2007 Excellence in Service Award

Speech presented by Charla Peterson at June 12, 2007 CFSC Awards banquet

The Excellence in Service is our most coveted individual award. This is the award that always has the most nominations. The frontline workers receiving this award have always had tough competition.

She's one of the first a new employee meets because she created and conducts the CSE orientation. And the veteran technician will look to her as a credible resource to help them get their job done right. Her ability to take on an assignment and bring it to fruition under her own power is an invaluable asset to Management. Everyone looks to her as an example of integrity, team player and yoke bearer. She has a way of tying loose ends together and keeping the target in focus. Attention to detail combined with the ability to organize, problem solve, and simultaneously coordinate multiple activities adds up to short term and long term achievements.

While making sure the office is in top operational order, she also shares the workload of the Program Manager and Supervisors, freeing up some of their time to be available to do program planning and strategizing. And she's taken on the volunteer/internship program. She makes sure we get qualified candidates who are able to pick up necessary tasks to keep the workflow seamless.

She's trained herself to fill various roles that impact our program efficiency. She is the "front line" equipment trouble shooter and liaison with IT. LiveLink is dependable because she monitors it. And someone has to mastermind and be the gatekeeper for all the data. She orchestrates flawless interoffice moves, maintains equipment resources and "quality control" in various processes; from the Genetic Testing and Process Server Vendors to our voice in "landlord" interfaces. She'll take whatever boilerplate document we draft and turn it into a template and put it up on Livelink so all can easily access it and quickly create a quality product.

She's the glue that keeps us together...assuring birthdays are recognized, meetings scheduled and minutes taken. Her latest project is organizing training material. Right now that means creating an interactive web-based program to orient new employees and others to CSE. She's the one who built our Web Page and checks for the best services when contracts are needed. She was key to bringing us into the paperless world, coordinating all the stakeholders for the smooth transition.

She has recently joined the State Training workgroup. Her expertise in working on a county training project, understanding of web based formats and the fact that she straddles the world between line worker and supervisor make her especially qualified to bring the big picture; the needs of the worker and the expectations of management to the table. As an active participant on the uniform application workgroup, she has influenced the end product. She was simultaneously working at the county level on a similar venture. She's the point person for DocGen issues. She's the life-line between our county and the State on security protocol, audits, COVIS and IRS compliance, and available for coordination of our county-State interactions.

The 2007 Excellence in Service recipient:
Stacy Smith, Jefferson County