That was Fun To Be At....

[davidschroth]

...The Unisys Retirees Club had a Good Old Days Get Together in Roseville today. I went, skipping the $5 Sloppy Joe lunch, and saw a lot of faces I haven't seen in a while.

Rick Price, Wayne Wakefield, Keith Sorvari, Mary Wisdorf, Jim Sherek, Jim Bunda, Russ Sherer, Gene Holden, Theresa Dixon, Joan Heinz, Jim Frantz, Wayne Ward, David C. Johnson, Jay Meyers, Brent Becken, Betsy Ahl, Doreen Bristol, and others whose name I'll remember *after* I post.

There were probably more people at the event than there were in Building 3 today.

It leaves me wanting to try to persuade management to ditch the Employee Appreciation Day in favor of a Good Old Days kind of event in the parking lot open to former and current employees. Let people pay for their own food and beverage - I know I'd enjoy it a lot more than the silly tent party in the parking lot.

Talking with Judy Kruse after (she wasn't able to make it), she pointed that Unisys had made an amazing donation of talent to a lot of other companies over the years.

Comments

[s6b.livejournal.com]

Long, long ago, when ESD management opened up their meetings to the grunts, I sat in on quite a few including at least one in which the giving out of employee appreciation tokens (clocks, pocket knives, ... , etc.) was discussed.
I came away with the impression that the method of expression, and most especially the cost of that expression, was largely determined somewhere in the food chain well above the level of those present in the meeting.
The only thing that folks in the meeting (Warren and his immediate subordinates) could do is pass around a gift catalog from some outside company and pick out those things that weren't over budget.

What any of this has to do with anything is that if you're serious about trying to pursue an alternative to EAD, may I suggest that you try to find out what the budget for EAD is, who has approval of budget (which should also be the person who can approve an alternative), and find out what non-budgetary constraints that person is working under (e.g. does he/she want all parts of Roseville included at the same time).
And since employee petitions have worked at least once in the past, may I suggest that you then try to persuade the person with approval power with a petition showing a general buy-in for the alternative from as much of Roseville as can be managed.

Frankly, I think it's a lot of extra organizational work ... probably way more than an already sleep deprived architectural grand poobah should think about taking on by himself.
May I suggest that the task sounds almost managerial (spit) and so it might be nice if you could get some help from a manager (spit) who also thinks it would be a good idea to pursue, preferably someone who doesn't have the empathic response of a sea slug.
I think that Neil Eiden would be the perfect person if he were still there.
Gary Schwartz would be probably be my second choice if he's still around.

Oh, by the way, were other non-ESD folks there at the Old Geezers gathering (e.g. Roland Engval [spelling?], Lou Boone, Barb Moriarty, Marshal Dew, ... , etc.)?
Enquiring minds and all that.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Roland Angval was there, but I didn't get the opportunity to talk to him. I think I can still walk across the bridge and see Lew Boone or Marshall Dew any time I want to, but I don't recall seeing them there. I'd really liked to have seen Barb (Barb Wire) Moriarty there, but I didn't.