THE LINCOLN
MESSENGER Inspiration Station
Issue 4 • April, 2014
Call Center RECP Risk Management Human Resources Training IT Marketing Sneak Peek LMH Milestones Lincoln Charities Gold Medallion Community Services
Inspiration Station One Lincoln “Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” -Abraham Lincoln I was fortunate enough to be able to attend two Gold Medallion ceremonies this year, one on the East Coast for the Mid-Atlantic Region and one in San Diego for our team members out West. Both events provide a much needed pause in our busy schedules and allow us to reflect on the past year and give credit to our team mates who exemplify the best of Lincoln Military Housing and are “worthy of recognition.” The commitment to “getting better” was more than evident as we celebrated the men and women who make all of us better through their daily examples of dedication and hard work. Our theme at Gold Medallion was “ONE.” This last year saw an unprecedented amount of communication across all facets of Lincoln Military Housing as we continued our work to become “ONE” company. We will need to work together to cultivate a Culture of Communication in everything we do, to develop an environment where EVERYONE is encouraged to share information, ideas and feedback...slightly more difficult, an environment where all of us are open to the possibility that there may be a better way than how we are working today. Our goal is that each team member here at Lincoln recognizes that they have a critical role in our success and it lies in each of us providing open and honest feedback on our current processes, with each other, with the supervisors who support us, and with those we support. As a team, if we can improve our communication, laterally with our peers who perform a similar job, or up and down our support chain, we will find that not only will we have a better understanding of our role, but we will likely learn new ways to do it better. Each and every time we get together with another Lincoln team member, we have an opportunity to get better, through learning from them, or by sharing our best practices with them- if we stay open to both, we will find ourselves even closer to our goal of One Lincoln! – Philip Rizzo
Call center Mission 2014 is off to a GREAT Start! As we focus on being “ALL IN” by offering better services, we wanted to share our Vision Statement, it’s our daily commitment to the residents (and districts) we serve... “For every call, our team is committed to honoring our military families, by greeting them with a friendly and caring smile, listening to them with an eager and steadfast ear, and communicating their needs with dependable efficiency and detail, which reflects our appreciation and pride.” Let’s be “ALL IN” together! We would like to recognize the following Maintenance Superstars: • Jan - Barbara Spencer, Norfolk Pointe, Crennan Region • Feb - Moises Loza Zamarripa, Murphy Canyon, Scott Region • Mar - Greg Lopez, Orleck Heights, Scott Region Looking forward to working together to be even better this year! Thank you for your continued support! GO LINCOLN!
RECP Update Lincoln Military Housing is rolling “full steam ahead” with implementation of the Department of Defense’s Resident Energy Conservation Program (RECP), with 95% of our Navy and Marine Corps properties in mock or live billing! Those locations under live billing (where families receive actual utility statements), we’re beginning to see definite reductions in aggregate household electricity usage. Reducing utility costs directly benefits our residents by making more money available for home and community improvements. RECP promotes responsible energy use by discouraging high consumption and rewarding conservation. Residents can earn rebates when their household usage is more than 10% below average for similar homes. Since going “live” in May 2014, Camp Lejeune families have earned cash rebates totaling more than $33,000, Quantico families more than $48,000 and Camp Pendleton families more than $322,000!
