars 12:33:26 From Arrow Megginson : I got Uline to send me Camping Chairs and Camping Coolers. 12:33:28 From cr202818 : Gift cards are good prizes 12:33:29 From Benjamin Madden : gift cards usually 12:33:39 From Nicole Henning : Holly, yes we'll be collecting these and posting to the website with the webinar recording. Really, TONS of great ideas!! 12:33:42 From Renee Thompson : early release (w/ appropriate approval) 12:33:55 From Brianne Hibl : Gift cards or AALAS freebies 12:33:57 From Kristina Carter : scratch offs 12:34:02 From Arrow Megginson : Last year I did put in some $ for a gift card but the economy is hurting everyone's wallets this year. 12:34:25 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : we did a t-shirt design contest from techs for a few years 12:34:34 From Melissa Rupani : PPE Fashion show! 12:34:48 From Julia Krout : for places that cannot solicit donations, the vendors will ship to me without return address so I have no choice but to accept them 12:34:57 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : ha 12:35:17 From Arrow Megginson : I email all my vendors and reps and try to get them to send me promotional items from them. Anyone like Ancare or IDEXX or Transnetyx sends things. 12:36:07 From Melissa McPherson : Techs appreciate the time off coupons 12:36:07 From Gerry Cronin : Paid Time Off is like gold 12:36:08 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : we gave five random elements to teams for a skit; we did PPE skits too. we opened up to PIs and managers, too. But hard some years to get techs to participate-but when it worked it worked amazing 12:36:19 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : Cane’s has a donation website 12:36:42 From Arrow Megginson : I agree but only our President is allowed to decide that. And we already get a lot of 2 hour early releases. 12:36:49 From Kristina Carter : we do tech of the year...send them to an AALAS conference 12:36:50 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : one year we got a giant basket from Cane’s filled with hats, gift cards, shirts etc. 12:37:29 From Arrow Megginson : Raising Canes. we have in AZ 12:38:02 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : yum 12:40:02 From Stephanie Womack : March Mammal Madness is so much more fun! https://libguides.asu.edu/marchmammalmadness 12:40:27 From Ashley and Janel : Summer BBQ's, Taco Tuesday's 12:40:41 From RiveraA : Themed potlucks - pie day is a favorite 12:40:43 From Gerry Cronin : https://youtu.be/6EUy2EeWwMQ 12:41:54 From ekmain : Football Season Opening - wear your favorite college or NFL team gear 12:42:14 From Johnathan DenHerder : Animal care trivia with monthly prize drawings for participation throughout the year. 12:42:20 From Tracey Sutcliffe : We do a Pumpkin Carving contest every Halloween 12:42:33 From cr202818 : Our Employee Engagement team plans a few themed days each year. 12:42:46 From Arrow Megginson : Christmas I decorate and put up a fake fireplace and some stockings. 12:42:47 From Jennifer King : Chili cook-off in the fall is always a hit 12:42:58 From Gerry Cronin : we have periodic free lunches, seem to get lots of positive buzz from it. 12:42:58 From Erika Troy : Summer BBQ, cannoli truck, ice cream sundae truck, Pies for Pie day. Food goes a long way with our group 12:43:09 From Nicole Henning : wow a whole employee engagement team! that's a great resource 12:43:47 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : for zoom activity: https://www.playbuzz.com/mentalfloss/can-you-guess-the-animal-based-on-their-x-ray?utm_source=Bibblio&utm_campaign=Bibblio_related&utm_medium=Bibblio_sideRail 12:43:50 From Erika Troy : We are looking into a magician for this years theme who is going to teach the group a trick to bring home 12:44:15 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : do a magic trick on camera as scavenger hunt item 12:44:20 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : fun erica!!! 12:44:49 From Monica Maxwell : I do something on those weird holidays often -- I brought in ice cream on National Ice Cream day, we've celebrated National Beef Month with burgers, and we do potlucks throughout the year. Also celebrate birthdays by bringing in cakes/cupcakes to honor each person on their special day (with their prior approval of course). 12:45:53 From Julia Krout : I find the feedback to contradict. Year 1 they say pizza sucks so we get nicer lunch and then year 2 they say why bother, get pizza 12:45:55 From Connie Campisi : The worst thing you can do is nothing 12:45:57 From Gerry Cronin : holy schmoly; feedback is a double-edged sword; the planning committee always shudders when they need to review it. 12:46:13 From Julia Krout : Agree @gerry! 