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January 1999
Before she became administrator last year, Judi Johansen said she wanted BPA to be a fun place to work. One way to make it fun is to recognize employees more, she said. “Recognition should be given freely and frequently,” she later said at employee meetings in July and October.
BPA put the wheels in motion to revamp and expand its recognition system even before the new CEO settled in. Chief Operating Officer Steve Hickok sent a memo to several people in August, and a small group began to brainstorm ideas.
Then in November, the executive committee set up a formal group to review and recommend changes in BPA’s recognition system. The new Reward and Recognition Council held its first meeting on Dec. 4.
The council includes the staff managers of the major business groups, the labor relations manager, union representatives, and a mix of supervisors and employees from all groups in the agency – 15 people in all. Transmission’s Randy Ridenhour was picked to chair the group.
Ridenhour said, “Judi spent a half hour with us at our first meeting and shared her views on what BPA should look and feel like.” Prepped with enthusiasm from the front office, he said the council has set a fast agenda.
“Our goal is to make changes to begin in fiscal 2000,” Ridenhour said. But in order to fund any changes, “we need to get them into the budget process that begins by the first of June,” he said. That means the council must get its final proposal to the executive committee by the first of April so BPA can take it to the unions.
Ridenhour said the council won’t recommend any changes without first getting employee input. “So in January we will meet with groups of 10 to 15 employees to get their input,” he said. The council members from the business groups will set up those meetings.
Ridenhour said the council will also set up a Web page and have an E-mail address to get comments by early this month. Watch for details in BPA This Week.
After it gets employee input this month, the council will summarize its findings, “and form some concepts on what
R and R should be at BPA,” Ridenhour said. It will then take those to the executive committee, “to see if we’re on the right track,” he said.
After it makes any adjustments, the council will again check with employees. Finally, it will work on the details and develop a specific plan.
Ridenhour said a new R and R system “doesn’t mean we will scrap existing pro-grams. Employees like some programs that have been tested and work well, so it doesn’t make sense to change them,” he said. These include Success Share, team share, the suggestion program and safety and nonmonetary awards.
So what other things might the R and R system include? “We won’t know until we hear from employees,” Ridenhour said. He said the council will look at all ideas it gets. It already has re-ceived some unsolicited ideas.
Lateefah Sadruddin of human resources sits on the council and echoed the importance of employee input. “A major part of our job is to discover what’s important to BPA employees,” she said. She urges people to comment on current programs and to share their ideas on “new, fun, creative and motivating ways for BPA to reward its employees.”
Besides agency awards, the council will also look at how different work groups use the recognition system. Ridenhour said BPA wants to expand recognition for and among employees. “Recognition is for everybody,” he said.
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| Employees gathered in the headquarters lobby Dec. 21 to hear the final results of the 1998 Combined Federal Charities Campaign and to find out if Coast Guard Captain Mike Hall or BPA Administrator Judi Johansen would pucker up to the porker. The kiss was the payoff in a challenge between the Coast Guard and BPA. BPA came in second, so Johnansen got to ham it up. She thanked employees for taking part and said CFC won because BPA folks doubled our participation rate over last year. | ||
"All I want for Christmas is a 'transco,'" Mark Maher told Santa Claus. The acting senior vice president for Transmission sat on Santa's lap at the start of the Ross Santa Claus party for needy children. |
Portland employees place gifts for the needy under the Associates giving tree. |
Tom Roy from the Vancouver warehouse delivers surplus PCs to Reynolds Middle School at Gresham. |
| See story below about how BPA employees at Ross got into the spirit of the holiday season last month and more pictures! | ||
Last September, Joe O’Rourke joined BPA as the agency’s first chief information officer (CIO). His job is to ensure that BPA’s investments in information resources management (IRM, or IR at BPA) meet our business needs.
O’Rourke has been a civil servant for 10 years. Coming to BPA was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up, he says. It brought him back to the city of his youth. In fact, his second-floor office at headquarters looks across the freeway to his alma mater, Benson High School. He later graduated from the University of Washington.
Before joining BPA, O’Rourke worked for the Federal Aviation Administration in Seattle. He was the IRM manager of a seven-state region and was the principal architect of the FAA’s national IRM business performance plan. O’Rourke says that creation of such an agencywide plan will be one of his major initiatives at BPA.
Ken Kane of communications interviewed O’Rourke for this Circuit article. It picks up with more from the CIO on the IRM plan.
