New Career Networking Group Forms in Ewing
Property Managers Discuss Home Rule
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Kathleen Spring and Bart Jackson were prepared
for the October 22, 2003 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights
reserved.
Survival Guide
High school students and their parents can learn about
the transfer programs that lead to a bachelor’s degree when Mercer
County Community College hosts an open house, “Planning for a
Four-Year Degree,” on Wednesday, October 22, at 6 p.m. Call
609-586-0505
for further information.
In addition to MCCC’s academic and transfer counselors, experts from
many of New Jersey’s four-year colleges present information. The open
house takes place in the college’s Student Center on the West Windsor
Campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road.
According to Carol Tosh, MCCC’s dean for enrollment services,
the college’s Dual Admissions Agreements provide students with the
opportunity to make a smooth transition to The College of New Jersey,
Montclair State, Rider University, Rutgers University, and the New
Jersey Institute of Technology. For students who are undecided about
where they plan to continue their education, Mercer maintains transfer
agreements with hundreds of four-year schools.
Representatives from the dual admissions colleges answer questions
about their schools and discuss how Mercer’s transfer students have
succeeded there. A panel including members of the MCCC admissions
and transfer offices present information on financial aid and
scholarship
opportunities, and answer questions.
Seven area companies will be represented at New Jersey
Technology Council’s Growth Company Showcase on Thursday, October
23, at 8 a.m. at the Jersey City Hyatt. Greg Hanson, head of
technology banking at Wachovia Bank, gives the keynote. Cost: $75.
Call 856-787-9700.
State Treasurer John McCormac discusses opportunities in an
afternoon meeting open only to angel investors, venture capitalists,
and investment bankers.
CEOs and CFOs of 30 regional public and private technology companies
make presentations. Princeton area participating companies include
Aereon Solutions and Quantiva at Princeton Forrestal Village; Barrier
Therapeutics at Overlook Center; Digital 5 at Quakerbridge Executive
Center; MicroDose Technologies on Route 1 North in Monmouth Junction;
StatementOne on Lenox Drive; and NanoOpto, a Somerset company with
technology developed at Princeton University.
A solid corporate vision is a wonderful tool. But
without
an eye on the ledger, it remains as airy as a fantasy without a bride.
Admittedly, the language of the ledger is strange to many and all
those numbers are off-putting to some. Yet the financial statement
has most of the information a business owner needs to determine just
how far he can reach and at what star he should be aiming.
Those seeking to gain sharper accounting translation skills will want
to attend “Using Your Financial Statements to Manage Your
Business,”
on Thursday, October 23, at 11 a.m. at the Mercer County Conference
Center on the MCCC West Windsor Campus. Sherise Ritter, principal
of Hamilton-based accounting firm the Mount Ritter Group gives fiscal
advice to startups, established business owners, and investors. This
lecture is part of the day-long “Women in Business” seminar,
which begins at 8:30 a.m., and is sponsored by the College of New
Jersey’s Small Business Development Center and the New Jersey
Association
of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO). Cost: $125. To register call
609-586-9446.
For a full list of speakers and further details, check the Mercer
Conference Center website at www.MCCC.org.
“Companies tend to be started by inventive entrepreneurs and
salespeople,”
Ritter notes. “Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a feel
for numbers comes magically packaged among these other business
skills.”
Using her own feel for numbers, Ritter has proved herself a valued
decision-guiding resource for owners and investors over the past two
decades. Born and bred in Hamilton, and still a Hamilton resident,
Ritter attended Rider University, graduating with a B.S. in business
and accounting. In l984, as a young CPA, Ritter joined the firm in
which she is now principal. It was then called Lee and Sexton.
“Back
in those days,” she recalls, “business owners of surprisingly
successful companies would literally bring in their accounts in a
shoe box. Now, they bring the numbers in on a disk, but I’m not sure
there’s always a great deal more comprehension.”
