2004-2005 BOARD ELECTIONS
Another year has come and gone and with this comes a change of leadership. Sharon Henson, CFM, and our current President is handing over the reigns to Charles Carpenter. Sharon has provided IFMA with a drive and dedication that we all strive for. She has given us a solid direction in which will make each successive year much easier for all of us and has raised the bar for all of us as members. Sharon, we thank you for all of your long hours and hard work. The election of the current open position of Secretary has ended in a run-off between Mark Negro, Property Manager with Sears, and Kelly Quinney, Commercial Account Manager of JPM Enterprises. Be sure to get in your votes for this position. Be sure to look at the ifma-austin.org website for their bios. We have many opportunities for those who want to help IFMA-Austin. Watch for one of the many openings as Chair and team members for our various committees. We need volunteers to help run our great association.

Annual ifma-austin awards

Volunteering for IFMA-Austin involves a great deal of time and dedication—our organization doesn’t run on auto-pilot. Those who participate bring a great deal of experience, knowledge and fresh ideas that benefit us all. Those behind the scenes help keep you up to date with programs and seminars, events such as our networking socials, the holiday party, golf tournament and much more. Others work hard with our membership drive, directory and last but not least publish the newsletter and administer our website—and provide professional bookkeeping and direction.        The winner’s this year are: Mary Duke, Professional Member of the Year  Kelly Quinney, Associate Member of the Year J. R. Howard, Excellence in Web Design Jim Coles, Chapter Administrator Guru

Special points of interest: Board Elections Annual Awards  Crime Prevention  Strategic Planning  Tour/Happy Hour  Good-bye  Chuckles  Anita’s Vacation

June 10 Lunch Meeting Presentation: AUSTIN Police Dept Organized Crime Division
Scott Stephens, Speaker
Scott has been a police officer for 26 years and has 24 years on the streets of Austin. Scott has a degree in Criminal Justice from Southwest Texas State University. He is currently assigned to the Austin Police Department Organized Crime Division. Scott is coordinator for the Police Department’s Landlord Training Program, Crime Prevention for Overnight Lodging Seminars, and a trainer in personal safety and violence in the workplace, narcotics/gangs, as well as robbery prevention and survival for area banks. Scott has attained certification as a Master Police Officer by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education and is certified as an instructor for the Texas Real Estate Commission. Scott also has been an instructor for the Texas Municipal Court Education Center.

 Scott began the program with the statistic that thus far in Austin, there have been over 30 bank robberies . . . And, that there is a 60% capture rate. Most of the crimes that are committed are narcotic based—and support cocaine and heroine, et al habits. Gangs are also another problem. Gangs originated from prison gangs and they continue to operate once a prisoner is released back into society. They show up in all walks of society. Members of gangs are identifiable by the tattoos they wear.

• Plan for natural surveillance—good lighting to prevent dark areas where a crime could occur or where someone could hide.
• Also use landscaping less than 6 feet in height—thus creating a bank of visibility.
• You can also use HID lights which give you uniform lighting across your property.
• The use of motion lights is not a good idea. Criminals can easily defeat these types of lights..
• Use good signage, including marking public versus private entrances Call 911 or 311 if you see suspicious people on your property.

1. React immediately—practice “what-if” scenarios 
2. Resist—fight like hell—use pepper spray or a taser gun 
3. Do not let the criminal take you to another location—you will be isolated and your chances of surviving decrease significantly 
4. Never give up! Look for an opportunity to escape and take it.

 ACCESS CONTROL
Create the perception of risk

• Guards
• Security cameras (either live or dummy)

PERIMETER CONTROL

• Build exterior walls
• Use video surveillance
• Make sure your building has easily visible address signage for responders

• Create a workplace violence plan
• Create a threat management team
• Have someone meet with emergency responders to lead them to the crime scene
• Have a site map of your property available
• Have all of your property identified
• Plan for a command post—this should be approximately 300 feet from your building.
• Remember, the police department will not search for bombs—this is your responsibility
• Insure that you re-key locks after every incident
• Organize a safe place to go in the event of an emergency
• Look for internal escape routes—can you be trapped behind your desk?
• Are there things on your desk that can be used as a weapon?
• Gang graffiti—take a photo of it and give to police.
• Paint over it immediately.
• For gang related activity—call 974-9609.
• For drug related activity—call 974-8610.
• Crime statistics for neighborhoods can be found at www.city.ci.aus.tx.us\police

A special ‘THANK YOU” goes to Brian with Accent Foods for sponsoring our June Meeting.! Thanks for the “treats”!

