10/22/2001

Ann O'Connell - AnnO, who you may remember used to work in the MTAS library and then used to help create and maintain Notes databases, left MTAS to go to law school at the University of Virginia about three years ago. She graduated and on Friday received notice that she had passed the Tennessee Bar! AnnO is working for a while on a couple of legal publications in our Nashville office. Now, we just have to find a place for her to hang her shingle.

TML Policy Committee Day - About a hundred city officials attended TML's policy committee day last Thursday at the Sheraton in Nashville. We had fourteen consultants who helped prepare the white papers and supported each policy committee. Here's who helped: Dick, Don, Gary, Jim, John, Margaret, Mike, Ralph, Ray, Rex, Roy, Sharon, Steve, and Warren. This was an extra assignment for everyone and I appreciate your work in squeezing it in.

Personnel - We will conduct interviews Friday for the vacant management consultant position. We do not yet have enough applications for the public works consultant position in Knoxville to conduct interviews.

EMAIL FROM OCTOBER 19

I need to report to you that late Friday morning I notified Mary Beatty that she was being laid off. Her last day with MTAS will be Friday, January 18, 2002.

The management team and I have considered this action for some time. The hard conclusion is that we do not have enough work to justify Mary's writer/reporter position. Our needs within MTAS for editing and writing assistance are variable. Some months we have greater needs; and some we have much less. We have found it is more economical and practical to use graduate students from the UTK Department of English for our editing and proofing requirements.

The other part of the writer/reporter's job was to provide editing and proofreading help to TT&C. As you may know, TML has recently undergone a restructuring of their personnel. After careful analysis, it has become clear that TML's needs for communications support are greater than the personnel they have on staff. They have decided to hire a full-time communications specialist. With the changes in staffing at TML, the management team and I evaluated whether or not we could fill the 40-72 available hours each month with MTAS editing. As noted above, the nature of our requirements are such that we think using students better suits our work load.

Although we would have made this change in any event because of the decrease in the workload, we will use this position reduction as part of our reallocation plan required by the University.

Mary started with MTAS in 1993. We wish her well in the future and we have given her three month's notice to help her in the transition to another job. The University has job counseling services which will be available to Mary. It goes without saying that Mary will need your support during this transition period. And, if you hear of a job opening that she would find interesting, please let her know.

Please let me, Sharon, Lisa, or Mike know if you have any questions. Thanks.