Today Ritter and the Mount Ritter Group have carved out a specialized
financial consulting niche, specializing in closely held companies,
yet their client list covers the full business spectrum. The main
education gap noted by the Mount Ritter Group lies in clients who
understand each spreadsheet, but cannot unite them for a full
corporate
picture. Like the old stereopticon, which photographed the same scene
twice at slightly different angles, each of several financial sheets
is required to gain a comprehensive picture of a company’s status
and prospects:
The balance sheet provides a snapshot of your company’sassets and liabilities on a given day. This essential tool gives anaccurate picture of your company’s immediate health. It also comesin particularly handy when you want to determine just where you standafter weathering a rough fiscal storm or after launching a newproduct.But it is only a point on the chart of history. While it may providea viable voice at the planning table, it shouldn’t be the only voice.The income statement is designed to show asset and liabilityflow over a given period, generally a quarter or a year. It displayspast activity and current trends. A summarized version of this goesout each year to shareholders in public companies. On this sheet,little facts come to light revealing exactly what it has taken toget your company to where it is. Your earned income might show a greatboost in May, corresponding to an added operating expense in thesalariesand wage column. Hiring those two seasonal sales people seems likea sharp move. Now study the sheet. Did the income flow remain steadyafter their short term contract ended? Do you need them back on fulltime?Statement of changes in cash flow makes plain the nuancesof daily business dealings. Frequently, the income statement showssimply the amount of cash that came to the table in, say, the pastfiscal year; the amount spent that year; and the resulting net profit.While straightforward, the picture presented is not complete.For example, many firms operate on the accrual method. When theserviceis delivered with an accompanying invoice for $50,000, that amountis tallied under the income column, though the actual check may remain”in the mail” for months. Additionally, in the changes ofcash flow statement, different uses of cash are separated out. Thatnew back hoe, which is generating income this year and beyond, isnot lumped in with the static operating expense budget, which merelykeeps the doors open.For the investor, literacy in reading financials is important,too. Over 80 percent of those investing in publicly held companieslast year never looked at the annual report or any documentationbeforebuying. Then they wonder in horror why their life savings plunge.While there’s no such thing as guaranteed investment, Ritter insistsyou can greatly enhance the odds by first giving your candidate alittle fiscal examination. Basically Ritter is a firm believer inhistory. Study the sales line. Is the product itself consistent withother high sales items in the market? Also have sales increased overtime? Is this a growing firm?In matters of price, do more than check to make sure you are notbuyingat the height of a stock’s historic range. Examine the price/earningsratio. Compare how this company’s financial values rate with industrystandards. Publications such as Moody’s and Standard and Poor havethe numbers already crunched for most publicly held firms, listedby industry category.Finally, Ritter advises, look within. Examine management. Do theirresumes display expertise at manipulating stock for the benefit ofsenior management alone? How do they handle operating expenses?”Anyfirm that shows a $500,000 annual jump in operating expenses,”says Ritter, “is probably not being run by capable people whocan control costs.”— Bart JacksonTop Of PageNew Career Networking Group Forms in EwingToward the end of the summer, Pat Fletcher’soutplacementcounselor at Lee Hecht Harrison told her that support groups for jobhunters in the Princeton area are getting crowded. The former Cyanamidscientist was encouraged to form her own group, and she did.The Career Networking Group, meeting on the fourth Tuesday of themonth, has its next session on Tuesday, October 28, at the FirstPresbyterianChurch of Ewing at 100 Scotch Road. There is no charge. Call609-433-6191for more information.Fletcher builds upon her own experience, along with outplacementadviceshe received, in getting the group up and running. While it soundslike the most tired of cliches, she says that the downsized peopleshe knows, and those she is meeting at her new group, tend to havebeen comfortably employed at the same place for a long time —10, or 15, or 20, or more years.Despite all the press that rampant downsizing has received, theseterminated people never expected to be on the receiving end of a pinkslip. Few are prepared. Given the pressures of everyday life —meeting deadlines, flying away on business, getting the kids tosoccer,and into college — this is hardly surprising. Managing theday-to-dayroutine is enough. Prudent preparation for job separation takes aback seat. Until it happens.Like other downsized professionals, Fletcher is seeing the world ofwork with new eyes. Doubly so because her husband, Shahn, who alsoworked at Cyanamid, was RIFed