11/28/2018

Good afternoon MTASers,

Well, for me it’s been a whirlwind of the last three weeks; hence my great delay in corresponding with you. Let’s get caught up!

First, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. For me, it’s a shame that I don’t take the opportunity more often to reflect on all the things I have to be thankful for. I certainly count MTAS on that list, and MTAS is you. I am so very grateful to work with a group of dedicated public servants who want to help others. We don’t have a cut-throat culture and more often than not, your first response to someone with a problem is: What can I do to help? I have worked in other places where the first response would be: Too bad for you, but good for me because I can use your problem to my advantage. Colleagues may not have said that to the solution seekers’ faces, but I bet the thoughts were racing through their minds. Here, we look out for each other and our customers; and this is one of the many things I love about MTAS. In fact, just last week, I received an email from a staffer (Warren) complimenting another staffer (Doug). Here is the bulk of the email:

Please know that I appreciate the great work that Doug Brown provided in his role with subject training. Doug is meticulous and always take s care of the logistical support for EOA’s training endeavors.

You all rock. It takes all of us working together to provide the best service to our customers; and as evidenced by the sentences above, you do it well. Thanks for letting me be a part of this with you.

While I’m on the subject of thanks, I want to give you all a big shout out for your support of the campus chest campaign. MTAS achieved a 98% participate rate, and exceeded its designated dollar goal by 37%. I can’t begin to express how pleased and proud you made me when I received the final numbers. This is absolutely a demonstration of your care for others. Other than a possible tax write-off, you do not directly benefit from making this donation (as opposed to the family campaign). You make a difference for your customers, and you make a difference by your giving to people that you may never meet or know. MTAS pledged/raised $12,579 from 46 people. If you do the math, that’s an average of $273.46. Charities are definitely better off for your participation, and I hope you feel good for making your contribution. I’m sitting here smiling in front of the computer just thinking about how great you are with your generosity. Thank you, thank you, thank you; and one last big thanks to Armintha for chairing the effort for MTAS.

Okay, I’m not done with the merriments yet. Given that this Mustard covers three weeks, there are several work anniversaries and birthdays to acknowledge and celebrate. Here we go: Dawn celebrated a birthday on November 11, and Kay did on the 16 ^th , as did Laura on the 18 ^th and Bethany on the 19 ^th . Happy birthday ladies! On the work-front, congratulations on celebrating another work anniversary go to Melissa on the first of November, Kelley on the fourth, Sherri on the fifth, and Doug on the 20 ^th . Collectively, these four have amassed a total of forty years of service. That is amazing – way to go!

Here are a few other updates. The police management consultant search is in the final interview stages. Also, as you know from an earlier announcement, Dennis will be staying with us/not retiring just yet and hence the search for a fire management has been cancelled. Furthermore, the training team has three vacancies: Kurt’s position has been filled with a temporary employee (Joe Hollister) in Nashville and the search for a permanent replacement is in the stage of scoring applicants to interview; the new training consultant position in Memphis is in the process of scheduling interviews; and the search for a training consultant to focus on CMFO is still in the application acceptance phase.

On November 12, the IPS internal feedback committee met. Brett has agreed to serve another term and Michelle T. is completing David Angerer’s term. Thanks to you both for accepting feedback from your peers and presenting the information anonymously.

If you haven’t checked out the MTAS website lately, please give it a view. On the home page, the top banner scrolls five times. One of those five views is MTAS City Bytes. This is the new version of the former “Hot Topics” publication. If you know of a “hot topic” that would be a good candidate for an upcoming City Byte, please tell your supervisor. This is the first of what I hope to be regular and many City Bytes. Kudos to Elisha and Cyndy for a successful first effort on this improved product.

Finally, I attended the TCMA conference in late October and one of the speakers shared this line on diversity versus inclusion: “We don’t see people as they are, we see people as we are.” This struck me, obviously enough to write it down and share it with you. We should keep this in mind always, but as we enter a spiritual holiday season, it seems to take on even greater relevance. Not everyone may celebrate the holidays the same way you do. If given the chance to learn more about someone who celebrates differently, take it.

I hope you have a terrific rest of the week!

Sincerely (and thanks yet again),
Margaret