Risk Management News Here it comes! Our new content and delivery methods are lining up to raise awareness and help us stay SAFE@Lincoln! • April’s training content centers on Safety Data Sheets. Everything you needed and wanted to know about the new format for labels and safety data sheets for chemicals used and stored on site. Watch for new format SDS coming to your sites. Walk away knowing where to find critical info: Symptoms of Overexposure, First Aid Measures, Handling and Storage, and How to Dispose of these products. All on-site team members must take this training in Grace Hill, even if you have been briefed in another meeting, so we have a log of completed training, per OSHA standards. • May’s content will be a refresher on OSHA recordkeeping. • June is National Safety Month! Look for a new topic EACH WEEK as we emphasize our focus on SAFE behaviors at work and home, individually and as a team! It takes all of us! Topics include preventing prescription drug abuse; slips, trips and falls; distracted driving; and summer safety (overexertion/heat stress). Let’s start noticing and recording GOTCHA moments. Catch each other in the act of being SAFE@Lincoln. Send your anecdotes, pictures and ideas to SAFEatLincoln@lpsi.com. Workers Compensation Our goal is to keep everyone SAFE@Lincoln and send everyone home injury free. How many days can we go without a workplace injury? How many Districts can go injury-free for a month? Let’s challenge ourselves! Regional VPs and District Managers will soon be receiving WC incident trend information, and will be encouraged to set improvement targets for 2014. With a focus on and tools to support SAFE@Lincoln, we can minimize our workplace injuries. We are also on our way building a Workers Compensation Care Kit to help injured employees, their supervisors, and our medical providers make the process as smooth as possible. This will help get our injured team members back to work more quickly, reduce the uncertainty, and align our job descriptions and leave pay policies with world class best practices.
Human Resources Living the Mission Our mission is to provide military families with exemplary service in a quality home environment. To provide employees with unparalleled opportunities for personal and professional development. To provide our military partners with quality homes and vibrant neighborhoods. How do you contribute towards Lincoln Military Housing’s Mission? At LMH, we all have a role and responsibility in living our mission and contributing towards our goal of being the home provider of choice for our military families. As we strive to enrich the lives of service members by creating vibrant and friendly neighborhoods, quality homes and delivering exemplary service, we want to ensure that each day we are prepared to fulfill our mission. Here are some important guidelines and reminders that will help you deliver on our mission the best way possible and contribute to your overall success as an LMH Team Member: Presentation - Being dressed for success each day is key; follow our professional grooming guidelines by being well-groomed and presenting a professional image with a clean uniform or business attire. Preparedness – Arrive at work at your scheduled time; ready to start your day. Have all the necessary tools and resources ready so you can deliver your best performance. Communication - Each interaction with our residents, vendors and team members should be positive, respectful and friendly. Greeting – Deliver the best service with a SMILE; be friendly, greet our residents at every opportunity with a friendly salutation, “Hello”, “Good Morning”, “Thank You”. Professional Development – Put yourself out there, learn something new every day, utilize the training and resources that LMH has to offer. Model Team Member – Be the best you can be, at all times. Live LMH’s company values by following our policies and company principals of honor, compassion, patience, respect and sensitivity. Team Work – Be a supportive team mate, lend a hand, work together in a respectful and friendly manner. Respect each other’s differences, learn from each other’s strengths and work together towards the common goal of delivering exemplary service.
Training Congratulations Lincoln Military Housing would like to congratulate the following employees on becoming Certified Training Associates (CTAs). These team members will be instrumental in facilitating training for the Scott Region throughout 2014. This responsibility is in addition to their current job duties; and we would like to thank these individuals for their dedication and hard work. Jasmine Alarcon, District Manager, Canyon District Frank Brehm, Maintenance Supervisor, Flag District Michael Coney, Service Manager, Admiral Hartman District Heidi Delapena, Assistant Manager, The Villages at NTC District Ashley Garcia, Call Center Associate, LMH Call Center Sandy Lopez, Assistant Manager, Chollas District Michele Ledesma, Benefits Coordinator/Administrative Assistant, SD GMO Todd Steinhardt, District Manager, The Villages at Serra Mesa District
IT Initiatives A new Knowledge Center will be live in April! The new KC sports an updated look and feel, an internal social media application, new People and Property search applications, and many other surprises on updated Department pages. End user training webinars were held during the last two weeks in March. Yardi Payscan, which loads scanned invoices into the system for approval in Yardi or from mobile devices, was upgraded in March. It has many enhanced features that were tested over the first quarter. At the beginning of April, the final implementation at Fort Sam Houston was completed. Payscan is another step in LMH’s drive to the paperless office! Gail Scott’s region has rolled out online leasing. Our Legal and Compliance Department is continuing to work with each region to ensure the proper documents are uploaded and ready for use in Yardi. We hope that this will also be a big step towards the paperless office! A new Incident Management system rolled out on January 31st. The user interface and reporting capabilities have been enhanced. This system is also in line with our paperless office initiative. Reports no longer need to be printed and are instead stored in the system.
