Congratulations to Rachel Griffith for winning

PlattForm’s companywide Employee of the Month

award and Ryan Irwin for winning Innovator of the

Month! The winners of these awards receive a plaque

and the employee of the month receives the coveted

reserved parking space. EOM nominations are

submitted by director-level employees and above*

and the winners are determined by PlattForm’s

internal board. This month there were 5 nominees –

so keep up the great work, everyone!

Ryan Irwin

Senior Executive Assistant

Senior IMS Planner

innovator of the monthOctober 2012

October 2012employee of the month

Rachel Griffith

Andrew MorrisSEO Specialist

Sean DoggendorfSEO Specialist

Ashley McKenzieAccount Executive

MELISSA MODERSOHNASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MEDIA SERVICES

D O N N I E C H A T M O NCREDIT & COLLECTIONS

SPECIALIST

J A M O N A B E R C R O M B I EWEB DESIGNER

M A N U E L A B E L L U O M I N IACCOUNTS PAYABLE

ASSOCIATE

introducing...

TAKE NOTE PEOPLE! THESE ARE THE EXAMPLES AMONG US WHO ROCK! IF YOU ALSO WISH TO ROCK, TAKE NOTE OF THE ROCKING OF THESE INDIVIDUALS!

TAKE NOTE PEOPLE! ThEsE ArE ThE

ExAmPLEs AmONg us whO rOcK!

If yOu ALsO wIsh TO rOcK, TAKE

NOTE Of ThE rOcKINg Of ThEsE

INdIvIduALs!

Johanna Kluemper Account supervisor

Erik Edmonds senior Affiliate marketing specialist

From a dog in a chicken costume to donning a Sumo suit, here are a few memorable moments PlattFormers had to share:

I was 100% prepared to win the sack race, with my chic lime-green pumpkin-face-sack. We stormed through deer drop-pings and doggy doo-doo, down a dangerous incline that would frighten even the most seasoned of sack-racers. Dustin Steller toppled directly in front of me and spoiled all hopes of a top-3 finish… but I photo-bombed the ribbon ceremony and made it on Facebook. #worthit– Justin Weiners

Simply put, my fondest memory of the company picnic was what I call ‘complete and utter domination.’ This is also known as ‘beating the stuffing out of Scott Reece in the Sumo ring.’– Caleb Brattrud

My favorite part of the company picnic was when Steve pushed Tara down while Sumo wrestling and she got stuck. Classic.– Melissa Davis

Kyle Regier falling down the hill during the potato sack race was pretty memorable; lucky for him he missed all the deer droppings.– Erik Edmonds

My favorite part was watching Angie Jones play hillbilly golf. She is really good, even without the beer in her other hand. It was like watching Tom Watson at the British Open a couple years ago.– Josh Legato

Sumo wrestling was my favorite for sure! The JP’s (Jen Pine and John Pfortmiller) had an epic showdown. Unfortunately, Brian Sumner and Brent Gill ruined it by tackling me mid-Sumo. The best part was Sumner went over me – as Brent tackled me first – and almost flew out of the ring.– John Pfortmiller

The potato sack race was a daring and harrowing adven-ture. The sack was dangerously small and made navigating the tough terrain difficult. Speaking of terrain there were deer droppings everywhere, making for a slippery and stink-ing path. When the starter yelled go, I realized I would be in for a tough race. Brian Sumner apparently had been training weeks in advance as he got out to a quick lead. As I tried to pick up the pace, I felt the dreaded hamstring tug. I slowed down to make sure no injuries occurred during this event. As I was slowing down, my feet became entangled and down I went ever so close to the deer droppings (luckily I did not land in them). I regained my composure and finished valiantly just out of last place (Whew!). Thank goodness Ashley wasn’t there to witness this event. I couldn’t bear the disappoint-ment that surely would have been on her face.– Kyle Regier

What do food, fun and fat suits have in common? Well those are just a few of the highlights from this year’s company picnic. Thanks to Rachel Griffith, who organized the event, PlattFormers enjoyed activities such as tug of war, potato sack races, bingo, and singing Kumbaya ‘round the campfire. Well, maybe there was no singing, but there was music…and a campfire.

By Dani Damaske

Our mission statement, “Opening doors by opening minds,” goes far beyond the walls of PlattForm. By educating our clients, we help them reach more prospective students and change more lives, opening the door for hundreds of thou-sands of people every year. So with that in mind, the goal of PlattForm’s marketing summit was to educate clients on in-novation and emerging trends in education marketing.

On October 24, 2012, PlattForm kicked off its first ever edu Marketing Summit, where we hosted more than 30 clients and brought in speakers from Google, The Parthenon Group and Triumph Higher Education Group. Steve Gunderson, the CEO and President of the Association of Private Sector Col-leges and Universities (APSCU), even spoke to the group. The summit was something that we’ve talked about hosting for several years, so seeing it become a reality was very excit-ing. “PlattForm was founded for this very reason: to give col-leges and universities the resources they need to continue to change lives through higher education. Through collaboration and knowledge sharing between industry experts, this mar-keting summit will further propel our mission to help schools succeed,” said Tracy Kreikemeier

So here’s a quick recap of what went on.

The summit officially started on Wednesday afternoon on the 24. All of the attendees came to PlattForm for a welcome tour and happy hour at our building. From there, we headed to Café Trio for dinner and ended the night.

Tracy Kreikemeier kicked off Thursday with a big thank you and reiteration to everyone why we brought them in. At 8:30 am, the first session began, as Jack Larson from Triumph spoke on innovation in education marketing. Presentations ran through the day until 4:45. Steve Gunderson of APSCU gave a positive and inspiring keynote speech over lunch. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to Mr. Gunderson speak, I highly recommend you do so. He is a fantastic representative for our sector. We got a ton of great feedback from his key-

note. Other speakers on Thursday included Chris Ross from The Parthenon Group, Dr. Pete Savo from Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Lori Turec from Grantham University and Alex Chen from Google. It was an action-packed day.

