Continuity Update for June 20

Welcome to summer!
Madelyn is offering free tips on how to style your desk for the season, including accessorizing for the sun with a palm frond umbrella. Reliable sources tell us that Al is serving iced coffee on the Lido Deck (also know as, his desk). 

Speaking of summer temperatures... climate control in the building is still a work in progress, and this is to be expected. We are still a construction site, and it's hard to regulate for "normal" when the building just isn't at it's full functioning normalcy yet. For you who keep noticing, accurately, "it's too hot, it's too cold, it's too..." please be patient. We likely can't fully assess the true "this is what it's like" performance of the HVAC systems till work is totally finished throughout the new and renovated parts of the building.

Once, there was bathroom
Laurie warned us last week that workers would be cutting the concrete slab under the old bathroom by the Green Room.  Here's how it looked around 11:15 this morning:

This shows that the bathroom has been totally removed, as has the kitchenette behind it. (The silvery Dow insulation panel marks the former doorway into the Green Room.)

What will go in its place?

If this rendering is a little hard to read, here's a translation: the hallway is at the lower edge of the drawing, the Green Room is the space at the top of the drawing. Where the bathroom was, facing into the hallway, there will be an alcove for two vending machines; in the center, facing into the Green Room (using the former door opening) there will be kitchenette with a sink, small fridge and microwave; and where the old kitchenette used to be, there will be a janitorial closet with a sink.

Green Room going offline soon
You've watched as detritus has ebbed and flowed in the Green Room over the last few weeks. You may have also noticed that the Green Room needs the loving touch of renovation like the rest of the old building -- work on the brick wall, change out the carpet, add sprinklers and paint. And that means we need to get out of the way.

The Green Room will be out of commission beginning July 11.  Heather will work with folks who normally use this space to plan for how they and construction can get along while that work is getting done. That includes people who use Master and Talk regularly, people who access the Term Room, and people who work in adjacent studios that might have noise issues.

Future moves
The renovated, historic part of the building will be ready for occupancy at the end of summer (loosely). The current plan is that these teams will move into that sparkling new space:

• Corporate Support
• Development Services 
• Major Giving 
• Brendan
• Music, including Classical, Reuben and Robert 
• Volunteers
• Extra spaces for people to visit and float around

The Continuity team will make a plan to get people moved in and to lightly resettle the space they leave behind. That plan isn't written yet but it will be in the coming weeks.

Staff meeting reminder!
If any of the items mentioned above give you angst or joy, please bottle those feelings and bring them to the all-staff meeting next Tuesday, 6/28. The whole gang will be meeting in Studio One (!) with the fancy retractable seats (!!). Building construction and planning for continuity in the coming months will be a big item on the agenda.

Punchlist
These are some of the items that Laurie, Joe and Brian have received from staff through punchlist@vpr.net. All are being worked on, but some issues are higher priority or quicker to solve.

• Hand driers - they blow water all over the counter, at least in the men's room. Maybe you could move the drier?
• It was helpful when we had a large recycling barrel inside for large plastics or emptying our desk bins into. For now, we can go to the large outside recycle bin, but it would be cool to have one indoors.
• We might want to build in a phone or instructions at the TOE entrance so if someone shows up there, they can contact the front desk (especially helpful for deliveries).
• Will there be decaf?
• Will there be a fire drill, how to find exits, basic security measures? Can you give us an update on the building's security features? What security policies should we know about? Are there any other new monitoring systems, cameras that didn't exist before?
• It might be a good idea to have one entrance to the building that uses an old fashion key or a punch code system. What if a technical outage prevents a morning host from getting inside? 
• Is there a plan for regularly washing the dish towels?
• The latch on the men's bathroom stall does not evenly match the small plate on the wall when latched.
• The air handling in Studio One is pretty noisy - there is no doubt the rumbling would be picked up if we were recording a classical performance.  In it's current state the room is unusable for classical music work.