WELCOME BACK
We would like to welcome back Rick Payton to our State College office. Rick will be returning as a consultant along with assisting in the day to day operations in the State College area. Rick has been very busy and is to be commended on his recent achievements.
First, Rick has acquired the contract to provide security guard coverage at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Somerset County, PA, something we are all very proud of. Second, Rick was elected to be the new President of the “Pennsylvania Association of Licensed Investigators.” This is a non-profit association which was founded in 1997 to improve the profession, ethics and standards of the PI industry across the state. The association is currently an active and influential body working on the re-writing of the Private Detective Act of 1953, which currently governs the issuance of PI licenses, which all security guard companies are to possess.
It’s good to have Rick back at the helm and we’re excited about teaming together again.
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LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION
We would like to take this time to acknowledge our staff in Los Angeles for the fantastic effort they put forth, for the third year in a row, making our coverage of the 80th Academy Awards a success. The entire experience, as you know, was masked with uncertainty as the Writer’s strike had been ongoing since November 5, 2007. However, in anticipation of the “show must go on” attitude, we hired and scheduled guards for the everyday coverage with an air of skepticism as to whether or not the Oscars would happen. All of the hard work and confidence in the Academy Awards airing paid off, with the Writer’s strike officially ending on February 12th, twelve days prior to the show.
At this point everything shifted into overdrive; with late nights and countless hours spent on the phone scheduling and re-scheduling the guards. There were 126 officers hired to cover over 8,000 hours for the Academy Awards, to go with 252 hours of training. Although it was a lot of work, in the end, as always, it was a success and very rewarding, not to mention getting to see the faces we watch on the big screen.
For these efforts, we at St. Moritz would like to pass out our own awards: For Best Regional Manager, (LA) Alex Bjork, Regional Manager in a Supporting Role, Vinny Calderon; (Las Vegas); Cast Members in a Supporting Role, Jaime Marquez, Sarah Bjork and Karla Castillo. A special thanks to all of you for your hard work.
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MORE CELEBRITY
Every April, Penn State University has their Blue/White weekend. Penn State and New York City-based MSL Sports and Entertainment announced that the University will host Gridiron Bash, The Ultimate Fan Competition as part of their annual weekend which is April 18 to 20. The event, which is the first of its kind at Beaver Stadium, will begin at 7p.m., Friday, April 18, and will include a live performance by Grammy and VMA winner Fergie of hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas. Fergie, who is a 2008 Grammy nominee, was recently named top female performer by the American Music Awards. St. Moritz, who already provides security for Penn State football games, is looking forward to assisting the University Police at this exciting event. Note: This will be the first time ever that Beaver Stadium has been used for something other than a football game.
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Quote of the Month:
"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”
- Thomas Paine
FACTS & TRIVIA ABOUT 2008 EASTER CALENDAR DATES
- In Western Christianity, Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25.
- In Eastern Christianity (Orthodox), Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between April 4 and May 8.
- This year Easter is on April 27, 2008 for Eastern Christianity
- The last time Easter fell on April 27 in Eastern Christianity was 2003, just five years ago.
- The next time Easter will fall on April 27 in Eastern Christianity is 2087. Many astern Christians will still be around to celebrate Easter again on April 27.
Yet few Western Christians have fully realized just how unique the day of Easter is this year!
- This year Easter is on March 23, 2008 for Western Christianity, only one day later than the earliest it can ever be in Western churches (March 22).
- The last time Easter fell on March 23 in Western Christianity was the year 1913, 95 years ago. Therefore, only a few of us were actually alive then to celebrate Easter.
- The next time Easter will fall on March 23 in Western Christianity is 2160, 152 years from now. It’s doubtful any Western Christians will still be around to celebrate Easter again on March 23.
- Even more remarkable, no one alive today has ever, or ever will celebrate Easter earlier than March 23. The last time Easter fell on March 22 was in 1818, and the next time will be in 2285.
So please be sure to make your Easter celebrations memorable this year!
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HISTORY OF THE EASTER EGG ROLL
The story of the White House Easter Egg Roll, which begins at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue and continues at the other, is one of the oldest and most unique traditions in presidential history.