too. Their career directions wereabruptlyaltered by their employer. Their reaction, after considerable thought,was to restructure their work lives to build in stability and cutdown on anxiety.Fletcher, a West Trenton resident, studied biology at Trenton State(Class of 1987). She joined Cyanamid not long after, working firstas a bench scientist and then running contract field studies. Herexpertise was in animal health and in crop health. Agriscience,though, has largely left New Jersey, so she turned in anotherdirectionafter her layoff in 2001.”I took a year to finish my business degree,” she says. Shehad been working on an MBA part time, but decided to attend Riderfull time in order to obtain the degree quickly. At one time, shehad considered going for a Ph.D., but she decided that the lifestylewas too insecure. “This is just a real time of change in theindustry,”she says. “That’s the reason I decided not to go for the Ph.D.You can still have a great career, but not stability.”Even Ph.Ds. are adding on an MBA, she has seen. The degree opens upa host of management opportunities, but even the added flexibilityis no guarantee of employment, not now.With jobs in agriscience neigh-on-to nonexistent in the Garden State,Fletcher, the mother of Emma, a seven-year-old, signed on for a longcommute — to Nutley — to take on a contract job in humanpharmaceuticalR&D with Roche. “It was a little tough on the family,” shesays, “but it was a nice transition. I wanted human health.”The contract ended just as summer was beginning. She took the summeroff, and is again looking for work in the pharmaceutical industry.Meanwhile, her husband is launched on a far more extreme careermake-over.A chemist specializing in crop health studies, he had worked his wayup to more and more responsible positions during his 12 years withCyanamid. Downsized one year after his wife lost her job, he facedan even greater quandary. He had not completed his college degree,and while that was not a bar to advancement with Cyanamid, he knewthat it would make it extremely difficult for him to get a similarjob elsewhere in a tightening labor market.He did some “serious soul searching,” according to his wife,weighing not only what kind of career he wanted to have, but alsoabout what kind of life both of them wanted for their family. Hissolution: a career as a plumber.Blue collar jobs are way out of vogue, Fletcher realizes, and sheis positively gleeful about the fact that most Central Jersey folksrelentlessly push their young toward four-year colleges. Fewtradespeoplemeans more work for those who enter the trades, she figures.Shahn Fletcher, now an apprentice in Union 9, explored plumbing asa career possibility by taking evening courses at Mercer CountyCommunityCollege. There he found that the basic task a plumber faces —analyzing a problem — is very similar to the work he enjoyed atCyanamid. He did well in his coursework, and with encouragement fromhis teacher, pursued the union’s application and screening process.He will be an apprentice, earning approximately 50 percent the rateof pay for a master plumber, for five years. After that, saysFletcher,”the sky’s the limit.” Her husband is thinking ahead bothto owning his own business and to the possibility of teaching.Meanwhile,he loves his work, which, she reports with tremendous relief, providesbenefits for their family.But benefits and the prospect of hefty earning powerare not the main reasons that Fletcher is delighted with her husband’schoice. “We’ve balanced our career portfolio,” she says.The couple wants more children, and is expecting to adopt a childfrom Korea within the year. Two parents in pharmaceutical jobs canmake family life difficult, especially now. Fletcher says increasedcompetition in the industry translates into long, unpredictable hoursfor R&D employees.”It’s very hard to plan ahead,” she says. “You end upflying by the seat of your pants to meet strategic deadlines. Ifyou’reat the bench, you can’t project where your project will go. Thingshappen that you can’t predict. It ends up being your life. You haveto give up a lot of social life and family life to do well atwork.”The rigors are bad enough when one parent is involved, but maintainingthe routine of family life can get impossibly difficult when bothparents live by the ups and downs of a promising drug compound.Beyond the long, unpredictable hours, there is now a constant anxietyover job loss. With a career in plumbing, Fletcher figures her husbandwill never have to worry about having work again. After having donethrough a dual lay-off, she says this peace of mind is incalculable.”It’s relieved tremendous stress from our shoulders,” shesays. “When your job is not secure, there is background noiseevery day sucking your energy away. Not to have to worry about itis freeing.”With steady income flowing into her home once again, Fletcher isputtingenergy into finding another pharmaceutical job and getting the newnetworking group going. Even after a decade and a half in the industryand with a new MBA to her credit, Fletcher knows her job search willnot be easy. She and her husband have stayed in close contact withabout 20 to 30 of their former Cyanamid clients. Some accepted jobsin other states with BASF, which acquired parts of the company. Manymade the switch from agricultural