Marketing News
Sneak Peek Santo Terrace Built in 1977, Santo Terrace is located on the previous site of Camp Elliott. During WWII Camp Elliott was used as a rifle range to train Marine recruits, making the development of Santo Terrace a challenge. Throughout the build much care was taken to avoid possible unexploded ordinances. Today, Santo Terrace consists of 957 homes and is part of the Murphy Canyon District which totals over 2,300 homes. Santo Terrace has a unique landscape being situated in suburbia, but surrounded by a canyon, the community will occasionally have an appearance from a coyote or a rattlesnake. From 20032005 the homes were completely renovated in phases of 80 homes at a time.
There are exciting new changes going on in Marketing! Katie Hans has recently joined the LMH Marketing Department. Having been with LMH for almost four years, Katie has been an important part of the East Coast Asset Management team and many others. Katie has played an integral role in launching many marketing initiatives in the past two years and we are excited to have her officially join our team. Please join us in congratulating Katie Hans in her new role with LMH.
The team at Santo Terrace is comprised of many tenured LMH employees. The District Manager Tom Vogt, was one of the first employees hired in 2001 when LMH was formed, Enrique Martinez, Maintenance Supervisor has 10 years tenure and Elias Perez will be celebrating his 10-year anniversary this year. Customer Service Representative, Marlene Harris has been nicknamed “The Happiest Person in the World” and offers a pleasant experience every time someone visits the office. The Maintenance Team runs an ongoing fundraiser for LCI, recycling employee’s plastic bottles and cans, their most recent donation was $250!
The new website is LIVE! In late March we launched the new LincolnMilitary.com. Our new site is now tablet and mobile friendly, information is now easily found and we have already doubled our weekly website inquires.
In 2003, the Service Technicians noticed a fire on the hillside behind the Rec Center, and smothered it by means of shovels & dirt before the Fire Department arrived. This saved the residents from potential danger as the hills are dry & a fire would spread quickly. The team is incredibly dedicated to our mission and continues to serve our military families with pride every day!
Lincoln milestones We are proud to have such dedicated, highly skilled, and caring team members, always seeking to improve the quality of life for our military families. Please join us in congratulating the below members of the LMH team celebrating milestone anniversaries.
CRENNAN REGION Danielle L Franco - 5 Years Karen K Ostrowski - 5 Years Karen L Sullivan - 5 Years Dakysha N Harris - 10 Years Eric N Zambrano - 20 Years
BROWNE REGION Ariel M Crowder - 5 Years Davie G Trembley - 10 Years Susan Valdez - 10 Years
BROWN REGION SCOTT REGION Vici V Ledonne - 5 Years Bonnie B New - 10 Years Sandra Lee Mitchell - 10 Years Kevin L Simerly - 10 Years Victor M Gonzalez - 10 Years
Lincoln Charities Helping The LMH Family Lincoln Charities hit some big milestones in 2013. With the support of so many employees, vendors, and business partners we were able to help 27 families, more Lincoln families than in any prior year! This growth in support was perfect timing to help celebrate the charity’s fifth anniversary in April. A lot of the financial support Lincoln Charities receives comes from fund raisers so we want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to the three largest fund raisers in the fourth quarter of 2013. The fundraiser that raised the most money was the annual Camp Pendleton Golf Tournament which raised almost $24,000 for Lincoln Charities. Many of the contributors graciously bought foursomes which they in turn donated to service members so they could come out and play a round of golf! Another fundraiser in the fourth quarter that deserves recognition was the annual Crennan Region Team Building Event which raised almost $14,000. The event consisted of many fundraising “stations” such as a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, tables with prize wheels and plinko, dessert wars, raffles, and auctions. The annual Village Fall BBQ was also a big success bringing in over $11,000 for the charity. People from all over Dallas, employees and nonemployees alike, enjoyed several types of BBQ, all the fixings, and the beautiful October weather. Lincoln Charities and all of the recipients would like to say thank you to the hardworking folks who planned these events and to everyone who participated.
