The Austin IFMA Newsletter
July 2003 Highlights
by Mary Duke
Linda Delmas kicked off our June meeting by presenting Margo
Dover with Meals on Wheels with a check for $5,000
from IFMA Austin's 2003 Golf Tournament. Sharon Henson recognized all the golf
tournament sponsors. Meals on Wheels provides a daily hot meal at lunch time to
homebound disabled or elderly people
.
(L to R) Sharon Henson, Charles Dixon - IFMA,
Margo Dover - Meals on Wheels
and Linda Delmas - IFMA
Charles Carpenter awards Mia Bennatt her raffle prize.
We had another great turnout - 60 in attendance!
Getting ready to chow down!!
At the June Luncheon, the Austin Chapter presented the Associate & Professional Members of the Year for 2003 year. This year Priscilla Dannemiller was recognized as the Professional Member of the Year and Marty Blank was recognized as the Associate Member of the Year.
The Board of the Austin Chapter has made it a long-standing practice to recognize members who make a contribution to the success of the Austin Chapter and to pick one member from our Associate and Professional ranks for be recognized as that member of the year.
The awards given this year were in recognition of contributions from January 2002 to April 2003. The Board decided to delay these awards, which had been given at the Holiday Party, to realign them with IFMA's annual Awards of Excellence that are comprised of activities from May 1st to April 30th of the following year. IFMA's Awards of Excellence consist of fifteen different categories and it is the Board's hope that our members of the year as well as other Austin member's activities will one day be recognized by IFMA's Awards of Excellence that are presented annually at World Workplace.
Priscilla Dannemiller was chosen for Professional Member of the Year for her contributions for the Austin Chapter newsletter. Priscilla took a leadership position that no one wanted and turned the newsletter into a must-read item. Working with JR Howard, our Website Chair, Priscilla took ownership of the newsletter and tried to improve it every month. She took notes at chapter activities for her stories, sought new material to include in the newsletter from members and from her own research and edited and organized the different tidbits that were thrown her way. We will miss Priscilla presence in the Austin Chapter as she will be having a baby this fall and, unfortunately, her employer, AIM Management Group, will be closing their Austin operations.
Marty Blank was selected as Associate Member of the Year for his willingness to help the Austin Chapter in anyway we could. Early in 2002, Marty volunteered his time, his resources and the finances of his company, Accent Food Services, for the 2002 IFMA Golf Classic benefiting Hospice Austin presented by Schmidt Electric; furthermore, when the 2003 tournament and Meals on Wheels came around, Marty was there to offer his assistance again. Besides his continuing sponsorship, Marty worked with the 2002 Golf Committee to organize the tournament, offered office space to store and assemble necessities for past tournaments, made available Accent's trucks to deliver items to the tournament site and provided bottled water, drinks and snacks to the golfers. Desides being Associate Member of the "Year", Marty was able to support IFMA and two golf tournaments during his award year.
The clock is already ticking on the 2004 award year. There are plenty of opportunities to help the chapter as we plan for the next twelve months. To learn more about IFMA's Awards of Excellence, visit IFMA website at http://www.ifma.org/aoe.
Past committee chairs were recognized and commended for their work as well.
(L to R) Priscilla Dannemiller - Professional Member of the Year
and Linda Delmas, IFMA
Marty Blank - Associate Member of the Year and Linda Delmas
The tentative 2003-2004 IFMA Austin Board members were introduced (there were no opponents running). Linda bid farewell as President of the Austin Chapter and congratulated Sharon Henson on beginning her new term as 2003-2004 President.
(L to R) Linda Delmas and Sharon Henson, IFMA
The Slate of Officers for 2003 thru 2004 are:
· President: Sharon Henson - National Instruments
· Vice-President: Charles Carpenter - First American Flood Data Services
· Treasurer: Glenda Stubbs - Trilogy
· Secretary: Anita Landwehr- EDS
July Luncheon
The July meeting will be held on Thursday, July 10th. RSVP no later than noon, July 7th by e-mailing rsvpifma@yahoo.com
Presentation - Furniture Marketing Group (FMG) -
Trends in the Evolution of Modular Systems
June's program featured Mark Reed, speaking on trends in the evolution of modular/systems furniture that best address the changing office environment. Mark also shared some tools that help determine which features are important as evaluations of current solutions on the market take place.
Mark Reed - Furniture Marketing Group
Some of the highlights were:
· Look beyond the initial project need and consider furniture purchases as a
long-term investment
· The future cost of ownership can often be higher than the initial cost
· Many systems look the same but can vary significantly by their capability to
address future flexibility. Systems can be permanent or flexible.
· Once again, panel trends have changed from low to high and back to low.
Currently, you can use stackable panels that allows more flexibility on panel
height as trends change.