O'Rourke. IRM represents the set of automation tools to manage a business. Investments in IRM need to be based on what our businesses need. That means IRM is not an end “in and of itself.”
Although IRM manages technology, we are truly in the people business. To be successful, we need to listen to our clients and understand their business needs, and then align those needs with the technology they require. We’ll soon be finalizing a draft plan that defines a business model and processes to make IRM decisions and investments.
Circuit. What kind of plan?
O'Rourke. We’re calling it BPA’s IRM business performance plan. A key element of our plan will be a life cycle approach to acquire and manage the hardware and software we use. Generally, the capacity of hardware and software in the marketplace doubles every 18 months. That doesn’t mean you replace things every year and a half. But the 18-month rule, known as Moore’s Law, is something we must consider when we determine life cycles of all IRM assets.
For instance, at the FAA we identified the life cycle of computer hardware to be 36 months and software to be 36 to 60 months. That let us quantify annual investments for IRM assets and better control costs.
Of course, each agency is unique. BPA’s technology life cycles can be quite different than the FAA’s. So, we’ll begin to re-view current systems and business needs and get input from the business lines and shared services. We should have the first draft of an IRM business performance plan out for comment later this month.
Circuit. The agency is now converting all workstations to Outlook 98. How do you get people to embrace such software upgrades and not have them say “Stay away from my computer?”
O'Rourke. First, there is no such thing as a personal computer in the federal workplace. By law, it’s a government computer workstation. But beyond that, we have to educate our clients on the merits of the software – how it’s going to help them do business better. Outlook 98 will bring some significant improvements and I think BPA clients will see some immediate benefits from it.
Circuit. It took until 1998 for BPA to get Windows 95 to many people’s desktops. How can testing and procurement processes be speeded up so that upgrades and new software truly are new?
O'Rourke. By having a predictable, life-cycle approach to the business of IRM. We also need to continually look at the horizon of technology, ask the relevant questions and be innovative. Where is the marketplace going? How can new technologies help us do business better and more cost effectively? How can we get accurate, timely and relevant management information to BPA managers and staff?
The Intranet and Internet are excellent mediums. However, they are still evolving technology.
Circuit. Where do you see the BPA Web site six months from now? Both the Internet and the Intranet.
O'Rourke. Those are two different arenas. The Internet is information out in the public domain. I see us reinventing our home page and strategy to get information out to the public. The business lines and public affairs staff will help us define how we can use this tool most effectively. Based on client feedback, we are setting up a cross-agency team to help reinvent our external home page. We want to make it more userfriendly and innovative.
The Intranet, which is internal to BPA, is an extremely effective tool to manage the business. The Intranet and Web-based (or Web-enabled) tools can get much more relevant information to clients than conventional tools and much faster. It’s a whole different way of doing business and can be very cost effective.
Circuit. A major emphasis of yours, from the moment you arrived at BPA, has been Y2K. What’s your take on the media’s fascination with it? Is this much ado about nothing or, at most, relatively little?
O'Rourke. Y2K is a significant issue at organizations as complex as BPA. The media is only reflecting the public’s growing concern about the power grid. “Will we have electricity? And will the lights stay on?” Our challenge is to continue to get factual information out and educate our customers, stakeholders and the public on our progress and successes.
Circuit. What’s the status of Y2K work at BPA?
O'Rourke. I’m impressed with the progress BPA has made since beginning Y2K efforts in 1995. Our team of professional engineers, technicians and system owners has assessed every system and electronic component in the organization. And then followed up to renovate or replace systems that presented operating risks and retire systems that aren’t absolutely required. As we enter the final quarter of the project, we’re implementing a quality control and independent validation and verification process.
Circuit. What’s the timetable to be Y2K ready?
O'Rourke. Just after I arrived at BPA, the Department of Energy and the Office of Management and Budget moved the deadline up for all federal agencies – from June to March. We have added resources to the project and will complete system renovation and be Y2K ready on March 31, 1999.
The December Circuit had an article about Caspian terns that eat lots of young salmon in the lower Columbia River before they can reach the ocean. John Moore of transmission’s photogrammetry group contacted the writer, Hugh Moore, with some more interesting information. The BPA group is the source of the data on the terns that other agencies and biologists use.
For three years, BPA’s photogrammetry group has been taking aerial photos of the terns on the Columbia River. The birds nest on nine islands from the mouth of the river as far upstream as Pasco, Wash. The BPA folks do the actual bird counts for the biologists.
