Sunday, November 12, 2017

Start of the MVP Process

As I mentioned on my last post, it is Glass Industry MVP Season… so the first step is looking back at the past before noting who is going to be recognized this year. I have been acknowledging people as “leaders” in one form or another since 2007, but the formal declaration of MVP started in 2013.  The past winners were:
2013- Tracy Rogers
2014- CR Laurence
2015- Jon Kimberlain
2016- Chuck Knickerbocker
Each year there’s usually 5-7 runners up and as you can tell from above it can be an individual or a company as the winner.  The race so far in 2017 has been incredibly difficult.  So many remarkable people who work hard for their companies and also give back to the industry.  And there are some companies as a whole that collectively care a ton about making our space a better place.  So choosing gets more and challenging every year.  Overall I have recognized a total of 35 people since 2007 and 5 are no longer in the industry, including sadly the late great Greg Carney.  So who’s on tap for this year?  It’s coming soon….

Elsewhere…

--  If you are a glazier, take the time to check out and complete this survey on an industry-changing initiative, the development of the first certification program for glazing technician personnel.  Seriously this is an important piece to get your feedback.

I’m light on glass industry related stuff this week, so in some other areas that interest me…

--  In this world of ugly news and despicable human behavior there are some truly first class people.  One of them is Marine Veteran Rob Jones.  Rob lost both of legs in Afghanistan in 2010 but that has not stopped him from doing what I would consider super human tasks to raise awareness and money for veterans causes.  The most recent was running (with prosthetics) 31 marathons in 31 cities in 31 days. A lot of us travel a ton in this industry and just doing several cities a week can wear you down, now can you imagine running a marathon at each?  The guy is amazing.  Anyway this article is one of many that gives some insight to Rob- who I have been so fortunate to meet thanks to his work with veteran charity the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes which actually has a glass industry connection as it’s run by former NGA VP David Walker.  Check it out and be thankful we still have great people in our universe.

--  Back on to another list… this time the Top 10 Most “Sprawling” Cities according to the website Smart Growth America.  And quite frankly I was stunned by some of these cities that made the list… as according to the study too much growth is not good. Honestly I am not sure if I understand or agree but here goes…

1.     Hickory, NC
2.     Atlanta, GA
3.     Clarksville, TN-KY
4.     Prescott, AZ
5.     Nashville, TN
6.     Baton Rouge, LA
7.     Inland Empire, CA
8.     Greenville, SC
9.     Augusta, GA-SC
10. Kingsport, TN-VA

The complete study is here for those of you interested in this sort of thing.

--  Las Vegas launched a self-driving shuttle and on its first day it got into an accident.  Evidently it was the human driver in another car that was at fault, but still I just can’t feel any trust or faith in this sort of arrangement.  Too many things can go wrong and I am really amazed at the time, money and effort that are going into this technology.

--  Last this week… is it me or is the amount of spam e-mail going up dramatically?  I go into my spam folders every other day or so to just make sure I am not missing something and I am flat out amazed at the volume in there.  Most of it is really obvious spam, but where I really feel bad is for those less sophisticated on e-mail who probably get this junk in their main folder and fall for a scam or two. 

LINKS of the WEEK

Every day there’s a ton of bad news in the media- so  aside from Rob Jones mentioned above- how about a good news story?  Guy buys apartment complex and lets single moms & their families live there for free.

Yet another stupid angle from the iPhone X.  I really hope they still make a normal iPhone when I am ready for an upgrade.

Funny story on a hippo escape and immediate return

VIDEO of the WEEK

This piece from the Price is Right went viral when the contestant made a very conservative decision…


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