JACOB ALVARADO!
Please join me in welcoming Jacob Alvarado to Lone Star Communications as an Installer in the Grand Prairie office. Jacob began his employment on 8/17/20 under the supervision of Chris Bell. He brings more than 2 years of installation experience and has expertise in making and keeping the customer happy.
In Jacob’s spare time he enjoys spending time with his wife and son.
Welcome to the Lone Star Team Jacob! He can be reached at (817)683-4301 or jacob.alvarado@lonestarcom.com.
-Ramona Rook, Senior Human Resources Director
SHANIAH JONES!
Please join me in welcoming Shaniah Jones to Lone Star Communications as a Service Writer in the Grand Prairie office. Shaniah has been working as a temp for the last few months but eventually became a full time LSC employee beginning 08/17/20 under the supervision of Michael Langelier. She brings more than 4 years of customer service experience to the team.
In Shaniah’s spare time she enjoys spending time with friends & family, journaling & horse-back riding.
Welcome to the team Shaniah! She can be reached at (972)809-5632 or Shaniah.jones@lonestarcom.com .
-Ramona Rook, Senior Human Resources Director
CASEY LACKEY!
Please join me in welcoming Casey Lackey to Lone Star Communications as an Installer at our Grand Prairie location. Casey has been working as a temp for the last few months but became a full time LSC employee on Monday 8/24/20 under the supervision of Chris Bell. He brings more than 4 years of low voltage system experience & has expertise in telecommunications devices.
In Casey’s spare time he likes wake boarding, mountain biking, and building vehicles, plus doing anything activity like disc golfing, and messing with new gadgets on the market.
Welcome to the team Casey! He can be reached (214)604-0462 or casey.lackey@lonestarcom.com .
-Ramona Rook, Senior Human Resources Director
SHARLISA RALEY!
Please join me in welcoming Sharlisa Raley to Lone Star Communications as an Clinical Application Specialist-RN. Sharlisa is located at our Grand Prairie office and reports to Donna Montgomery. She brings more than 30 years of extensive and varied nursing experience and has expertise in clinical education, nursing administration, case coordination, quality, physician and nursing clinical workflow, and informatics. Sharlisa has a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and a master’s degree in Nursing Informatics.
In her spare time, she travels (prior to COVID!), reads and spends time with her family.
Welcome Sharlisa to our team! She can be reached at (972)400-8325 (cell), (972)809-5673 (direct), or sharlisa.raley@lonestarcom.com .
-Ramona Rook, Senior Human Resources Director
PRAIRIE PAWS PET DRIVE!
How many of you remember SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threats)?
In January, we were invited to participate in the strategy planning meeting. Ah, I saw some of your light bulbs light up. YES, Thank you!!! What we do by participating in SEC’s monthly events helps strengthen our work culture. We, the Special Event Committee (SEC), have seen positive results from hosting the food drive.
We watched the enthusiasm ooze from your pores. We saw you interact with one another to formulate plans and ideas. Bet you thought no one knew 😉.
This resulted in Lone Star Communications Grand Prairie (LSGP) literally collecting a truckload of groceries for Mission Arlington last month (See photo).
They send a gracious thank you!!! SEC received so much positive feedback on this event from you guys.
Because of your great participation and enthusiasm, we decided to do another drive.
“Doing something with pets” was the second ranking response from February’s suggestion box when it comes to donations as a philanthropy project.
So SEC decided to tackle another important factor in the average household - the fur babies.
For the month of July, SEC found a local animal shelter, Prairie Paws Adoption Center, where we could donate some of the items from their wish list.
Teamwork went so well last time, everyone agreed to keep it as it was. Some teams wanted redemption at being the winners. The challenge began. SEC set the collection day to end at 30 days.
AND, in case you were wondering… I heard you pondering, LOL, "Was there an offer of a prize for the winning team for this event?" YES, there sure was.
The team that donated the most items would win Pizza for lunch from SEC.
We used graphics on the shout-out board to track donations per team (photo included).
The drive was very slow for the 1st two weeks, but then it picked up to a great pace. You all may have seen our tally system on the Grand Prairie shout-out board email that Melissa Terrell, from the Arkansas office, sent out each Monday. The Engineering/sales team started things off, but soon the Customer Service/Customer Experience team made their way on to the board with significant numbers.
In the end, the Customer Service/Experience team claimed the BIGGEST donor title for the event.
Erika Jones, Administration/Accounts Payable, and I scheduled a drop-off time to deliver the donations. We had a great time representing the company and getting to tour the Grand Prairie Animal Service building. We witnessed two kittens getting adopted!
Here are some of our pictures from our drop off and these weren't all of the donations in the photos. Our donations spilled out of the boxes. The items were being put to use as soon as we wheeled them into the facility.
Look at who came out to greet us, Mr. Hobbi and Event Coordinator Angellee.
Thank you so much for all your donations, they were already putting them to use as we left. 😊
We actually just received TWO Kurunda beds from one of your employees and coworkers!!!! Our dogs LOVE these. Thank you so much!!
-Angellee Vincent
Event Coordinator
Prairie Paws Adoption Center
Grand Prairie Animal Services
And as promised, SEC planned a pizza party for the Customer Service/Customer Experience team. Great job guys on a fabulous donation (see photos in album below).
