MTAS Mustard for week ended 2-1-19

 

Hey there MTAS! Good Monday afternoon,

How did you like that cold weather we had last week? Yes, it is winter time in Tennessee. I hope you stayed warm, and cozy; and that if you shoveled snow, that you did it injury free.

Last week, I said a couple of goodbyes. Former Athens mayor, Hal Buttram, passed away on January 26^th and his family received friends on Wednesday. Hal was a gracious man who led with care, respect and passion for his city. He won the Mayor of the Year award from TML in 2014. I count myself as fortunate for having known him and worked with him in Athens. My other goodbye wasn’t so final – that was to Chuck Shoopman as he retired from IPS. The Knoxville folks hosted a nice reception for him and we shared a few laughs over stories through the years. I think each one of us who has any length of tenure probably has a fun Chuck story to tell. Chuck was the first person to introduce me to the Baldrige Award and it’s been a gift that keeps on giving. I studied continuous improvement in graduate school, but the Baldrige process was the first time I’d had a chance to put the theory I’d studied to use.

Also last week I had the opportunity to talk about MTAS to some key university supporters. Many of them came to me afterwards to share their delight in what they learned and said “I didn’t know about your group.” This is why IPS has a goal of “communicating the impact, value and story of IPS.” We do great work for our 345 municipalities and the more people/groups that know about us and what we do, the better.

On the celebration front, I’d like to honor three employees with work anniversaries last week: Michelle Terry on the 30^th, Rick Whitehead on the first, and John Grubbs on the second. Thanks for your combined 26 years of service!

I’ll leave you this week with a few 26 related fun facts:
There are 26 letters in the alphabet
“26 Miles” was a number two hit on the Billboard chart for The Four Preps in 1958
26 is the atomic number of Iron
There are 26 miles in a marathon
and… according to Wikipedia “XXVI Holdings, Inc, named after the Roman numerals for the number 26, is a holding company that is part of Alphabet, Inc., the structure that ultimately owns Google”

Have a great week ahead,
Margaret