November IT Newsletter

ITNEWSLETTER
NOVEMBER | 2019

ROB'S REFLECTIONS

Written by Rob Orvis

LET'S TALK BASICS

Any coach worth his salt knows that unless With that in mind we ask the question… how
his/her team masters the basics, the might we bring more visibility to this type of
fundamentals, they will continue to find ways activity? How might we get better at the
to beat themselves, to make the little fundamentals of intentionally deciding
mistake at the big moment to cost them the where we want to direct the bulk of our
game.  The best coaches will drill on energy and efforts?
fundamentals day in and day out, week in and
week out because they know that their teams This is where work intake and time tracking
must consistently excel at the little things to can help us master this fundamental of IT
give them the best chance to win. performance… help us master where we
invest our finite IT resources to maximize
In IT one of our most basic fundamentals is our value delivery.
our work product.  In our case, how would
we know that we are mastering the Today, we have no universal process for
fundamentals of delivering a great work gathering qualified work inputs as they come
product?  One way we could measure in from across the company or simple
ourselves is to determine if we are methodologies for analyzing their impact.
consistently improving our work product day Without this process we do not have a good
over day, week over week and year over way to build visibility, understanding and
year.  Another way we could measure it is to alignment across the key stakeholders where
determine if we are achieving consistent and everyone can know what the opportunities
positive momentum quarter after quarter. are and contribute to the priority decisions
with full knowledge as to “Why” a particular
What do we mean when we say, “work decision is then made.
product”?
Additionally, with consistent time tracking
In this month’s book of the month “The we would now have a way of knowing
Phoenix Project” by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr holistically what work our team is investing
and George Spafford they discuss the four in on a weekly, monthly and annual basis
inherent types of IT work product...1- which will give us the visibility required to
Business IT Projects, 2-Internal IT Projects, see how we can continue to fundamentally
3-Updates and Changes and 4-Unplanned improve.
Work.  In the book they also point out the
trap that many IT departments fall into In the weeks and months ahead, we will be
where the fourth category (Unplanned Work) aggressively pursuing the roll out of our Jira
dominates our day to day lives where it tool to help us develop a better process and
almost feels like we’re in a perpetual discipline around work intake and time
hamster wheel. tracking – it is a fundamental skill we must
master as we strive to maximize the critical
Nobody sets out to jump into the proverbial throughput, impact and financial return for
hamster wheel but with the ever-present our work product.  My hope here is that I’ve
shoulder taps we can get a quick question provided some important context as to why
here, a request to fix that minor bug right we are doing this, and my ask is that you
away there, an urgent issue to resolve today embrace the importance of this fundamental
or an important person requesting a specific and help us make it the best process it can
enhancement to be done by next week. Every be for all involved.
person in this equation means well but all of
this “Unplanned Work” can quickly become
the silent killer of an IT departments
effectiveness and throughput.

02 NOVEMBER 2019

CHALK CHIEF LEFSE MAKER

TALK Chief Lefse Maker, Al Gulseth, shared
the fruits of his labor with his team
[ ]Questions and answers from the during a potluck in October.
common area chalkboards.

WHAT ARE YOU
THANKFUL FOR?

My Family
Puppies
Bacon!
This Company (MW)
Beautiful Sunrises
Awesome Co-Workers
My Hairdresser!

Jesus
Today
Good Friends
My Wife
Pets
My Mom
Kids
Cozy Blankets
Music
My HR Family
Reports that run correctly even
though I don't like the results

FREE DINNER AND FREE ADVICE?

Marvin’s Tour & Training Department in Warroad, offers personal support to our partner architects, contractors,
dealer base and remote sales team. Marvin aircraft bring those partners to Warroad from all over the world to learn,
network and share with us and each other. Etiquette dictates that our guests be treated properly and for as long as I
have been in Warroad (2007), that has included employees hosting group lunches and dinners either at the T&T facility
or at local eateries.
 
I decided to start hosting occasional meals in 2010, because I wanted to talk with people from all over the country. The
free meal perk wasn’t bad either. After Bob Marvin opened The Shed, his collection of classic and muscle cars, I
appreciated being able to take guests there, as well. I have heard a few interesting stories over the years and have been
able to share a few as well. It is uplifting to me when our guests tell me how they are inspired by the Marvin culture
and surprised to find this small town friendliness alive and well. I would be happy to answer questions about hosting
meals. If you are interested in hosting a meal contact Karen Hontvet at the Visitor Center.
 
To anyone visiting Warroad, if the green light is on at The Shed, that means it is open. Stop in for a tour!

submitted by: Dawn Crowe

NOVEMBER 2019 03

CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE

Tell us three things most
people don't know about you...