science to pharmaceutical science.Others moved into other careers, including teaching. Some olderworkers,seeing little future in the industry, opted for retirement.Drawing on her friends’ experiences, as well as her own, Fletcheroffers these networking suggestions.Start while you are working. Like so many pieces of advicethat are repeated constantly, this one tends to be ignored. “Ifyou’re sheltered in a company, you don’t know what networkingmeans,”she says. This was the case with her, and with her co-workers. Theyhad plenty of notice that Cyanamid would likely be downsizing, but”were in denial.” Little time was spent building outsidecontactsas the end approached, and little time had been spent on networkingduring years — or decades — at the company.”I had never networked,” says Fletcher. “I had my noseto the grindstone. I realized that I had done myself adisservice.”Widen your circle. During outplacement, Fletcher was putinto a networking group made up of people of a variety of ages froma number of occupations. This diversity, she points out, means thatpeople can freely share contacts and leads without worrying aboutprotecting their own job prospects.Find a safe practice space. Networking groups like theone Fletcher is starting provide “a safe place for people to goto practice interview skills.” When she first began outplacement,Fletcher was shy about presenting herself to strangers. It is hardto believe that now. She comes across as confident and unusuallyarticulate,and she credits networking practice in a safe arena for the change.Give and receive encouragement. Job searching, by definition,she points out, is all about rejection. Spend a little time at it,and you begin to believe that no one would want someone like you.Networking with a group reassured her that “my background hasvalue.”Networking among friends, while productive, felt to Fletcher likeimposing. Sharing leads with a group of job seekers, on the otherhand, was nothing but positive.Work a plan. During outplacement, Fletcher found thatit was all too easy to become discouraged about the difficulty offinding a job. She was encouraged to think of the hunt as a project.”It made immediate sense to me,” she says. She realized thata job search is very much like the work she — and mostprofessionals— do. It is a project, and it has to be managed logically.”The best thing you can do,” she says, “is to giveyourselfa task.”After suffering a fate that most Central Jersey families areafraid to even worry about, Fletcher is emerging from the terminationof both bread earners’ incomes with a whole new perspective on theworld of work. Priorities reassessed, and portfolio rebalanced, sheis ready to move ahead.Top Of PageCurbing Workplace HarassmentBusiness owners and the supervisors they hire need tobe careful not to let harassment into the workplace. How careful?”Extremely careful,” says Patrick Collins, head of thelabor and employment group at the Somerville law firm, NorrisMcLaughlin& Marcus. Vigilance is essential, but it is not enough. A new courtruling mandates proactive anti-harassment measures as well. This isan issue for companies of all sizes. Collins points out that evensmall companies, even companies with only one employee, can be suedover harassment claims. Penalties, he says, “can bedevastating.”Collins gives a free talk on “Anti-Harassment Training in theWorkplace: What Every Employer Needs to Know” on Wednesday,October29, at 8 a.m. at the Raritan Valley Country Club. Call Cathy Wolfeat 609-722-0700, ext. 251, for more information.Collins has been advising and representing employers and managersfor most of his adult life. This makes for interesting conversationduring family get togethers. “My mother was president of her unionlocal,” he says, “and my father worked 30 years — almost40 years — at Johns Manville.”Feeling no twinges of conscience for representing management —even in union matters — Collins points out that new protections,including whistleblower statues and anti-discrimination laws, didn’texist when his parents were working.A graduate of Glassboro State (Class of 1979) who holds a J.D. fromSeton Hall, he clerked for an appellate judge for a year, and thensigned on with Norris McLaughlin, where he gravitated to labor law.His only other job, aside from summers at Johns Manville, was”flippingburgers during college.”In New Jersey, anti-harassment laws cover every protected class. Gays,older workers, women, people with disabilities, members of minoritygroups — nearly everyone in the workplace is protected one wayor another. What’s more, Collins says, an important considerationfor employers is that they can be liable for creating a hostileworkplaceeven if offensive language or conduct is not aimed at anyone inparticular.If an employee finds continual disparaging jokes about gays ormentallyhandicapped people or Armenians offensive, he can sue despite thefact that he may not be gay, mentally handicapped, or Armenian.Collinsgives the example of a man who emerges from his cubicle every dayto read from his Dirty Joke of the Day calendar. A woman sitting inthe corner, just barely within the calendar guy’s line of sight, couldsue for sexual harassment. Likewise, an employee with a gay brotheror a Japanese wife might take offense at negative comments about gaysor Asians, and despite