Last year they counted more than 40,000 terns on Rice Island near the mouth of the Columbia, and more than 84,000 terns on all nine islands in the river. The photo below was shot on June 15, 1996. It shows terns nesting on part of Three-Mile Canyon Island, 12 miles west of Boardman, Ore. More than 10,000 terns nested on that island in 1998.
The photogrammetry group is doing a lot to help BPA and the region get the best science data in our efforts to save the salmon. Watch for an article and photos on the photogrammetry group’s overall work in a future issue.
Last month, we heard from another person on the Columbia River quiz that appeared in the October Circuit. Retired engineer Lyle Howard wrote about BPA’s oldest substation. He said the small station on top of Bonneville Dam has always been owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
BPA’s first substation was called “South Bank.” It was located near the new Bonneville Dam lock. BPA quit using South Bank years ago and built a new substation higher above the river floor. The Corps removed the old station building when it built the new lock a few years ago. So BPA’s oldest existing substations today are the Ross Substation in Vancouver and the North Bonneville sub-station near Bonneville Dam.
-- Jack Odgaard, editor
Above: Caspian terns on the Columbia River -- This is one of many aerial photos taken the past three years by BPA's photogrammetry group in transmission support services. It shows Caspian terns nesting on part of Three-Mile Canyon Island, 12 miles west of Boardman, Ore. The white specks are nesting terns.
It was only 11 days before Christmas. I had finished all my gift wrapping packages to kids and grandchildren and sent around the country. I only had a few local Christ-mas cards left to mail. So I arrived at work on Monday, Dec. 14, in good spirits.
Paul Hansen and I planned to finish the layout to get the January Circuit to the printer by Dec. 22. That would ensure that it would be out on Monday, Jan. 4, when most people return to work after the holidays.
I had a busy week lined up to finish the edition early. We had five photo events to shoot. I still had four articles to write and two people to interview, and would have two articles by other writers to review. But without holiday chores to worry about, I could devote the time I needed to finish the Circuit ahead of time.
Then I turned on my computer to edit an article I had drafted on Friday. My PC monitor greeted me with a box I hadn’t seen before. “I think Jack Odgaard is a big stupid jerk,” it read. The heading bar indicated it came from “VicodinESLovesYou/Class.Poppy.”
When a box pops onto a PC screen, we usually have one of three choices. We can close it, disregard it and place our cursor back on the original work screen to continue, or click the “OK” button. The latter usually means we comply or agree with the message. I couldn’t close the box or continue working on the draft, so I had to click “OK.” As I did that, I chuckled to myself. “I guess that means I agree with the statement.”
I went on with my work and closed the draft when I finished. The same box popped up again. “I think Jack Odgaard is a big stupid jerk.” I “agreed” with it once more. Next I checked my E-mail. I typed my first reply and hit the “Send” button. The endearing message popped on my screen again. So I had to click “OK” to send my E-mail.
By then I realized that my PC must have picked up a virus. “What timing,” I thought. “It’s a grinch trying to steal my Christmas spirit.” But I knew what to do, so I sent an
E-mail to the BPA computer security team – Allen Herkamp and Kevin Dorning.
In a short time, Scott Preece of computer client support was at my desk. He checked my PC and found I had the latest version of the Norton Anti-virus program. But for some reason it hadn’t updated my system. Preece spent a good amount of time to fix the problem and expel the virus.
I heard that other people have had the same virus in recent weeks. Dorning said that it comes into BPA by E-mail. Once a PC gets the virus, it attaches it to different programs and the bug spreads whenever the user sends anything.
This virus, known as “W97M/Class,” doesn’t mess up documents or data in our system. It just attaches the short message box that calls the PC user “a big stupid jerk.” So, at the worst, this virus seemed just to be a nuisance.
But as I thought about it later, I could see how it could be harmful in the workplace. It could have an effect on a person who kept getting repeated messages about being “a big jerk.” That could put anyone in a bad mood.
Bah! Humbug! I wasn’t going to let the PC bug be the grinch that stole my Christmas spirit. I went about other chores as Preece fixed my PC and put the grinch virus to rest.
Most of us who use and rely on PCs in our work don’t understand all the technical workings and inside operation of the computer system. We rely on the technical experts to solve problems with our PCs. And we rely on computer security to protect us from outside intrusions. Those folks work year round to stop grinches from creating problems on BPA’s computer system.