SHERRY HEAD

1. I am scared to ever go into a hairdresser. At about the age
of 17, I had very long hair and went in for a trim and by the
time they got it right I had a pixie cut. The second time I went
was for my younger sisters wedding and it took two days of
washing my hair to get all the hairspray out of it.

2. I grew up on a chain of 11 lakes in central Minnesota and
lived on a peninsula, so during the summer I was able to fish
pretty much every day and never had to worry about the wind.

3. While living on the Gulf of Mexico, I was able to fulfill a
"what do you want to become when you grow up" position of
being a biologist. During the Gulf oil spill both Scott and I
were "temporary" field biologists for NOAA, and helped in the
relocation of sea turtles and their eggs as well as logging
information to keep track of the endangered birds and mice in
the area while monitoring the oil that washed into the
beaches.

DAVE RADCLIFFE

1. I'm a full Patch member of the FM Crusaders MC.
The process of getting into and understanding the
culture of that world is something not many will
ever know. I'm very proud to be a part of that. We
are a very tight "Band of brothers" and we do
wonderful things to support the FM area.

2. I'm originally from Moorhead MN, although I've
lived the majority of my life Up North.

3. My daughter is expecting in December of this
year, and I'm soon to be a grandpa. 

04 NOVEMBER 2019

ROXANNE KALK

1. I used to be an active paranormal
investigator. Haven't investigated in a
while!

2. I toured Europe with the "US
Ambassadors of Music" after I graduated
high school.

3. Out of my husband and 2 kids, I'm the
shortest :)

PAUL KING

1. I was born in Los Angeles.

2. I lived in Greece for 3.5 years.

3. I served in the US Air Force.

SCOTT HEAD

1. I've completed Grandma's
Marathon.

2. I have "legally" handled
endangered sea turtles and their eggs.

3. I collect Les Kouba wildlife prints.

NOVEMBER 2019 05

FARGO IT GIVES BACK
The Fargo IT group participated in United
Way Day of Caring event!

TIPS AND TRICKS November Birthdays

WHAT'S NOT IT'S TIME TO
TO LIKE? CELEBRATE

Did you know there are several DEAN ROURK | MICHAEL KLEMEN | PETE HONL
JASON CHEN | REBECCA OMDAHL | CHRIS DRAPER
Facebook groups related to
ROBIN HANSON | TOM HEMMING | MIKE WORTH
Marvin? The groups will help MATTHEW BUSH | TIM COLE | GARY GROVER
TRAVIS WINANS | DAVE RADCLIFFE
you to stay informed on the JUSTIN DRAGOSANI-BRANTINGHAM

Marvin brands and the people

of Marvin.

If you haven’t already, join in SUCCESS AMONG US
and “Like” the following groups
on Facebook: Written by Dawn Crowe

Ways to grow your natural best: Docker. Andy Heem, IT Manager–

in-house, local, on-line and travel-to. Technical Solutions Architect, in

1 - Marvin On-line: This month’s training feature is Warroad, is one of our managers with
2 - Marvin Ripley
3 - Marvin People & Culture on-line training with Pluralsight. Pluralsight experience and is in the
4 - Marvin Windows of Grafton 
5 - Tecton Products, LLC Pluralsight.com is an online learning process of assessing the value that it

platform geared towards IT exclusively. has brought to his team.   If a user has

It supplies good training materials for a

Visual Studio Professional, they should

large range of subjects within many IT

already have a key to use Pluralsight

categories. Categories include Software

with that subscription! Otherwise,

Development, Creative Professional,

If there are any Social Media individual license keys for each person
groups we have missed, please
send us an email so we can Ops/Devops, Data Professional, Business
share with others.
interested in using it are required.
-Submitted by Jayne Corneliusen
Professional and Information & Cyber

Andy may be contacted with

Security. Courses under Ops/Devops

questions. If he can’t answer your

cover subjects like “Microsoft Windows

Server”, VMWare, Microsoft Azure, question, he can forward it to our

Microsoft Sharepoint, Cisco, and Pluralsight account manager.

6 NOVEMBER 2019

V A U L T Written by Sandy Shelstad OUR

Members of IT, Fargo R&D, Warroad Vault also has  the capability of YEARBOOK
November years of service
R&D, Ripley R&D, and many other managing other data file types beyond

areas across the company including those of Autodesk products, like files

Launch Support-Technical and from other CAD software applications,

Engineering, have teamed up to PDF files, and Microsoft Office files. 

replace Marvin Documents with Replacing Marvin Documents with

Autodesk Vault Professional (Vault).  Vault will allow our users of Autodesk 36 Jackie Oslund
Warroad
While Marvin Documents has been products to fully leverage Autodesk
34 Mike Worth
and still is a widely used application products through streamlined Warroad

across many areas of the company, integration, enhanced capabilities, and

this decision has been made with allow us to adopt new capabilities and

careful consideration of the risks and practices that haven’t been possible 26 John Rehm
Warroad
weighing of all options and return on with Marvin Documents.  The Marvin
26 Rhonda Saxion
investments.    Marvin Documents was Documents Replacement Team is Ripley

authored by Pete Honl beginning in working diligently to ensure as

1996 and has evolved to encompass seamless of an integration as possible. 

