-
My 1st Method 9!
-
I mentioned in my last entry that I was looking forward to an upcoming opportunity to conduct my first EPA certified Method 9 visible emission (VE) performance test. Well, I completed the test on May 06. I started preparing the day before by reviewing the previous years test, then left the office around 4:30 to pick up a rental car. I headed out first thing in the morning for Sedalia, MO, about 1.5 hours southeast from KC. This is old territory for me, as Sedalia is about 30 miles northeast of Warrensburg, MO, my alma mater of Central Missouri State University. But it's been a good 10 years since I had reason to be in the area. I arrived at the client site, met the client contact & was taken through the plant to the roof access where the client & I discussed which stacks were running. He left me to do my work, which only took about 1.5 hours. There wer 26 emission points, but 8 of them were not running that day. Only one had visible emissions, the rest were clear. The result was everything passed. (This plant produces wheels for car manufacturers & they use propane to burn off the emissions from their spray booths)
On the way back to the office I stopped in Warrensburg for lunch. I'd liked to have stopped at the university to see some of the old professors, but didn't want to waste time. What I really wanted was to see if Perry Foster's Georgia Style BBQ was still in business. This was my lucky day - he was still in business & the food was as good as I'd hoped - awesome BBQ pork sandwich & BBQ beans. The place looks like a dive, but Perry is very friendly, the food is excellent, & due to the proximity to Whiteman Air Force Base his walls are decorated with pictures of fighter squadrans who appreciate his cooking. The walls are covered in pictures of pilots & a few Generals who have written him letters of thanks, and one wall is dedicated to Hank Williams, Jr. - Hoo Ahh!
Satisfied that the world is still a good place with Perry's smoke still churning, I headed back to the office & started preparing my documents for the client's binder. Once everything was updated I handed it off to our Administrative Assitant to put the binders together. Today I took the binders to a Senior Consultant to review & quality check my work before we mail them to the client. He had me create a QC document for his review in our Project Management Database for our ISO9000 certification. The project was quick, billable, & a nice break from the office. I'll do more of these anytime!
-
Pocket Solutions Client-Site Implementation
-
On Wednesday, 4/30/08, I traveled 1.5 hours southwest of KC to one of our client's cement plants to upgrade their pocket solutions software from version 3 to 5.54. This was my first time being on-site for a client and my first time at a cement plant. I was expecting it to be a dirty/dusty environment, but the corporate offices were very elegant & clean & even the plant operating offices were very clean. The people were very friendly & easy to work with (I grew up in a relatively small rural town in Missouri, so I think I relate to small-town people pretty well) - it helps that they have been using our Pocket Solutions product since 2002 & they love it.
We loaded the desktop software on a supervisor's PC soon after arriving, then had to work out a database issue. We didn't receive the authorization to upgrade their database until the day before we were due on site, because their IT department was taking over control of these types of processes (from the plant supervisor) & didn't realize that this was another piece that required approval since it was billable work. We worked on fixing the database issues while we trained two supervisors on the new version features, then loaded the new database on the PDAs. We loaded the desktop software on the second supervisor's PC then headed back to KC.
Overall, it was a great field experience. Each installation/implementation is a little different, so it's a great learning opportunity when you get to do it on-site & work out the bugs in real-time. I'm the type of person who learns by driving the PC/doing rather than watching/listening, so this hands-on experience was very worthwhile.
I think my next field opportunity is coming up next week in Sedalia, MO. A client needs some Visible Emissions monitoring conducted & I'm going to handle this for another consultant who will be out of the office. This will be my first opportunity to use the "smoke school" certification I received last month. Looking forward to it!
-
Fast Mondays
-
Mondays do seem to go by very fast. First thing I do when I come in is review my time sheet from last week for accuracy & submit it through our internet portal. Next thing I know it's time for our weekly T3 conference call which lasts about an hour. Our division members from KC, Chicago, Ohio, Houston, Dallas & Ontario Canada discuss the proposals & projects we're working on, see where we can assist one another, etc.
At noon we have our weekly KC Office meeting which also lasts about an hour. We all gather in our conference room with our lunch and have a round table about projects we're working on, who needs help with projects, upcoming training courses, regulatory reporting deadlines, & sometimes a colleague gives a brown bag. Today's brown bag was given by our Business Development Manager & was the second in a series on SEM (Sustainability and Environmental Management).
I've spent some time today going through old email & coordinating my calendar. Next week I'll be taking a road trip with two other Consultants to a client site to install an upgrade of our VEMS (Visible Emissions Monitoring Software) PDA software. The next week I have the ESS Essential Suite EMIS certified implementer training in our office. Mid May I'm going to Dallas to work with another T3 Consultant & get some training on another brand of EMIS called opsEnvironmental. I'm hoping to get approval for another training while I'm there - my Regional Director has recognized my background in corporate security & thinks there may be an opportunity for Trinity to offer security consulting services to our clients relating to CFATS (Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards) Security Vulnerability Assessment & Chemical-Terrorism Vulnerability Information Programs. We're always looking for ways to capitalize on our experience & offer more services to our clients. It feels great to be empowered to look for ways to generate new business & be an active participant in the business, rather than being a prairie dog in a cubicle farm - been there, done that - Boring!
