03/12/2018

Good Afternoon MTAS,

I hope you are adjusting well to the earlier time; I am dragging a bit myself today. If you’d like to read a history of daylight savings time, here’s a link to a story someone shared with me entitled “100 Years later, the Madness of Daylight Saving Time Endures”:
https://theconversation.com/100-years-later-the-madness-of-daylight-saving-time-endures-93048?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202018%20-%2096558311&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202018%20-%2096558311+CID_b94a1d7c8cd94b8a61f48afd4ea781a1&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=100%20years%20later%20the%20madness%20of%20daylight%20saving%20time%20endures

Last week I attended the IPS sponsored diversity program. That was one of the best diversity seminars I have ever attended. If you weren’t able to catch it last week, the two hour program was recorded. If you want to watch the recording, please use this link:
http://mediasite.utk.edu/UTK/Play/0878a5e808534ca0bdb6b15181f36edb1d . Kudos go to Elisha who was instrumental in making this program a reality.

Here is an update on some of the hiring we’re doing. For the middle Tennessee management consultant position, we are in the final round of interviews; the search committee recommended two names to me and I will get second interviews scheduled this week. For the training consultant position, the search committee has been formed and resumes have been received and are about to be reviewed. For the business manager position, the search committee has met and has identified a finalist list; and for the Administrative Support Assistant II position (Alana’s job), the position has been posted and we are accepting resumes. Also, a big shout out goes to our most recent hire, Sarah Curtis who started with us March 1 as a training coordinator in the Nashville office. Please make Sarah feel welcome into the MTAS family.

Rick is in the thick of the budget process. We present the MTAS budget to IPS on March 28. It looks like a strong budget year ahead.

I am in receipt of all the Annual Performance Reviews and am tasked with getting those to IPS by the end of this week. Thanks to everyone for your support in getting through the process in a timely fashion.

Speaking of timeliness, that reminds me that I’d like to share with you the results of the biennial customer satisfaction survey (see attached). Timeliness is one of the categories we ask customers about. We also ask about the quality of the service, the level of effort made, the knowledge of the staff, and how useful the information provided was. The scores are strong, and for the five key questions mentioned in the previous sentence, our numbers are even better than in 2015. Way to go MTAS!

Let’s continue the celebrations, and honor Michelle who had a birthday last Thursday. Happy Birthday Michelle!

Finally, I want to thank all of you for your efforts toward the family campaign. As you read in today’s IPS weekly update, our participation numbers are tremendous. Again, way to go MTAS!!

I hope you have a terrific week ahead of you. I’ll leave you with the quote from my planner from last Friday: All things are possible to one who believes – Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

Sincerely,
Margaret