Rolling eggs on the Monday after Easter was a tradition observed by many Washington families, including those of the President. Some historians believe Dolly Madison first suggested the idea of a public egg roll, while others tell stories of informal egg-rolling parties at the White House dating back to President Lincoln's day.
Public egg-rolling celebrations, however, were held not at the White House, but on the grounds of the Capitol. Press accounts from as early as 1872 recount stories of Washington children of all ages joining together to roll eggs on the congressional grounds.
The children of Washington apparently caused such a ruckus on the Capitol grounds in 1876 that Congress passed the Turf Protection Law to prohibit the area from being used as a playground in future years. The event was rained out in 1877, but in 1878 the children were alerted by a small notice in the local newspaper informing them that the egg rollers would not be allowed at the Capitol that year.
Two versions of the story follow: Either the angry rollers rushed to the gates of the White House and demanded that they be let in to roll their eggs on the President's lawn or President Rutherford B. Hayes, alerted to the plight of the children, opened the gates to the South Lawn and welcomed all the rollers to his end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Either way, the first White House Easter Egg Roll was held in 1878.
Read more at http://www.whitehouse.gov/easter/history.html
TSA STRUGGLES TO REDUCE PERSISTENT TURNOVER
Hard work and low pay make security screening a tough job, says a new USA Today report based on federal statistics. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has one of the highest turnover rates of all federal agencies - 73 percent of the TSA screeners who left their jobs in 2007 quit, compared to 33 percent at other federal agencies. Most of the attrition occurs among part-time screeners; more than half of the agency's part-time workers left their jobs in 2006-2007, for reasons such as sporadic hours, low pay, and physical hardship. A former employee says job candidates often do not understand the wear and tear of handling luggage and dealing with customer complaints for hours on end. The agency recently began offering health insurance to part-time workers, but compensation in the TSA still remains low compared to other federal agencies. While full-time TSA screeners earned an average of $34,934 as of 2007, employees in other security-related fields earned $37,040 on average. A constant influx of inexperienced new employees could lead to major security breaches, some officials say, though a TSA spokeswoman says each trainee receives 180 hours of security training.
Source: USA Today (02/25/08) ; Frank, Thomas
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AFFECTS THE WORKPLACE
Home and personal problems are just as influential as work-related problems on employee productivity. However, in many cases domestic violence is ignored by employers, with roughly 25 percent of all women in the workplace being a victim or survivor of domestic violence, according to the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence. Florida lawmakers recently passed a provision requiring medium- and large-sized businesses to grant an employee three days off--either paid or unpaid--to deal with domestic violence-related issues. Kansas passed a bill in the same vein in 2006, prohibiting an employer from firing an employee who misses work as a result of violence or sexual assault, and San Francisco-based clothes retailer Macy's West offers its employees a domestic violence support and prevention group. "We're not dealing with some theory about how it comes to the workplace. We know that it does," says Barbara Erickson, benefits manager for Macy's West. The reason more companies do not host these programs is because executives are unaware of how prevalent the violence is and many employees fail to seek the help they need. The Corporate Alliance survey shows 78 percent of employers would be willing to implement domestic violence programs if approached by a female employee.
Source: Employee Benefit News (02/08) Vol. 22, No. 2, P. 49 ; Shepherd, Leah Carlson
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GROUND RULES ON BACKGROUND CHECKS
The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) recently announced plans to institute a six-pronged accreditation process for its member-firms beginning in April. For the most part the background-screening industry is largely unregulated, which causes concern among employers. The new NAPBS plan will give employers a way to select background screeners that are thoroughly vetted, with a gold standard assigned to screening firms that succeed in consumer protection, legal compliance, client education, data quality, verification, and business practices. Currently, 85 percent of HR professionals say they use outside agencies to conduct background investigations on potential hires. NABPS hopes the accreditation process will weed out sub par operators that provide inaccurate, incomplete, or simply restated information. Those firms receiving accreditation must protect consumer privacy, adhere to state and federal regulations, ensure employers fully understand the services purchased, and provide court research, and verifications, among other elements. While there is no specific data on misinformation provided by the screening industry, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse claims to receive regular complaints from applicants claiming they were denied employment.
Source: HR Magazine (02/08) Vol. 53, No. 2, P. 46 ; Wells, Susan J.
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Fact of the Month:
The average U.S. farm has 467 acres; the average Japanese farm has 3 acres.
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