Watch for an upcoming article about BPA’s computer security group. In the meantime, thanks Scott for getting rid of my would-be grinch. It’s nice to know we have these “grinchbusters” around.
-- Jack Odgaard, editor
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Left: Donna Petersen of Environment/Fish & Wildlife is among the first to take the window to retirement under BPA’s newest early out offer (VSI and VERA). The new window opened Dec. 20 and runs through February. Petersen has 25 years of federal service and retires Jan. 2. She and husband, Ken, like to travel to the Olympic Penin-sula to fish. “Now we’ll be able to fish to our hearts’ content and not worry about when we have to get back home,” she said. |
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Employees at BPA’s Ross Complex hold what may be the biggest Christmas party of its kind for needy children. Many people do things during the holiday season to help the poor and less fortunate. But the annual Ross Children’s Santa Claus party is special in many ways.
The event helps dozens of children from needy families in Vancouver, Wash. It pulls together several groups in the community to take part. Employees become personally familiar with children they buy gifts for. And the event brings all of these aspects and people together for a lunchtime party that is best de-scribed as a joy-filled celebration.
The annual Christmas event began eight years ago when some-one in the Ross Canyon Social Club suggested the group add a holiday project to its agenda. The “canyon club” consists of employees who work in the warehouse area – the “canyon” on the Ross Complex. The club dates back some 30 years. It holds four social food affairs at work each year and raises funds for local civic and charity programs.
Club leaders found a willing and eager charity to support in the East Vancouver Child Care Center. The center specifically serves low-income and needy families and is a local United Way agency. Many children come from single-parent homes. The center cares for about 150 kids in all. Half are preschool, ages two to six. Half are 7 to 12 yearolds who come to the center before and after school.
The canyon club organized the Santa Claus party for the preschoolers. And for an event of that size, it broadened participation to all employees at Ross. This season’s party took place Dec. 11 at the DOB-1 auditorium.
About 100 people helped plan, coordinate in the community, buy and wrap gifts, and put on the party itself. Katie Masters, Mike Conners and Kathy Baker headed the effort. Other key workers were Lana Winn, Shawn Martin, Val Nelson, Tory Groshong, Dan Deboever and Bill Murray. Of course, we can’ forget Santa – Bill Ramonas – and his helpers, Georgette Blake and Tami Poyner. And Mario Perez who served as an interpreter for a young Hispanic girl.
But, as Kathy Baker said, “All employees who took part made a significant contribution.” Each person shopped to buy things for a boy or girl that the child really wanted. How did the BPA folks know what the kids wanted?
Baker and Katie Masters worked with the center’s preschool director, Jamie McCoy, to find out.
Center staff talked to the children to find out what they wanted most – clothing, toys, games, anything. They also checked the kids’ clothing and shoes for sizes, found out their favorite colors and got other details on each boy and girl.
Prepped with all that information, Ross employees then shopped for the children. Val Nelson said, “We knew so much about each one that it was just like shopping for our own children.” That made it more personal – and special, she said.
I went to Ross to take photos at the party. Some BPA folks were just finishing the room setup. A red carpet led from the DOB-1 entrance to a raised platform that had a chair for Santa to sit on. A large decorated Christmas tree stood to one side.
Containers of juice and Christmas cookies spread across tables against one wall. Near Santa’s stage, bundles of wrapped presents were neatly stacked according to classroom groups.
A few chairs, each with a classroom leader’s name, were spread around the perimeter of the room.
Safeway donated the treats for the party, as it does each year, and the help by other local groups would be evident soon. As more workers and donors gathered, I could sense how much this event meant to the BPA folks.
Someone on the other end of a walkie-talkie called in and Bill Murray announced, “The kids are on their way.” Two buses had picked up 76 preschoolers at the care center to bring them to Ross. A Methodist church and the fire district donate the buses. Two Clark County transit drivers volunteer to drive each year.
Another call came in. Santa was ready and standing by just over the hill in the American Legion’s 40+8 club “loci.” The Legion group provides its colorful locomotive on wheels for Santa’s use each year.
The people at DOB-1 filed outside to greet the buses. Children, care center staff and some BPA folks got off and gathered at the front of the building. Then the “loci” with Santa appeared over the hill. Santa waved through the window as the “loci” passed in front of the building and then pulled into the parking lot.
Children cheered and waved with glee. Santa stepped off last and gave his familiar “Ho-ho-ho!” with arms spread wide. The kids flocked to him, and Santa led the throng into the building. The children gazed in wonder at the stacks of gifts and the colorful spread before them.
