Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 5

Herald Review In The Workplace I Monday, September 12, 2011 Business Achievements are paid announcements BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENTS Baker attends annual sports meeting plw rr flGflin mi ii nil' i i i.n,iLr How to place a Business Achievement Submit your Business Achievement to the Herald Review by logging on to Click on "Submit Your Business Achievement Fill out the customer information form. Create your own announcement and attach your photos. Business Achievements run in the paper every Monday and wilf be displayed online for 30 days from the date of publication. The deadline to be considered for inclusion in the following Monday's print edition is 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Business Achievement costs are: $12 per column inch (about 35 words). There is no extra charge to appear online An abbreviated listing for Business Achievements with a Macon County connection will appear in The Business Journal. $10 for a one-person, half-column photo. $20 for a one-column photo. $45 for a two-column group photo.

Add color to any photo for $48. Photos will be cropped to standard sizes. Business Achievements are intended to be weekly listings that celebrate honors and activities of area employees and businesses and the move of area workers into different jobs or retirement. Business Achievements are edited to conform to Herald Review and Associated Press style. Questions should be directed to Scott Perry at sperry or 421-7976.

For a Business Achievement form visit us online at: DECATUR Larry Baker of Play It Again Sports of Decatur attended the sporting goods franchisor's annual summer meeting and trade show in Minneapolis. Baker returned with new insights that will optimize the shopping experience for local families looking for quality, in-season used and new sporting goods and equipment. "Our focus is on stocking the sporting goods that our local customers need and want, Baker said. "The annual summer meeting brings me up to date on the latest trends, regulations and market conditions, both locally and nationwide, so that I can keep our store stocked with the right items a the right time and at the right place in preparation for the start of the school sports season." Play It Again Sports of Decatur encourages people to "Reuse, Recycle, Replay" and to underscore the importance of this aspect of the business, this year's conference featured a workshop that educated franchisees on how to acquire more quality used Mr. John's promotes Letisha Morrision to director of esthetics tx course and a recent graduate of Mr.

John's teacher's training program. Tish has eight years of experience with Harmony Falls Day Spa as head cosmetologist and esthetician and has been certified by several product companies. For more about Mr. John's, go to http:mrjohns.com. DECATUR Mr.

John's Schools of Cosmetology, Esthetics and Nails has promoted Letisha Morrison to the position of director of esthetics. She is a graduate of Mr. John's cosmetologyesthetics 'Jf Jhk V- V-JX A MMEMCINTYRE lew Coach Supervisory role lacks real power In my job as an executive administrator, I have two support employees who technically report to me, though they have never really accepted me as their supervisor. One of them, "Carol," spends hours chatting with her friends and family on the phone. I discussed this problem with my manager, but he told me not to do anything about it.

Because Carol's cubicle is located next to mine, I can hear her talking all day long, which makes it hard to concentrate on my work. As a supervisor, I feel that I should be allowed to move into an office, where I could have some peace and quiet. But as management still seems to see me as support staff, how can I persuade them to give me an office? The real problem is not that management won't let you have an office, but that management won't let you do your job. If you were actually functioning as a supervisor, your request for private space would be easier to justify. So instead of pleading for tranquility, you should ask your boss for a clear definition of your role.

For example: "Although the organization chart shows that Carol and Mary report to me, they don't regard me as their supervisor because I don't have any real authority. If I'm actually supposed to supervise them, then we all need to understand what that means. It would be very helpful if you and I could agree on a list of my supervisory duties." Ideally, you should leave this discussion with a description of your responsibilities and an agreement that you can actually carry them out. Realistically, however, that may be expecting too much of your boss. Given his reluctance to address Carol's performance issues, he may not be much of a manager himself.

Every Friday, a few of us meet in the office kitchen for drinks after work. Last week, two of my co-workers got up and left while I was in the rest-room. Since I consider them to be friends, I was quite offended that they didn't wait to say goodbye. I know this is not a big deal, but now my feelings about it are interfering with our previously productive relationship. How do you think I should handle this? The gravity of this offense really depends upon how many people were in the group.

If there were only three of you, then bailing during your bathroom break was incredibly rude. But if others were present, you're being a bit too sensitive. People often exit social gatherings without saying goodbye to each participant. Even if your drinking buddies did leave you alone, don't allow one femall oversight to spoil an otherwise positive working relationship. The mature response would be to simply let this go.

Then, the next time you step away during Friday happy hour, ask them not to leave before you get back. Marie G. Mclntyre is a workplace coach and the author of "Secrets to Winning at Office Politics." Send in questions and get free coaching tips at www.yourofficecoach.com, or follow her on Twitter officecoach. sports and fitness equipment in their community to keep up with customers' demands. "It's a difficult economy, but families still want to support their children's interest in sports," Baker said.

"We must do a better job of communicating to our customers we need them to bring us their quality used sports and fitness equipment so we can satisfy more our customers' used product needs." Play It Again Sports of Decatur lets shoppers sell or trade-in used equipment in good condition to help offset the cost of outfitting themselves, their children or even entire teams with the equipment they need for the current season. Play It Again Sports of Decatur is located in Brett-wood Village. Call 872-2434. Meet two members of the Decatur Police Department's K-9 unit. Go to www.the forget the dogs' purpose, said Scott Thomas, manager of the TSA's Canine Breeding and Development Center.

"The best thing about naming the dogs after 911 victims is it keeps us on task," he said, adding that some dogs have been named after military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. The program adds an extra first letter to each dog's name to identify it as a participant. Spencer said focus is only part of the story. He had just returned from Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, where he went through the TSA training with Ggillis last year, when he encountered a New York police officer outside Wrigley Field. The officer and his buddies were in town to see a Cubs game and asked where they might find a good place to eat.

