Winter - Commissionaires
Transcription
Winter - Commissionaires
MANITOBA Winter 2010 BUFFALO CHIPS In this Winter Edition... Letter from the CEO... page 2 Letter from the Dir. of Ops... page 3 Spot Light... page 4-5 Project Reindeer- Gifts For Our Troops A Success! What’s New... page 5-7 Perspective... page 8-11 Awards ... page 12 Bob, Perry, Carla and Heather from the Division office putting care packages together. MESSAGE FROM THE CEO Commissionaires Manitoba has had a busy year. We expanded our identification services; we received many letters of praise from the public because of the excellent services that you have provided; we engaged in various community activities including Project Reindeer; and we have so much more to look forward to in 2010. Business This year we promoted our cost and time efficient identification services to various organizations. From April 2009 to November 2009 we facilitated the processing of 2,986 CPIC Checks and processed 626 Digital Fingerprints! Compared with 995 CPIC Checks and 367 Digital Fingerprints processed from October 2008-March 2009. This year our ID guy was kept busy! We also saw the expansion of our training and consulting services. We worked with two Northern communitiesGarden Hill and St Theresa Point, to identify possible security issues, trained their own people and provided mentorship for their security people. We continue to offer our services to them and are eager to work with more First Nations communities in 2010. Our People You, Commissionaires are our best advertising and the public has taken notice. In the last six months, two of our on and off duty Commissionaires were on television! Tim Klumper, our site supervisor at HRDC, was on CTV for an incident that occurred in August at a car wash. Tim was at the H2O car wash, washing his bike where he assisted in apprehending a thief. Recently, Commissionaire Terry LeBlanc while on post at City Hall apprehended a man in city chambers that was being unruly and had a bottle of kerosene. A CTV camera person happened to be there when the incident occurred and caught it all on tape. On a regular basis we have been receiving letters from the public commending our Commissionaires for a job well done. Your excellent customer service and keen observation skills, as well as your innate willingness to assist those in need have not gone unnoticed. The Future We will continue to grow and expand our lines of business. A new addition to our Mobile Patrol line of business that we can now provide to our current and future clients is Wired Time. Wired Time is a series of barcodes placed in strategic locations within a facility. While conducting interior patrols a Commissionaire would scan the barcodes, which then records the location and time that that particular barcode was scanned. This lets the customer know exactly when their property was visited. Commissionaires Manitoba will be participating in a few new community events this year. We will be sponsoring a Manitoba Moose hockey game honouring the military on March 13, 2010, and we will be a sponsor for the Air Force Run, May 30, 2010. We are excited to embark on a new year full of potential to grow, expand and to try new things. Happy New Year to you and your loved ones- may it be one for the record books! -Tom Reimer, CEO 2 MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Hi again everyone, can you believe its 2010 already? Wasn’t it just yesterday that many people in this country were convinced our world as we knew it would come to an end at 0001, 01 January 2000? Fooled them eh? Regardless, this time of the new year is a good time to look forward to reinvigorating our organization and business as we seek to continue to fulfill our Mission Statement, “… to provide excellence in security and related services to our clients and to create and sustain rewarding work opportunities…” One of our means of helping to meet that mission is through the workings of your Commissionaire Committee (you will find input from them elsewhere in this newsletter). Essentially, their purpose is to facilitate communication between individual Commissionaires and the Division leadership. To do that effectively the committee needs your support, particularly as an active member of their team. The election of new members to the committee is coming up in March. If you would like to volunteer to serve or nominate someone for this “volunteer committee” please submit those nominations in writing to the Human Resource Manager, Peter Paterson, no later than 19 February 2010. We will contact all nominees to see if they are willing to serve before publishing the final list in March for your consideration and voting. There will be more to follow on the process to vote but for now please consider membership on the committee as a way you can contribute to helping meet our mission statement. We can always use additional interested members! The new year also brought the departure of one of your Division office staff members. John