Santa introduced his helpers and a few of the BPA adults took turns sitting on his lap – all to the delight and laughter of the children. The kids from one classroom sang a song and some of the bigger children helped serve juice and cookies to everyone.
Then each class in turn lined up to visit Santa. He lifted each boy and girl onto his lap. Some of the kids had broad smiles and twinkles in their eyes. Some tots looked wide-eyed, amazed by what they saw. I knew that these weren’t children who frequent malls and stores with their parents and who see all the street Santas this time of year.
Some tots reached their small arms around Santa’s neck to give him a hug. Others giggled with glee, and some were shy. A few were almost expressionless. “What must life be like to them?” I wondered.
After the visit with Santa, a helper gave each boy or girl a bundle of gifts. Some were as large or bigger than the child, and a smiling adult helped the boy or girl back to his or her place.
When everyone had visited Santa, the kids opened their gifts. BPA folks and center staff helped them remove tight ribbons and open difficult boxes. The air filled with a mix of joyful sounds and silence. “Oh!” said a girl, about four, as she held up a beautiful pink sweater. “Wow!” said a boy, about five, as he unwrapped a football and helmet.
Another little girl stood silently and caressed her new doll, and a little boy knelt speechless and wide-eyed as he ran his hand over his huge yellow truck.
I stepped carefully through the throng of children and adults sprawled across the floor. Between snapshots, I had to pause so my eyes could clear to focus for the next shot.
As the party came to a close, adults helped each boy and girl put their gifts in a large plastic bag. Other folks filled trash bags with gift wrapping and boxes. Santa said goodbye and several children huddled around him as he made his way to the door. A boy hugged one leg; a girl held tightly to the other.
When the buses pulled out about 1:30 p.m., the auditorium was quiet and all cleaned up. Some BPA people talked about the experience. “It’s heartwarming,” said an emotional Mike Conners. “These kids are so needy.” Kathy Baker said, “For some, this is all they will get for Christmas.”
Katie Masters said, “It makes their dreams come true when they come and see Santa.” Masters rode one of the buses that picked the kids up at the care center. “I sat next to a little boy who was so excited,” she said. When she asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he replied, “Santa knows. He knows everything.”
Yes, for little Ricky, and Tori, and Danika, and Miguel, and Holly, and more than 70 other children at East Vancouver Child Care Center, there really is a Santa Claus. And BPA employees at the Ross Complex make sure that he comes to visit them each Christmas.
Jack Odgaard, story & photos
Lonnie Jones wasn’t thinking about awards when he and his wife, Patty, began to improve their 55-acre farm two years ago. A creek runs through it, and the Joneses just wanted to restore the stream banks to help fish and wildlife.
Last month they were honored for their habitat work along Skookum Creek in northeast Washington. The state association of conservation districts and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife named their place as the state “Wildlife Farm of the Year.”
Jones is BPA’s substation operator at Newport, Wash. He oversees substations in Pend Oreille County and some of western Idaho. He and his wife bought their farm, 15 miles north of Newport, a few years ago. They graze livestock, but they also believe in good stewardship. Other owners had overgrazed the land and Skookum Creek had heavy sediment loads from bank erosion.
The creek runs into the Pend Oreille River and the state had designated the creek an impaired stream. So when they read about the poor condition of Skookum Creek in a newsletter, Jones said, “We decided to do something to improve our land.”
He contacted the conservation district and coordinated his plans with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Kalispel Tribe. Jones then set aside 27 percent of his farm along the creek for fish and wildlife habitat.
He put up more than 4,200 feet of fence to limit livestock access and prepared the stream banks for planting. He worked with conservationists to design a cattle crossing, and the Kalispel Tribe planted 1,800 trees, shrubs and other native plants on his farm.
The farm improvements will help bull trout, a listed species, and other fish in the creek and the river. And they will benefit other wildlife as well – waterfowl, songbirds, raptors, deer and other species.
Besides contributing nearly $9,000 of his own money, Jones has spent hundreds of hours of work to better his land. As a result, his improvements go beyond federal and conservation group standards.
The conservation district nominated the Jones farm for the state award after it won the district’s 1998 farm of the year award. The nomination best explains the significance of Jones’s efforts for habitat. “Lonnie’s dedication to restoring that area to control erosion and keep the creek healthy for fish is evident by his willingness to contribute such a large amount of his farm to wildlife.”
