Brea McQueen (Community Technology Center) and Jennifer Umbstead (Fairfield) are our September-October Dual Employees of the Month. This is Ms. McQueen’s first time winning, while Ms. Umbstead last won in October 2014.
Reagan Coleman nominated Brea and wrote:
Brea was so helpful during operation pumpkin, and once it was over she went right to work on the Mincraft Pumpkins! Her pumpkin craft was a big hit and all the kids loved it, all of her ideas here at the Tech Center are a hit. Great job Brea!
Pam Giuliano nominated Jen and wrote:
I nominate Jen Umbstead for employee of the month. Aside from the fact that Jen is exceptionally kind, she is also great with the patrons! Recently a patron asked Jen to place a hold for him for the latest Game of Thrones season. Realizing that it was not on the catalog yet, Jen wrote his name down and has periodically been checking the catalog so that she can place the hold when the title becomes available! Wow! You are so awesome!!! I love working at FFB because of great staff members like Jen Umbstead!
Congratulations to both. They win their choice of a $50 gift certificate or 4 extra hours of vacation.
Also nominated:
Rhonda Laws
Rhonda helped out with a community outreach program in September. The Bookmobile was overwhelmed with children at the start of the visit and Rhonda helped by running an impromptu story time, found some books to occupy a few other kids, and assisted in calming things down. The rest of the afternoon went very smoothly. This was an important event to us, since we had been specially invited, and we wanted to make a positive impression. Rhonda’s assistance was really helpful, and I’m grateful for her work and time!
Mike Busam
The personal attention he gives at schools
Annette Clayton
Annette organized and prioritized items so that all 23 schools had a rounded library collection to begin the school year.
Margaret Winstead
Margaret went above and beyond her normal duties helping with the designing and planning of recent Hamilton’s inventory. With her contributions, we were able to create a formula for determining the scan time for each collection and implement a more flexible version of the inventory process using in-house tools. And her can-do approach and thoughtful questions were an invaluable part of the success of this project.
Missy Thompson
Missy went way above the call of duty today with a non-English speaking patron. She not only sat at the computer with him the whole time and assisted with the forms he was trying to fill out, but had to use Google Translate back and forth to understand what he was saying and to communicate back to him. She really demonstrated outstanding patience and service today, so I feel she should be nominated and recognized.
FFB’s Missy went above and beyond to provide excellent customer service to a patron speaking English as a second language. She worked with him to help him get to needed resources to resolve employment issues. He was extremely grateful for her time and patience to help him through it despite their language barriers. This is but one example at regarding her patience and drive to go above and beyond.
Missy is always super helpful with every patron that walks into the Fairfield branch. A perfect example is last week when a Spanish speaking patron came in needing help with Jobs and Family Services online and getting claim information. Missy took the time to sit with him at a computer, and worked with him to get the information he needed. It took about an hour and a half and with even a bit of a language barrier, he left very grateful to Missy for her help and the claim information he needed and a phone number that he could use to contact someone at OJFS.
Jennifer Bonnlander
Jen B. is one super Shelver! She consistently looks for ways to improve the look of the entire Fairfield collection and keeps the shelves incredibly neat and orderly. When she’s not shelving, you can find her shifting full collections to even out the space and cleaning the shelves as she goes. Recently, she has been picking up extra shifts to help out during a Shelver shortage and it’s very much appreciated!
Holly Claxton
Holly was so kind, and so willing to help me gather information for a writing program I am going to be doing next month. Holly and I don’t even work together, and yet she went above and beyond providing me with information and support. Thanks, Holly!!
Holly Claxton has been super helpful when it comes to sharing materials and resources for NaNoWriMo. Brea and I are both doing NaNo programs, and her contributions have helped so much!
Mary Geers
Mary is absolutely fabulous with every child I’ve seen her interact with (as well as their adults.) She is bursting with knowledge, energy, and excitement, even when I know she is having a less-than-stellar day. I know I can go to her for advice or a just a listening ear if I ever need to, which I really appreciate. She rocks! 🙂
Sarah Gifford
Sarah is always wiling to go above and beyond the call of duty to assist patrons and her coworkers. She is also a staff member who readily agrees to represent the branch at community events. Thank you for all that you do at OXB!
Robbie Smith
Robbie is the definition of a team player. She looks out for everyone by offering assistance, explaining procedures, offering suggestions when bouncing ideas off her, supporting her co-workers when issues with patrons arise, and being able to see the big picture when planning programs. Working with Robbie is always a positive experience. I enjoy learning so much from her and she really does help me to be the best employee that I can be. I nominate Robbie Smith for always having her co-workers’ backs.
Julie Wirtz
Julie is currently going to school and working as a Grade 1. She is doing split shifts. So she comes in the morning for two and a half hours and completes the entire pull list! Then she goes to class and when she comes back, she just does what needs done. She does shelf searches, helps the shelvers, helps circ with little circ things. She is just so driven and hard working!
Julie always works hard whenever she’s here. When she’s pulling holds, she does not give up on her search to find whatever items she needs. She’s also a huge help with deliveries!
Sara Stapf
The other day, I saw Sara making new labels for all of the DVD areas without anyone asking or noticing that they needed it. She just took the initiative like she does all the time with all kinds of things. She is a little speed machine that gets things done!
Alex Scales
Alex is just awesome to have around. The other day I wasn’t feeling so good, so Alex took almost every patron that came up to the desk without me even asking. He is so good at helping them with what they need and he usually makes a friend out of it. We have multiple patrons who ask for Alex by name every day.
Jeffrey Baker
Jeff is really coming into his own as a Teen Librarian! He is doing so many programs every week, and he is so passionate about all of them! Every time I see him, he is working on a program, asking his co-workers how he could make it better. The teens love Jeff, and for good reason.
Kristen Howard
Kristen is such a great shelver. She is so fast without sacrificing accuracy. She regularly clears the shelves and with time to spare! She’s so good at team work, often shelving with other shelvers. She doesn’t mind double checking carts or sorting things as they come in. She has an excellent grasp on what it means to be a shelver and work as part of a team.
Danielle White
Danielle works hard at making all of the Wellness Committee challenges a success and brightens the break room with her colorful monthly Wellness posters. Thanks to her encouragement and commitment, I started participating in the Wellness Challenges, and have lost over 40 pounds in 2017!
Jess Kahan
Jess has really stepped up to the plate recently to take care of all kinds of things in Collection Development. Patron and Staff requests, dealing with sales reps, and getting plenty of material ordered. She has really helped my work load and everyone’s in the department! Thanks Jess!