"He heard me say her name and said, 'That's a weird name for a Spencer said. "When I told him, 'She's named after one of your he gets choked up." The officer knew Rodney Gillis. Spencer rushed to New York with some other Chicago officers after 911 to help on such jobs as directing traffic and searching for human remains at Ground Zero. He said he's wanted to call the Gillis family. He wants them to know of his admiration for Gillis, who was off duty when the planes struck but raced to Ground Zero and made it about 20 floors up the south tower before it col- Associated Press photos Chicago police officer Nick Spencer and K-9 officer Ggillis patrol a platform in a downtown Chicago subway system.

Ggillis, a 3-year-old Labrador, is named after New York City police Sgt. Rodney Gillis, who was killed in the 911 terrorist attacks while attempting to rescue the victims trapped in the World Trade Center. Bomb-sniffing dogs named after 911 victims Morrison More than 530 officers work with another attack. lapsed, according to radio reports. He wants them to know he's honored to be partnered with a dog named after such a hero and that they'd be proud of the dog.

But he's never quite figured out how to put it. San Francisco police officer Neil Fanene understands. He, too, wondered, whether he should contact the family of Lawrence Stack, a New York Fire Department battalion chief who died on 911. When it became clear his black Labrador retriever would not wash out of the highly selective program as many do, he decided to contact Stack's son to tell him what a "privilege" it was to be teamed with Sstack at the city's airport. But he wanted to do it in a way that wouldn't intrude like a phone call might, or with an email, which is so easy to send that he worried it might be seen as a quick message that didn't mean much to him.

He wrote a letter. "As your father's job was to ensure the safety of his fellow firefighters, Sstack and I will ensure the safety of airport employees, passengers, police officers and firefighters at SFO," he wrote. "About a week later I got a Homage to a fallen brother Siblingfirefighter lost in 911 attacks NEW YORK (AP) Rebuilding the World Trade Center is more than a job for Brian Lyons. It's a way to pay homage to his younger brother Michael, a firefighter killed in 911, and a way for Lyons to heal from his loss. Lyons has spent 10 years at the site.

He rushed there with his brother's firefight-ing gear to look for him after the attacks. He stayed to help in the rescue and recovery, then to work on the rebuilding. Lyons has been a key player nearly everywhere on the site and is now a project manager for Tish-man Construction, overseeing the $3.4 billion transportation hub that will link the PATH train, the subway and nearby buildings. "Everything's coming out of the ground now," he said as workers busily readied the site. "There's no more pit.

I try to actually call this the World Trade Center now. We don't refer to it as Ground Zero anymore." The site's signature skyscraper, formerly called the Freedom Tower and now called 1 World Trade Center, is visible for miles. It will rise to 1,776 feet, making it the tallest building in the United States. Tower 4 is rising quickly and the foundations for two other office buildings are almost at street level. The transportation hub designed by architect Santiago Cala-trava is taking shape.

"There's so much to celebrate now," said Lyons, whose experience was chronicled in the documentary "Rebirth" that followed five people whose lives were transformed by the attacks. The rebuilding was complicated and emotionally loaded. The site is huge, with parcels controlled by many different stakeholders. Train service continues through parts of it. Security concerns led to radical changes in the design, all while New Yorkers watched anxiously to see what would take shape.

The transportation hub will resemble no other structure in New York, or perhaps the world. Calatrava has designed a distinctive glass and steel structure that evokes a bird's wings. Planners expect 250,000 people will pass through daily. Lyons said it will be "grander than Grand Families honored by memorials to loved ones CHICAGO (AP) Chicago police officer Nick Spencer finds the best reminder of what his job is about at the end of a leash. There, sniffing packages, garbage cans and even commuters at a downtown subway stop is Ggillis, a 3-year-old black Labrador retriever named after New York Police Department Sgt.

Rodney Gillis, who died when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed minutes after he ran inside. Spencer is among more than 530 police officers who work with bomb-sniffing dogs named after police officers, firefighters and others killed when they responded to the 911 terrorist attacks. His job, like that of other officers assigned to train stations, airports and bus terminals, is to prevent another attack. "All these people were victimized by terrorist attacks and these dogs, that's exactly what they fight against," said Spencer, 45. "These dogs are on our front lines against terrorism." Defending those lines took on a greater sense of urgency after terrorists hijacked jets and slammed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Authorities realized they needed bomb-sniffing dogs at all sorts of transportation centers. After toying with the idea of giving them funny names or ones tied to mythology, the Transportation Safety Administration settled on names that would ensure nobody would bomb sniffing dogs to prevent call from Michael (Stack's son, a New York firefighter) and he left a message saying, 'We just want you to know we're coming to Sstack's In July, Stack's mother, widow and son left New York for Texas to attend the ceremony with the 7-year-old grandson hemever got to meet. Thomas said the response from 911 families has been overwhelmingly positive. The TSA doesn't call families, in large part because workers don't want to add to their hurt if the dogs named after their relatives don't get as far as Ggillis or Sstack. But families call them.

"They call and say, 'My family member died in the Pentagon, would you name a puppy after Thomas said. Officers say the dogs provide an opportunity to talk about at least one person who died on 911. "I tell people my dog's named after someone pretty interesting," said Josh Diaz, a Chicago police officer who works with Ppearsall, a yellow lab named after New York firefighter Durrell Pearsall Jr. "I tell them, 'Do me a favor, look this guy up, Google.