Egdell has been with the Division since November 1997. Hoss (as he is better known) has decided to fully retire and head back east. He has been here in the office since 1999 and most recently managed our Identification Services section where he was probably the busiest man in the organization. We wish him all the best in his retirement. Hopefully the Leafs won’t disappoint him! Hoss has been replaced by Mike Forrest as the result of a competitive process we ran late in the fall. Mike has been in place since November 2009. If you are in the vicinity come by and say hello. You might even recognize him as one of our two “movie stars” from our advertising material for home and mobile patrols! Hoss I’m sure 2010 will bring new opportunities for many of you as we continue to strive to identify new clients for you. As I’ve said to every initial training course for the past year, each of you are our best means of recruiting new members and clients. We can spend a lot of money, time and effort to attract new business and new Commissionaires but that is never as effective as the outstanding conduct and performance of our existing members and satisfaction levels of our clients. Please join us in broadcasting our message in these areas to a wider audience by continuing your excellent performance wherever you are representing the Corps. Finally, I extend to each of you the very best wishes for a personally satisfying and rewarding New Year. Take care of yourselves and your families. -Bob Chmara, Director of Operations 3 SPOTLIGHT Musician Writes Special March After years playing with the Naden Band and a lifelong history with music, 70-year-old retired PO1 Ken Garland wanted to show his love for the navy by composing a march for the band to play during the navy centennial. On May 4, 2010, the streets of Victoria will buzz when the Naden Band leads the Formation on a freedom of the city parade. During this celebration, they will play "Carry On", the march created exclusively for them. "With the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy, I wanted to give the Naden Band their very own signature tune," said PO1 (Ret'd) Garland. "My pride for the navy and love for the Naden Band inspired me to compose this piece." The three-minute march begins with a strong, tough bass-like section and an upbeat melodic counter-melody denoting happiness. Then the unification is disrupted as the trio section denotes memories of hesitant thoughts, before the march picks up with the happy sounds of the original five beat drum roll used in the navy. "Composing to me is a lasting message coming from the heart," says PO1 (Ret'd) Garland. "When I hear my compositions played it often brings tears to my eyes because I see the memories associated with creating the piece." When Naden Band Commanding Officer and Director of Music Lt(N) Robert Byrne received the new march, he welcomed it. "This march symbolizes that tradition of excellence which Although he's composed 15 songs and we use as a foundation for our future, marches throughout his career, the new and is a symbol of Ken's dedication march holds special meaning for to the navy and the Naden Band," PO1 (ret’d) Ken Garland played him. he said. "By continuing to honour the flute and piccolo when his music the efforts of those who have come "In naval terms, “Carry On” is a bu- career began years ago in the Naden before us, we sow the seeds of our Band. gle call that relieves sailors of their future. Contained within the march Photo by Shelley Lipke, Lookout duties and allows them to relax from are a number of boatswain pipe and whatever they were doing," explained PO1 (Ret'd) trumpet calls that have specific navy significance. In Garland. "One day while awaiting the beloved bugle addition to the march being played as part of the naval call, I was struck with the idea of making it a theme centennial celebrations, the Naden Band will also play for a march." it during the Victoria Day Parade." On his 70th birthday last February, he finished composing the march, which holds a dual meaning. It honours the journey of the Naden Band, from being axed due to budget cuts in 1994, and then being resurrected four years later. “Carry On” tells the story of the pride and strength of the original Naden Band, its survival through unification, and the continuation of the band to current times with the Canadian Navy and Maritime Forces Pacific. 