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Shareholders, Customers, Employees

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Vol. 1, Issue 8
November, 1997
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Global Now
By Larry Nance

Pauline: An Ill Wind That Blew Fair Caring

Three or so months ago, office stiffs get engaged in a conversation about communication between Divisions, how maybe us types neither know nor appreciate the work being done between Divisions. Better than that, maybe we don't even know one another between Divisions.

Then there's talk about various corporate giving programs, about giving something to the communities in which we work and serve, like educational programs for children, generally helping in some way people in need.

Excitement builds about the Chess educational program for New York kids held in the summer on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Wow stuff. Heady stuff. Goody two-shoes stuff. It's easy to toss this kind of thing around when it's an abstraction, a philosophy, less than an idea.

But the thought of all Global employees in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and South America, coming together and doing something as a team, no, better than that, as friends, didn't go away.

The group grows and gets on the phone and becomes twenty-five: Roland Almendarez, Leigh Ann Contreras, Eric Howard (Ameri-Forge); Laura Edney, Randy Harvey, Bonnie Gillette, Barbara Montague, Glenn Shaw, Homero Hernandez (Specialty Equipment Group); Jim Caprio, Ken McPherson, Phil Rydeski, Calvin Cross, Dawn Weiss, Lise Boismenu, Leopoldo Lopez, Ramiro Valenzuela (Harbison-Walker ); Jan Beam, Debbie Pantalian, Jane Yater (INTOOL); Sandy Baird, Ken Fernandez, Jane Gaines, Sherry Miller, Carmen Nieves, Mark Stott, and The Chair (HQ).

Mission Statement

The first thing to do is write a mission statement. Later, our enterprise is coined "GIVE", for short.

GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER EFFORT (GIVE)

GIVE encourages a sense of community for our diverse employees and provides a vehicle to enhance and celebrate a better quality of life;

GIVE is driven by Global Industrial Technologies employee's intention to foster and maintain pride in the corporation, encourage an exchange of ideas, and present a caring image to our communities and customers;

GIVE's sharing is anchored in Global's employee values, the corporation's business interests, and our communities needs;

GIVE's initiative is driven by, and relies upon, employees identifying needs, eliciting Corporate support in dealing with these needs by relinquishing time and providing talent to mitigate the needs.

Focusing

Then, our initiative is defined in detail.

GIVE is a grass-roots employee volunteer program whose center is a 25 member Forum made up of a cross section of Corporate, international employees. The Forum has to date met weekly by telephone conference. The results of the past four teleconferences, and the work completed between meetings, has produced the current focus.

GIVE exists to provide an open Forum that:

  1. Provides a safe place to discuss both internal and external social needs and concerns

  2. Explores how the Global community can effect change in helping to deal with selected social needs and concerns that affect our quality of life

  3. Puts in place support groups designed to provide council, support, and either direct or indirect management implementation to help mitigate selected social needs and concerns

  4. Tracks and reports to the Global community the progress of given change initiatives

  5. Helps create a sense of corporate community for all employees

We then define who's included: Everybody! Everywhere!

GIVE Participation/Inclusion: General Program Guidelines

GIVE Architecture

Here's GIVE's shape and definition.

The GIVE Forum is a collector and conduit of ideas and concepts generated by the general employee population. The Forum meets monthly to review prospective initiatives, and report on the progress of upcoming, short-term, and on-going initiatives whose architecture includes Assessment, Planning, Development, and Implementation.

Initiatives may be either of external or internal interest. It is anticipated that a large percentage of both suggested initiatives, and those on which the Forum has decided to act, will be of local interest and impact.

The GIVE Forum Is A Think Tank

The fundamental reason for the Give Forum to exist is as a "think tank." This group of Global volunteers take on issues, problems, and opportunities that effect our Global families' quality of life, are given company time to study and provide plans of action for the wider Global community of employees to realize the accomplishment of local corporate and external community and social enhancement goals.

Forum Management of International Initiatives

Initiatives of international concern may include, but not be limited to, such projects as:

Forum Management of Local Initiatives

Initiatives of local concern may include, but not limited to, such projects as:

Initiatives such as these will benefit from the support that the Forum can bring to bear in the form of finding and providing corporate project and design organizational skills, designing solutions and implementation programs using skills and services to be found throughout the Global community, and providing guidance to help local groups achieve their project goals.

Forum Focus and Structure

The Forum motivates, through its membership, the general employee population to become involved in dealing with selected social issues. In turn, the general employee population provides The Forum with updates on current projects and fresh challenges. The Forum provides regular reports to the Global family on current activities through the corporate newsletter, Division magazines and newsletters, Corporate Internet web sites, teleconferences, progress letters and press releases.

