Good Monday Afternoon MTAS,

I hope you had a pleasant weekend. Fall certainly seems to have arrived in East Tennessee with the first really cool (some might even call them cold) nights and crisp mornings. The peak leaf viewing is roughly late September through mid-November. You still have time, so I hope you can get out and enjoy the scenery.

Speaking of scenery, Frances shared a couple of vacation photos with us. Here is what she tells us about her trip:

During our annual vacation last week (10/8) at Pawley’s Island, SC with friends and family, I visited the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge was established in 1932 and encompasses 66,000 acres of estuary, beach and maritime forest (and a bazillion mosquitos). It’s only accessible by boat and is simply beautiful. We saw lots of different birds (my friends in the picture are real bird nerds), old oaks, a small snake, dolphins and even a shark on the boat ride back to land.





In the Catchup this week, Gary Jaeckel was the guest blogger on leadership. He talked about empathy, and the need for more than just listening, but an understanding of a person’s state. I really liked how he used the illustration from one of his customers to make the example real. This is the kind of storytelling that we’ve been talking about in the IPS strategic plan. Every day, each thing you do at the office matters. You may think you’re just “doing my job” but to the person on the receiving end of what you so, it’s a whole lot more. Thank you, and thanks to Gary for this week, and last week (Chris Shults) for making MTAS look so awesome.

As you have already heard, Dr. DiPietro has announced his retirement. IPS and the Foundation are hosting a farewell reception in the Knoxville office on November 15 from 11:00 – noon (Eastern time). Everyone is invited to attend. If you are not in Knoxville and need help with travel arrangements, just ask your supervisor for assistance. If you’re planning on attending, please RSVP to Melissa Smith at
msmith@utfi.org by November 12. Dr. DiPietro has done a lot for the university and for IPS. If you’d like to contribute toward a retirement gift for him (it will be a commissioned painting) from IPS, then Gail White will be accepting cash through November 11. If a check is more your speed, then make it out to Gail or me and we’ll handle it from there.

On the subject of giving, kudos to all of you who have taken part in the Campus Chest campaign. If you’re a procrastinator, then your time is almost up (November 2 is the close of the campaign). As a reminder to those who get confused by the two campaigns, the campus chest campaign is for charities and other non-profits. The university serves as the collection agency for these places. The other effort is the UT Family campaign and that’s where you’re invited to give money to the UT cause of your choice. They seem to come on the heels of each other and hence the possible confusion. I encourage you to support both campaigns.

While I normally cover the week in review, I wanted to let you know now that the new student worker for the research and information center started today. His name is Evan Warren and he is a junior at UTK majoring in Child and Family Studies. Evan is a native of Alcoa, TN and most recently worked for the Alcoa school system providing IT support. We are excited to welcome Evan to MTAS! Also today Mike Tallent rejoined team MTAS. Mike is filling in for Honna while she’s out for a couple of months. For the new folks, I’m including a photo of Mike. Welcome back Mike, we’re glad you’re here!





More on the celebration front… Happy Work Anniversary to Laura who joined MTAS on October 17, 2016. Wow, has it been two years already?! Time flies…

I’ll leave you with a little flight factoid: The Boeing 747 wing-span (195 feet) is longer than the Wright Brothers first flight of 120 ft. (
https://www.flightcentre.com.au/travel-news/travel-news/25-interesting-fun-aviation-facts-never-knew )

Have a great week MTAS – go soar!
Margaret