Programs

 

Month	Date	Topic
July	8	Building Tour - State Farm,  social hour
July	13	IIDA meeting on Green Buildings
August	12	Seminar--Buying on Value, Not Price Improving perfromance in the construction industry
September	9	Monthly Meeting - Tentatively Planned for Austin Energy
September	20-21	Combined Heat & Power Roadmapping Workshop
September	21	Texas Green Power Parnership Recognition Luncheon
September	22-24	World Energy Engineering Congress
September	24-26	Renewable Energy Roundup and Green Living Fair

 

Strategic planning for ifma-austin

The Board and Committee members met on June 17 from 12 noon to 5 pm to plan for the 2004-2005 year at the National Instruments Briefing Center. Charles Carpenter, President, discussed areas of improvement and subjects for programs for the upcoming year. The Board also began to organize the 2005 committees.xx

JULY TOUR  Charles announced that there will not be a lunch meeting during July—instead, we will be having another tour. Our July 8th Program will be a "2 for 1" opportunity. As our original program called for a tour, we will be touring the 450,000 sq. ft. State Farm facility off Parmer Lane and RR 620. The tour begins at 5:30 pm. Adding to the program that evening, we will also have a presentation on the road construction in the area from either TxDOT or one of the contractors on the project. After the Tour and Program, we will be hosting an IFMA Happy Hour at Mesa Rosa Mexican Restaurant, 15515 Ranch Road 620 North. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to rsvpifma@yahoo.com by 5 July. In August, we are planning to have a professor from Arizona State University in for a seminar that will include CEU’s. The subject will be how you can cut down on change orders and get the bang out of your buck!!

A sad goodbye . . . & endearing thanks

We bid farewell to our commander and chief—Sharon Henson. She did an outstanding job this past year and was one of our strongest leaders yet.. We’ll miss you. Hope to see you in one of our committees . . . Charles awarded her a plaque for her hard work and great leadership.

Drawing Winners

The winner for this month’s free lunch was James McKinney and Bobby Jones of McKinney and Jones—congrats fellas!

 

CHUCKLES!!!!!

 

Anita Landwehr Tours Europe! And, what did you do over your summer vacation? I wanted to share with everyone the highlights of Anita’s get away . . . Take me away Calgon! Europe was wonderful and each day was full of surprises. I am a very spontaneous person and for travel I do not make moment by moment plans. That is only for people that like to stick with tour groups. First stop on the way to Europe was Boston. Spent a night and day there sightseeing in this wonderful historical city and finished it off with a Lobster dinner and champagne. Great way to start a vacation. Next stop was Paris, France. I flew in, was picked up by friends and driven to Nancy, France. Nancy is a beautiful city that sits in a valley with gorgeous hills, lots of parks, a large university and smaller colleges. This city has a lot of students and retired people. I was staying with a retired couple that took me to many lovely places like castles, old churches, botanical gardens, American military cemetery and great places for lunch. From Nancy I took the train to Zurich, Switzerland to stay with a friend for 4 days. She had some friends that drove us to Lucerne, Switzerland on my first day and it was the most wonderful city I have ever visited. Lucerne is a beautiful city at the foot of the Alps and surrounded by Lake Lucerne. It is one of, if not the most expensive city to visit. It is without a doubt the cleanest city I have ever experienced. We visited the Birkenstock peak and then took a cable car to the top of Pilatus (famous mountain you see in the back drop of Lucerne on postcards). The ride in the cable car was fantastic. There lots of hikers, mountain bikers, cows all with bells, and deer. There was also a summer sledding course that I would liked to have time to do. At the top there were lots of people from all over the world and the view was breathtaking. We took a train down the other side of the mountain and I saw my first mountain goat on a cliff. Once at the bottom we walked to a boat that took us for a two hour tour around Lake Lucerne and ended up at the city right at sunset and had dinner at a sidewalk cafe. Zurich was also beautiful with great restaurants and wonderful parks. Next train took me to Binzen, Germany which is a very small village about a 15 minute ride from Basel, Switzerland. I spent four days getting reacquainted with cousins, aunts & uncles I had not seen in 24 years. They have a winery and I spent a lot of time in the winery and sampling everything I could. Next train took me to Dijon, France where they make the Dijon mustard. I was only in Dijon for a couple of hours and then was driven to a small village called Cresseys/Tille. This was a beautiful little village of 200 people. The friends I stayed with have a very old house that used to be a cafe. It had a wine cellar and for most of the 3 days I spent there, we sampled quite a bit from that region. The champagne was out of this world. I was in this little village for the D-Day festivities which is a huge deal for the French. They were happy to have an American to share the experience with. The next train took me back to Nancy. From there I visited another small village for 2 days called San Michiel. This is the town where they have the most beautiful canal and the famous bridge that Patton crossed, of which it is named after. They also took me to the Battle of Verdun memorial. Now I know why the French would rather be lovers instead of fighters. There were a lot of American memorials around this small town. On my last day in Nancy the French cooking school held their graduation dinner. I had the good fortune to be invited as a guest to the dinner. It was absolutely wonderful!! The next train took me to Paris for two wonderful days, and nights in this beautiful romantic city. I visited the Eiffel Tower for two days in a row, took the elevator to the top. Also went to the Arc Du Triumph and the Louvre. The Louvre was superb and I cannot wait to go back. 1 day is not enough time. Yes I did see the Mona Lisa. The Cafes were wonderful and the French were rude at times but I loved that, it is all part of the experience.

We hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you have any articles, information, suggestions, funnies, corrections or comments for the next newsletter please contact Mary Duke via e-mail: MaryDu@FMGI.com, Phone 512-908-4662.