Thank you Grand Prairie for making our philanthropy projects a great success. We have done our part in helping our community in a great time of need.
This kind of camaraderie hasn’t gone unnoticed. It was gratefully appreciated by both Mission Arlington and Prairie Paws.
Keep being AMAZING Grand Prairie Stars!!!
- Lasonia B. Reed, CAD Operator
HOUSTON TECHNICIANS WORKING IN PFLUGERVILLE!
When things got a little soft in Houston with eleven projects on hold, Central Texas had projects pop-up and needed some help.
Thanks to Victor Gonzalez and Steven Spangler for putting this together.
A special thanks to the men that rolled out to Pflugerville to assist. We appreciate you Leo, Jesse & Ricky. Your work has helped both Houston and Georgetown offices and got schools ready for the kids to come back (sometime soon I hope).
Who: Leo Martinez, Ricky Pineda, Jesse Navarrete
What: Rauland Telecenter Universe public address installation
Where: Pflugerville ISD
Sites: Rowe Lane ES, Kelly Lane MS, Murchison ES & Provan Opportunity Center
-Mr. Phillip Cerna, Director of Operations
NEW VANS!
What a year 2020 has been for manufacturers. In April, we were supposed to receive one Ford Transit 250 Van for Nelson Saldivar in the Service department. Due to assembly line shutdowns, we were delayed.
In April, we had a meeting with the vendor where we were notified that we would receive Nelson’s van in August, but it appeared that the other four vans on order would not make it to us this year.
We got a surprise a few weeks ago to find out that all five Ford Transit 250 Vans hit the dealership and are now being outfitted for delivery. We did not expect but one van this year due to assembly line shut downs.
On the way to the Houston office soon are three new Ford Transit vans for the service department and two vans for the operations department.
-Ron F. Kruse, Chief Operating Officer
JESSICA HAMMOND!
Jessica Hammond joined Lone Star Communications as a Baylor Scott & White (BSW) Support Technician on 8/3/20 at LSC Georgetown and reports to Robby Culver. She brings more than 1 year of nurse call cabling/installation experience and has over 7 years expertise in automotive sales and service.
Welcome to our team Jessica! You can reach Jessica at 120 Market St. Georgetown, TX, (401)712-3216, and jessica.hammond@lonestarcom.com.
-Ramona Rook, Senior Human Resources Director
KEVIN HENDERSON NAMED CHAIRMAN
OF PSA OPERATIONS COMMITTEE!
Kevin Henderson (C.O.O. for Arkansas) was just named Chairman of the PSA Operations Committee. We are so proud of him! He is really excited about this new opportunity. See his response below for more details.
- Melinda Gibbs, Office Manager, North Little Rock
"This position is responsible for leading the committee in developing monthly Operations material for all the PSA members. Last year, we did things such as how to use KPI’s, SaaS operations, training, etc. The committee also reviews submittals for PSA Tech to make sure the very best make it into the training conference, as well as participate in PSA Tech. We try to identify those things that most companies are trying to solve, work together on possible solutions, and then present those ideas. The chairperson would represent PSA at other conferences, work with the other committees at PSA, as well as the CEO.
Some goals I have for this year, which starts in September; start committee chair meetings to help create blended presentations that are well rounded, ask the other committees what they need from Operations, so we can help drive that, gather input from PSA companies on what they would like to see for the monthly materials, work with PSA on the changes in our industry (such as big data, AI, IoT) and how we are addressing that. Aside from that, continue the great work the Operations committee has been doing for several years.
How does that benefit our industry? We are working with some of the very best from across the country in both practices and standards – so this enables us to pull all of that together and provide really great insights, which helps companies trying to reach those same goals, solve those same problems. Another way is that these committees help drive change at PSA in the form of new products and ideas to keep up with customer needs. We have seen that with the addition of the Cyber Committee, products, and training, as well as additional products to help companies move to subscription model businesses."
- Kevin Henderson
DANIEL CONNELL!
Please join me in welcoming Daniel Connell to Lone Star Communications as a Technician in the Springdale office. Daniel began his employment on Monday 8/17/20 under the supervision of Taylor Taylor. He brings 3 years of experience with him, and we are excited to have him on the Lone Star team.
In his spare time, Daniel enjoys spending time with his family and two children, camping, kayaking, and backpacking.
Welcome to the Lone Star Team Daniel! He can be reached at (479)381-5875 or daniel.connell@lonestarcom.com.
-Ramona Rook, Senior Human Resources Director
TRAVIS HUDSON!
Please join me in welcoming Travis Hudson to Lone Star Communications as our new Project Superintendent in the LSAR/Springdale office. Travis began his employment on 08/17/20 under the supervision of Taylor Taylor. He brings 10 years of commercial fire alarm, security and low voltage experience, and we look forward to having him on the team.
In his spare time, Travis enjoys boating, riding motorcycles, and spending time with his wife and two daughters.
Welcome to the Lone Star Team Travis! He can be reached at (479)335-1233 (office), (707)596-0976 (cell) or travis.hudson@lonestarcom.com .
-Ramona Rook, Senior Human Resources Director
CHILI COOKOFF!
Mark your calendars! We will come up with a plan to be SAFE and have FUN together.😊
-Melinda Gibbs, Office Manager, North Little Rock
