The Electrical League of Ohio honored Terry Kilbourne, president of Tec Inc. Engineering & Design, on March 20, 2012 with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening reception of the ElectroExpo 2012. 

Kilbourne served on the ELO Board of Directors for 20 years, from 1992 to 2012 and as League President from 1995-2001. He has been actively involved in the Illuminating Engineering Society, recently completing his term as a national director. 

Throughout his career, his vision and excellence inspired individuals to achieve. His influence on the industry is dramatic. His personal attention and effort to promote others along with his selfless giving results in the high achievements he has obtained in his career and is truly a model for the industry.

Each year Tec buys a table at the Big Brother Big Sister Festival of Trees event held at Quail Hollow Resort in Concord, Ohio. This gala event is a dinner and auction. Fifteen trees are decorated by local designers and organizations or companies who donate their time and all of the decorations. The trees are setup the day before the gala and approximately half are selected for live auction. The remaining trees are put into a silent auction.

Silent auction trees typically fetch $250-800 each. The live auction trees will sell in the range of $500-2000. However, some years certain trees can sell for $3000-4000. 

This year Tec President, Terry Kilbourne bought a tree titled “God Bless America.” Due to it’s size and extra accessories, it is set up in the lunchroom. 

The Festival of Trees is a fantastic event that we always enjoy attending. 

The second edition of Illuminating Engineering was published in 1928. The text book was prepared for students and engineers. The book is divided into two main sections, Principles and Applications, then further sub-divided into addtional specifics. 

One interesting section of the book is the Reflection Factors of Colored Surfaces.  Pasted on to the pages are 32 color cards, similar to paint cards or Pantone samples. Each card has a hole punched through to allow the user to hold an object or sample behind the card and match it to the color.  Each color is assigned a Reflection Factor - the proportion of light reflected by walls and ceilings of various colors.

As we moved through the buildings, passers-by would ask what we were doing. I explained that I work for the engineering firm that completed the systems design for most of the campus. Without hesitation each person I talked to complimented the team that designed the facilities. The local community is happy to have such a wonderful complex in their neighborhood.

Photos at http://www.tecinc1.com/photo-gallery/spire-institute/

I’m note a great note taker, so the way I used it was to record the lecture and type the headings from the slides displayed on the board. We received a hardcopy of the slides in our binders. Now I can go back and look at the slides and if I want to hear that part of the lecture, I just tap on the slide heading in my notes and the audio will begin from that slide.

The version I downloaded had a bug that caused a crash when bullets were used. When I returned to my office and updated the iPad, there was a new version of Pear Note that fixed this bug.  Pear Note also works with Dropbox to backup your notes and audio files. That feature allows for sharing your files and provides some safety should your lose your iPad. 

There is also a version of the software for the Mac, which I haven’t bought yet. My understanding is it provides the same features as the iPad version, but also allows you to insert slides, photos and video into your notes.

It’s a great app, well worth the $5 from the iTunes app store.

To honor this group - Terry, Pam, Jaime, Kelley, Sean and Tim - we brought in an ice cream cake to represent the “Gold Watch”

Thank you to all of the wonderful employees here at Tec.