{"179181":{"#nid":"179181","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Employees Support Colleagues through IPRM\u2019s Holiday Project","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEleven Georgia Tech employees and their families will have a happier holiday because of the generosity of colleagues working in Institute Planning and Resource Management (IPRM) and other administration and finance units.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor 12 years, those of us in the Lyman Hall Building have participated in holiday service projects to support local charities,\u201d said Jim Kirk, executive director of Institute budget planning and administration. \u201cBut eight years ago, our holiday party planning committee decided we had needs here on campus, based on stories we\u2019d heard about employees who were having a tough time making ends meet.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo, each October, Kirk reaches out to units across campus and asks supervisors to nominate employees in financial need. The nominees are then matched with sponsoring units from IPRM (which includes the Bursar\u2019s Office and Organizational Development) and beyond; for example, the Office of the President and the Office of Legal Affairs have been strong supporters of the efforts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThen, we obtain wish lists from the supervisors of the employees we adopt,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cSome don\u2019t even ask for gifts and just request financial assistance to pay for basic necessities. For all families, we assume that their needs include food, so every family receives food items and grocery store gift cards in addition to gifts and other gift cards.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo protect the identities of the families receiving support, there is no direct contact between the sponsoring units and the families \u2014 all communication goes through the nominated employees\u2019 supervisors.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOnce all of the donations have been collected in the Budget Office, the supervisors are notified and make arrangements to pick up the gifts and deliver them to the families in need. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis year, we filled up an entire office and cubicle with gifts and collected nearly $2,700 in gift cards,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cDespite the difficult financial times and employees going without pay raises for several years, people have been extremely generous in sharing what they have with our fellow Georgia Tech employees who are not as fortunate.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf your unit is interested in becoming involved, contact Kirk at \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jim.kirk@business.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejim.kirk@business.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEleven Georgia Tech employees and their families will have a happier holiday because of the generosity of colleagues working in Institute Planning and Resource Management (IPRM) and other administration and finance units.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Eleven Georgia Tech employees and their families will have a happier holiday because of the generosity of colleagues working in Institute Planning and Resource Management (IPRM) and other administration and finance units."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2012-12-20 17:05:04","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:13:26","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-12-20T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2012-12-20T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"179161":{"id":"179161","type":"image","title":"Institute Planning and Resource Management Holiday Service Project","body":null,"created":"1449179039","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:43:59","changed":"1475894825","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:47:05","alt":"Institute Planning and Resource Management Holiday Service Project","file":{"fid":"195964","name":"iprm.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/iprm_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/iprm_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":558766,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/iprm_0.jpg?itok=59ddUdlW"}}},"media_ids":["179161"],"groups":[{"id":"1259","name":"Whistle"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"8254","name":"Administration and Finance"},{"id":"3423","name":"employees"},{"id":"15356","name":"holidays"},{"id":"13731","name":"Institute Planning and Resource Management"},{"id":"53751","name":"IPRM"},{"id":"171235","name":"service projects"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jim.kirk@business.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJim Kirk\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBudget Planning and Administration\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}