the fact that no one was directing commentsat him, or even knew about his brother’s sexual orientation or hiswife’s ethnicity, could sue.In many cases of harassment, a supervisor targets an underling, ora group of underlings. These cases have always substantially exposedthe employer because the supervisor’s job is to act for the employer.Cases involving one employee harassing another, however, were oftenexplained away by an employer’s statement that he knew nothing aboutthe conduct. Then last year the New Jersey Supreme Court, in GainesV. Bellino, ruled that an employer could not use this defense unlesshe could show that he had provided anti-harassment training for hissupervisors.If an employer needed an incentive to put an anti-harassment programinto play, this ruling certainly provides it. Here is Collins’ adviceon creating a harassment-free workplace:Don’t get zapped by E-mail. “People feel no compunctionabout sending off an offensive joke or a profanity-laced responseto an E-mail,” Collins observes. The girlie calendars have beentaken down from most office walls. The ethnic jokester’s water coolerperformances have been canceled. The gay basher has been silenced.But while overtly offensive language and behavior is less in evidencein most workplaces, off-color E-mails are flying through officeservers.Employers must set up policies for office E-mail use that make itclear that offensive language has no place in this officecorrespondence.Otherwise, the meek guy who takes pain to offer no offense to anyonehe encounters in office halls may well think nothing of letting looseon the keyboard. “People are unbelievably careless,” saysCollins. “They think that when you hit `delete’ the record isgone.”The record most certainly is not gone. It sits waiting to bite itssender.When a supervisor is accused of harassment, his accuser’s attorneywill ask to see all of the E-mail he has sent. The missives may havebeen intended only for the eyes of his college roommate on the WestCoast, says Collins, but suddenly, they can be evidence against him.”He may be saying `I’m a perfect gentleman,’” says Collins.He may be saying his accuser is crazy, that she is a gold digger.But E-mails full of four-letter words and sexual jokes will strengthenthe case against him — and against his employer.Chances are that the employer had never chanced upon an offensiveE-mail sent by the accused, but it doesn’t necessarily matter. Itmay be enough that the behavior went on during work hours on workequipment. An employer who can show, however, that he has promulgatedrules on E-mail use, and that he enforces them, puts himself in amore favorable light.Rein in the yelling. Some supervisors yell. A lot. Theirsuperiors may get used to walking in on the noise, and it may seemharmless enough. But Collins has seen cases where employees discerneda pattern in the in-your-face management style. In their view, thesupervisor’s shouting was directly largely at women or at Asians orat Jews. The yeller was setting himself up for a harassment suit.Set up a complaint procedure. In a recent case, Collinsrelates, a black female Nordstrom’s employee accused two white malesof harassing her. “It went on for a long time, and she didn’ttell anybody,” he says. Finally, the woman snapped, and reportedthe pair to HR. They were promptly fired.The woman sued. Nordstrom’s defense was that it had an anti-harassmentpolicy, it had told employees to report harassment, it had told themto whom they should report it, and it had done a prompt and thoroughinvestigation.”The court,” says Collins, “said `you’re right.’”Watch those cliques. Many a harassment complaint ariseswhen a new employee joins a long-established group. His co-workers,perhaps of different ethnicity or sharing a different religion, mayfreeze him out. If this newcomer receives a negative review, he maybe inclined to sue, stating that his poor job performance was theresult of a hostile work environment.Prepare the men on the loading dock for visitors. Anothersituation that gives rise to claims of harassment involves thesecretarysent out to the loading dock to deliver a message. If the loadingdock crew is has cultivated a “just us guys” culture, completewith sexual innuendo, they may behave in ways the lone visiting femalemay find offensive.Realize that intentions don’t count. Accused of harassment,a number of defendants have protested that they were “just jokingaround.” It absolutely doesn’t matter. Says Collins, “Thegee-I-was-only-kidding defense doesn’t work. The intent of theharasseris completely ignored in the analysis.”Scare supervisors straight. Collins frequently leadsanti-harassmenttraining sessions. Supervisors taking the classes sit up straighterwhen he lets them know that they can be individually liable forharassment.The knowledge that their savings and homes are on the line is apowerfulincentive for them to keep their departments harassment-free.Assess the costs. The penalties a court can assess forharassment, says Collins, are “the biggest nightmare a companycan face.” The courts have “incredible equitable power,”he says. They can award lost pay and can force a company to rehirean employee. It doesn’t matter if another person has been hired inthe meantime. That person may have to be bumped.In addition, the courts can assess both compensatory