Fiscal Year 1999. BPA’s springboard to the millennium. What do BPA’s leaders think we should do to be ready?
The FY 1999 agency-level targets tell the story. There are 20 targets in all. Nine of them are Success Share targets. Taken together, they summarize BPA’s yearly goals in the key areas of public responsibilities, work environment, finance and customer satisfaction.
Several Success Share targets from 1998 return. That says a lot about what makes BPA successful. Customer, constituent and tribal satisfaction. Employees who are focused and motivated. Improved business systems. And salmon recovery and net revenues.
We also have some new twists this year. The salmon target is a unified fish plan rather than hydro operations. The business systems focus is Y2K. And the power rate case will be very important in 1999.
Other agency-level targets are set out in the senior vice presidents’ contracts. They include reliability, safety, and min-ority and manager development. Specific business systems improvements and a greening strategy round out the list.
Salmon recovery has been important since before the 1995 Biological Opinion. But 1999 is the year that the National Marine Fisheries Service will produce a recovery plan for Snake River sal-mon and steelhead, by December. So it’s a key opportunity for BPA to secure long-term predictability for its fish and wildlife financing and power system operations.
Most of BPA’s power sales contracts expire in 2001, and customers will be deciding on long-term purchases. The power rate case will set BPA’s rates to compete in the market. And it’s 1999 or never to get all BPA’s computer systems and equipment updated so they can distinguish year 2000 from 1900.
Minority development is a new agency-level target. “Selection officials say that they would like to have more highly qualified candidates in areas where minorities are particularly underrepresented,” says Chief Operating Officer Steve Hickok.
BPA sets targets in some areas year after year. Hickok says the challenge with those is to accurately reflect the outcome we want. Transmission, for instance, will always have a target for system reliability that tracks outage frequency and duration. But in 1999, BPA will also rank outages by the importance of the transmission line. Importance is typically determined by the number of customers served, so this new target has a customer service slant.
Managerial effectiveness will continue this year, but in another form. Last year it rated competencies. The 1999 target covers management’s improvements in turf reduction, rewards and recognition, and workload distribution. These were the key problems discovered in BPA’s 1998 work environment survey.
Clearly, a lot of thought goes into all of this. “The executive committee, the corporate planning staff, and all of BPA management work very hard to describe the goals in ways that depict our real challenges and give clear guidance to employees,” says Hickok. “It’s certainly not perfect, but I think we do a better job every year. Now it’s up to everyone to get us there,” he says.
Pat Zimmer is a writer in communications
Above: Energy expertise reaches overseas -- Ken Keating of BPA's Energy Efficiency group spoke recently at an energy meeting in Chongqing, China. Keating was part of a Department of Energy team that traveled to China last fall to share U.S. technology and expertise on demand side management.
In today’s fast-paced world, it may seem to be an anomaly as a pastime. And this yarn may not exactly have readers sitting on pins and needles. It may not keep you in stitches, but it does weave a picture of some people who still practice crafts that date back to ancient times.
Each Wednesday, a group of women at BPA gets together for the lunch hour in a fourth floor conference room at headquarters. They bring their lunch and bags of needles, yarn and other materials.
The “needling” ladies knit, crochet, cross-stitch and needlepoint various items. Last month they were busy making Christmas gifts for family members or holiday presents for friends. But they also make things for themselves and their homes.
The idea for the “needling noontime” came to Debbie Stout two years ago. The office man-ager in Environment/Fish & Wildlife said, “I had all these things to do and needed some inspiration. If you’re sitting in a room with lots of other people, you can get a lot done.”
So she mentioned her idea to Connie Little, a secretary on the E/F&W staff. “I thought it was a great idea,” Little said, “and we ran it by some others and everyone said ‘Let’s do it.’”
So that fall in 1996, the women began to meet each Wednesday over the lunch hour to work on their craft projects. They began with their various needle projects – quilts, afghans, dish cloths, samplers and baby blankets. “There’s been a rash of babies lately,” said Stout. But pretty soon people began to bring other craft projects. Designing T-shirts is popular among the group. Some bring figurines to paint or decorate.
The group takes a break during the summer months and resumes in the fall. While the lunchtime craft meetings started in the environment group, the women are open to others joining in.
More than a dozen now attend on a regular basis. Besides Stout and Little, the core group includes Mary Kerr, Deanna Binney, Donna Pyne, Lesley Johnson and Nancy Webster. Other frequent members are Shelley Brenner, Donna Petersen, Alicia Mendenhall, Kirsten Kler, Jamie Swan and Annette Davis. Rose Ann Lafferty joins them when she can get over to Portland from the Ross Complex.
