Business Briefs

United Way Campaign Sets Record

The United Way campaign in Howard County raised a record $3.12 million, helping to push the total for central Maryland to more than $43 million. Highlights include:

The Rouse Company gave employee and corporate gifts totaling $538,609, with 10 employees donating $10,000 or more.

Johns Hopkins University APL employees raised more that $531,591.

Manekin Corporation employee participation increased to 91%.

Hospital Launches Ambassador Program

Howard County General Hospital has a new Emergency Department Ambassador program, wherein volunteers provide non-medical assistance to patients and their families waiting in the hospital’s Emergency Department.

The volunteers have completed a comprehensive orientation to help facilitate communications between patients and their families and Emergency Department personnel.

To participate as an ambassador, or to learn about other volunteer opportunities, call Barbara Swann, director of Volunteer Services, at 410-740-7980.

Northrop Grumman And UMBC Scholarship Program

Bridging the engineering workforce gap is the aim of the newest collaboration between Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector (ES3) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

ES3 has donated $80,000 to UMBC to establish the Northrop Grumman Scholarship/Fellowship Program, providing annual full academic scholarships to selected undergraduate and graduate students pursuing studies in engineering, computer science or computer engineering. UMBC has agreed to match the donation, doubling the number of scholarships in the program.

The scholarship program will help Northrop Grumman to ensure a steady influx of new engineering and technical talent and help UMBC to continue to attract and keep the best students.

Working Concepts Wins New Contracts

Working Concepts, a strategic human resource management consulting and eBusiness services company located in Columbia, has been awarded new PeopleSoft HRMS contracts with National Geographic, Brooks Brothers and GEICO.

Working Concepts will be providing PeopleSoft 8 upgrade services for National Geographic and Brooks Brothers and benefits administration services for GEICO.

Catering Contract For Nixon’s

Nixon’s Restaurants, a division of Nixon’s Farm, has won a contract to provide catering services to the Anne Arundel County School System. Nixon’s will provide meals for the Teacher Training Facility in Crofton, and will provide special event catering for all school functions county-wide.

In addition to being an outdoor event location, Nixon’s Farm now has a country ballroom for indoor events and a new commercial commissary for its catering business.

AACC News

Anne Arundel Community College has announced that 90% of its physician assistant graduates last year passed a national certification exam on their first try.

The college also has announced two new certificate programs to be offered in the fall—one in Baking and Pastry Arts, which is part of the Hotel/Restaurant Management curriculum, and the other in Science Laboratory Management, which is part of the Arts and Sciences curriculum.

New Contracts For Magellan

Magellan Behavioral Health has been awarded a contract to provide employee assistance program services to approximately 345,000 federal employees nationwide.

Additionally, Magellan has contracts to serve Michigan state employees and Arkansas and Oklahoma Blue Cross and Blue Shield members.

a2z, Inc. Partners With Hannover Fairs

Hannover Fairs USA, Inc. (HFUSA) has signed a multi-year contract with a2z Inc. to use the a2zShow solution to power the online component of two tradeshow-related programs: ExchangeWorld.net and the American Technology Source Book online.

The first phase of ExchangeWorld.net captures four product sectors and presents them in one virtual location at http://www.exchangeworld.net. The second phase will involve adding four Paris Air Show 2001 (June 17-24; Le Bourget, France) Exchange programs to the site.

Local Encompass Office Recognized

The Central Maryland Office of Houston-based Encompass Services Corp. has been named a “Top Ten Encompass Company” out of 250 offices located in the nation’s 100 largest cities.

The local office, formerly Central Air, was recognized for sustaining significant growth under controlled conditions over the past three years since the merger.

Steve Smith, president of the Encompass Central Maryland Office, attributed the growth to a continuing investment in employee training and technology, coupled with highly efficient management techniques. Additionally, the company has an unusually high employee retention rate.

HR Team Signs New Contracts

The HR Team has a new contract to provide Peacock, Condron, Anderson & Co., a CPA firm, with on-site human resources support and services.

The HR Team also has a contract with the Korak Staff Source, which provides temporary help in benefits claims processing.

COLA Enhances Speakers Bureau

COLA, a national health care accreditation organization, has updated its Speakers Bureau, a consortium of professional speakers available for presentations for national, regional and local seminars, conferences or meetings.

Specialists in health care and allied professions are prepared to speak on a variety of exciting topics ranging from health care initiatives to clinical advancements to general business subjects.

Northrop Grumman Receives Air Force Award

A Northrop Grumman Corporation Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector-led joint venture with Raytheon Company has received the U.S. Air Force’s first “F-22 War on Costs” Gold Award for dramatically reducing avionics costs associated with the F-22.

The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team reduced the total projected F-22 radar production costs by more than $386 million over 12 years.

Dever To Design For ULI

Dever Designs received a design award in the Print’s Regional Design Competition 2000.

Metzler’s To Hold Benefit

The annual Spring Into Life benefit for the Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource and Image Center will be hosted by Metzler’s Garden Center & Florist on April 7 and 8.

The garden center will donate 10% of its proceeds from sales of living flowers and plants.

ADS Introduces New Computer System

Applied Data Systems (ADS), a leading developer of application-ready embedded systems based in Columbia, introduced the Graphics Master at National Manufacturing Week.

The Graphics Master is a richly featured RISC-based single board computer system with a USB Master, Ethernet and compact flash.

Additionally, Applied Data Systems and Synergetic Microsystems announced a collaborative design effort to produce a new 32 bit StrongARM computer.

ROAR Opens New Facility

ROAR Audio & Music has opened a second recording facility. Located in Eldersburg, Maryland, the ROAR II studio features recording of unlimited tracks on an 800 MHz Pentium III CPU. The live tracking booth can accommodate up to four performers and features live and diffused surfaces.

The new studio complements ROAR’s main facility, located just off Exit 17/Security Blvd. and the Baltimore Beltway.

SPARKS Community Resource Fair

The first SPARKS Community Resource Fair will be held April 18 from 7 – 9:30 p.m. at Howard High School to familiarize parents of teenagers with the wide array of community resources and support services available to help them deal with the myriad issues that challenge their children’s physical and emotional health and well-being.

Laura Sessions Stepp, Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post journalist and author of Our Last Best Shot: Guiding Our Children Through Early Adolescence, will be the featured speaker.

The SPARKS Community Resource Fairs are supported by a grant from The Horizon Foundation’s Strategic Initiatives Program and are designed to increase community awareness of the need to be more active in supporting parents of adolescents. The program has been given the acronym SPARKS: Successful Parenting of Adolescents Requires Knowledge and Support. Four fairs will be held at Howard County High Schools between April 2001 and Spring 2002.

New Golf Club For Rainmaker

The Rainmaker Group, a golf course and residential development concern based in Columbia, has announced that Rainmaker Golf Development Inc. will develop the Stony Point Golf Club for the Town of Stony Point, New York. The development budget is $14 – $15 million and the course is scheduled to open in June 2003.

Correction

In our listing of past inductees into Howard County’s Women’s Hall of Fame in the March issue, we inadvertently omitted the name of Vivian Bailey, a long-time and well-known community activist and volunteer. As County Executive James Robey noted at a public meeting, “Ms. Bailey is everywhere.”