The FM employee newsletter Pipeline, will be re-launched next week as a direct result of employee feedback. We conducted a communications survey with 150 front line employees about how they received their information. The survey pointed out that we need to make use of all communication avenues, like supervisors, e-mail and web. What really caught our attention was that fully 65% of the survey respondents indicated they would like to receive a printed newsletter.
Pipeline will come out monthly but we’re going to do things a little differently. In the past we’d print out hundreds of copies and many of them seemed to go directly into the recycling bin. This time around in order to be green environmentally, and to save some green, we’ll e-mail it out to the Office Managers in each work group. They will run a few copies for the muster rooms and can copy more as needed.
Pipeline’s content will be drawn from the FM’s website, FM-wide emails, news from the President and university-wide resources. The goal is to capture information communicated electronically for those FM staff who do not regularly check e-mail or our website.
Great Performance – Steve Gaida, Sheetmetal Worker, Matt Strebe, Energy Engineer, Joel Wagner Energy Tech, Mike Brumbaugh Energy Tech, Roger Lanners, Electrician
Any time you’re talking sports its fun to talk about a win, especially a really big win. Athletics called to see what we could do to get air conditioning in the Bierman building. Matt Strebe did some investigation and found out that the building’s energy wheel was failing. In addition, he had a hunch that the building was using too much energy.
After showing plans to Jay Denny they decided to install variable speed drives to control the building’s air flow. Roger Lainer got them hooked up. Meanwhile, Steve Gaida climbed into 4x5 tunnel to get Matt accurate measurements. Matt used them to draft up plans from which Steve fabricated dampers to pinch air flows.
Once in place Joel and Mike integrated the new drives into the building schedule. In a decidedly low tech move, Joel noticed the fans were running 24 hours a day even though the building was empty at least 8 of those hours. Throttling back the air during that time saved $20,000. All told project savings were $50,000.
Do you think our customers were pleased by saving some money? Here’s what they had to say:
“I wanted to publicly share what an effort Steve Gaida and the FM
service group has put into the Bierman Athletic Building! This
December drives were installed on the supply 16 unit and we have
dropped the airflows to half what they were....this translates to a
$50,000 / year savings in gas and electric. The airflows were
significantly above ventilation standards for the space. With
Steve's thorough (crammed and uncomfortable) work in the Bierman
basement tunnel and penthouse, the athletic department has been able
to capitalize on savings this winter…This type of teamwork helps us
work towards our common goal of providing world class service to our
university! "
Thank you Mr. Gaida, Mr. Strebe, Mr. Wagner, Mr. Brumbaugh and Mr. Lanners! Way to go team.
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