CONGRATS TO LEADERSHIP WINNERS

The May JPL Board Meeting saw some happy faces as JPL Leadership Awards were given to deserving employees by Board Chair Erin Skinner and Library Director Barbara Gubbin:

 Chris Eaton, Library II in Talking Books, was voted the Employee of the 2nd Quarter and won the Challenge the Process award for his masterminding a great win for Jacksonville and JPL when he secured the cooperation of other agencies to hold the first Braille Challenge in the Conference Center!  It was the best attended event of its kind in Florida.

CR and M's Manager Kathy Lussier won an Enable Others to Act award for working with Library Aware staff and setting up training for JPL staff and creating templates for the system that matched JPL branding.  Kathy also set up and taught a series of classes at a variety of locations and trained staff to use the product so they could produce professional flyers, bookmarks, etc.

Andrew Herron is Executive Assistant to the Director and won a Challenge the Process award for greatly reducing paper usage for Library Board meetings by having much of the 40 copies of formerly printed materials now shown to board attendees on overhead screen. (They all get these materials via email before each meeting, too.) This new process will save trees and JPL's time, energy, and money!

Account Technician Jim Skulsky works in Finance at the Main Library and won an Enable Others to Act award..  He handles most invoice and purchase order requests.  With a long absence of another staff member, Jim has had to shoulder a greater responsibility and is much appreciated by Mark Merritt, Deputy Director of Administrative Services--and all of us who frequently need his expertise.

CW's Library Assistant Noah Thomas won a Challenge the Process award.  Noah researched adult daycare programs, got input from CAL staff, and then identified projects that will benefit JPL adult customers and will reach out to nontraditional adult customers.

KR's Part-time Library Associate Frances Wickes volunteered to take over Mandarin Branch's program Early Release Wednesdays.  After much research to find games that promote learning, getting advice from Margo Crafton and Alison Pulley, she then created the "Frances Bowling Alley". She introduced the game to the kids, March 25. Children and staff at KR look forward to seeing what Frances will create next.  She won a Challenge the Process award.

DU's Library Associate Beverly Mason took on the volunteer coordinator job at Highlands.  In September 2014, DU had 2 volunteers with 6.5 hours logged; by February 2015, DU had 8 volunteers with 64.5 hours worked--an increase of 400%!  Beverly won the Model the Way award.

Not pictured is JB's Library Assistant Padma Subramanian who won a Model the Way award. Padma organized International Day, featuring multiple countries and highlighting their cultural and historical heritage.  She spent many hours networking, finding volunteers, and coordinating the event; quite a feat that brought different cultures together and many kudos for the Beaches Branch!