This IFMA Austin News
America's #1 City For Business!
Linda Beth Bradly from the City of Austin spoke to us about the City's preparation for the
millennium bug. One of her main points was to consider this a business problem and not just an IT
(Information Technology) problem. The city began working on the issue in 1996. Each
department has a coordinator and responsibilities have been assign and meetings are held monthly.
Their method has been to build a risk and option matrix. For Austin Electric, there might be a
problem if something goes bananas because we are one of the few states with a static grid. Many
of the city's (state's) systems are old and do not rely on computers. The water and waste systems
is a good example of a manually operated process. Testing has begun and it will continue past
01/01/2000. The manager in that area is on the Presidents Y2K commission so there better not be
any problems in this area.
In the business sector, small banks may be the most venerable type of business. Her words of advice for those who haven't started to prepare was: A. Collect a list of all your computers, the software that you use, and the software that would calculate dates. B. Collect a list of critical vendors. Send letters to all these company's and ask them to validate their Y2K compliance. Then build your risk/options lists.
Progress so far is mixed. Some company's have a sound plan and are well into testing. Some small companies are ignoring the problem. Some will just replace their computers since they are more than a few years old. If you're using Dos or Windows 3.11, you might give it serious thought.
The key is to get things done early and then hide out for a few days. Fortunately for many, the first of the year occurs on Saturday. By Monday, it should be safe to come out of the woods.
Our thanks goes out to Mannington Carpets for picking up the extra cost of the meeting. Did you know they were the only company able to produce non repeating camouflage netting for a special event in early 1991?
by JR Howard
February Quote of the Month
"The Customer Comes Second"
The best way to provide exceptional customer service is to put the customer second, said Diane McFerrin Peters in her general address at World Workplace 98. Focusing on employees ensures that they will, in turn, take care of customers.
One of the highlights of the
Holiday party is the annual awards presentation. This year was no
exception. The recipients were both very deserving individuals.
Their tireless contributions to IFMA Austin Chapter were consistent
and visible throughout the year. Enhanced communications and public image
were areas of marked improvement that any member could not help but notice;
therefore these two people were the logical choice.
Jayne Mortensen
J.R. Howard of Commemorative Brands, Inc. received the "Professional of the Year Award." J.R. readily stepped in to take over the fledgling web page upon Lou Desmond’s resignation. Building upon the solid foundation that Lou had initiated, J.R. has taken the web page to delightful heights. It is interesting, entertaining and a solid resource with helpful links. It has become a frequent source of reference for many FM’s and vendors. If you have not had the opportunity, find a computer and go to www.ifma-austin.org. J.R. has made our chapter shine in the cyber community!
Not only is the work of these two people so worthy of these awards, but their enthusiasm and dedication makes them truly stand out. The best part of all is that they have both agreed to continue in these positions another year! We can look forward to consistent quality that just gets better and better. Please take a minute to call (or e-mail) a word of appreciation and support to these two talented and dedicated people. Congratulations and thank you Jayne and J.R!
Amy is the FM for Lone Star Girls Scout Council
and a Past IFMA-Austin President
Facility Management for Senior Managers
March 15-16th Four Points Sheraton Riverwalk
This two day course was
created specifically for senior-level executives with more than
10-years experience. FM’s that are entering into the realm of
corporate planning will enjoy sessions on: Strategic Thinking, Strategic
Planning, Time Management, Benchmarking and Ethics as well as
Communicating with Higher Management and Scenario Planning.
Awards 1.2 continuing education units and 6 CFM certification points.
Glin W. Jay CFM and director of facility management services at Aguirre Assoc. in Dallas is course facilitator.
Optimizing the Facility Team Inside and Out
March 17th Four Points Sheraton Riverwalk
This course is designed for facility team leaders and team members who are interested in the effectiveness and efficiency of their facility services. You will learn how to evaluate the present performance of your facility team and what you can do to optimize it and align it more closely with client expectations. Awards .7 continuing education units and 6 CFM certification points.
