Posts Tagged ‘VN Service’

THE PROACTIVE USE OF PUNCHLISTS: SURPRISES ARE FOR BIRTHDAYS

Monday, May 19th, 2014

By: M. Tucker Elliott

19 May 2014 Part 1 of 3

There are all kinds of surprises in life, some of which people like and some of which people don’t like.  Pleasant surprises have the effect of giving us a dose of adrenaline followed by a positive experience (a nice piece of birthday cake comes to mind).  In the world of construction, even pleasant surprises represent events that were unplanned and unaccounted for in budgets or schedules and are, therefore something we want to avoid.

Unpleasant surprises, of course, can have some pretty negative outcomes.  On construction projects, these outcomes can impact a range of project elements including the safety of workers, project budget, and schedule.  A punchlist is one of the tools available to control the risk of surprises on construction projects.  As a project or portion thereof is nearing completion, a punchlist isolates parts of the work thought to be complete and identifies items requiring action in order to bring them into compliance with the contract.

Congratulations Tucker Elliott on 16 years at VN Services!

Monday, April 14th, 2014

VN Services holds its 2014 Company Renewal

Friday, March 14th, 2014

We held our annual company renewal on February 27 and 28 at The Club at Hillbrook.  Every year we travel off-site and review the previous year’s goals, accomplishments and LTOs.  Then we use basic project management skills and CPM (Critical Path Method) scheduling to create measurable individual and company goals for the year forward.  Because the schedule has proven to be a highly useful management tool, we revisit it regularly to ensure that we are on target to achieve our goals.

Of course, we also need some R&R, so we spend the second afternoon doing something that is fun and entertaining.   We had a delicious lunch at The Harley Cafe at South East Harley-Davidson (no motorcycles were purchased at the time).  We followed lunch with bowling at the Freeway Lanes, where we all let Richard and Bob win!

Tucker Elliott makes a trip to Washington DC

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

The White House

Tucker Elliott just got back from a trip to Washington DC where he met with representatives of several federal agencies. Tucker remains impressed with the level of knowledge and dedication of those that he’s been dealing with, who often travel to fairly dangerous places on our behalf.

You may be surprised to know that one of these agencies, which is providing the loan on our client’s Baghdad hotel project, has generated profits from its loans that have helped lower the federal budget deficit every year for the last 34 years!

While he was in Washington DC, Tucker also had the opportunity to meet with the Commercial Attaché in the Iraqi Embassy to discuss additional opportunities for projects in Iraq.  The meeting proved to be very interesting.

Joe Morris Finishes the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon!

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Joe finishes the race.

Joe Morris successfully completed the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon on Sunday, May 20, 2012.  He and 14,663 other runners finished the 26.2 mile race in 79 degree heat, during a “red flag” heat warning.  Although Marathon officials urged runners to slow down due to the heat, Joe still finished his first ever marathon in a very respectable time.

Joe’s Race Statistics:

Finish Time:             4:19:16

Overall Place:           1017/14,664

Gender Place:          733/6389

Division Place:         51/391

Pace:                          0:09:53

Congratulations, Joe!  Well done!