Thank You For Attending All Staff
There was a time when IDL gathered annually for an All Staff meeting. Until this week, we had not convened as an agency since 2016.
It felt good to be back on track with the energy of nearly 300 teammates focused on building relationships today that will carry IDL to success in the future. It's amazing to think that for 163 of our employees, half the agency, this was their first opportunity to attend an All Staff meeting!
Much of the credit for this year's amazingly successful meeting is due to Michelle Hermann! Michelle and her team spent countless hours planning and executing the most minute details. Their attention to detail stole the show and set a high bar for next year's meeting!
The entire executive team appreciates the sacrifices made by IDL employees who spent the better part of a week away from their families. You braved snow covered roads, and now face an avalanche of emails and work that will need attention. Thank you for making All Staff a priority!
Knowing that the world is changing around us, and our options are to stagnate or adapt, the relationships and understanding forged at meetings like All Staff are crucial for future-proofing IDL. Collaboration within IDL is key for charting a successful course towards tomorrow!
People's Choice Award Winners
At this week's All Staff meeting, the recipients of IDL's People's Choice Awards were recognized for their outstanding contributions. This new award program is by employees, for employees. Team members nominate and select their peers to receive these prestigious non-cash awards.
This award program does not replace our Employee of the Year program, but instead creates an additional opportunity to celebrate high achievers in the following seven categories:
Coaching Champion - Auda Dau
Awarded to a team member who functions as a coach in the workplace and goes the extra mile to help others grow personally and professionally.
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From Audra's nomination:
She has gone above and beyond her roles and responsibilities when it comes to training and coaching team members. She has made herself available to assist in training new admins in all aspects of their job and has helped tremendously with training on the ins and outs of fire business and wildland suppression. She is always willing to lend a hand.
She has helped me from day one. She trained me in the basic tasks of my job & encouraged me to ask questions when necessary.
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She is always willing to work long hours to make sure tasks are completed in a timely manner. Even though she is not a team member in our specific office she is always willing to help us out whenever needed. No matter how long the hours & weeks are she always has a smile on her face & the willingness to help. I consider her my IDL lifeline.
Who doesn’t she give a lending a hand to? Besides holding the CLW together, she is always first to help another Area. Whether it is helping during fire season, training new staff, helping with hosting/planning an event or meeting. She consistently goes above and beyond to help us all, and always with a smile.
Living Our Values - Chad Ramsay
Awarded to the team member who integrates IDL's values into everything that they do, and acts as a team anchor during uncertain times.
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From Chad's nomination:
He believes in people, and not just his direct reports. He always makes me feel like he believes in all of us. I have never heard him say a negative thing about anyone. He is always trying to learn more about why we do things the way we do.
He is a model of IDL Values. He just gets it. His decision making is always in the best interest of IDL, his service to internal and external customers is fair and very professional but to the point.
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He trusts his staff to make decisions on their own and get things done on the ground that support IDL's mission. He encourages his staff to communicate and engage as a team to solve issues big or small always in support of IDL’s mission.
The values and mission that the IDL holds dear is also very close to his heart. Sometimes the decisions we make are not easy nor are they popular internally or externally. He has always placed his own personal opinions aside and made the best choice.
He always gives credit where credit is due and commends people for the good work they do.
Always Growing - Andrew Smyth
Awarded to the team member who is always looking to grow in new ways, both professionally and personally.
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From Andrew's nomination:
He is always growing and trying to learn. Not just for himself but to be a better team member and leader to the people around him. Even when he was facing a challenge and struggling to work through it, he was still actively trying to learn and grow.
He has made a point of understanding the why behind the processes and it has been wonderful working with him.
I feel fortunate to be associated with working with him and his team.
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He is very sensitive to the needs of those around him. He is always looking for ways to build teams and individuals he is associated with. On one such situation there was some disconnect with one of my team members and one of his team members. He thought the best way to solve this was to do a team building meeting where each team could provide input on what needed to be done. This meeting was scheduled, and the results exceeded my expectations as both teams came away with a feeling of accomplishment and developed a good friendship for future communications. As I spoke with those around his office, they all spoke with high regard of him and his accomplishments. They were all proud to be a part of his team as am I.
He did not hesitate to jump into his new job headfirst. I am extremely impressed with his desire to learn his employee’s jobs. He is always looking for opportunities to better support his employees, improve working conditions, and no job seems to be beneath him. He has a great attitude when it comes to learning about areas that he is unfamiliar with.
Team Player - Brooke Heasty
Awarded to the team member who just holds the team together from their willingness to provide support to being an effective communicator to recognizing the contributions of others.
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From Brooke's nomination:
She is a staple in the bureau. Plain and simple. When I think about her I think about how important she is to the bureau but also IDL as a whole. She juggles many things and works hard to keep all the balls in the air. She checks in on people. On numerous occasions, she has reached out to me to ask “how can I help, or make things easier for you?. Sometimes she doesn’t ask she will just go ahead and do it. People don’t ask or do things like that these days, but she does.
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The times I have visited CDA she has been up at the front desk and I have seen her brainstorming at the cache. She has always gone above and beyond and is well deserving of this award! If she is willing to go out of her way to help me, I am 100% sure she does that for other people!
She is the glue that holds the bureau together and supports all of us in any way she can. Anytime I have a question or need help she is always ready to help.