Gold Medallion 2013 Gold Medallion Recipients Agnes Bautista, Crennan Region Dustin Klep, Crennan Region Eric Tili, Browne Region Jasmine Alarcon, Scott Region Jessica Huber, McKay Region
Karen Ostrowski, Crennan Region Kim Sickel, Crennan Region Krista Kaufer, Browne Region Sam Martin, Brown Region Shari Simpson, Brown Region
2013 Award Recipients District Manager of the Year
Lou Scott, Scott Region Manny Padilla, Browne Region Natasha Kapua, McKay Region Tammy Keil, Brown Region Tim Ferner, Crennan Region Resident/Assistant Manager of the Year Amy Kennedy, Browne Region Darlene Juarez, Scott Region Leslie Carbiener, Browne Region Tia Bacca, Crennan Region Vici LeDonne, Brown Region Maintenance Supervisor of the Year Anthony Calderon, Browne Region Breck Babcock, Crennan Region Carlos Mendoza, Brown Region Jaime Munoz, Scott Region Robert Guerrero, McKay Region Service Manager of the Year Erica Fishel, Crennan Region Sara Rodriguez, McKay Region Stacy Brewster, Scott Region Verner Feesago, Browne Region Service Technician of the Year David Aleman, McKay Region David Bourbeau, Browne Region Efrain Gutierrez, Scott Region Marcus Cook, Crennan Region Victor Gutierrez, Brown Region Groundskeeper/Porter of the Year Eleuteria Duque, Browne Region Gloria Bennett, Crennan Region Martin Flores, Scott Region In-House Turnover Personnel of the Year Elsa Rivero, Browne Region Gaspar Barajas, Browne Region Mike Moore, Brown Region Customer Service Representative of the Year Ara Eusse-Gil, Browne Region Cindy Ruhl, Browne Region Jessica Bleasdale, Crennan Region Teresa Leon, Scott Region Valencia Sivells, Brown Region Support Services Award Laura Crocker, Brown Region Michele Ledesma, Scott Region Michelle Middleton, Scott Region Tracy Hutto, Browne Region CTA/ STA of the Year Harry Marshall, Crennan Region GMO / Accounting / Admin of the Year Cindy Shorey, Crennan Region Call Center Representative of the Year Abigail Hertel, Scott Region Maria Bermudez, Scott Region
Gold Medallion 2013 Award Recipients Rookie of the Year
Service Team of the Year Spirit of Lincoln
Lincoln Charities Advocate of the Year
District of the Year Partner of the Year Community Services Coordinator of the Year Community Volunteer of the Year Good Guy Card Winners
Eagle Plaque for TEAML Completions
Platinum Plunger Award Special Award
Aubrie Ross, Browne Region Bobby German, Crennan Region Esteban Barajas, Scott Region Kari Reeger, Brown Region LaTisha Allen, McKay Region Mitch Garcilaso, Browne Region Tyler Skidmore, Crennan Region Norfolk Crossing, Crennan Region Emery Johnson, McKay Region Josh Tiefenbach, Browne Region Kelly Marks, Crennan Region Michael Beardslee, Scott Region Oyanca Manzi, Browne Region Sandra Mitchell, Brown Region Danielle Franco, Crennan Region Elizabeth Perez, Scott Region Krista Kaufer, Browne Region Sheila Ramirez, Brown Region Camp Lejeune, Crennan Region Oscar Almond Sheila Crute Adrianna Thomas, Crennan Region Andrea Long, Scott Region KoNanna Washington, Browne Region Tiffany Flores, Brown Region Chris Isner, Crennan Region Jadwiga ‘Heddie’ Kaylor, Crennan Region Kevin Jackson, Crennan Region Peter Spence, Crennan Region Andre Dewispelaere, Crennan Region Chekesha Taswell, Crennan Region Jessica Bleasdale, Crennan Region Kari-An Overman, Crennan Region Libby Lamb, Crennan Region Lilly Aronson, Crennan Region Robbie Hoy, Crennan Region Tim Ferner, Crennan Region Quantico Justin Baird, LMH/LPC Construction
2013 Circle of Honor Inductees Amy Ward, Brown Region Brooke Scarbrough, Crennan Region Checo Martinez, Scott Region Christine Tyszka, Crennan Region Dustin Klep, Crennan Region Jeff Lunsford, Browne Region
Jenny Kalua’u, Brown Region Susan Valdez, Browne Region Tanya Kelly, Crennan Region Tracy Smith, Crennan Region Victor Gonzalez, Scott Region Wayne Beardsley, Crennan Region
