Susan Carkeek wanted to express her gratitude to UNM staff members, so she served them pancakes.
She was one of 21 administrators who served breakfast in the SUB Ballroom at 7:30 Monday morning.
"We did it as a small way to show our appreciation to staff," she said. "We thought it would be a fun way to serve staff, to recognize them for all the ways they serve UNM."
A pancake breakfast kicked off the second annual UNM Staff Week. Members of the administration such as Rudy Davalos, the athletic director, and Carkeek, the associate vice president of Human Resources served pancakes to people who attended.
Carkeek said she was pleased with the turnout for the breakfast.
Francis Montoya, a broadcast-uplink operator at KNME who was at the breakfast, said although being served by administrators was a nice touch, the best part of the breakfast was meeting other members of UNM staff.
"They check your ID at the door," Montoya said. "That's the first sign we don't really know each other."
Staff members were served three pancakes each, although some, including Montoya, went back for seconds.
Karin Retskin, administrative coordinator for the UNM Staff Council, said about 400 people attended the breakfast.
Retskin said the week is meant to help staff meet each other and to show appreciation for the services they provide at UNM.
"It's a real recognition of the staff community," Retskin said. "It's a celebration of staff, for staff, by staff."
She said last year's Staff Week cost less than $500, and she expects the same of this year. The money comes from the UNM Staff Council's budget.
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She said the events rely heavily on material donations from companies such as Aramark and Creamland. All food for the event was provided by Aramark, and Creamland is supplying ice cream at a concert on Friday, she said.
Staff also contribute supplies to events like the book swap in the SUB, where books donated by other members of staff are given away. Retskin said about 5,000 books were exchanged at last year's event.
Kitty Hays from Zimmerman Library said she was not sure how many books were at Wednesday's book swap, but after moving them "it felt like 10,000."
Today is the health focus day of Staff Week. There will be a blood drive for staff from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Honor's Plaza. The Student Health Center will also discuss services they provide that are available to members of staff, Retskin said.
Although Staff Week has gone smoothly so far, Retksin said it is difficult to plan events everyone can enjoy.
"I think our biggest challenge has been coming up with events that our entire campus community from the main campus can participate in," Retskin said.
She said she would like to see more support from managers during future staff weeks. She said since many managers are reluctant to let employees out of work to attend Staff Week events, Staff Council tries to plan events so the maximum number of people can attend.
"The biggest thing we would like to do is get managerial support so we don't have to book everything over the lunch hour," Retskin said.