Friday began with industry leader Jeff Marcus, who spoke on recruiting high school students, followed by PlattForm’s Aar-on Edwards and Tracy Kreikemeier, who presented on today’s marketing challenges. The summit concluded with a presen-tation by Bob Martin from the Imagine America Foundation, who spoke about financial literacy. Attendees then broke for lunch and began their journeys home.

After two days of information-packed presentations, attend-ees left with some great insights to take back to their schools and implement. We’ve already received a lot of great feed-back, and the goal is to make this an annual event.

The biggest takeaway for me was getting to interact with other people in our industry and understanding not only the challenges they face, but the impact that we at PlattForm re-ally do make in not only their lives, but the lives of the stu-dents they teach. It was truly an inspiring couple of days.

If you want more information on the summit, sessions or the presenters, check out the website:

www.edumarketingsummit.plattformad.com

We’ll be posting all of the presentations, but they’ll be pass-word protected. Please contact Angie Keiser for access.

By Angie Keiser

1. Favorite scary movie?

•TheShining25% •Psycho11% •TheExorcist11% •TexasChainsawMassacre11% •Scream10% •Halloween5% •Fridaythe13th3% •Double,Double,ToilandTrouble,starring

Mary-KateandAshleyOlsen24%

2.Whowouldyouratherseeasthestarting quarterbackfortheKansasCityChiefs?

•MattCassel7% •BradyQuinn27% •RickyStanzi14% •MygrandpaWalt,onceherecovers

fromhishipsurgery52%

3.Sixwillenter.Onlyonewillemerge. Whowinsthefight?

•GrizzlyBear8% •Tiger9% •Lion10% •Hippopotamus20% •KingCobra6% •WillBuntin47%

4.Let’ssettlethisonceandforall: BestbarbecueinKansasCity?

•Gates6% •OklahomaJoe’s47% •JackStack23% •ArthurBryant’s7% •LC’s1% •Other16%

5.Youhavetolistentoonesongfor24hoursstraight.Pickyourpoison.

•“CallMeMaybe”–CarlyRaeJepsen19% •“PartyintheUSA”–MileyCyrus19% •“GangnamStyle”–Psy22% •“Friday”–RebeccaBlack4% •“TiKToK”–Ke$ha7% •“SomebodyThatIUsedtoKnow”

–Gotye29%

sTEvE’s

In the past few months, our own Compliance team has invented a fun new way to visualize the “Integ-rity” value we cherish here at PlattForm. Dubbed the “Integrity Initiative,” the team has begun hang-ing integrity-themed posters to serve as a constant reminder to “always do the right thing.” Here, we sit down with Compliance Supervisor Sheri Hart for more details.

Steve Bennaka: What is the integrity initiative and when did it start?Sheri Hart: A while back after one of the company surveys, I was focused on the question about integ-rity. I got it in my head that this should be something the company really focuses on since integrity is in our company mission statement. I figured that if there was any team at PlattForm that has to function within that rule, it’s Compliance. Being that we have to make difficult decisions and give unpopular feedback on a daily basis, who better to champion this concept? So I talked to the team and together we brainstormed and created the Integrity Initiative.

SB: How do you put together the posters each month?SH: Josh Legato worked on creating the “Two ‘I’s” logo to resemble the “Two ‘T’s” and he and Lauren Barber scour the Internet for basic quotes regarding conscience, integrity, character, etc. They select eye-catching pictures in hopes that people who pass by our cube will see these quotes and keep integrity in mind.

SB: How do you feel the Integrity Initiative represents the mission of the Compliance department?SH: While we felt that Compliance would be a great team to champion this concept, it was less about our mission statement and more about PlattForm’s. We hope that a fun little reminder now and then keeps the thought alive that the time is always right to do what’s right – even if no one is watching.

By Steve Bennaka

integrity initiative

“The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.” - Margaret Chase Smith

integrity initiative

“Winning is nice if you don't lose your integrity in the process.” – Arnold Horshack

integrity initiative

“You can stand tall without standing

on someone.” ~Harriet Woods

Birthdays anniversaries1 Michelle Young5 Amber Garrett9 Carolyn Benson10 Garrett Boal10 Nicole Chaikin10 Sherri Razer11 Christina Martin13 Travis Kerkvliet13 Dory Reasoner15 Britni Mapel17 Erin Cockman23 Jeremy Burns23 Dustin Gipson23 Mackenzie Thorpe26 Tammy Kucharski

27 Yogesh Joshi28 Amy Butterfield28 Caleb Finley28 Brett Jankord

01-2010 Paula Vinzant 02-2009 Brett Suddreth06-2006 Ashley Regier07-2005 Shari Good08-2010 Heather Physioc09-2009 Amy Vohs11-2008 Elizabeth Bratichak12-2007 Emily Blackmer14-2005 Lindsey Rapoff15-2010 Kyle Thorpe17-2003 Jeremy Schoen17-2008 Amy Butterfield17-2008 Rachel Griffith17-2008 Valarie McBee24-2003 Nici Krehbiel26-2007 Michael Vickery

27-1998 Dave Admire27-2006 Joe Mulvihill28-2011 David Seibert29-2010 Stefanie Jackson29-2010 Courtney Smith30-2005 Julie Baker30-2009 Eva Malley30-2009 Michael Schulte

Behind the Scenes:EDITORIAL BOARDDanielle HendricksonDani DamaskeMelissa CowanAngie Keiser

DESIGN/LAYOUTDanielle Hendrickson

EDITORSteve Bennaka

PUBLISHERDave Admire /PlattFormAd

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