4 While “Carry On” was created solely for the Naden Band, PO1 (Ret'd) Garland also composed another march to be played by other military bands during the centennial. "Up Spirits" is also a dedication to the navy centennial that can be played by bands across Canada and by other navies visiting for the centennial. "I've sent it to U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Japanese navies and hope that they play it during our centennial celebrations," said PO1 (Ret'd) Garland. SPOTLIGHT Musician Writes Special March cont. PO1 (Ret'd) Garland mastered the flute and piccolo at a young age before discovering his zeal for creating musical arrangements. After he developed this passion for composing, it only grew stronger with age. where he currently lives before travelling to Esquimalt in June to partake in the various celebrations including the Naden Band's 70th reunion. "The hotel is already booked," he says. Through the years he's marched in the May Day parade more than 20 times and he plans to see the Naden Band perform his march during the centennial, he says. He'll likely enjoy local celebrations in Winnipeg Editor note: Commissionaire Ken Garland is posted at the Pan Am Clinic, he was interviewed by Shelly Lipke, and this article was reproduced from Lookout Newspaper. WHAT’S NEW What are Post Inspections? Your dispatch team is responsible for conducting post inspections at our various federal and commercial sites. All sites are to be inspected at least twice per year but can be done more frequently if required. When we inspect your site, we will be checking for: •Your post orders to ensure that they are current; •That you have your Manitoba security guard license with you; •That your dress and deportment meet our policy standards; and •Discuss with you any problems or concerns that you may have. If we cannot provide you with the necessary information, we will ensure that either your business manager or someone else in the Division office can get back to you. We enjoy visiting our sites and meeting with our Commissionaires. Don’t be surprised if we bring out coffee and donuts with us and enjoy a nice visit with you. -Vivianne Hogg, Dispatch Manager Meet your dispatch team! From Left: Dave Moore, Heather Steele, Eugene LeFlour, Vivianne Hogg and Tim Ferguson. 5 WHAT’S NEW Your Shift is Finished and... Have you ever worked a double shift? How do you feel when your relief doesn’t show up? Attendance Management is concerned with the employee’s obligation to maintain a reliable and regular presence at work. We all need to create a working environment that motivates members to maintain regular attendance. Supervisors directly responsible for Commissionaires are the single most influential factor in ensuring our members meet attendance expectations. They are accountable to the client and Division leadership for ensuring the assigned Commissionaires attend to work regularly. • Encouraging supervisor-employee dialogue on workplace and personal issues helps lower absenteeism rates. The ability of this Division to successfully attain and sustain our mission, “… to provide excellence in security and related services to our clients and to create and sustain rewarding work opportunities for Commissionaires,” is directly related to all our members attending work regularly. Additionally, our core values of trust, dependability, integrity and professionalism cannot be met without a workforce that consistently presents “… to provide excellence in security and itself for duty when and related services to our clients and to create where it’s required. and sustain rewarding work opportunities for Commissionaires,” is directly related to all our The costs of employee absence, both direct and members attending work regularly. The purpose of attendance management is to develop a willingness on the part of all employees to attend work regularly. The successful administration of our management program requires managers and supervisors to be aware of and create work environments that recognize that: • When worker and organizational goals coincide, members are more motivated to maintain regular attendance; • The higher the job satisfaction, the higher the attendance levels; and indirect, significantly and negatively impact the Division. Repeated absence is a source of, disruption, reduced efficiency, compromised quality and frustration for your co-workers. More detailed information about attendance management can be found in Chapter 1, Section 10, in the Human Resources Manual. -Peter Paterson, Human Resources Manager Question Would you be interested and use a “members only”, password protected webpage that would be part of our exisiting webpage? We would be able to share valuable information and get it to you in a timely manner. If you like this idea please call, 204-942-5993, e-mail, dirops@commissionaires. mb.ca or voice your opinion through the chain of command by Friday, February 19, 2010. 