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CTSF test cell GLEAM team works
to boost work, community morale
By David G. Landmann, CTSF
The springtime wind in Texas is never
calm, and today it’s not making life
easy for the Central Technical Support
Facility’s three-woman GLEAM Team
and a handful of volunteers.
The GLEAM group is attempting to put
green vinyl tablecloths on eight long
tables they’ve set up on the CTSF’s
outdoor test pad for a St. Patrick’s
Day-themed luncheon, as the wind
is attempts to send the green plastic
sheets sailing across the street toward
a motor pool full of Abrams tanks.
The GLEAM team, with the help of
some hastily-improvised weights and
tie-downs, eventually wins the war
against the wind. But then the CTSF’s
Test Cell GLEAM Team has been winning
the morale sustainment battle in
the Test Cell since March of 2011.
GLEAM, according to GLEAM Team Chair Valerie
Meverden, stands for Gifts, Laudatory, Essentials,
and Morale. The acronym was arrived
at in March 2011, when Meverden, and the
two other primary members of the team, Julie
Bridges and Donna Bryant, were charged with
the task of boosting and maintaining the morale
of the officers, operators, and technicians in the
CTSF’s test cell.
“(Test Director) Madeline (Wright) was concerned
about the morale of the Test Team,
and she wanted us to provide support for the
morale of the people in the test cell. So she
required us to do that,” Meverden said.
Meverden’s “us” – the GLEAM Team -- includes
herself, a senior ORSA, and a 14-year veteran
of the CTSF; Julie Bridges, a data manager,
with 13 years at the facility, and Donna Bryant,
a computer scientist/analyst, an eight-year
CTSF veteran.
Central Technical Support Facility, GLEAM Team
member Donna Bryant, right, arranges pizza
selections for a recent GLEAM Team-sponsored
Test Cellmlunch. Her teammate Julie Bridges
can be seen working behind here.
CTSF photo
22 THE LINK | SPRING 2013