many capabilities to better utilize During the implementation of Vault

Autodesk products over the years.  and replacement of Marvin 24 Mark Frampton
Eagan
Pete Honl, who retired in December Documents, we have teamed up with

2017, has agreed to come back part- D3 Technologies, a company who has

time and assist with this project. We many years of experience in 22 Holly Ruhland-Grewe
Eagan
are very pleased to welcome Pete implementing Vault software in

back as he brings an irreplaceable manufacturing facilities like Marvin.  At

wealth of knowledge to the Marvin this time, we anticipate that this 17 Terrence Whittet
Fargo
Documents replacement efforts.  replacement project will be completed

Marvin Documents has been a great by late 2020. If you are a user of

tool, a tool that at the time it was Marvin Documents and would like to 15 Stephen Christian
Roanoke

made was ahead of its time! Vault is gain further information, provide input,

a document management software, or would like to know what

like Marvin Documents, that is opportunities there are for training on 12 Leslie Bond
Ripley
dedicated to integration with Vault, please contact Sandy Shelstad,

Autodesk software applications to Julie Klinker, or Tracy Ostby.

include Inventor and AutoCAD.

ACRONYM OF THE MONTH

VPP

Voluntary Protection Programs
As mentioned in the Q3 meeting, VPP is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) initiative
that encourages private industry and federal agencies to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses through

hazard prevention and control, work-site analysis, training, and cooperation between management and
workers. VPP enlists worker involvement to achieve injury and illness rates that are below national Bureau of

Labor Statistics averages for their respective industries.

NUFEETTIMMOC NNUFEEHTEYBWUOYOOTLLAH FO KEEWTHGUORB 02
01

03
05
04

01 Best Group - The Wally-Verse (Fargo IT)
02 Witch-Way Wednesday Winner - Sandy Shelstad
03 Halloween Party | Werewolf game
04 Best Overall - Jannette Mosher
05 Pumpkin Painting Winner - Morgan Berg

11 09 !LLA YB DAH SAW NUF

07
06

10

08

06 Most Original/Creative - Samantha Mitterling
07 Trick or Treat Yourself Tuesday
08 Best Couple - Scott and Sherry Head
09 Funniest - Nicholas Ross
10 Scariest - Manjari Mokarala
11 Crockpot Challenge Winner - Sherry Head 

SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE!

ELECTRONIC PAYMENT ENROLLMENT

5%

95%

DIRECT DEPOSIT OR PAY CARD
PAPER CHECK

The UltiPro Employee Self-Service Project just hit its goal of 95% of
Marvin employees on electronic payment.  This is a huge

accomplishment towards HR’s digital transformation strategy!
Way to go team!

BOOK OF THE MONTH

The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business
Win by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford.

Bill is an IT manager at Parts Unlimited. It's Tuesday morning and on his drive into
the office, Bill gets a call from the CEO. The company's new IT initiative, code
named Phoenix Project, is critical to the future of Parts Unlimited, but the project is
massively over budget and very late. The CEO wants Bill to report directly to him and
fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill's entire department will be outsourced. With
the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of The Three
Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with manufacturing plant
work than he ever imagined. With the clock ticking, Bill must organize work flow,
streamline interdepartmental communications, and effectively serve the other
business functions at Parts Unlimited. In a fast-paced and entertaining style, three
luminaries of the DevOps movement deliver a story that anyone who works in IT will
recognize. Readers will not only learn how to improve their own IT organizations,
they'll never view IT the same way again.

NOVEMBER 2019 10

5 WAYS TO BE THANKFUL IN THE OFFICE WORKSGIVING

Many may not think to add work to their list of things they are grateful for. However, there
is no better time to promote a positive, thankful environment than the holiday season.
Here are 5 ways to bring Thanksgiving to the office:

1

THANK YOUR EMPLOYEES
Giving thanks to your employees can
go way beyond just words and result in
higher job satisfaction. 

2

APPRECIATE YOUR BOSS
If you have a great boss, let them
know! Stop expecting thanks, and
express your gratitude for them.

3

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

Having close friends in the office helps
with stress, promotes engagement and
makes going to the office every day
something to look forward to. Focus
on building new relationships and
strengthening existing ones.

4

BE POSITIVE

Personalizing your emails and text
messages with a simple "thank you so
much!" or "I really appreciate that!" can
mean a lot to someone.

Being positive and thankful is contagious, 5
and especially important  this time of the
year. Lend a hand, show some gratitude GO THE EXTRA MILE
and have a happy Thanksgiving!
Offer to help someone who has too
much on their plate, or buy a coffee for
someone who's having a tough day.

