Flashings

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Try monthly activities

Organizing workplace events each month can keep your staff focused and enthusiastic throughout the year. Here are some ideas you can adopt or adapt:

• Feb. 17 is Random Act of Kindness Day. Ask each employee to do one nice thing for a co-worker. Draw names to make sure everyone participates, and let employees perform good deeds anonymously.
• March 11 is Organize Your Office Day. Make sure your employees' workspaces are clean and well-organized. Supply cleaning products, and have employees lend a hand.
• April 17 is Get to Know Your Customers Day. Make sure all your employees—even those who may not work directly with customers—know your business's customers and understand their needs.
• May 13 is National Receptionists Day. Your company's receptionist often is the face and voice of your business. Take this opportunity to show your receptionist he or she is appreciated. If you don't employ a traditional receptionist, take time to examine how each employee represents your company and make any necessary improvements.
• Aug. 17 is National Tell a Joke Day. Give your employees advance notice, and invite them to submit their best work-appropriate jokes. Post the jokes in a common area, have employees vote for their favorites and award silly prizes.
• Sept. 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day. This is a perfect opportunity to celebrate your staff and a classic favorite food by ordering lunch for your employees.
• Oct. 12 is Columbus Day. Take time to explore your workplace, and encourage employees to do the same. This day's focus should be on learning something new.
• Nov. 11 is Armistice Day, an international holiday celebrating the symbolic end of Word War I. Use this day to end workplace hostilities.
• Dec. 4 is Extraordinary Work Team Recognition Day. Identify what makes your team work together efficiently, and take time to discuss more ways your team can work together.

Source: Adapted from Communication Briefings, 2008 Special Issue

ICC and FEMA partner for disaster response

The International Code Council (ICC) and the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have partnered to reduce the loss of life and property caused by natural disasters. A memorandum of understanding calls for FEMA and ICC to support the maintenance, adoption, outreach, training and enforcement of disaster-resistant building safety codes to reduce human and economic losses resulting from natural disasters.

The agreement calls for ICC to directly assist FEMA with programs designed to reduce losses during natural disasters. Additionally, FEMA will participate in ICC's code-development process. The organizations also will jointly develop a strategy to promote disaster-resistance code adoption in the built environment.

"Our agreement with FEMA addresses the role of first preventers—code and fire officials who prevent harm by ensuring compliance with building safety codes before a disaster occurs," says Steve Shapiro, ICC's immediate past president. "Our members also have the experience and capability to provide help to communities during those moments when skilled extra hands are needed during response and recovery from natural disasters. Code compliance and permits are vital to a community's safety."

The Dow Chemical Co. cuts jobs

The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., has announced it will cut about 5,000 full-time jobs, close 20 facilities in high-cost locations and divest several nonstrategic businesses. The eliminated jobs represent about 11 percent of The Dow Chemical Co.'s global work force.

According to the company, these measures will save $700 million in annual operating costs by 2010.

Additionally, The Dow Chemical Co. will idle about 180 plants and reduce its contractor work force worldwide by about 6,000. The company cites poor current market conditions as the reason for the reductions.

"Transformation, by definition, requires a commitment to working differently," says Andrew N. Liveris, The Dow Chemical Co.'s chairman and chief executive officer. "We are moving from a highly centralized and standardized approach to operating three different business models with a lean and efficient corporate center. Today's restructuring is designed to support the Dow of tomorrow. However, we are accelerating the implementation of these measures as the current world economy has deteriorated sharply, and we must adjust ourselves to the severity of this downturn."

Details

David Gordon Taylor

What is your position within your company?
I am the owner and president of F.A. Taylor & Son Inc., Baltimore.

What is the most unusual roofing project you've performed?
Reroofing a residence on Martha's Vineyard 35 years ago for a good friend and client. The project was a complex mix of low-slope, steep-slope and ornamental copper work.

Why did you become a roofing contractor?
To carry on a family tradition! The Taylor family has been associated with the roofing industry since 1909. My grandfather, F.A. Taylor Sr., began his career working for The Phillip Carey Co., a manufacturer and contractor of roofing materials, in Baltimore. New federal regulations in the mid-1930s afforded my grandfather the opportunity to purchase the company's contracting arm of the Baltimore branch in 1937. I began working the summer months in 1965 and full time in 1971.

What was your first roofing experience?
Shoveling either roofing slag, pea gravel or calcite chips into a bucket conveyor every day it did not rain during that first summer

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A "big truck" driver

What is a motto that you live by?
You cannot have too many friends!

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Italy

What three items are always in your fridge?
Coors Lite, stuffed pickled Hungarian peppers and Jif® creamy peanut butter

What is the most high-tech thing in your house?
A new BlackBerry® Storm™

What's your favorite book?
A Pirate Looks at Fifty

If you could invite any three people to dinner (dead or alive), whom would you invite and why?
My two grandfathers and my father. F.A. Taylor Sr. died suddenly in 1941; I never knew him but always heard great things about him. J.D. Brown was a down-home Southern gentleman whom I truly enjoyed visiting as a young person. My father, F.A. "Bud" Taylor Jr., was my best friend!

What are the most challenging aspects of your job?
Keeping enough "good" work on hand for the dedicated work force we have assembled; dealing with the never-ending federal and state regulations being thrown at us; dealing with the uncertain nature of the building materials market; and competition that continues to give work away

What is your roofing industry involvement?
I am a past president of the Mid Atlantic Roofing Contractors Association, and I'm currently serving my first term on NRCA's board of directors.

People would be surprised to know …
I make a mean pot of Maryland crab soup!

IRS releases 2009 standard mileage rates

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the 2009 optional standard mileage rates for calculating deductible costs associated with using an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

The standard mileage rate for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck is 55 cents per mile for business miles driven. The standard mileage rate is 24 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes and 14 cents per mile driven in service to a charitable organization. These rates became effective Jan. 1.

During 2008, the business mileage rate was 50.5 cents for the first half of the year; the rate was increased to 58.5 cents for the second half of the year in response to rising gasoline prices. The medical and moving rates were 19 cents during the first half of 2008 and 27 cents during the second half.

Visit www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-08-72.pdf to access Revenue Procedure 2008-72, which contains additional information about mileage rates and taxpayers who qualify.

New ethics requirements for federal contractors

On Nov. 12, 2008, the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council published a final rule in the Federal Register that requires federal contractors to self-report criminal violations, as well as violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), in connection with the award of certain federal contracts. The rule became effective Dec. 12, 2008.

Under this regulation, prime federal contracts exceeding $5 million and having a performance term of 120 days or more (and subcontracts issued) require timely disclosure to the contracting agency's inspector general and contracting officer when the contractor has "credible evidence that a principal, employee, agent or subcontractor" has violated federal criminal law or the FCA. The rule also establishes that failure to disclose such information in a timely manner is grounds for suspension or debarment.

Additionally, federal contractors are required to adopt a code of business ethics and conduct and establish awareness and business control protocols, including compliance training for principals and employees.

When portions of a federal contract are to be performed by subcontractors, the new ethics regulation requires strict oversight of subcontractor compliance with federal criminal laws and the new E-Verify requirement for federal contractors that took effect Jan. 15.

If a prime contractor obtains "credible evidence" that one of its subcontractors or business units is employing undocumented workers on a federal contract meeting the coverage requirements, it now must report such conduct or face the prospect of criminal and contract penalties for failing to do so.

To read the Federal Register notice containing this final rule, visit edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-26953.pdf. To view the Small Entity Compliance Guide that accompanies the final rule, visit edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-26809.pdf.