What do the “crafty ladies,” as Stout refers to them, talk about as they needle away? “Not work!” said Stout. “Usually about our crafts, what we’re going to do next, our kids, spouses and grandchildren,” she said. Little said, “We try to make it fun.”
So, in the busy pace of today’s world, these BPA women take time together to work on crafts steeped in history. Indeed, needlework spans many centuries and cultures – from early Egypt and the Orient, to Asia and Europe. The Pima Indians of the U.S. Southwest were the earl-iest Americans to practice a form of crocheting.
Today there aren’t many yawns at the Wednesday craft meetings, but there’s plenty of yarn. And while there’s a lot of needling going on over the weekly lunch hour, it’s all in good-natured fun.
Above: Needling away at BPA -- More than a dozen "crafty ladies" needle away their lunch hour at BPA. Top: The Wednesday meetings aren't always this quiet, but Mary Kerr, Debbie Stout, Connie Little and Deanna Binney seem immersed in their craft. Bottom: Donna Pyne "threads" her way through her latest project.
At work, Scott Beer is an electrician foreman for BPA at The Dalles.
At play, he’s a long-time team roping competitor. The other half of his favorite team pairing is his daughter, Jody, 19.
Scott and Jody had a dream come true last fall when they headed for the national championships of the U.S. Team Roping Competition. They roped in Division 5 of the USTRC finals at Oklahoma City on Nov. 1.
The Beers have been roping together since Jody was a young girl. Scott said he had his first horse by the time he was 10 years old, but Jody got her first pony when she was two. “Jody rode before she could walk,” her proud dad said.
Scott and his wife, Mary Jane, started their daughters riding early. “Jody sat in front of me and took to it right away,” Scott said. As she got older, he began to teach her to rope. Then in 1994, they began to compete in team roping events on weekends.
Last year, Scott and Jody won the Oregon and Washington state championships in Di-vision 6. Those wins earned them two spots in the finals of the national competition in Oklahoma.
“Team roping is a traditional rodeo event,” Scott said. But unlike most events that have single contestants, this sport takes more skills for timing and coordination with a partner. One member of the team is a “header” and ropes a steer’s head. The other, a “heeler,” ropes the steer’s hind feet.
The USTRC rates ropers according to their skill level in seven divisions. A No. 7 is a professional and a No. 1 is a beginner. Pairs compete in divisions based on their combined ratings. Scott is a No. 3 header and Jody is a No. 2 heeler.
While they would normally compete in Division 5, the Beers won the 1998 Oregon and Washington championships in the higher Division 6. They took the Washington title at Pasco against 220 other teams. Their Oregon win at Prineville was in a field of 242 teams.
At the national championships, Scott and Jody competed against 283 other teams in their division. More than 1,000 teams from across the country competed in Oklahoma. Scott said that they finished out of the money, but were satisfied with a finish in the top third.
That’s not bad for a first time at the national finals. “We were happy with the results and enjoyed the trip,” Scott said.
Above: Dad and daughter roping team -- Scott Beer of The Dalles and daughter Jody have competed for three years in team roping events in the Northwest. They won the Oregon and Washington state championships in their division in 1998 and competed in the national finals in Oklahoma in November.
Most people have a hobby of one kind or another. Some collect things, some practice crafts, some dabble in amateur pastimes or other pursuits. A few people do things that most of us wouldn’t consider a hobby.
BPA’s John Brunke is an example. Last fall Brunke completed work on a doctorate degree. Even more unusual is the fact that his Doctor of Technical Sciences degree comes from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. Yet the long-time employee in BPA transmission said, “It was my hobby for the past four years.”
Brunke casually explained how he considered his Ph.D. work as a hobby. For instance, he didn’t need the degree for his professional career as an electrical engineer or scientist. He had already been working in the high voltage transmission field the degree covered for more than two decades at BPA. And he literally replaced some other hobbies – camping, hiking and painting – to spend that time on his Ph.D.
Brunke said the real impetus to get his doctorate came from his family. “Two of my younger sisters already had doctorates, so I had some friendly family pressure,” he said. “And my wife supported and prodded me.”
Brunke said he began to think about a Ph.D. in high voltage engineering a few years ago. He had served several years on com-mittees of professional organizations and had chaired specific work committees. He was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and served eight years as the U.S. delegate to a study committee of the International Conference on Large High Voltage Electric Systems (CIGRE). In 1994, he was named a distinguished member of CIGRE.
