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Pat on the Back Awards April 2009

Congratulations to —

I would like to nominate our custodian for the Prakken building - Karen Youngs. Karen took over the job from someone else and had a lot of work to do to make things look good again in this building. She comes in every afternoon with a smile and we all enjoy seeing her start her shift. The building has never looked so good and Karen definitely takes pride in her work and her student follows her lead. We TRULY appreciate Karen and hope she stays our custodian for a LONG time.

Christa Walker in UA and M is the graphic designer for the commencement books for graduation and she has made the process of creating them much less stressful for everyone involved. She's always willing to squeeze a last minute name into the layout, and she finds fun and friendly ways to remind people of their deadlines to supply information. We appreciate her!

I would like to nominate Phil Tetsworth, Bonnie Thebo, and Barb Rice for their efforts in our food pantry donations. Every week, a local food pantry is donated money from the efforts of these people. This is a great service to the community and they deserve recognition for the idea and effort. THANKS!! Also thanks to everyone else who participates, I am sure that it helps many families in need.

I am nominating Chris Vodry for going the extra mile. Late on a Friday afternoon I had a last minute urgent request that I made of her. It was 10 minutes before she was to leave for the day and she had plans that evening. Chris stayed and got the job done. Chris is very organized, thorough, and professional in all that she does. She helps out whenever she sees people struggling or overwhelmed. She is an asset to the College of Business in many ways.

I nominate Kevin Rose for this award. He is the Custodian for the Second Floor of the Timme Center where Admissions and Records is located. He has been doing an outstanding job and our floor literally shines as a result of his efforts. Almost daily, we have large groups of prospective students and their parents coming to visit our floor. It is our only chance to make a great first impression with them. Because of Kevin's dedicated work, our area is clean, neat, and inviting. We appreciate his efforts in helping to attract students to the University. Great Job, Kevin.

I would like to nominate Kevin Rose (our new custodian) for a pat on the back award. In his short time at CSS 201, he has worked extremely hard to clean things up and keep them that way. He shows that he has tremendous pride in keeping our floor clean and many have commented that things have never been cleaner. I appreciate all his extra efforts. He definitely deserves a pat on the back. Thank you Kevin!

Over six days from March 9th to March 14th, the entire contents of the Rock Cafe from pictures to utensils and everything in between, needed to be relocated to the storage area of the Mascar basement for the Rock renovation. Glenn Zobel, and crew (Kimberly Walters, Dan Vanhorn, Marianne Vanhorn, Ken Starner, Bill Ruppel, Ron Patterson, Ed Green, Mike Toles, Bill Benedict, Dick Spedowske, Brian Krum, Lisa Willson), did an excellent job of shuttling these items from the Rock to Mascar. But the true "Pat on the Back" needs to go to six trainees that actually made this happen. Laura Ward, Kari Yost, Jim McIntyre, Sue Iverson, Cindy Kozminski, and Nicole Wright. All Dining Services trainees worked for six days worked outside their usual kitchen duties in Dining Services. Packing, sorting, and stacking items without fuss or complaint all week. This mission would not have been completed without their total dedication to the cause. I was very proud to have them as co-workers in this operation. Their attitude and dedication was outstanding. Thanks for a job well done.

I would like to nominate the HVAC crew (Bill Ruppel, Ed Green, Greg Kehr, Eli Williams, Tim Pullen, Mike Toles, Scott Ruiter, Bill Conrad). In the midst of all the scheduling confusion I asked my shop team to set aside their priorities last Monday and find a way to completely remove and reclaim the refrigerant at the ROC along with salvage on any usable equipment. In a matter of six working hours they had worked on 36 pieces of equipment using regulatory methods and safely prepared all the refrigeration equipment for storage or disposal. This includes a 25 ton chiller (5 years old), the DDC computer control, exhaust fans, 2 kitchen make up air (2 years old) 9 freezer/cooler refrigeration systems ( 3 years old), along with all the refrigerant., pressure switches, and other parts. I pushed them to keep within regulatory procedures making it much more difficult to get this done in the short window. They had to find creative methods to save time. I never doubted they could do it; they have never let FSU down yet. They did this with enthusiasm and professionalism. There were moments of mixed messages and communication gaps, however they remained calm and focused. They need to be recognized for this accomplishment just like so many others are cited in "pat on the back" type media. The University should be proud of their work and recognize their effort.

I would like to nominate Rob Wagner for an FSU Pat-on-the-Back award. Rob is a programmer in the Timme Center. He has to work with a lot of strong personalities. He is always kind and he is the most humble person I have ever met. He never makes anyone feel dumb for not understanding the programmer piece of our jobs. He is always willing to stay late and drop everything to help someone. I wish I could be more like Rob. He is just a kind, hardworking and peaceful person.