Sharon Rowlen is the course facilitator.
How to Prepare FM for the New Millennium
March 18th Four Points Sheraton Riverwalk
This is the course to learn the "how-to’s" in determining and preparing for the eight highest priorities that significantly can effect facilities. Awards .7 continuing education units and 6 CFM certification points.
Glin. W. Jay is course facilitator.
Please call IFMA Headquarters for details and registration @ 713-623-4362
Nell Ebright is Education Committee Chairperson and Facility Operations Manager for DELL.
Shared Vision
Hard work and dedication
do pay off. It was not by chance that "Fortune Magazine" rated our
city of Austin, Texas as the number one city in the United States
to do business. In my view, Austin was rated number one because of
the pride and effort of professionals like you. People in the government,
private, commercial and industrial sectors have all played a vital part
in this success. As facility professionals, with the intent to stay on
top, we need to have a vision and a mission. The 1999 International
Facility Manager Association vision and mission statements are as follows.
Vision: To universally represent facility management as a profession. Mission: To lead and sustain progress of the facility management profession
The goal for our IFMA-Austin Chapter is a little more specific: "To make IFMA-Austin a highly visible organization in the professional community that attracts membership based on its reputation to develop and educate the facilities professional, and to provide an atmosphere of networking which is beneficial to both the professional and associate membership."
In order to meet this goal, we need good highly motivated people like you. We need involvement from everyone, but more importantly we need commitment. I am pleased to make the following commitments to the IFMA-Austin members this year.
1) To contact at least two IFMA members each week to discuss how to improve our organization.
2) To get two people to join a committee and participate.
I encourage you to make similar commitments to this wonderful organization, that we choose to participate in. Getting you involved in IFMA-Austin will make us number one in the same way the great city that we call home has achieved that status.
Ed Garcia is 1999 President of IFMA-Austin and Facility Manager of Condea-Vista in Austin.
Member Spotlight
Hey IFMA-Austin!
This "Land of Oz" (Kansas) gal, is already
a good friend of IFMA-Austin. As one of our newest members she is
already supporting the chapter as Membership Committee Chairperson.
JoAn may have started as a wheat farmers daughter, however she did not stray to far from the farm or today she works as a Commercial Account Representative for ABC Pest and Lawn Services. Her knowledge of pest control is supplemented by previously working in the waste management industry. If you are planning a full-service kitchen, JoAn’s high level of expertise could keep you from making some poor choices.
JoAn looks forward to working with the FM professionals with ABC and also as our Membership Chairperson. She has high hopes for promoting more active participation with current members as well as increasing our new member roster.
A perfect way to get to know this great lady (and grandmother of five) s to join the membership committee. She has already given us a hint of how active she intends to be. She has volunteered to assist with community involvement and the golf tournament. If we don’t keep JoAn too busy she likes to spend her free time dancing, playing golf and reading.
If you would like to get in touch with JoAn or help her...help IFMA-Austin, she can be reached @ 512-837-8545.
Daniel Allen, CPM, MBA Brock Consulting Group
Cynthia Stewart-Move Solutions
Marshall Duke-Fisher Rosemount
Harold Erbs-Laboratory Tops
JoAn Reames-ABC Pest Control
Thanks for getting involved!
The Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to date.
Mr. Holland Young, Manager of Airport Planning and
Environment will report on how the new airport construction and
operation schedule is proceeding. This slide presentation will be
accompanied by information on a variety of subjects relating to the
new airport. Mr. Young’s presentation will be followed up with a
question and answer session.
| Date: | Thursday Feb. 11th |
| Time: | Registration 11:30 |
| Lunch & Program 12:00-1:00 | |
| Where: | Old San Francisco Steak House |
| 8709 North IH-35 | |
| Cost: | $15.00 Members |
| $20.00 Guests |
Copy the applicable sentence and paste the note to Jan Morgan
I’m going to attend February’s program and will be
bringing a guest(s)
I regret I cannot attend February’s program.
Systems affect called panel creep, where each panels width adds to larger cluster footprints.