Community Services Maximize Event & Program ROI As you and your Lincoln team invest a lot of time, energy, budget, and creativity into the events and programs for your residents, there are simple and important items to think about to achieve your ROI. ROI (Return on Investment) planning ensures that the effort you put in is valuable and the mission of your event/program is achieved. ROI is strategic, so it is important to think through your event/program and look for opportunities and capitalize on them. It is not enough to simply plan and execute an event, but more important to ensure you are having a positive impact on your residents in a variety of ways. Here are some simple and inexpensive opportunities to make that positive impact: Invitation/Marketing/Attracting Attendees - Gone are the days of leaving a flyer on the door. Residents are looking for a personal connection prior to attending your event. • Visiting Resident homes during evening hours when they are home to deliver a flyer to the event and personally invite them. • Create a special invite with a themed goodie or giveaway as a “Save the Date.” • Call each of your new move-ins and personally invite them to the event. Residents Arriving at Events – this is the first impression so make it count! • Assign Staff Members to be greeters and welcome committee prior to the residents even checking into the event. Meet the residents in the parking lot, out front of building, on the sidewalk and provide guidance to the residents as they approach the event space. • Look at signage, décor, staff in costumes, start music early anything that might be welcoming and make the event a more friendly atmosphere. Make sure your event set-up is complete at least 20 minutes before the start of the event so residents only see a very organized space and staff. Engaging – These events are the perfect opportunity for staff to have face to face time with residents. Most importantly this is a perfect time for residents to interact and build their relationships and connections within the community! • Assign Staff Members to be “Resident Relations” and have them walk the event space engaging residents on their experience both at the event and in housing. • If your community has experienced a high number of new move-ins, offer a door prize drawing for a special prize for residents who bring/ invite a “new move-in” to the event. This gets residents to engage, but also helps increase your participation. • Create opportunities for residents to engage with Name Badges (name and list one fact about themselves ex. number of kids), ice breaker game for the adults, add minute-to-win-it style games for quick and fun interaction, table top game, family style scavenger hunt, ect. • Residents love giveaways, but be careful on having a giveaway just to have a giveaway. Offer a uniquely designed and only offered at that event type giveaway. Pre-market the item to create a buzz about it and get everyone excited. • Expo style events are a great opportunity for interaction. To ensure residents visit and interact with all booths, provide a “stamp” card with each booth listed and after they have completed the card they turn the card in for a door prize drawing. Another game at these types of events is “unscramble the phrase” and each booth has a secret word / clue to help the residents with the game. • Remind Staff and Vendors of a no cell phone policy during the event. Exiting – Leaving the event is the resident’s last impression and a perfect opportunity for future marketing and lasting positive impact. • Assign Staff Members to line the exits and say goodbye and thanks for coming. • Ensure there is no clean-up of the event happening until all participants have left. Cleaning up early leads resident to fell rushed to leave and that the staff is more focused on clean-up than them. • Have a “Save the Date” for the next event ready to pass out. If budget allows, a simple departing gift is always a nice touch! From your Community Services Teams, feel free to contact us anytime for brainstorming on your ROI! As the summer approaches, just a reminder to double check your movie and music license is up-o-date.
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