It’s unfortunate that last week’s wet weather required us to postpone the SFU staff BBQ, but the glories of the past Canada Day weekend made the long wait for summer worthwhile! And we now have a replacement BBQ to look forward to on August 14^th.

I'm planning to take some downtime this month, and so will now be signing off here until late August.

I hope that many of you will also be able to claim your own restoration time over the next several weeks. I never take for granted how much time, energy and commitment it takes to keep SFU thriving; and I am forever grateful to the dedicated faculty and staff who give so much of themselves every day to make us the top-ranked and engaged university that we are.

Among my other pursuits, I'm planning to spend some time this summer preparing for the launch of SFU’s 50^th anniversary campaign this September, as well as pondering how best to commemorate our 50th anniversary in 2015.

I hope you too will pass a little time considering what kind of celebration you'd like to see. We'll start collecting those ideas soon.

This past academic year, we've all worked vigorously to lift SFU's new Strategic Vision off the page and make it a regular part of our daily practice. Thank you for your contributions, individual and collective, to this effort.

But now summer's calling and I hope you find time for a different sort of community engagement – in the park, on the beach, by the lake.

Happy holidays and I look forward to seeing you at the August BBQ and/or in September!