10/09/2017

Hello MTASers:

Happy Monday to you. I hope you had a relaxing weekend and are looking forward to a terrific week ahead.

New beginnings will be the theme of this weekly update. Emily Godwin starts with us today (photo below). She is the new finance consultant who replaces Sharee. She’ll be working out of the Jackson office. Welcome to the MTAS family Emily!




Another new beginning happens at the end of the month for P.J. when she retires. P.J. began working with us on November 30, 2009, but before coming to MTAS she had a long and successful career on campus. P.J., we wish you all the best as you begin your next great adventure. I’m sure your four-legged family members will be ecstatic to have you at home more and to have more time on the hiking trails and in the garden with you.

We have a few vacancies right now and I thought you might appreciate an update on those.
· The management consultant position has interviews scheduled on October 20 in Knoxville.
· Dale’s position questionnaire is being reviewed right now and we are at the start of the hiring process for the business manager.
· We are in the final stages with hiring a public management fellow to be placed in Athens for two years. This position normally rotates among cities/agencies, but the city manager in Athens asked to have the fellow for the entire tenure. The city pays all expenses for this position. We are hoping for an early November start date.
· The Training & Development Coordinator position has been advertised and the person will work out of the Nashville office.

Speaking of the Nashville office, we have officially taken possession of the other side of the sixth floor. Abb is spearheading getting the space reconfigured to best serve our needs. TML still maintains a small space in the center of the floor, but otherwise it’s all MTAS now.

As the calendar year creeps ever toward December 31, please remember the 32 hour target of professional development. MTAS has a history of 100% of staff attaining the goal. Let’s not break the good streak. Don’t forget that Sherri can input your Notes forms into IRIS for you; she’s making this as easy on us as possible. Thanks again Sherri!

Also, please remember the Securing the Human training deadline is in three weeks (end of the month), and the Campus Chest Campaign is ongoing. As with the professional development, I’d love for MTAS to have bragging rights of 100% participation on both of these. Honestly though, it’s so much more than that. Oh, and it’s also insurance renewal time too.

¯¯¯ Celebrate good times, come on! ¯¯¯ Let’s honor Elisha who celebrated a three year anniversary with us last Friday. Thanks and congratulations Elisha!

Oh, and one more thing, thanks to an employee for letting me know my last Mustard was unclear about registrations and purchasing cards. “Registrations” are conference registrations. Armintha and/or Michelle Terry can pay for your conference registration using a p-card so that you don’t have to pay for it out of your own pocket and then wait until after the conference happens to get reimbursed. This is a great change indeed.

Lastly, thanks to everyone for your quick response to my question on Friday about boards and committees that you’ve been asked to serve on. This is really helpful to me; and I’m so pleased to know that we’ve been so well represented.

In closing, I leave you with a quote about new beginnings:

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity. ~Gilda Radner

Margaret