6 WHAT’S NEW Shilo IPSC Visit On November 18, 2009, I, along with our Director of Operations, Bob Chmara and CWO Brad Ball, site supervisor, visited and were given a tour of the Integrated Personnel Support Centre (IPSC) in CFB Shilo. IPSC is one of several national support centres that will operate under a single national CF unit headquartered in Ottawa known as the Joint Personnel Support Unit (JPSU). The IPSC Shilo provides a variety of services in one location to ill and injured regular and reserve force members, veterans and their families living within western Manitoba, as well as the southern portion of the province of Saskatchewan. The mandate of the IPSC is to “improve the quality of care and services provided to ill and injured CF personnel while ensuring a high standard of care and support nation-wide.” The aim is to reduce the potential that a CF member “falls through the cracks” and to assist personnel in recovering, rehabilitating and reintegrating them, either back into CF life or life as a civilian. One of the reintegration services that the IPSC provides is, the Return to Work (RTW) program using RTW Coordinators. The main focus of the RTW Coordinator is to assist in the design of a modified work plan that benefits both the individual and the unit. They are also responsible for: co-chairing the RTW Committee and providing statistics to Ottawa to ensure proper funding is allotted. They work hand-in-hand with the Regional Adaptive Fitness Specialist, 11 Health Services and the units to ensure open and effective communication. CF members who are in RTW programs are considered to be on military duty, even if they are posted to civilian positions. These individuals are still subject to the military Code of Service Discipline and their salaries are paid entirely by the Canadian Forces. Commissionaires Manitoba envisions our relationship with the IPSC’s to be one which supports our proud history of providing meaningful employment for veterans. It is our division and Commissionaires Canada’s intent and hope, that we will work together with the IPSC to place CF members who are in RTW programs alongside our Commissionaires. However, it is important to note that no Commissionaire positions will be lost because of this program. Rather, CF members who are in RTW programs will supplement our members. This program will benefit Commissionaires Manitoba, the Canadian Forces and its members. If you are interested in the services of the Shilo IPSC, please contact Denise Andries, services coordinator, at Bldg L-106 Room 40, Local 3092 (CSN 258-3092) or e-mail her at [email protected]. John Chabih, services coordinator from IPSC 17 Wing is also available to provide you with information. He can be reached by phone, 204-833-2500 local 6300 or by e-mail, [email protected]. To reach other IPSC offices, please contact your local Military Family Resource Centre. -Wayne Boesch, Federal Business Manager 7 PERSPECTIVE A Day At New Flyer Some of you have wondered, “What’s it like to work at the New Flyer site?” Well this is a site where all of your skills will be tested. Everything from what you were taught on your qualifying course to your computer skills; to your life skills are all brought into play here at New Flyer every day. New Flyer manufactures a wide range of urban transit buses and parts, and ships its products in many different forms across Canada and the USA. All shipments must comply with USA regulations, and this is where security comes into play. As a security officer you must watch that all policies and procedures are being followed. When we’re on patrol and we observe that a variance has occurred we report our findings into a database reporting system or send an e-mail to the appropriate New Flyer employee. We also have many of the same type of duties as other sites, but magnified due to the sheer size of the New Flyer property which is huge! We operate out of a guardhouse where we: •Control all traffic in and out of the plant at three gates, check ID cards, conduct vehicle and employee bag searches; •Monitor fire alarm panels, burglar alarm systems, bypass alarms on doors as required and do an ongoing check of the plants safety systems; •Greet and meet many very important people from all over the world. When guests arrive they must be directed to the appropriate meeting place, given ID cards, issued safety equipment and directed to where they can park; •Conduct plant patrols, office patrols, and we issue parking tickets while on parking lot patrol. These are an in-house ticket, but they are recorded into individual files and they count towards further disciplinary action if required. This can all be challenging and are only a few of the reasons that we have five to six days of on-the-jobtraining (OJT). We must also attend an orientation and safety training day with a New Flyer Health and Safety Officer before anyone can start to work. Now you know more about the New Flyer site, it’s a unique site and we are proud of it! -Glen Muir, Warrant Officer, New Flyer Pay Office Corner Accuracy of Your Pay Statements It every employee’s responsibility to review his / her pay statements to ensure the information is accurate. This includes verifying your income, deductions and taxable benefits amounts. Examples of errors could include timesheet errors, input errors, etc. In the case of transfers, employees may not be paying the correct amount for LTD insurance or being assessed an incorrect taxable benefit as part of their annual income for tax purposes. Therefore, always review your pay statements and contact the pay office immediately if you discover any discrepancies. We