12:46:20 From Michelle Gillespie : Injuries during PPE relay race :) 12:46:38 From Nicole Henning : If I had an employee that didn't want to share their bday date I would celebrate their start date instead and I like to bake so I would bake for them 12:46:44 From Courtney Nesline-UT Southwestern Medical Center : Yes, I heard of a musical chairs accident at the place I came from that was historic! 12:46:45 From Erika Troy : Once we a tricky tray raffle for prizes. The techs liked that 12:46:50 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : we did obstacle course and one person clotheslined on a chain for a door coming to the end of the race-lesson learned on any employee active events 12:46:57 From Stephanie Womack : I did a tie dye party that flopped pretty hard. Took too long to do and just didn't have people show up. And it made a lot of work for washing them afterwards and cleaning. 12:46:58 From Gerry Cronin : Fail: We did a full-blown Science Fair; the Finale was awesome, but took way too much time for teams to develop their projects for presentation. 12:46:58 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : he was ok but horrifying to watch 12:46:59 From Vanessa Stanton : had an ice cream social in January :( no one was really interested in ice cream when there was a blizzard outside 12:47:09 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : oh no 12:47:17 From Brianne Hibl : Just a general comment. Introverts don't love big group activities. Planning a little 'down time' for book reading, watching a movie, etc. can be a good way to make sure all people have at least something they are looking forward to 12:47:33 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : what’s a tricky tray, Erika 12:47:34 From RiveraA : Food was delivered late and cold 12:47:59 From cr202818 : Third shift and weekend shifts sometimes feel left out 12:48:00 From Melissa Hostrander : I missed the beginning will the recording be available? 12:48:13 From Jess Schiavo : Vendor swag not allowed due to legal/conflict of interest 12:48:18 From Erika Troy : Tricky Tray- adding raffle tickets for prizes they would like to win 12:48:26 From Nicole Henning : it can be very tricky to figure out the appreciation style that hits everyone 12:48:54 From Steven LaMacchia : The recording will be available on the voenetwork website under the webinar tab! 12:48:58 From Monica Maxwell : Experiencing one right now. A PI offered to buy pizza for the staff this week. They are all sitting in the conference room with and PI just told me they forgot. Ordering pizza as I type this... 12:49:05 From Nicole Henning : Jess: yes, recording will be on the website along with all these awesome ideas in the chat! 12:49:08 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : OH NO MONICA 12:49:44 From Jaime White-James : had a vendor buy breakfast and they complained it was meatless 12:50:40 From Gerry Cronin : They get the Oscar Meyer Award! 12:50:56 From Nicole Henning : YESSSSS 12:51:33 From Nicole Henning : 🤢 12:51:33 From Jennifer King : oh no! 12:51:33 From Brian Auyoung : Oh geez. …. 12:52:11 From Jaime White-James : Very good chat thank you 12:52:19 From Johnathan DenHerder : Thank you! 12:52:22 From cr202818 : Fun chat, thanks! 12:52:32 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : i’m not on the VOEN, but if you want to email me and start dialogue, would that be ok? 12:52:35 From Lawson, Treva L. (HSC) : This was great! Thank you all for the excellent ideas!! 12:52:39 From Shannon Aicklen (s/h/h) : saicklen@tulane.edu 12:52:42 From Melissa Arthur - Marshall BioResources : Thank you! These were great ideas. I enjoyed spending my afternoon with you... 12:52:45 From Shannon A. Stutler : Thanks, all; Happy New Year and Happy Tech Week@ 12:52:45 From Sonja Wallace (she/her) : Thank you everyone!!!! 12:52:47 From Melissa Hostrander : you can print tech week certificates 12:52:48 From Melissa Hostrander : https://www.aalas.org/certification/technicians/tech-week?www.aalas.org&gclid=CjwKCAiA2fmdBhBpEiwA4CcHzad7wZdNjKbbb-tlDRPCVldpf__6tMk6qNIkSOeijW7UjDRvWfJ5GhoCDdkQAvD_BwE 12:52:48 From Rachel Lenkey : Great ideas, thank you everyone! 12:52:49 From Renee Thompson : Thanks Jenn!! 12:52:50 From Melissa Rupani : this was great thank you@ 12:52:50 From Stacey Wenthur : Thank you! 12:52:56 From s483c847 : Thank you for all of the great ideas!!! 12:52:57 From sschlege : Thanks everyone! 12:52:57 From Nicole Henning : 👏 12:52:58 From Mason Garnett III : THANK YOU!!!!! 12:52:58 From Rebecca Ann Leggieri : Thank you! 12:53:00 From Liz Vernasco Price : Thanks so much!! Great talk!! 12:53:01 From JavierVazquez : Thank you everyone!