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EIT’s Sweet Sixteen
Record Attendance, Six Sigma, and Cash Management Mark 16 years of EIT Retreats

by Michael Anthony

The 16th annual EIT retreat was held again this year at Fort Warden near Port Townsend from September 7 th through the 9 th. This was an expanded group from prior years resulting in a record total attendance of 15 EIT members plus three invited guest speakers. For two of us, Michael Lanham and me, it was our inaugural EIT retreat. In fact, it was Michael’s very first day on the job.

Wednesday’s focus was for us to get know one another. For some it began with a kayaking event and for others it began at the guesthouses. We all gathered for dinner after which we convened back at the house and began introducing ourselves. After general introductions, Karl split us into two groups and told us all to tell two truths and one lie about ourselves to our other group members. Our group members were then challenged to figure out which was the lie. We definitely found that we needed to get to know some of our fellow EIT members (or that they are excellent liars). This was followed by a team-building event that, much to Karl’s dismay, we solved quite quickly, because we just worked too well together as a team!

Thursday was spent with three guest speakers learning about Six Sigma process improvement and how it might relate to FM and the UW. Six Sigma is a methodology that uses a standard method for approaching process improvement that is a mix of project management and statistics. Our first guest speaker was Wren Rex from General Electric, which has been using Six Sigma extensively for the last several years. Wren provided us with a great overview of what Six Sigma is and how it can generally be applied. Our second guest speaker was Velios Kodomichalos from Pepperdine University, who walked us through how he has used Six Sigma to improve Pepperdine’s cash management process. Our last speaker of the day was Nate Findley, who provided us with an overview of the many ways FM is involved in Cash Management currently.

The presentations were very enlightening and provided us with some good concepts to consider. In addition, they served as a validation of the approaches we presently take with respect to projects and initiatives with which we are or soon will be involved.

Friday morning was devoted to discussions of FM’s strategic measures and initiatives. Kris Box facilitated the session and, despite our best efforts to go down other roads less traveled, Kris kept us focused on the task at hand. There was consensus we should concentrate on a limited number of objectives (four) and to keep them at a high level (i.e., FM wide). Time constraints resulted in us not completing all of the discussions surrounding our measures and initiatives but it did establish a unified basis for moving forward.