Andy Kauffman
Video Director
Creating the ultimate ballpark experience at FirstEnergy Stadium – home of the Reading Fightin Phils – involves a lot more than baseball players, food vendors and mascots. It takes a diligent team of individuals who work away from the public eye to make America’s favorite pastime enjoyable for fans of all ages.
“We’re all involved in the direction of the game – from the ushers to the full-time staff,” says Andy Kauffman, video director for the Fightin Phils for the past 12 seasons. “It’s a team effort to make sure everyone is happy with the atmosphere. It’s rewarding when people tell you they love coming out to a game and that they had a good time at the ballpark.”
Kauffman is the mastermind behind the entertaining clips and graphics on the video board and TV displays at every home game, as well as on the team’s website. He also updates statistics and creates factoids for each player.
“We want to get the crowd to laugh,” says Kauffman, who graduated from Kutztown University with a degree in video production.
“We want to get the fans loud and fired up. We don’t want them sitting around on their hands and being bored. We want to entice the fans, and we hope they like it.”
Kauffman finds creative inspiration from the hundreds of games he’s attended over the years.
“I see a situation in a game and make a mental note, or people come up to me with ideas,” Kauffman says. “Being at every game, I know what to fill during the gaps.”
Kauffman works long 15- or 16-hour days, spending the daytime hours prepping the clips and graphics. At game time, he is in the press box ensuring the technical elements run smoothly.
“There’s some sort of glitch at every other game on average, anything from cameras not operating properly to the videoboard itself flashing randomly or instant replay not working,” Kauffman says. “It comes with the job, and you try not to get frustrated.”
For the 2013 season, the ballpark installed a new $1 million videoboard with enhanced capabilities, including instant replay. Kauffman and his technical counterparts had to learn how to troubleshoot any issues. “Last year was a learning process,” he says. “It took a while to figure out how to get things working properly.”
Kauffman resumes a more normal working schedule when the Fightin Phils are on the road. He creates videos, edits commercials, edits player interviews for the website and generates information on the visiting team for the coming homestand. He also gets extra time to spend with his wife, Kelly, and daughter, Emmalynn.
As an avid baseball fan, Kauffman considers himself lucky to work in such a fun environment for a team he’s been rooting for since he was a child. “My family and I would come to about five games a year,” he says. “I can remember trying to catch foul balls.”
The regular baseball season ended Sept. 1, but Kauffman will spend the next few months prepping for the 2015 season. He will be busy organizing and filing 2014 footage, creating new videos and keeping the website fresh. In early March, he says he will “feel the pressure of the upcoming season and things will kick into high gear.”
Come April, Kauffman will once again be rooting for the home team.
Cindy Geiger
Watch Officer
In times of emergency, 911 callers rely on first responders to arrive on the scene to provide direct assistance. But it's 911 dispatchers like Reading resident Cindy Geiger who work behind the scenes to make sure the right kind of help is on its way.
Geiger works the 10-hour day shift as a watch officer at Berks County Department of Emergency Services’ 911 Communications Center in Reading. As a watch officer, she supervises the day-to-day operations at the Communications Center, including overseeing 12-15 dispatchers, troubleshooting technical issues and answering calls, if needed.
Call takers answer calls to the county’s 911 lines for life-threatening emergencies (critical injuries, entrapment, house fires, etc.) and the 10-digit line for non-life-threatening emergencies (noise complaints, cats in trees, etc.). Radio operators dispatch the appropriate police, fire department and/or ambulance crews, or contact the appropriate assistance for all other calls.
“You never know what you’re going to get when you answer that phone,” Geiger says.
“You can have hours of mundane, routine calls and then minutes of chaos.” On average, the center receives 500-600 calls a day to both the 911 number and the 10-digit number. A busy day can produce upwards of 800 to 1,000 calls. In the first half of this year, the center received and made nearly 340,000 phone calls.
When a 911 call comes into the center, call takers must obtain the caller’s location, township or borough, and then ascertain the problem, not to mention do their best to keep frantic callers focused.
“We’re trained to control the chaos the caller is immersed in,” Geiger says. “We use a lot of repetition to make sure all the details are given to us. We have to break their tunnel vision to get the information we need and put them in the right frame of mind.”
Types of calls vary greatly, but 911 telecommunicators aim for the same end result. “We want a positive outcome,” Geiger says. “Our ultimate goal is to have everyone satisfied with the service they received. We want them to feel like they’ve been given options to fix their problem.”