“Very few Americans in the electrical field have doctorate degrees compared to our European counterparts,” Brunke said. “So I thought it would be nice to get mine.”
The only hitch, he said, was that no schools in the U.S. have doctorates in high voltage technology and switchgear. His opportunity came through his connections in CIGRE. “I got to know a scientist who was a professor at the University of Technology in Vienna, Austria,” Brunke said. “He encouraged me and helped me enroll there.”
Because of his past work and knowledge, Brunke was able to challenge many of the degree courses. But he wanted to take the specific courses in high voltage. “Actually, they were pretty easy because I had been working on those things for 25 years at BPA,” he said.
In his years at BPA, Brunke has been involved in several leading edge projects. And he has some notable innovations to his credit. In 1986, he helped design a new 500-kilovolt breaker that BPA now uses throughout its system.
For his Ph.D., Brunke was able to do most of his work by correspondence. But he had to travel to Europe to take exams. At mid-point in his work, Brunke’s pro-fessor transferred from the university in Vienna to the Swiss institute at Zurich. “So my Ph.D. work went with him,” Brunke said. The transfer took a lot of red tape, but after it was approved, Brunke was able to complete his dissertation last year.
The Swiss Federal Institute itself is highly regarded. It has 20 graduates who have earned Nobel Prizes; the most famous of whom is probably Albert Einstein.
This month, the Swiss Institute will award its new Ph.D.s in Switzerland. But Brunke will get his diploma in the mail. He said he’s already made several trips to Europe so he didn’t need to make one more just to pick up his diploma.
Instead, Brunke will probably be out hiking somewhere this month. Now that his degree work is finished, he plans to get back to his other hobbies with his wife and two sons.
Above: Viewing switch -- John Brunke looks over a 500-kilovolt breaker that he helped design for BPA in 1986. Brunke said his 25 years of work on BPA's high voltage transmission system made his work for a doctorate degree "pretty easy."
The Circuit is pleased to debut a monthly crossword puzzle in this first edition of 1999. Each month we’ll have a puzzle with a theme that relates to BPA, the Northwest or our culture or history. For this first puzzle, by Scott Lawson of information resources, we chose a theme of Northwest dams.
How many of the 250 dams in the region do you know? Some in the puzzle aren’t exactly household names like Bonneville or Grand Coulee. If you’d like to find out more about dams in the region and where they’re located, BPA has a handy reference map. “Electric Power Plants in the Pacific Northwest” (DOE/BP-2811; March 15, 1996) is available in the public information center near the BPA library. The phone number is 503-230-4171.
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Across 1. Type of carpet 5. Payload 10. Grooming tool 14. Print 15. Quartz 16. October birthstone 17. High Dam? 19. Eating place 20. Ante 21. Theater award 22. Stringed instruments 23. Motion (Comb. form) 24. Fuss 26. Burro 27. Aquiver 31. Enlarge 32. Raccoon relative 33. Gluttonous Dam? 38. Buenos ____ 39. Fish eggs 40. German composer 41. Bright Dam? 43. Pork and ____ 44. Play division 45. Rabbit food 46. Fast plane 49. Born 50. Noah’s craft 51. Strange 53. Oak or Elm 54. And so on (abbr.) 57. Within 58. Colorless Dam? 61. Plait 62. Jury 63. Dossier 64. Very (Fr.) 65. Store up 66. Scads |
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Down 1. Part of a ticket 2. Flattering publicity 3. Date (abbr.) 4. Golly 5. Taxi driver 6. Anew 7. Lawn tool 8. Telephone company 9. Poetic contraction 10. Famous showman 11. Musical drama 12. Men 13. Peaceful Dam? 18. Stone Dam? 22. Down Dam? 24. Court order 25. Pointer or spaniel 27. “Call me “(2 wds) 28. French evening 29. Mate ____ 30. Defective (Comb. form) 31. Hired thugs 33. Abrade 34. Ogle 35. Culture medium 36. Game of chance 37. Formerly 42. Frost (a cake) 45. Fish baskets 46. Fast Dam? 47. Mister (Sp.) 48. Name 50. Comic Johnson, and others 52. Fishing poles 53. Turner or Louise 54. Wicked 55. It precedes phone or graph 56. Ship’s personnel 58. New Deal agency 59. Emote 60. No ___, ands or buts |