damages andpunitivedamages. If the plaintiff wins, his company ends up paying his legalfees, as well as its own legal tab. “We’re seeing seven-figureawards,” says Collins.As crippling as the monetary awards may be, the damage doesn’t stopthere. “These cases are enormously time consuming,” he says.They’re also “extremely emotional,” and do nothing to improvecompany morale.Provide an ongoing example. Employers who want to doeverythingthey can to keep harassment claims at bay will draft anti-harassmentpolicies and procedures, and will provide anti-harassment training.But that is just the easy part, says Collins. “The employer andthe managers set the example,” he says. “They have to walkto walk.”Top Of PageProperty Managers Discuss Home RuleThe New Jersey Chapter of the National Association ofIndustrial and Office Properties (NJ-NAIOP) hosts a seminar on theSmart Growth debate, “Regional v. Home Rule: What is OurFuture?,”on Wednesday, October 29, at 8 a.m. at the Woodbridge Hilton inIselin.Cost: $65. Call 201-998-1421.Bradley Campbell, commissioner of the New Jersey Departmentof Environmental Protection, moderates. Speakers include JohnKitchen,chair of the Somerset Regional Center Partnership, and president ofTitle Central; Barbara Lawrence, executive director of New JerseyFuture; Mimi Letz, mayor of Parsippany-Troy Hills Township;Robin Murray, deputy director of the Office of Smart Growth,Dennis Toft, partner and head of the Environmental Departmentof Wolff & Samson; and Eric Witmondt, CEO of Woodmont Properties.The seminar focuses on the concept of “smart” growthmanagement, where the decision-making authority should lie, and itslong-term implications. The speakers offer their opinions on the manypending legislative and regulatory initiatives along with their impacton the public at large and the real estate community.Top Of PageOrigins of MemoryEric Kandel, Nobel Laureate in medicine, givesa free talk on “Molecular Mechanisms for the Establishment andPerpetuation of Memory Storage” on Wednesday, October 29, at 4:30p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the campus of the Institute for AdvancedStudy. Call 609-734-8037 for more information.Kandel is a professor at Columbia University’s Center for Neurobiologyand Behavior and senior investigator at the Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute. His 2000 Nobel Prize, shared with A. Carlsson and P.Greengard,was for “discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervoussystem.”Kandel plans to discuss a general molecular mechanism, which emergedfrom studies of sea slugs and mice, “whereby a transientshort-termmemory is converted into a stable, self-maintained, long-termmemory.”Top Of PageCorporate AngelsShapes USA at Southfield Shopping Center in WestWindsor, sponsored a 10-woman team for the Komen Race for the Cureon Sunday, October 19. Members of the fitness and nutrition club haveraised more than $1,000 in donations toward breast cancer researchfrom merchants in the shopping center as well as from friends andfamily.The New Jersey Chapter of the National Association of Industrialand Office Properties selected the city of Asbury Park for itsfourth annual Community Service Day, this Wednesday, October 22.NJ-NAIOPhas formed a partnership with the city, the NJ Department of CommunityAffairs’ Adopt-A-Neighborhood Program, the New Jersey Department ofCorrections, and Interfaith Neighbors to refurbish the West SideRecreationArea.The partnership was scheduled to construct a tot lot, renovate agazebo,and add landscaping and other improvements.Co-chairs for this year’s event are Bob Klausner of the ShultzOrganizationand Russ Tepper of Matrix Development.Top Of PageVolunteer, PleaseOnly 5 percent of eligible Americans give blood. Asa result of the growth and aging of the population and with medicaladvances requiring more blood for advanced cancer treatments,surgeries,and traumas, demand for blood products is growing at a much greaterrate than supply. In response, the Red Cross has launched oneof the largest initiatives in its history, a national campaign toencourage regular blood donation.On Monday, October 27, the Save A Life Tour 2003 comes to Red Crossheadquarters at 707 Alexander Road. This visit coincides with thegrand opening of the region’s first and only automated Blood DonorCenter, at this location. It is open to visitors from 3 p.m. through7 p.m. on the day of the tour.The Blood Donation Center optimizes blood donations through automationand a more consistent donation schedule. A donor can either donatewhole blood or blood components through automation. After a wholeblood donation a unit is separated into its three main components:red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. Barring automation, it takessix different whole blood donors to produce one unit of transfusableplatelets.Through automated donation, a donor is able to donate the componentsneeded by patients. For example, full units of all three componentsor larger units of certain components can be collected.The Blood Donor Center will have regular hours during the week andon weekends. Call 1-800-Give-Life to schedule an appointment. Inadditionto an ongoing need for donors, the Blood Donor Center is seekingvolunteers.Call 609-951-8550.Corrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
