Dear ASCLD Colleagues,
 
Greetings from Kentucky! I am sitting on the couch on a Saturday afternoon manually pushing lab reports to our web portal due to a glitch in the automated process. It took a while to discover so there are many reports awaiting publication to the web. It is eye-crossing work but needs to be done. My husband walks by throughout the day looking more quizzical the longer that I sit here clicking away on my laptop. Finally, he asks what in the world I am doing. I explain that Mondays are always the busiest with folks looking for lab reports to download and I do not want our administrative staff swamped with panicked calls from the courts looking for their Monday morning reports. And even worse, when the administrative staff cannot get to every call, the calls will roll over to the analysts and it all snowballs. It is called “customer service” and I am a firm believer in being proactive. The bug will get fixed soon but I did not want to wait and inconvenience the courts and the administrative staff; one less headache on a Monday morning.

Customer Service is a large part of our jobs as Laboratory Directors in both the public and private sectors. Most of us have surveys for our customers to communicate the things they like and the ones that they do not. I enjoy seeing the survey responses that commend an employee for making the effort to provide good customer service. I take very seriously when a response is about an employee being rude, impatient, condescending, or non-responsive. We all have bad days but need to maintain a positive and friendly demeanor to those we encounter throughout the day. On that note, I would like to know how you feel the ASCLD Board of Directors is doing to serve the membership. Are there changes that you would like to see? Would you like us to add some services or take on some challenges? Are there things the Board does that you wish that we wouldn’t? My email is Laura.Sudkamp@ky.gov. Send me a message. I would love to hear from you and to bring your thoughts to the Board to consider. Or you can reach out to a Committee Chair (https://www.ascld.org/committees-2/) if it relates to a specific committee function.

Two things I would like to highlight today for new things posted in the CLM are:

1) the ASCLD Forensic Research Committee next episode of a virtual “Lightning Talks” about Drone Forensics and,

2) the NIOSH study looking for partnerships to measure the unintentional occupational exposure to illicit drugs among public safety workers working in law enforcement forensic science laboratories to find ways to eliminate or reduce contact with these toxic substances.

Until next week…

Laura
 
Laura Sudkamp
ASCLD President