GAME ON!
AN INSIGHT INTO ONLINE GAMING BY JAKE SCHNEIDER
Starting with the pros, escapism in online gaming is a great
T            o me, online gaming is the ultimate form of interactive substitute for other more potentially dangerous habits such
as drug addiction. Gaming can be an outlet of one’s
entertainment. Along with the advent of the modern internet, emotions – perhaps you had a bad day at work so you go
online gaming created a space where like-minded people from home and enter a virtual world where you are the hero. It is
all across the world could interact with each other nearly arguable whether participating in reality versus ‘virtual
instantly. Even more – gaming allowed individuals to enter into reality’ is better or not for one’s mental state but along with
virtual worlds where they could be – and do things – that they the aforementioned benefits of being able to choose your
never would have the ability to do in ‘real life’.  Some people see reality and the fact that gaming is so much more engaging
this aspect of gaming as potentially leading to problems, while and interactive than older substitutes like books or music
others see it as a form of therapy - a release of tension and an makes it that much better of a choice. Some of the cons of
escape into another, somewhat idealistic world for at least a escapism with online video games are, in fact, addiction to
brief period of time. the games themselves. More and more often, you see
  stories of people playing video games for ridiculous
One fundamental positive aspect of online gaming is the ability amounts of times, neglecting their personal responsibilities
to choose your community. In ‘real life,’ especially as a kid I was and taking it to a point where it is totally unhealthy. It will
stuck in the K-12 system with people I didn’t necessarily like or be very interesting to watch this trend evolve as gaming
get along with. There are many people in this world advances to new levels of interaction that have not been
(increasingly so, as a matter of fact) who feel like they don’t fit seen before, with the likes of virtual reality technologies
into ‘real life’ society. This can be due to many different such as the Oculus Rift VR headset.
psychological and physiological factors. For some people, online  
video games aid in filling these social voids. For others, In my opinion, the benefits of online gaming outweigh the
especially people who may be disabled, video games allow negatives, and as technology evolves we will actually start
access to communities that are otherwise inaccessible. I can to see the barriers collapse between virtual reality and ‘real
think of one story I have seen, where a disabled woman used a life’. A good example of this was the Pokemon Go video
game called Second Life to create a virtual avatar to interact game that was released on mobile devices back around
with others, where she would be otherwise shunned by ‘real life’ 2016. It essentially created a virtual overlay of a real life
society for her disability. location (such as downtown Saint Paul) and added in
collectible, hidden Pokemon monsters where you would
Another, somewhat grey-area aspect of online gaming is the actually have to go to places such as parks or libraries to
idea of escapism - temporarily distracting yourself from the find them and “capture” on your mobile device. There were
troubles of reality. There are several pros and cons to this idea. also virtual overlay locations known as “Gyms” that people
could go to and meet other like-minded gamers in person.
So in this example, we see how “augmented reality” video
games are actually starting to bring people together in
reality, in a new and creative way. 

THANKSGIVING
WORD
SCRAMBLE

01 dnenir
02 sedstre
03 eremnbov
04 ciarrrbesne
05 spmiligr

06 omfaylwer
07 solrl
08 ukpnimp
09 krueyt
10 vagry

ANSWERS TO
OCTOBERS CROSSWORD 

dawn MEET YOUR
crowe

ITnewsletter team

email: [email protected]

denise FEEDBACK WANTED
zentner

jayne melanie
corneliusen shepard

The IT Newsletter Team is committed to achieving better teresa
communication and involvement within Marvin IT by
publishing monthly newsletters with informative and duffy
engaging content that varies from month to month.
morgan
Denise Zentner is leading us in focus and commitment to berg
chase down communications. We will intentionally
communicate content of value to all of Marvin IT,
incorporating effective tools and mediums.

Please email us at [email protected] to send us your content
ideas, feedback and anything else you would like us to share.

events sparc

fargo 22 Come to the Table
DECEMBER
25 Fargo IT Thanksgiving Potluck 9-20 12 Days of Christmas
26 Excel Energy Holiday Lights Parade (Downtown Fargo)
NOW - DEC 13 Toys For Tots fun committee

NOW -DEC 30 Football Picks

warroad

Every Tuesday Night - Taproom Trivia @ lowbrewery | 6:30pm
23 Saturday afternoon movie @ Library | 1-3pm
23 Turkey Bingo @ St. Mary's  Catholic Church | 7:30-9pm
28 Warroad Community Thanksgiving Dinner @ Community Center | 12-3pm
30 Small Business Saturday and Light up the Holidays

DECEMBER
05 Deck the Halls 2019 @ Senior Living Centner | 4-7pm
6-7 Ultimate Ice Fishing Show