Model GIVE Project

A specific place/area is selected in each participating environment for cleaning. The Division's employees clean that place/area. Each Division reports to the Steering Committee their cleaning target. A universal date is agreed upon, Steering Committee Action plan is drafted, Local Action plans are drafted, all action plans communicated to the Steering Committee, the corporate population, and the general public (using public affairs tools and resources), the plan(s) executed, reports and assessment of the success and impact made to the Corporate communities.

Specific Example:

Project initiatives like these will be scheduled throughout the year

Summary: Call To Action

GIVE will, over the next four weeks, continue to focus objectives, expose the initiative to the Corporate work force, elicit input, and make plans for our initial project on which will be built a series of other events spaced throughout the year, the number of which is yet to be determined.

This document will be finalized and become GIVE's policy and procedures manual.

The foregoing is the summary of four weeks of work done by teleconference including Global Divisions and offices in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and South America.

Enter: The Real World

Well, the plan's in place, we're ready to begin finalizing our objectives and nailing down our blueprint. Then Pauline blew in, swamping the simple shelters 1,500 souls in Oaxaca who pick coffee-beans for a living call home, and where thousands more lives throughout the state, and in Guerrero as well, would be changed forever. More than 250 dead would be mourned.

One of our options was what we euphemistically referred to as Disaster de jour. We could pick and choose. Pauline picked for us. We were not particularly ready but as the news out of Mexico's southern coast began to splash across the TV during dinner, it became clear GIVE was due for launching, ready or not.

We polled the troops. "Do we help these people or not?" The message came back, within five minutes of our faxes and E-mails: "Let's do it. They've lost everything. We can get more!"

That was Monday, October 13,1997, 9:30 CST, ground zero. By 10:30 our strategy was in everyone's hands from Canada to Mexico. The first sack of clothes came in at 11:00. One of the guys in the office tossed his shoes in the box. We're off and running.

The Mexican Consulates are contacted throughout our universe on Tuesday. Distribution plans are worked out. Wednesday, there's a story on the radio as I'm coming in to the effect that the cliff divers are back in business in Acapulco as are the Hotels who are rushing to save the season. "The poor section, shanty town," devastated by floods, graveyard for over 214 and rising, is "out of sight" of the tourists. It's safe to come back. All the while thousands, the WSJ reports, "are being inoculated against typhoid and tetanus."

Team leaders Lee Ann Contreras, AmeriForge; Laura Edney, Glenn Shaw, Specialty Equipment Group; Luis Jorge Mendoza,Corrosion Technologies de Mexico; Ken McPherson, Phil Rydeski and Dawn Weiss, Harbison-Walker; Alejandro Moreno Sanchez, Refractarios Mexicanos, S.A. de C.V.; Debbie Pantalian, Jane Yater, INTOOL; and Sandy Baird, HQ report boxes filling up, distribution strategies in place, and 100% gung-ho-ness over what we've shortened to "Oaxaca".

By Wednesday, Mireya Plata at REFMEX, reports that they are collecting water, canned food, beans, rice, milk and clean clothes, all of which are to be sent to the Red Cross in Saltillo. Other Industrial Groups in the Tlalnepantla area are teaming with Mireya's group in the relief effort.

Bob Williamson at H-W's Hammond, Ind. Plant has mobilized a significant response from his group. Drug stores are invited to team, providing medical supplies for the airlift. Plans are in place to team with Inland Steel in the effort who will take the ball and run with it on an initiative of their own.

Phil Rydeski at H-W Pittsburgh faxes that wives want to help out.

H-W, INTOOL, CTI, Ameri-Forge and HQ continue the scramble.

By Thursday, over 3,500 items have been collected by Global team members, their fellow employees, and their families. These gifts of love and caring are on their way to Mexican Consulates around the country for ferrying by Aero Mexicana to distribution points throughout the devastated areas. They go to men, women and children whom we will never meet, whom we will never see, but are always in our thoughts with our blessings and prayers.

We do all of this knowing full well that the need is a challenge not engendered by weather, but an ongoing way of life that has been slammed into our collective consciousness by Pauline and little, white caskets.

We'll never, ever regret clearing out our closets and pantries. We simply went out and bought more. There's so much to be done for others in the same situation, and worse.

What an honor to be associated with such an outstanding group of people. We truly can do anything we really want to do.

Peace.

GIVE: A Call To Action

If you would like to become a Forum participant, don't hesitate to contact your Division team leader. Remember: "Those that think, build!" Regardless of whether you "Forum" or not, when it comes time to help out, you are already on the GIVE team.

GIVE. Thinking and building great things.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Global Talk: Word of the Month

Oaxaca/Guerrero

Global Information Exchange is published monthly at Global Industrial Technologies, 2121 San Jacinto Street, Suite 2500, Dallas, TX., Fax news items to: GIX, Attn: Larry Nance, 214/953-4595.

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