TVA Today:
Daily news for employees

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Organizational CHI Results Available on InsideNet
The results for the July Cultural Health Survey are now available on the CHI Homepage. Nearly 8,000 employees responded to the survey that ended Aug. 2.

Similar to previous CHI surveys, employee average responses to each survey question are now posted for each Strategic Business Unit and Business Unit in TVA. Reports at the workgroup level (when 10 or more employees responded) will be provided directly to supervisors at CHI orientation sessions Oct. 15, 16 and 17 in Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville, respectively.

More than 250 CHI organizational CHI reports will be generated from the July survey.

Smoky Mountain CFC Kickoff Sept. 18, Online Auction Begins Sept. 26
TVA’s participation in the Smoky Mountain Region Combined Federal Campaign will officially begin Thursday, Sept. 18, with a CFC Fair and an ice-cream social to kick off the event for Knoxville-area employees.

The CFC Fair, featuring 25 local charities, will be from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Howard Baker Federal Courthouse Building Courtyard (Old Whittle Building) and on the Knoxville Office Complex Plaza.

Fifteen charity organizations will be at the Howard Baker Courtyard, and ten charities will be on the TVA Plaza. Federal employees will have a chance to visit with charity representatives to learn more about the groups.

TVA CFC Kickoff from 1-2 p.m. on Plaza
Following the CFC Fair on the TVA Plaza will be TVA’s CFC Kickoff from 1-2 p.m. (In case of rain, the celebration will be in the West Tower Plaza Lobby and Auditorium.)

Director Skila Harris will introduce guest speaker Terry Norris of the National Air & Space Administration, and LeAnne Stribley, Executive Campaign Manager of TVA’s Smoky Mountain CFC and TVA Executive Vice President of Administration, will make remarks and introduce the South Doyle High School singers.

Ice cream will be available following the ceremony.

“Celebrity” ice-cream servers will include Stribley, General Counsel/Executive Vice President Maureen Dunn, Communications & Government Relations EVP Ellen Robinson, Facilities Management VP Terrell Burkhart, Senior VP of Employee Relations & Diversity Peyton Hairston, Retirement Services VP Randy Snyder, External Communications VP Tracy Williams and TVA Police Director Jim Carver.

All Knoxville-area employees and retirees are invited to the kickoff. A second kickoff event, hosted by Stribley and Burkhart, will be held for second-shift employees at 6 p.m. in West Tower Plaza, room 407.

TVA’s Smoky Mountain Region CFC Co-Chairs include Carolyn Bradley, Internal Communications VP; Gloria Bright, Executive Management Assistant; Elizabeth Moore, Financial Analyst; and Rose Sexton, Manager of TVA Police Business Services. The Co-Chairs, along with Suzan Bowman, Local Federal Coordinating Committee Chair and Project Manager in TVA’s Shared Resources, will assist Stribley with the day’s activities.

This year’s Smoky Mountain Region CFC fundraising goal is $450,000.

Other events scheduled as part of the Smoky Mountain Region CFC include a golf tournament Sept. 22, a Chili & Dessert Cook-Off on Oct. 8 and other Days of Caring activities. More information about these events will be announced soon.

CFC online auction
The Smoky Mountain Region CFC will also benefit from the TVA-wide online auction to be held Sept. 26-Oct. 24. Employees will be able to place bids on auction items, and all proceeds will be donated to CFC-supported charities. Last year’s auction raised more than $10,000 for the campaign.

Some of this year’s auction items include a Jayco 10-foot front-seat pop-up camper, nine holes of golf for three employees with Chairman Glenn McCullough, lunch with Director Bill Baxter, a half-day kayak trip with Baxter and his wife, lunch with Director Harris, one each of Harris’s lemon meringue and pecan pies, computers, gift certificates from restaurants and other businesses, and employee-donated services and gifts.

Like last year, employees are welcome to donate items to the online auction. Employee donations might include restaurant gift certificates, theater tickets, computers, groceries, tickets to attractions and sporting events, gourmet meals, collectibles, music lessons and a variety of other items.

In addition, this year’s auction will include a tribute section, in which employees can donate items in honor of someone living or deceased. For example, in honor of a son who plays high-school football, an employee might donate UT football tickets, a Big Orange umbrella or a similarly appropriate item.

