Kion Gibbs

Kion Gibbs

Project: Museum Maintenance Project Scope Development

School: Ferris State University

Major: Dual Major in Architecture & Sustainability and Facility Management

Here at NMNH, I have worked with the Zone Manager, Daren Kennedy; Building Manager, Steve Nelson; and Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR), Ben Spencer in the development of maintenance project scopes. The scope development involves gathering project requirements from various sources in order to produce a document for contractors about project bids. At first, the plan was to develop scopes for the 2016 fiscal year; however, my project scope was expanded to include current hot projects, such as a sidewalk tripping hazard correction and a mold growth remediation. Hot projects are issues that arise and need to be resolved relatively quick.

My experience has not been limited to scope development; it has also included job shadowing of the Building Manager and a Building Engineer. I have seen the administrative side of the work, as well as the hands-on work that craftsmen perform. The building engineers showed me the maintenance side, and I will also travel with the building service workers, on the operations side, to see what it takes to clean and prepare the museum for the day. Upon completion, my internship will have given me excellent operations and maintenance experience, which will be essential to my success as a facility manager.

In addition to the project scopes development, I have also been tasked with producing articles based on my interests and experiences with the internship. The articles chosen covered leadership, zoo disaster preparedness, and project scope development.

Zoo Disaster Preparedness

This article was inspired by the recent flooding in Tbilisi, Georgia that released many zoo animals from their enclosures and allowed them to freely roam the city. The natural disaster displayed an area of concern with zoo emergency disaster preparedness and response plans. I will use this event to highlight the importance of facility management in the care of zoo facilities, staff, visitors, and animals. The article will focus on the main concerns for zoos when it comes to natural disasters and the focus areas of natural disaster preparedness.

In order to complete the article, I will utilize the following resources:

  • Research of the Tbilisi incident
  • Facility tours of various zoo exhibits: Great Cats, Great Apes, Pandas, Reptiles/amphibians
  • FM interview with a zoo facility manager
  • Interview with AZA member, if possible

Project Scope – Back to the Future

This article will detail what it takes to construct a successful project scope. Essentially, it will include the effort that goes into writing a scope, collecting the project requirements, planning for unexpected cuts to funding or low funding, and the level of detail to include for the specifications. Most of the information will be gathered from my experiences and from speaking with experts. I frequently work with the COTR on scope development, thus I am able to conduct informal interviews quite often.

Successful Leadership

The title of this article is FM Leaders of the Future: Observations of an Intern. To write it, I used my experience thus far working with Daren and Steve, whom are both great leaders. The article covers three of my observations about strong leaders: building personal relationships, communication, and growth and development of leadership abilities. The information I used to write this article came from my observations and interviews with Daren and Steve, as the title clearly shows.