She is engaged with everyone and is always supportive. Many times this year she has been there for me while I vented or stressed about the tasks at hand, as I felt I was drowning and just needed a mental break. She was there to listen, offer advice and ideas to help with the workload, as well as being the one to remind me that I was doing a great job and to continue to take it one step and one day at a time.
Going Above and Beyond - Meribeth Lomkin
Awarded to the team member who shows up early, leaves late, takes on extra assignments without fuss, and gives their all to every project.
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From Meribeth's nomination:
She takes on projects without hesitation even though she already has more on her plate than she can handle. She stays late and makes sure that she gets her work done even when things pop up unexpectedly, she is not afraid to put in the time to get it done. She offers to help others with projects when she doesn't have the time and then puts in extra hours to get her own work done. She defiantly gives all to ever project, she is extremely thorough. It is rare for me to find an error in her work. She simply will not do something if she can't do it right.
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She often gets the "nobody else in IDL knows" phone calls directed to her. She will track down answers to questions no matter how obscure they are.
Over the year she always has a smile on her face regardless of the situation. Bad weather, horrible clients, she somehow makes people around her smile back.
I have to constantly nag her about not donating hours to the department by not claiming comp time – she usually ignores me and does what she feels needs to be done. I dial her extension regularly after hours when I am still at the office to see if she is working late. She picks up about half the time and I nag her one more time about not donating hours.
Customer Service - Debbie Godfrey
Awarded to the team member who has demonstrated exceptional skills in client communications and relations and delivers great customer service.
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From Debbie's nomination:
I’m convinced that she has the customer service DNA gene. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to work with or alongside this fantastic woman, you know that the model of customer service was formed from her. She is the kind of person who will work to solve problems, find answers, work until (as my mom used to say) bone shows through flesh, to help. Besides these amazing qualities I feel I can call her a friend and that characteristic takes a lot of service with someone like me.
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Quietly inputting mountains of paperwork and accepting request for extra without fuss. Always there to answer questions or help you find missing project codes. She is a vital part of the IDL team. She is respected and often called upon for advice, guidance and historical IDL knowledge.
I have never heard her say a bad word about anybody. She is a walking book of knowledge and even though she is always surrounded by piles of paperwork demanding her attention she is willing and happy to share her knowledge. She has a ready smile and an infectious laugh.
All Smiles - Kate Christensen
Awarded to the team member who always has a smile and puts a smile on our face. Their consistently chipper nature is infectious and brightens the office.
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From Kate's nomination:
She is possibly the most evenly positive person I regularly work with. She is eternally patient and very kind. I cannot remember a negative comment coming from her, she is quick to ask about coworkers lives or families and does so with sincerity. It is always refreshing to see her in the halls, she is quick to smile and genuinely cares about people she is conversing with.
Tell me a time when you’ve been around her that you haven’t seen a smile. There is not a brighter personality amongst us.
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She effortlessly shares her genuine care for all through her smile.
Even if the news she has to share is not great, she is still able to put a sincere smile on to let you know that all will be ok.
She always has a warm smile and asks how folks are doing. She is always willing to take a little extra time to cheer me up if I need it. She just really goes above and beyond to brighten peoples’ days.
I have never seen her lose her smile even when faced with a challenge.
IDL Year in Review Video
Each year IDL produces a year in review video. Typically, this video debuts during the December Land Board meeting. This year, to tie in with the All Staff theme of Future-Proofing IDL and Celebrating Successes, the video was released early.
Kudos to Robbie Johnson for filming, editing and producing a video that captures who we are, how we work, and why we give the people of Idaho our best!
Fall Fire Meeting Recap
On Tuesday morning IDL fire personnel met in Moscow to discuss lessons learned during the 2022 fire season, focusing on fires that started on land protected by our federal partners that moved onto land we protect. The agenda included a discussion about Fire Bureau and Operations Division communications, too.
Hazard pay, which was approved by the Legislature just this year, was also on the agenda. While implementing hazard pay has proven challenging, it provided a significant benefit to our firefighting personnel. During this last season, IDL paid about $142,550 for hazard pay with about $96,100 of that on federal fires for which Idaho will be reimbursed. In other words, providing hazard pay last season cost Idaho about $46,450. The law that authorizes IDL to provide hazard pay also requires that we report expenditures on a fiscal year basis to the Governor's Division of Financial Management.
Fire managers also discussed the status of negotiations for the Master Fire Agreement between IDL and its federal partners. Overall, the negotiations are going very well. Later this month IDL will meet with its partners to continue discussions about the agreement.
Division of Human Resources Micro Learning Opportunities
In January Idaho's Division of Human Resources will offer a lineup of one-hour webinars based on the division's full-day courses. These classes serve as excellent refreshers for staff who have previously completed DHR trainings and are free to all state employees.
Please work with your supervisor if you are interested in attending any of these trainings. Advance registration is required.
IDL Publishes 2022 Annual Financial Report
Idaho Code 58-114 and 58-123 require IDL to publish its annual financial report by December 1 of each year. Special thanks are due to Wade Kimball for his exceptionally thorough review of the information presented in the report.
The full version of the annual report will be published later this month.
In Case You Missed It
Here's a recap of other recent IDL newsletters you may find interesting:
One Team One Voice Newsletter Archive
Did you miss some important news? Are you curious about knowing what's happening across IDL? Our One Team, One Voice webpage contains an archive of IDL's newsletters covering:
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