are always available to assist you in ensuring all information on your pay statement is accurate. -Trevor Lawless, Paymaster 8 PERSPECTIVE Commissionaires Committee The Commissionaires Committee was formed in 2008 in its present structure. Since that time we have been working diligently “to advance the concerns of all Commissionaires”. A formal mission statement has been finalized. It is “the mission of the Commissionaires Committee to serve as a means of communication between individual Commissionaires and the leadership of Commissionaires Manitoba in order to: •provide a forum to assist both the Division office and Commissionaires in assessing members’ needs and welfare as impacted by Division policies and procedures; •help provide excellence in security and related services to our clients and to sustain rewarding work opportunities for our Commissionaires; and We have also received confirmation, (as stated in our HR Manual, Dress Regs) to allow us to supplement required dresss with civilian clothing. Commissionaires that patrol outside in the winter (in Shilo temperatures can approach the -40˚c mark) may wear appropriate civilian attire such as wind pants and winter boots that are conservatively colored. We, in the Commissionaires Committee are interested in and are resolved to make changes happen for the betterment of all Commissionaires. Come for a visit or call your Committee Representative and see what we can do for you. We can have a coffee or chew the fat. You might be surprised at what we can and are willing to do! Since our inception we have been attempting to address and resolve issues of concern to all Commissionaires. Although confidentiality prevents discussion of ongoing issues; we can relate some of our successes. If you’re a more hands-on kind of person, contact us to join the Commissionaires Committee. Currently, we consist of 4 members, however, we would like to grow in numbers with more Commissionaires participating. If you feel that you would like to help yourself and other Commissionaires, join our Commissionaires Committee! Feel free to contact any Committee member or our Human Resources Manager, Peter Paterson. We meet once a month and are reimbursed for our time and the rewards are personally tremendous. The Commissionaires Committe has been working with the Corps to obtain weather appropriate clothing for Commissionaires who are required to perform outdoor duties. Living in Manitoba, we are all aware of the unique weather conditions that we can experience. “In extreme temperatures, safety does come first,” says Director of Operations, Bob Chmara. Your Commissionaire Committee Representatives; George Osicki, Rose Small, Bruce Taylor and Brien Buie, can be reached confidentially either through email ([email protected]) or by mailing a sealed and marked envelope, (CONFIDENTIALCommissionaires Committee, 50 Stafford St., Winnipeg MB R3M 2V7). Rain suits are currently on a trial basis at various locations due to several reasons and have been issued to members that must patrol outside at selcted sites. Your Commissionaires Committee is confident that the trial will prove successful and rain suits will become available to all Commissionaires that require them to perform their exterior duties at their sites. -Commissionaire Brien Buie, Commissionaires Committee Representative •to advocate on behalf of the Division Commissionaires as may be required from time to time. Editor note: Please see the Director of Operations comments for more on Commissionaires Committee. 9 PERSPECTIVE Post Project Reindeer For over a month Commissionaires collected donations to create care packages for our troops serving overseas during this past holiday season. Our project seemed to tug a cord with the public and the media. I received various calls from Commissionaires and the public inquiring on how they could help with this initiative. Assiniboia Christian Centre and Charleswood Senior Centre both participated in our project by promoting it internally and collecting donations. In October I participated in a 2 minute interview done by Shaw TV and it aired for one week, several times a day. We were also mentioned in various community billboard postings in print and on TV. Collecting and assembling the donations took the most amount of time and effort. Once all the donations were picked-up they needed to be sorted and categorized. The most popular items that we collected were: soap, popcorn and granola bars. Division office staff helped to pre-package the donations (which made the assembly process a lot easier and more organized), and helped to assemble the individual care packages. Town Shoes, a shoe store in Polo Park helped by supplying shoe boxes for us to put the collected donations in. We assembled over 50 individual packages, each containing a toiletry bag, snack bag as well as other goodies. The communal packages included a bunch of our pre-assembled treat and toiletry bags as well as DVD’s, books and batteries. The communal