-
To Bill or Not to Bill
-
One thing I forgot to mention in my entry yesterday was that my time at the client site scanning docs for the EPA request was billable. That's one of the reasons I so readily volunteered to work on the project - & spent 1 1/2 weeks there (it wasn't just the food 
). Since my other work was non-billable, I'd much rather be working a project that is billable so that we can make some money.
On another note - when I first started two things impressed me. The first was the longevity of the people in the office & the second was that most had started here right out of college & were still here 3-4 years later. I knew there was something good about this organization that kept people here long-term. Our Principal Consultant started here out of college & has been here 14 years! The people I work with are friendly, personable & professional. They're willing to share & teach, as well as let you learn by doing. Trinity definitely feels like home to me.
-
Work Examples
-
It's pouring rain here in KC & I'm in a blogging mood, so thought I'd tell you about my first couple of months work experience.
In the T3 division we specialize in custom Access databases to manage our client's mountains of emissions data, as well as the installation/customization/support of Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS). My first week here I was able to assist on an Access database for a telecommunications company, helping them identify & sort all of their stationary & portable generators for permitting. The project is actually out of the St. Louis office, but we crunched the numbers & assisted them - that's one of the really cool things about Trinity, you get to work with people all over the country & on multiple & various projects. I'm the kind of person who can get bored very quickly in the corporate world, but there's enough variety here to keep you engaged.
As a fellow blogger pointed out, there is a lot of reading. I've been digging into the EMIS systems & teaching myself how they work, reading their documentation, etc. I'm not big on the self-teaching method, but you've got to start digesting the mountains of information somewhere & this is where to start. Luckily, my manager had been working on setting up a training course before I was hired & it was just approved. All the T3 folks will be coming to the KC office 5/1-5/2 for a training course that will make us certified implementers of one of our partner's software - Very cool & exciting!
Last week all I had going was the EMIS education work, and an EPA request for one of our customers sites in Portland needed immediate attention. Since I was available I went to the customer's HQ here in KC & spent 1 1/2 weeks scanning docs for the EPA request. It was a little tedious being clerical work, but the legal dept. was footing the bill for the cafeteria & they fed me really well. And they didn't just have a break room - they had a full soda fountain & featured a local KC coffee called The Roasterie 
which shames the Folgers coffee also produced here. Also of note was that the Corporate EHS Director came up to me & thought I looked familiar. After talking we remembered where we'd met - I'd given him a black eye at a Krav Maga class (unintentional of course - he bruises easy), & we talked training occasionally to break up the monotony of the clerical work. Funny how small the world is sometimes.
Also last week I attended Smoke School and am now Method 9 certified for visible emissions. Just another example of the varied & cool things you get exposed to here. Can't wait to use this for a client! The rain is stopping & so am I.
-
Why Non-Traditional?
-
I was having trouble coming up with a blog name when I thought about a comment our company President, Jay Hoffman, made when he was here a couple of weeks ago presenting. He joked that Trinity doesn't often hire people with gray in their hair. It got me thinking that by the time I decided what I wanted to major in I was a non-traditional student & since the majority of Trinity new hires are directly out of engineering schools, I'm definitely a non-traditional 56 at age 40. But with 17 years of work experience I think I'm well seasoned and hey, I consider the gray hair a mark of distinguishment (let's not talk about the gray in the beard OK! - I blame that on my 3 boys 
)
So how did I come to be here? I was looking for a change & saw Trinity's posting on Career Builder. When I read the job description I thought it was a perfect fit, but I was used to resumes submitted to Career Builder going into black holes, so I was very surprised when they called me 2 weeks later for an interview. I was expecting a standard interview - it was anything but standard. I interviewed with 4 people, starting with the Principal Consultant, 2 Senior Consultants, & the Managing Consultant I would work for. The interview went great & I left in a state of disbelief that a job existed which perfectly fit my 2 degrees. I guess they thought so too, as I had an offer 2 weeks later. BTW - I work in the T3 division.
Having worked for companies as large as Sprint and as small as an 18 person video production company, I had a pretty good idea that the corporate culture here was going to be great. I haven't been disappointed. My last position was frustrating because although the company had a training budget they wouldn't invest in their people. Trinity is all about training you to deliver the best service possible to our clients, from joining professional associations, to training classes, to on-the-job training - they want you to become in expert in as many areas as possible.
The personal stuff: The picture is from Legoland in San Diego last summer. We went there to celebrate my wife's aunt's 50th Jubilee (she's been a nun that long!) & worked in a great vacation. Andrei is sitting next to me & just turned 9. Although the picture is worth a million he loved the ride. Ethan is next to my wife & is 12. He's not much of a thrill seeker - I guess you can tell I am by the stupid grin. Daniel is not pictured as he has a little fear of heights & chose not to ride - he's 10. My wife & I have been married for 15 awesome years. When we're not running Ethan to Tae Kwon Do or soccer, Daniel to gymnastics, or Andrei to wrestling or soccer, we love to work out. We've been training in Krav Maga for 5 years & are long distance runners from way back.
Well, that should be enough for a first post. Be glad to answer any questions you have, so shoot them to me. Check out my blog profile for more dirt 
.