April Meeting

Judy Roessner was already in motion when I arrived. She was sounding the alarm that facility managers needed to provide adequate light, address temperature preferences, and ensure people had access to information.  If you don't, people lead more stressful lives.  The goal is to allow for customerization and flexibility. 
Common Myths:
     a. We can't have a distraction free work areas.
     b. We can provide a distraction free open office area
     c. We are a more open organization
     d. We lean from hearing other conversations around us.
     e. We can't have enclosed space because it's too costly.
Where do we spend most of our time.. most of our time is by ourselves.  Of course private offices yield fewer distractions.  Sliding doors save a bunch of space. ( It's harder to hit someone with a sliding door).  Most of the furniture makers are providing vertical storage to save space.
Do you know your customer's satisfaction level? Few managers use it, but a good  tool is a customer feedback form.
Now that we are all connected to electronic media, the hardest bit of information to get is financial paper based literature.
The most productive workspace occurs when people are allowed to have artifacts.  This means you can decorate your living space with knickknacks, pictures, and in general fill up all the blank spaces on your walls, computer, and desk top.  Artifacts can also mean leaving a private work area just as if you haven't quite finished your work.  It's easier to pick up where you left off.

Most people can't keep a fast pace for more than an hour.  A ping pong break is good.  A little exercise reduces health problems too. 

When you are doing a new space, consider full height partitions with frosted glass. Vary the heights of your patitions, use colors with a splash, think wireless. maybe you need a floor with plug & play, have you considered white, pink, or gray noise?  The challenge is how to make the state of the art.... cost effective.

Julie told everyone to come on out for Karaoke night on April 16th at 5:30. You never now what you might do after a few drinks.  It's only $5 for a very good time.

Judy said the May meeting is a joint get together with BOMA and several organizations that are involved with real estate.  Please RSVP to Linda Delmas.

 J. Robert Howard
FMA, CFM

It's that Time of Year Again. 
Termite Swarm Season

Before you know it, its here. Spring is in the air, the temperature starts to warm, and you feel the first beginnings of the season's humidity.
Then they come.  The sheer numbers, hundreds, maybe thousands of tiny flying insects.  They can be overwhelming and disconcerting.  What are they?  Why are they here?  What can we do about them?

They are usually one of two insect varieties.  They can be carpenter ant swarmers, or they may be subterranean termite reproductive or alates.  Their onslaught can be sudden and massive.  Window sills and floor perimeters are soon covered with dead or dying insects.  Are they harmful or dangerous?
While the large numbers can be frightening, termite reproductives are not dangerous.  They do not bite or sting.  They might be a nuisance, and they might get in your hair, but they won't harm you.  The swarming usually subsides within a day.  They will sometimes swarm again a week or two later.  Often, they are the first sign that a termite colony may be infesting your home or office.
What to do? Call your pest management professionals.  A highly trained inspector will come out, identify the insect species and provide you the best options to bring the situation under control.

By Manny Martinez
ABC Pest Control and Lawn Services

The Ballots are coming soon.  Fill out and return promptly.

From: Bob Payne, CFM
 I am permanently retiring on 1 March 2002 after 25 years in the Navy and 22 years, on this job and 35 years in the Facility Management business. I do not intend to work in facilities management in the future so I am allowing my CFM to expire gracefully this year and am formally resigning from the Austin Chapter of IFMA. I have enjoyed my association with the Austin Chapter of IFMA for the past ten years. It has been an extremely rewarding experience in many ways on many levels. First, I have learned a lot about my chosen profession through my IFMA associations, especially the IFMA educational materials but also through networking with my friends at monthly meetings. I sincerely believe the IFMA educational courses at World Work Place, Best Practices, the local seminars, the monthly meetings and the magazines have contributed a lot to my success as a Facility Manager. My introduction to the ADA, to the Clean Air Act, and updates on OSHA all came to me through IFMA and have allowed me to stay on the cutting edge of Facility Management. Second, I made a lot of very good friends in IFMA over the years and they have all enriched my IFMA experience in one or more ways. Some will be on my "friends for life" list and others will always be fond memories of good times in good company doing good work. Third, participating as an officer or board member of the local chapter has been a rewarding experience in and of itself. Working with a dedicated group of like minded professionals to achieve common goals gives one a degree of self confidence and satisfaction that few other enterprises can match. Not only have I been allowed to make significant and valuable changes in the organization, I have been very well rewarded by recognition from my peers. This not only makes me feel good about myself but it has helped my career a lot because my boss thinks I must be pretty good if the best Facility Managers in the business all get together and give me some kind of award. My framed CFM certificate proudly hangs on my office wall in a very prominent place for all to see. I shall now hang it in my den at home in a prominent place for all to see, and to remind me how much I have enjoyed being a part of such a great organization. Thank You all and Goodbye,

