KRC Announces Move: New Address, Telephone and Fax
by Julie Mettenburg
As the old saying goes, times change — and organizations change with them. KRC has reached one of those times!
In response to new staff locations and technologies that allow for more office flexibility, KRC is closing its longtime office at Whiting. Effective October 1, KRC will use a centralized Topeka postal address and a centralized, toll-free “866-” phone and fax number that features direct extensions for each staff member.
“As with any business or organization, we must be prudent and look for the most efficient means of operations at the best costs,” said KRC president of the board Joy Lominska. “With staff located across the state, and new technologies linking them, we had to admit that keeping the overhead of a centralized office that wasn’t so central was hard to justify. Therefore, the board of directors has decided to close our longtime ‘bricks and mortar’ location in Whiting.
Added Executive Director Julie Mettenburg: “New technology has allowed us to invest and update with networked phone systems across distances, video meetings and chats, and utilization of vendors statewide, which KRC had already begun to implement. Empowering employees to work from any community in Kansas, in support of the mission of the Kansas Rural Center, makes a lot of sense.”
Current staff members work in locations from Great Bend to Lawrence, and utilize home offices as well as community office spaces and services. KRC also anticipates savings in fuel, paper and other resource use. Lominska pointed out, “This is also an opportunity to model the mission of sustainability, which we are always looking to do.”
“For 35 years, Whiting has been home base for KRC,” stated Mary Fund, Programs and Policy Director and founding staff member and long time KRC employee. “Closing the office marks the end of an era, but new technology allows us to work from anywhere in Kansas and still be in touch with each other and the information central to the organization’s operation and to our efforts as a team. Maintaining a central office no longer makes sense.”
“Our number one concern is making sure that we remain as accessible to all of you as we have always been,” Fund explained. “The new phone number should actually put callers in touch with the staff more quickly and directly than the current one!”
Beginning October. 1, the KRC address, phone number, and general e-mail inquiry address are:
KANSAS RURAL CENTER
4021 SW 10th Street #337
Topeka, Kansas 66604
866-579-5469
The website remains the same at: www.kansasruralcenter.org
Phone calls and mail to the Whiting phone number and post office box will be forwarded to the new centralized phone and new address.
We strongly encourage you to start using the new phone number and address.
From Sept-October 2014 Rural Papers