09/29/1995

STAFF UPDATE

Long Distance Teleconference - MTAS participated in a teleconference on environmental finance with the University of Maryland and the University of New Mexico on September 13 & 14. The teleconference was sponsored by the Environmental Finance Centers at those universities and MTAS. EPA has funded six Environmental Finance Centers in the ten regions of the country. MTAS is trying to become the Environmental Finance Center for Region IV.

The CGT "smart" classroom in Nashville was the third teleconference site. Our involvement began with Al Major agreeing to speak from Nashville on a panel with three other financial gurus located in Maryland. Problems ensued resulting in MTAS taking over the registration and coordination of the teleconference at the Nashville site. Eventually, we had to develop a mailing list (thanks to the library); draft a letter and mail invitations (thanks to Armintha Loveday).

The teleconference used the same compressed video technology that we have used for our staff meetings. The time zone changes created quite a challenge and always required confirmation such as " . . . that's 12 noon Nashville time.

Al involved his contract partners at CG&L to cosponsor the event. The teleconference was a success and allowed CG&L to preview the compressed video technology. The Bureau of Environment is looking for an efficient means of communicating with their basin offices. Ron Graham, Director of CG&L, liked what he saw and is promoting this technology within the Bureau.

New Staff - Carole Graves, Communications Consultant, starts work Monday, October 2. Shell spend two days in Knoxville before coming to and staying in Nashville. Carole has a degree in Journalism from UT and comes to us from the public relations department of the Knoxville Airport Authority.

New Computers -As we mentioned at the IPS retreat, we have 11 new computers on order. All the PCs but not all their parts were delivered to the Knoxville office on Thursday (were still missing a few of the new monitors). Heres where they are going and what we are going to do with some of the machines they replace. The three new portables are a little faster and have color screens. The new desktops have Pentium processors (586) and are faster, too. We are trying to upgrade all of our computers as fast as we can and will probably buy another bunch of PCs after we have had a chance to see how well our revenue looks in January.

If you have any questions about the allocation or choices, please call me. I worked with the computer committee (Jim, Sally, and Lisa) but I made the final list.

Ed Archer - new desktop CPU
Mary Beatty - new desktop and 17" monitor
Ray Crouch - new portable
Jim Finane - new desktop CPU
Sid Hemsley - new desktop CPU
Ronnie Neill - new portable
Sandy Selvage - new desktop CPU
Lisa Shipley - new desktop CPU
Bob Schwartz - new portable
Sally Thierbach - new desktop CPU
Carole Graves - new desktop and 17" monitor
Bobbie Sams - new desktop CPU

The domino effect from these purchases is:

Armintha Loveday gets the desktop from Lisa Shipley (486/100)
Flora Williams gets the desktop from Sandy Selvage (486/50)
Al Major gets the desktop from Sally Thierbach (486/50) -- desktop CPU
Library Student gets the desktop from Carole Graves, Communications Consultant (CompuAdd)
Codes Student gets the desktop from Sid Hemsley (486/50)
Rex Barton gets (got) laptop from Ray Crouch
Dick Phebus gets the portable from Bob Schwartz (larger HD)
Scanner (Knoxville) gets the desktop from Armintha Loveday (486/50)
Scanner (Nashville) gets the desktop from Jim Finane (486/50)
Extra laptop loaner from Ronnie Neill (486/25) goes to Nashville
Extra laptop loaner from Dick Phebus (486/25) stays in West Tennessee
Extra laptop from Ed stays with Ed at least until he finishes teaching his course
Extra laptop from Al stays with him for travel for the time being

Computer Support - One of the problems Lisa Shipley has is that because she can answer so many questions about our systems, she gets asked a lot of questions. Please try to understand that her work load is particularly high and if there is any way for you to fix the problem or ask someone else on your team, it sure would help. Also, her workload will increase as we install and transfer all the computers. We are going to hire a computer friendly student to help Lisa, but we haven't found anyone yet.