boxes were intended to go to Canada House which is an entertainment house for all the Canadian troops in Kandahar. Once the packages were ready for shipment we sent them to 12 Canadian Forces members, whose names were given to us by Commissionaires and the public. We also sent packages to three Commissionaires who are currently on post in Afghanistan. Project Reindeer was a rewarding project and I think everyone who got involved feels the same way. Thank you to all who helped to make this project a success! -Velangeline Ferrigno, Marketing and Communications Specialist Greetings from Kandahar Afghanistan This morning I was the happy recipient of an unexpected care package from the Commissionaires and friends from the Manitoba Division. It was a wonderful pick-me-up on a dreary, gloomy, dusty, cool morning. As you can imagine, thoughts of the Christmas season and missing time with family and friends has been weighing heavily on everyone here these past few days. I very much appreciated receiving the gift, but also knowing that “fellow Commissionaires” are thinking of those of us who are away means a lot. I also enjoyed the fact that I was able to share the treats with some of my co-workers who have been feeling a bit blue as well. Thank you so much for your kindness and for the warm wishes from Canada. Best regards and Merry Christmas to you all! Iris Thornton, A/Director Support Services, ATCO Frontec Europe, Kandahar Airfield Project, Afghanistan Iris was a Commissionaire from Nova Scotia Division, she is currently serving in Afghanistan. 10 PERSPECTIVE Assiniboine Park Pavilion A highly visible work site for Commissionaires Manitoba is securing the Assiniboine Park Pavilion. There have been great changes that took place in the last few years at this site and this past summer alone there were over 36 outdoor performances that took place under our area of responsibility with audiences as high as 7,000 people in attendance! The Pavilion building was also center stage for an estimated 100,000 people coming out for Canada Day to see the largest fireworks in Canada! Approaching the end of 2009, the Pavilion Gallery Museum’s art collection grew in size and in value due to the addition of various art collections and exhibitions. Our security team is always there and in December the Pavilion hosted close to 100 Christmas parties which we proudly secured for our clients tenant restaurant. We were also present this past New Year’s Eve securing a good time for all the party goers and wishing everyone health, happiness and prosperity into 2010. -Commissionaire George Osicki, Assiniboine Park Pavilion Range Control CFB Shilo The position at Range Control, CFB Shilo is a 24/7, 365 days a year operation. The job consists of controlling access to the ranges by land and air, plotting people, military and civilians on a map. The training range is a vast 96,000 acres and has many different sectors where all sorts of ammunition is fired, from bombs to hand grenades! We have to keep track of where live fire is coming and going by adding and removing LIVE FIRE weapons range safety traces both land and air as needed. These safety traces (lights on a map indicating live fire happening in a particular sector) allow us to pass on information to people concerned, as to where it is safe to go out on the range. Additionally, we monitor three ground radio frequencies and two aircraft frequencies, making sure we know where people are and where live fire is happening at all times. It is not unusual to have multiple ranges shooting, with up to 4 different types of aircrafts involved at the same time. The primary concern at all times is SAFETY. The job also involves: •Monitoring a weapons alarm system; •Gate control; •Dispatching the Range Control fire trucks; •Calling for an ambulance when required; •Issuing keys; •Transferring calls from range phones to base locals; and •Logging all pertinent information into the Range Control safety log. Working at Range Control at CFB Shilo is an interesting place to work, one which I enjoy. - Commissionaire Sgt. Bob Long, Range Control, CFB Shilo 11 AWARDS and EVENTS 5 YEAR AWARD 12 YEAR AWARD 17 YEAR AWARD Cmre Leon “Sonny” O’Donnell Cmre David Shultz Cmre Melvin Brown Promotion to SgtTim Ferguson Mr John (Hoss) Egdell Warrant Officer Jack Bell Cmre Peter Kennedy Cmre Arthur Hamm October Mr. Len Baspaly Sgt Crystal Randell Cmre Donald Macdonald Cmre Geraldine Thornhill November December Cpl Rose Small Cmre James Sesak Cmre Barry Dunn Cmre Harold Jones January Cmre Brien Buie Cmre Tom Ewaschuk Cmre Marcel Leblanc Cmre Rufino Sarmiento December award recipients with fellow Commissionaire David Serduck (second left) who received the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal given by the Canadian Forces. All awards were presented by Bob Chmara (third left), director of operations. 12 Fast Fact Did you know that Commissionaires provided security for the Coca-Cola bus while the Olympic Torch passed through Manitoba?