Vicki Loggins
Administrative Secretary
Grounds Department
Physical Plant
JOB DESCRIPTION: “I’m primarily responsible for personnel and procurement reporting, including record keeping for petty cash and P-card purchases.
“I also maintain employment records for the 87 employees of the grounds department, and I keep records on all work orders that come through the five grounds shops. I also have to answer about 15 phone lines during the day.”
TIME IN CURRENT POSITION: 29 years and 8 months.
TYPICAL DAY: “Right when I get to the office, I take any messages that come into the shop and forward them to the appropriate foreman, and then I issue petty cash checks for any purchases that we need. I make a mail run over to the Chicopee Complex, where I also drop off labor summaries, leave forms and personnel information.
“Back here at my office I catch up on my paperwork-record keeping, sorting the mail-I even coordinate with the vending company for refunds from the machines in the break room. Quite often I have to contact one of the foremen to get them to respond to an emergency-like a tree may fall and block a road or damage a vehicle, or if a stop sign is down. Sometimes things get really hectic around here.”
MOST REWARDING PART OF MY JOB: “When we find lost items on campus and locate the owner. It may seem like a small thing, but it makes the owner’s day-and mine, too.
“Also, the guys I work with here are like a second family to me.”
MOST CHALLENGING PART OF MY JOB: “Anytime during inclement weather. The staff of the grounds department is required to come in, even if the university is closed. They can come in as early as 6 a.m. or even 4 a.m., and keeping track of their hours can be difficult.”
PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCES: “None. This is the only job I’ve ever had. I came to work at UGA straight out of high school.”
IF I WEREN’T DOING THIS JOB, I WOULD MOST LIKE TO: “Write jingles or slogans for D.O.T. or M.A.D.D. to use for advertisements. I have some jingles I’ve written, but haven’t done anything with them yet.”
OFF-THE-JOB INTERESTS: “I like to read, and I write poetry. One of my poems was published in the American Poetry Anthology, and another was published in the Athens Observer.
“I like to go to Cherokee, N.C., and Biloxi, Miss., to gamble. I play the slot machines, and I won about $1,200 once.”
BOOKS I WOULD RECOMMEND TO OTHERS: “The Chicken Soup for the Soul series, The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, and Ann Rule’s books about true crime stories.”
MY FAVORITE MUSIC: “I like Motown music, and local bands like the Jesters, the Common People Band and Sounds of Motown.
“I used to go to a lot of concerts in Atlanta-anything from country to rock. Fleetwood Mac and Genesis were probably the best concerts I went to.”
THE PERSON I MOST ADMIRE: “My brother, Donald Doster.
“My parents divorced when I was at a young age, and he really took care of my mother, my sister and me. He made a lot of sacrifices to provide for us. He’s 15 years older than I am, so he was like a father figure to us.
“Even though she’s deceased, I also look up to my mother, Thelma Doster. I know it was a struggle, but she was a good mom, and a real Southern belle.”
THE ISSUE THAT CONCERNS ME MOST ABOUT TODAY’S WORLD: “That there’s so much out there that children growing up today are exposed to. It wasn’t like this when I was growing up. Life was good.”