Robert R. Payne, 
CFM Manager of Facilities 
SAS Institute Inc. 
 robertedithpayne@cs.com 

The 1991 Green Lights Program has been incorporated into the Energy Star for businesses and home. There are only 2 Austin buildings on their energy star rated buildings. Why don't you plug your numbers in, and see if you meet their standards.

Reducing watts lowers the cooling bill 6-30% of the light reduction (bigger in the south)

------Efficiency is measured in lumens per watt. 

A Rule of thumb for 100 foot candles - you need 3.3 watts per sq ft. To figure the number
of lamps. (area * 3.3)/ 32 watt lamps or one lamp per 10 sq ft.

Task lights:  The trend is to cut your area lighting by half and make it up with task lighting. People don't turn task lights off as much as they turn off private offices.  The area lighting is almost always on until the janitors clean.

Change from uniform lighting to a layout that matches the user. Providing your churn rate is low

Clean lamps and reflectors as required in your environment. Light levels go down with age too.

My strategy: reduce all light levels - look good to management.  Immediately increase levels where there are complaints - look good to the individual customer (Hawthorne affect -  if you care about people, productivity will go up.)

Use lighting controls to turn off lights automatically - tie it in with the time clocks and shut down the utilities in that area too. Motion controllers in conference rooms and rest rooms can have a pay back of two years too, but probably longer.

Disconnect lights near windows if you don't have controls to do it.
LED exit lights. If yours are incandescent, it's a no brainer to replace them.

In Excel there are some formulas to evaluate cost and payback.
NPV= @NPV(rate, values) to prioritize and compare projects
IRR=@irr(valves, guess) to decide if a project is profitable
Simple Payback cost/yearly savings

Best Ways to Save

· Design light quantity and quality for the task
· Maximize lamp and ballast efficiency (don't go cheap)
· Use automatic controls to turn lights off and dim day lit spaces
· Establish maintenance schedule for relamping & cleaning
· Use Energy Star Labeled exit signs
· Establish responsible disposal practices

Develop a plan, communicate, execute

Recommended light levels in foot-candles · .8-3.6 Parking lots · 5 Building entrance · 10 Hallways, loading, unloading · 25 Offices with computer screens (add 25 fc task lights)             · 30 stockroom storage, low-volume retail · 50 Average Reading and Writing · 100 High-Volume retail

Typical CRI values  (Color Rendition Index, the higher, the better) · 0 Low-pressure sodium · 22 High-Pressure Sodium standard · 15/50 Mercury Vapor (clear/coated) · 53 T12 Warm White · 62 T12 Cool White · 65 High-Pressure Sodium deluxe · 65-70 Metal Halide (clear/coated) · 75-98 T8 · 80-85 Compact fluorescent · 85 White HPS · 98 Incandescent/Halogen

J. Robert Howard
FMA, CFM

 Now here is a Class Act.  Graduates Mary Duke & Faith Herschap are flanked by instructors Judy Roessner and Earnie Leake.    The Step Program began in October of 2001.  It's goal is to prepare candidates for their certification test and to increase anyone's general knowledge on the core competencies as defined my IFMA.   About 12 people were at the last class.  Mary and Faith have stayed the course and are ready.  Contact Earnie for future classes.

New Members

Mia Bennatt is in Corporate Sales at Innovative Interiors mbennatt@innovativeinteriorsinc.com

Joseph Tracy is a Project Manager in the Beck Group joetracy@beckgroup.com