Every telecommunicator receives ongoing Emergency Medical Dispatch training to learn how to provide first-aid and CPR instructions over the phone as well as the instructions needed to deliver babies. They must also pass ongoing certifications by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
Geiger began her career as a dispatcher with the Communications Center 30 years ago – five years before Berks County officially implemented the 911 system – and worked her way up to watch officer.
During her early years, the center dispatched 20 police departments, five fire companies and three ambulance crews. Today, the center dispatches 42 police departments, 59 fire companies and 17 ambulance crews.
She says the biggest changes to impact her field are technology (an enhanced radio system will be put into place by the end of 2014) and the rise of the cell phone.
While both have been positive changes, cell phones have introduced new challenges to dispatchers: unlike landlines, cell phones do not provide a location when a person calls the center; individuals often pocket dial 911; and children accidentally dial 911 when given an old cell phone to use as a toy.
“One little girl had called the center 67 times in one hour,” Geiger recalls. “Parents need to remember that even though a cell phone might not have paid service, it can still dial 911 as long as it has a charge. That is an FCC regulation.”
Geiger will retire March 10, 2015. She plans to enjoy camping and spending quality time with her family and friends. But first, she will leave March 15 for a much-deserved seven-day cruise to the Southern Caribbean.
“I’m going to put my feet up and not answer the phone for a week,” Geiger jokes.
Brandon Oxenreider
Night Auditor
Darryl Roede
Houseperson
While guests at the Courtyard by Marriott in Wyomissing are peacefully sleeping, Night Auditor Brandon Oxenreider and Houseperson Darryl Roeder are working relentlessly overnight to make sure visitors to the 135-room hotel have a pleasant stay.
“My goal for each guest is simple: to make them enjoy their stay,” Oxenreider says. “I want them to feel like I have helped them and they are pleased with how I treated them.”
“I want to make them feel like this is their home away from home,” adds Roeder, who has more than 30 years of experience cleaning commercial and residential sites.
Oxenreider and Roeder work as a team to deliver excellent customer service, yet they have different responsibilities to guarantee guests are happy and that the hotel runs smoothly.
As a night auditor, Oxenreider runs and balances financial reports and checks for and fixes discrepancies for both the hotel and bistro. He also checks in guests, answers phones, takes reservations and accommodates guests’ special requests, including wake-up calls.
“The number one thing I enjoy most about my job is that I get to meet new people every day,” Oxenreider says. “And from my customer service that I provide, I hope I make an impact on them that they will remember.”
Oxenreider joined the Marriott in 2010 as a full-time overnight houseperson before transitioning to a part-time weekend night auditor while still working two nights as a houseperson and one day in maintenance. He assumed the full-time night auditor role in August 2012. He hopes to someday become a manager.
The Marriott’s clientele mainly consists of business travelers during the week and families, wedding groups and individuals attending nearby events, concerts and sporting events on weekends. Regardless of the reason for their stay, Oxenreider does his best to ensure guests are eager to return.
“I want them to feel that our hotel is their number one choice when they stay in Reading because of the superior customer service that we strive to provide,” says Oxenreider, who lives in Shillington with his wife, Kayla.
Roeder’s houseperson duties include washing and folding linens, and cleaning and maintaining all common areas, including the lobby bathrooms, fitness center, swimming pool area, bistro and bar area and business center. He is responsible for trash removal and recycling, carpet and floor care, polishing of the elevators and interior wood panels, and more.
Working the graveyard shift can be lonely, Roeder says. “Sometimes you feel like a man on an island.”
Still, he enjoys his independence and the trust of management and departments “who know they can count on me.”
Roeder takes pride in being reliable, punctual, dependable and organized – traits he says make a great houseperson. He believes in the old adage, “Treat people the way that you want to be treated.” He says, “If you do this, your actions and professionalism will speak for itself.”
At the end of the year, Roeder will retire and take with him all the fond memories of working with the Marriott team. “It’s like a family around here,” says Roeder, who lives in the Sinking Spring area with Dorothy, his wife of 40 years. They have two daughters, one son and five grandchildren.
For their exceptional service, both Oxenreider and Roeder have received special recognition from guests on the hotel website and in guest comment surveys, as well as gratitude in person. They both also have received Associate of the Quarter awards from the management team.
“From time to time, I do get to see guests leave, and they do thank me personally,” Roeder says. “Others leave with a smile on their face. Then I know we all did our jobs. That’s what makes it worthwhile.”
“It’s rewarding when someone says, ‘thank you’ or ‘You really helped me out,’” adds Oxenreider. “That makes it worth it because they appreciate the effort you have made to make their stay a great one.”
by Kandace Wertz | photos by John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