To make a donation or for more information about the auction, call or e-mail Pamela Fox (632-3714) or Sandra Schulte (632-4275).

Employees will be able to place bids on the auction site beginning Sept. 26.

Lifetime Achievement Award Dinner To Benefit Weekend Academy
The Weekend Academy will award a Lifetime Achievement Award to Sarah Moore Greene at a dinner in her honor Sept. 26 in Knoxville. Greene, 92, is well known in the Knoxville area as an educator, community activist and volunteer. She is a founding board member of the Weekend Academy.

The dinner will be held at the Foundry downtown. The event will begin with a reception and silent auction to benefit the academy at 5:30 p.m., followed by the dinner at 6:30.

Billed as “An Evening of Tributes, Music and Poetry Celebrating a Lifetime of Service, Dedication and Compassion,” the tribute will honor Greene’s decades of service to the Knoxville community. Edye Ellis of Home & Garden Television will be the emcee. Jazz pianist Donald Brown will provide the entertainment.

Over the years, Greene has provided a consistent and compassionate voice on behalf of education and justice. As the first African-American elected to the Knoxville City School Board, Greene helped ensure that all city schools had kindergarten classes. During her 16-year term on the school board, she advocated improvement in the schools of East Knoxville. Her efforts were rewarded by the creation of a new elementary school named in her honor, Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Technology Academy. She has served on the National Board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and as President of the Knoxville NAACP branch for 17 years.

Tickets to the event are $50 per person and are available by calling the Weekend Academy at 632-3113.

In addition, silent-auction donations are requested. Any individual or business interested in making a contribution of any item or gift certificate can call or e-mail Lisa McClain at the Weekend Academy (phone: 632-3113).

Proceeds will benefit the Weekend Academy, a nonprofit organization that began as a corporate-citizenship effort by TVA to motivate and educate inner-city children. The academy was founded in May 1996 in Knoxville and later expanded to Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville. In 1998, the Weekend Academy became an independent nonprofit organization, following the establishment of a foundation by TVA. TVA retiree Nan Scott is President of the organization.

Browns Ferry Golf Tourney Raises $42,000 for PIE Schools
Local and national businesses helped make Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant’s third Partners In Education Golf Tournament a success for three area schools that will share $42,000 in proceeds.

More than 70 local businesses in the Athens and Quad Cities areas in Alabama donated prizes and services valued at about $5,500 that were raffled during the tournament, held Sept. 5 at Cypress Lakes Golf Course in Muscle Shoals.

Browns Ferry’s PIE committee organizes the tournament, and the proceeds go to Athens High School, Forest Hills Elementary School in Florence and Southside Elementary School in Tuscumbia.

This year’s tournament was the most successful yet, with 152 golfers participating. Sponsor support helped generate $14,000 for each school after expenses. The plant’s PIE committee, made up of employee volunteers, sponsored the first benefit golf tournament in 2001, netting $5,700 for each school. The schools received more than $10,000 each from last year’s tournament.

“This tournament succeeds for the schools not only because of the 20 gold sponsors that contributed $2,000 or more each, the two silver sponsors that gave $1,000 each, and the two bronze sponsors that gave $500, but also because many local businesses generously contribute merchandise and services that we raffle off or put in goody bags for the players,” says Browns Ferry Maintenance Specialist Scott Martin of Tuscumbia. Martin is one of the key organizers, along with Lorinda Gooch of Florence, a PIE Committee member and Management Assistant to the Unit 1 Restart Vice President at Browns Ferry.

Businesses and companies in Athens, Florence, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals contributed about 200 items or coupons for services for the raffle. Prizes included free meals at local restaurants, gift certificates to area stores, power tools, office furniture and high-end golf equipment.

“This generous support by the sponsors improves the quality and appeal of our tournament tremendously and helps ensure a good turnout,” says Performance Specialist Lydia Hopkins, a Browns Ferry PIE Committee Coordinator. “It’s not unusual for national companies that do business with Browns Ferry and TVA to have players come from New Jersey, South Carolina and other states to play in our event, because they know they’ll have a good time in a well-managed tournament.”