· Mark indicated that FMG has made available to the IFMA members a generic
spreadsheet that allows customers to rate the importance of different functional
features so aesthetics are not a primary decision making item. This spreadsheet
allows you to rate the importance of each feature and then calculates the totals
between the systems being compared. Send Mark an email if you would like a copy
of this tool.
· Because systems furniture does not appreciate in value and is a capital
expenditure, consider leasing as an alternative to buying. If you tie it into
the length of your office lease, you have many more options should you decide to
move at the end of your lease term.
Mark Reed
Account Manager, Chief Marketing Officer
FMG
| Office: 1-972-419-6571 | Mobile: 1-972-467-8998 | www.fmgi.com |
| Fax: 1-972-419-6599 | markr@fmgi.com |
Everyone is listening even after a full meal.
Study Group
Just a reminder, please contact Kelly Quinney with JPM Carpet and Upholstery if you are interested in getting together to review or study information pertaining to the CFM exam. Her contact information is as follows:
| Cell: 512-844-2792 | Phone: 512-380-0446 |
| Fax: 512-380-0444 | E-mail: kquinney@jpm-enterprises.com |
Who's Who in Austin's IFMA?
|  |
| Kelly Burris - State Farm Insurance | Mark Gully - NetQos |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Robin Connolly - University of Texas at Austin | Arlene Neff - CyBerCorp |
UPCOMING 2003 PROGRAMS . . .
| Month | Date(s) | IFMA Meeting Topic or Event |
|---|---|---|
| Jul | 10 Opportunities in the real estate market | |
| Aug | 14 | Annual Networking & Round Table Q&A |
| Sep | 11 | The Texas Accessibility Standards and the Americans with Disabilities Act |
| Sep | 16-18 | ConSec 2003 in the Commons Center at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus |
| Oct | 9 | Facility Tour - TBA |
| Oct | 19-21 | World Workplace 2003 with Facilities America in Dallas |
| Nov | 7 | Facility Management Industry Advisory Council at Texas A&M |
| Nov | 19 | Emergency Preparedness for Facilities (Joint Meeting the ACP) |
| Dec | ?? | Holiday Party |
| Jan | 8 | OSHA in the Workplace |
| Feb | 12 | Facility Tour - TBA |
HELPFUL TIPS:
It's
that time of the year for the killer wasps.
Although female Cicada Killer Wasps rarely sting unless disturbed, homeowners
may become alarmed or frightened because of their very large size (nearly two
inches) and foraging habits in unwanted areas. These solitary wasps may become a
nuisance when they dig holes in lawns, sand base volleyball courts, flower beds,
gardens, and golf course sand traps, kicking out a six to eight inch diameter
horseshoe-shaped pile of dirt (mound) around the nest entrance. Males have
especially aggressive territorial behavior, but have no sting. Females are
difficult to provoke, can sting, but rarely do. The female wasps are not
aggressive and control is rarely needed except in unwanted places. Adults appear
in mid to late summer (July and August) causing special concern to individuals
with young children.
These wasps are commonly seen skimming around the lawn, shrubs
and trees searching for cicadas. Cicadas are captured, paralyzed by a sting and
used for food to rear their young. After stinging a large cicada (in Ohio), the female
wasp drags it up a tree, straddles it and takes off toward the burrow, partly
gliding. When trees are not available, the cicada (prey) is dragged to the
burrow on the ground. Cicadas are very large insects, sometimes called
"locusts." They sing loudly (noisily) in trees during late summer.
Overwintering occurs as a mature larva within a leathery, brown cocoon in an
earthen cell. Pupation occurs in the spring lasting 25 to 30 days. Adult wasps
emerge about the last week in June in Texas. Emergence continues throughout the
summer months. Adults live about 60 to 75 days while
they dig new nesting holes (burrows) in full sun where vegetation is sparse in
light, well-drained soils. Eggs are deposited in July through August. Eggs
hatch in one to two days and larvae complete their development in 4 to 14 days.
There is only one generation per year.
For additional information
In Texas, they are large enough to fly with their kill. If you don't make a noise like a cicada, then you'll be okay...... JR
Good news and bad news . . .
San Antonio Chapter Meeting for Wednesday, July 9
Here's a note from the San Antonio Chapter:
July 9 is the next chapter meeting and the topic is "Addressing Facility Security Issues after 9-11". This open forum allows the opportunity to pose questions to a panel of experts, that offer vast FBI, CIA, OSI, and criminal justice experience, with varied backgrounds in public safety and school, energy, shopping center, ports of entry, corporate security and homeland security. TAP THE INFORMATION BASE AND KNOWLEDGE of these panelists. Become proactive in developing reasonable programs within your operations. CEU & CFM points will be awarded.
See the details
Volunteer for a disaster
Resume Builder
| We hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you have any information,
suggestions, corrections or comments for the next newsletter please contact Mary
Duke via e-mail:
mduke@intelliquest.com Work/VM: 512-314-2105 |
See you next month - same time same place! Have a safe and fun July 4th.