01/22/2016

OK, everybody sing along with me… Oh! The weather outside is frightful ……………………………

· One of the things we a citizens enjoy is the freedom to contact and discuss any issue at any time with our elected representatives…but as public employees, some legislation and University policies give us some guidance as to how we must best do that. Attached is an email from Anthony Haynes I received a little earlier today. Please take a few minutes to open and read it…and if you have any questions about it, make sure you have answers to them before proceeding. Thanks in advance for careful attention to this.

· The IPS Senior Leadership Team (Herb Byrd, Chuck Shoopman, Steve Thompson, Gary Peevely, Paul Jennings, Robin Roberts, Don Green, Judie Martin, Susan Robertson, Gail White, Scott Gordy, myself) meet each month, which we did on Wednesday of this week. Due to the weather and the fact that the UTK campus was closed due to the weather, the meeting was unique in that several of the team participated by Zoom. Usually, we meet in person and the meetings rotate among Nashville, Oak Ridge and Knoxville. This year in MTAS, Rick and I will be meeting with the program managers the day after the IPS team meeting so that I can pass along information learned…and the program managers will pass along important information to the employees in their work groups. Should the timeliness of the information require it, you’ll hear directly from me very soon after the IPS meeting.

· Next week, Nick Meanza will join us as a member of the training team. Nick will be working with Macel to work with us on municipal court clerk related special projects in an Administrative Office of the Courts grant funded term position. Nick is an attorney and a U.S. Air Force veteran. During his military career, he served in several overseas assignments, including Afghanistan. He has had a very interesting legal career while serving all of us in the military. Welcome, Nick! We look forward to your being with us.

· Lastly, remember a few things…
o What each of you do every day for our customers and each other is recognized and appreciated.
o “He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help”. – Abraham Lincoln
o “It’s almost impossible to score well in golf on Jekyll Island when it’s raining so hard you can’t see the pin from a hundred yards out” . – Jim Thomas

Be safe and take care of yourself during this amazingly crazy weather.

Jim Thomas, Executive Director
UT Municipal Technical Advisory Service
(O) 615. 532.4950 (C) 615.972.9219

jim.thomas@tennessee.edu

www.mtas.tennessee.edu