Facility Update August 21

Good morning all,

Hopefully this smoke will clear soon and we can get back to breathing easier. Other than traffic picking up like crazy, there hasn’t been much to update you on. Our MOU meetings were rescheduled again, right now, we’re scheduled for the 31st and 1st. I have expressed concern over pushing this too far and affecting January leave slots, but the front office has assured us they won’t cancel again.

Wildfire Activity

While all the areas have TFRs due to fires, the fires in the C Area currently pose the greatest impact on air traffic control. There is a possibility that GEG will have to evacuate and, in turn, have to divest the YKM, PSC, and GEG airspaces back to us. As of right now, there has already been a transmitter, a VORTAC, and a RADAR site affected by the fire and shut down due to the fire destroying the power lines leading to these sites. The techs were able to return to the area and survey it, and sent back THESE pictures of the damage. The C area currently has 7/11 combined until further notice because of the outages. Currently no restrictions as a result of this, but that could change anytime.

SOC Desk Construction

There will be some re-arranging of the SOC area within the next 2 days. I have been assured that it will have minimal impact on air traffic but if for whatever reason it gets too loud, please let the OM know and they should be able to mitigate that.

Thank you for all your hard work,

Amy

Last day for NNM T-shirts!

Today is the last day to order NNM T-shirts! You might have seen the T-shirt we designed for this year’s convention. Since the convention was in Florida, we went with a neon theme. Those shirts are now available to purchase as a fundraiser for Fish With a Hero, a PTSD charity. If you are interested, HERE is the link.

Get a rad shirt and support an awesome charity!

Amy

Facility Update August 4th

I hope you’re enjoying this summer, it’s been going by at lightning speed.

Parking Lot Updates

The contractor incorrectly poured the concrete sidewalk again… They will be ripping that up for the 4th time and redoing it. They are re-ordering the paving projects to get as much done in this fiscal year. They will finish the back lot and move up the OSW side of the parking lot, but for obvious reasons will have to skip that small parking lot up front until they get the concrete done. As soon as those parking lots are done and striped, they’ll open up those and skip over to the main lots. (Part of me wonders if this contractor was the same one running the construction around the Tacoma Dome for the last 25 years…)

Lori Olson Going Away

Lori is leaving us for the good life. There are some cards by the OM desk that you are welcome to fill out for her. She has been a long-time FAA employee and has taken care of us more than you’ll probably ever know throughout her years of service. She will be sorely missed, and we wish her a wonderful life. If you’d like, you can stop by the QC Conference room at 11:30 on 8/9 to bid farewell. There will be snacks and drinks.

Building Maintenance

I spoke to Dawn and Takashi about de-programming the locks that lead to the bathroom near the cafeteria. For some reason, they started locking that area on nights and weekends. That should all be fixed now. I also spoke to tech ops about the a/c on the third floor of the OSW building and how it shuts down on nights and weekends. Evidently, they put it on an occupancy sensor, that’s why it would shut down and get crazy hot up here. That should be fixed too. Takashi is bringing in a couch to replace one of the ripped ones in the pool room tomorrow. If you’re here and willing, he could use some help moving it all in.

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can work on getting fixed.

Thank you,

Amy

Facility Update July 24th

MOU Negotiation

We have our first meeting with Takashi and Dawn on Friday to start the 2024 MOU negotiations. Our team includes myself, Drew, and Amanda Crumbley. I don’t anticipate many changes at the facility level, but we will start setting up facility briefings as soon as they are complete.

Northwest Mountain T-Shirt Fundraiser

You might have seen the T-shirt we designed for this year’s convention. Since the convention was in Florida, we went with a neon theme. Those shirts are now available to purchase as a fundraiser for Fish With a Hero, a PTSD charity. If you are interested, HERE is the link.

CFS

Wednesday is the last day to request EA for CFS. Even if you are not sure you are able to attend, please fill this out and turn it into the OM. It might also be a good idea to get them to initial a date/time on the sheet in case we need a tiebreaker. HERE is the sheet to fill out and turn in.

Amy

Facility Update July 17th

Hello ZSE!

Local Elections

We’re coming up on the end of the nomination period for the local Officer and Representative elections. Angie will collect the ballots this Wednesday, July 19th, at noon. If you are interested in running or nominating someone else, please get that done right away. The nominees will have until July 26th to decide whether to run. The campaign period runs from 7/26-8/16.

CFS

CFS is coming up on September 18-20, HERE’s the link to sign up. Signing up is a two-step process. You sign up through NATCA and then fill out the request for excused absence and turn it into the OM, addressed to Takashi, and ensure you write the date/time of when you turned it in in case they need a tiebreaker.

The deadline to add your name to the national excused absence request list for CFS 2023 is Wednesday, July 26, 2023. 

To add your name to the excused absence list, click on this LINK, fill out the form, and turn it in to the OM.

Note: if you aren’t sure that you can attend CFS or still need to see that schedule published, it is encouraged that you still place your name on the excused absence list, there is no penalty if you don’t end up going.

Have a great week!

Amy