Do any of you remember that somewhat popular management training book, "Who Moved My Cheese" by Dr. Spencer Johnson? The central theme of the book was change and dealing with change. The book used the playful comparison of changes we all face from time to time to the situation of a mouse arriving at one of the normal locations for a cheese-baited trap and a snack for a clever mouse, only to find it was gone. In our case we have a different twist on this theme. We are not moving the trap. In fact we are adding to the number of traps and hoping our little friends come and try to take their snack. It may be that the change issue for us is the low activity in our building over these many months, particularly since the cold season has arrived. We have always had mice in the building to a degree, but we are certainly seeing quite a few mice here and there, including in the kitchen. In the past few weeks we have encountered more than a dozen of our church mice in traps and on sticky boards. The mice may be sensing an opportunity! We have been taking some action to address this problem. We have placed more traps and more sticky boards in various places, and have been working to seal up some apparent access points in the kitchen. I don't think we need to fear any attacks by these little creatures. After all, we are so much bigger than they are, but we do want to make an attempt to show them who's boss! Unlike mice, we do have fully opposable thumbs, a very helpful tool for setting and dealing with traps!
For those of you who are interested in the new fire alarm system work, I can tell you the work has been proceeding in fits and starts, as they say. I have asked the contractor to give me information on what has been done to date and a projection on completion. There is certainly a lot more work to be done to install new equipment in every room and space in the building and get it wired into the new alarm panels in the basement. I will be providing additional progress information as it becomes available.
Dave Mercer, Property Team Leader