OWNER -TO- OWNER www.franklinbuildingsupply.com | 208-514-2200 | 9222 W. Barnes Dr., Boise, ID 83709 MARCH 2021 NOTHING MUCH NEW ABOUT ‘NEW’ VACCINES
A Conversation With Levi
Back in 1963, a researcher at the Merck company swabbed his own daughter’s throat and began growing a weakened form of the virus that caused mumps, measles, and rubella. Less than four years later, doctors had a new weapon in their fight against these viruses: a vaccine developed in record time and still used today. How was that possible? And what lessons does it hold for today’s COVID-19 vaccine? How “new” are these new vaccines, anyway? The answer is not very. The mumps vaccine may have been developed and released in record time, but it was built off work that had been going on for over 20 years. And when we look at the COVID-19 vaccine, we see the same thing happening. Yes, this is the first of its kind to be licensed, but there’s nothing new about the science behind it, which is well established. Most readers will remember the SARS outbreak that made headlines occasionally between 2002 and 2004. That virus was actually closely related to COVID-19, and it was then that scientists started looking at vaccines for these types of illnesses — over 15 years ago! As you can imagine, it’s a problem they’ve been working on ever since. Then, almost five years ago, scientists started wondering if mRNA vaccines — a kind of vaccine that doesn’t put any of the virus inside the patient — might be a good solution for these viruses. Usually, a vaccine is a weakened virus that gets injected into your body, allowing you to develop an immune response and learn how to kill that virus. That’s how it’s been done since Jonas Salk first pioneered the science. But with mRNA vaccines, something is injected that looks like the virus’s weak spots and teaches your body to target those weaknesses with no risk of accidentally infecting you. We’ll return to this in a moment. Just as coronaviruses weren’t a new problem, mRNA vaccines weren’t exactly a new solution — doctors had worked on them off and on since the early 1990s. And as far as using them specifically for these kinds of viruses, those technologies have been in development for the past few years, long before anybody ever got sick in Wuhan. Doctors hadn’t applied for permission to use their new vaccines on humans yet, but before the pandemic, they had already pretty much dialed in what these new vaccines would look like. mRNA treatments had already been used for certain cancer treatments and so the jump to using mRNA technology for vaccines was not a big leap. So, why did it take a global pandemic to actually get a successful mRNA vaccine developed if the approach was well known and understood?
to invest lots of resources — time, money, lab space, scientists, production equipment, distribution networks, etc. — to develop a product that you are not sure will work and, even if it does, will not generate much profit. So, although a new and promising approach to vaccines had been developed, these companies were only allocating a small portion of their resources to very slowly leverage the technology to develop new vaccines. So, what changed? A global pandemic that threatened lives overwhelmed health care systems and wreaked havoc on the economy. In response to the pandemic, governments around the world focused all of their attention and resources on developing a COVID-19 vaccine. Countries like the United States took two critical steps to accelerate development. First, the government purchased billions of dollars worth of vaccines that did not yet exist. This took the normal financial risks related to vaccine development and production off the table. Second, the government worked with greater speed and efficiency to make the vaccine trials and review processes more efficient than under usual circumstances. Suddenly, all these pharmaceutical and biotech companies around the world started solving the same problem, coordinated on their research and information, leveraged the latest technologies, and began producing vaccines well before they knew whether they would work. This combination of factors that unleashed the full speed and potential of vaccine development is unprecedented. So, when we look at the facts, there’s really nothing too new about these new mRNA vaccines. They’d been studying the problem for decades and zeroed in on this particular solution years ago. It was clear early on that it was the right fix for the pandemic, which means they haven’t spent almost a year “developing” a vaccine — they’ve spent almost a year testing it for safety. What is truly new, what we’re in the middle of right now, is companies and governments trying to figure out how to manufacture and distribute vaccines to a global population in months, not years. That problem is very new and is one we have never attempted to solve before. So, this all adds up to my encouraging every employee and adult member of their household to do one of two things: First, get educated on COVID-19 vaccines from reputable and reliable sources. If you go to FranklinBuildingSupply.com and click on the Employee Resources link in the bottom right, you’ll see at the top of that next page the Employee COVID-19 update button; enter the password “fbsemployee” and there are links to reputable and reliable sources on the vaccines. And, of course, talk to your doctor! Second, schedule a vaccine shot as soon as you are eligible. Let’s help end this pandemic and get back to all the people and things we love.
–Levi Smith President
Pharmaceutical and biotech companies do not make much money off of vaccines of any type, for any illness. There’s very little economic incentive
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Sawtooth Door Company in Twin Falls is the premier door shop in the Magic Valley and a proud part of Franklin Building Supply’s mission to make building easy for our customers. In addition to our Magic Valley sales, we make doors for our Bellevue store to the north and our Elko store to the south. The team at Sawtooth works hard to produce top-quality products we can all be proud of. When you are in Twin Falls, stop by for a tour of your employee-owned door shop. Just don’t bring a cat around here. This is dog country. SAWTOOTH HAS GONE TO THE DOGS!
THE ABSOLUTE BEAUTY OF SAYING ‘GOOD JOB!’
Keep those high-fives coming, folks. This has been a record month for people recognizing others for their great effort. It is so easy to join the fun. Just power up your email and send to HighFive@FranklinBuildingSupply.com. Tell us whom you are praising and what they did. It should relate to one of these five broad categories: (1) Making Building Easy, (2) Safe, (3) Guide, (4) Wow, or (5) Strive. Here are some gems we received this month. WOW: “Big thanks to the IT team. They are extremely busy keeping the entire company up and running, not an easy job!! We finished the install on our new saw and found out it needed to be hard-wired into the network versus Wi-Fi. We had the rep and installer from Alpine ready to fire up the saw, and this was a major piece that was missing. We informed IT of the situation and within two hours, Mike A. was here getting it hooked up. From all of us here at Jerome Truss, we wanted to send out a HUGE high-five and thank you!!”
Judy Dudley’s favorite movie is “Beauty and the Beast.” She’s a morning person who picks dogs over cats and enjoys walking as much as she can. At the shop, she handles all receiving paperwork, invoicing, returns, customers who wander in, and does a host of other things to make things run on time. Jackson Theberge enjoys hunting and loves dogs. His favorite movie is “Interstellar.” This night owl is a door specialist extraordinaire. He builds beautiful doors and, like the rest of the crew, can do just about everything in the shop. Joshua Martinez plays a mean guitar. His other passion is building doors and doing whatever he can to produce for our customers. No surprise, he’s a dog person. What is a surprise is that he is a morning person whose favorite movie is “The Big Lebowski.” Dude? Donovan Moye loves to fish anytime, but especially in the morning. At work, he assembles doors and can handle anything necessary to get the job done. This is a dog-loving team and Donovan is a team player to the max. His favorite movie is “Gran Torino”; great choice, Donovan! Nathan Bruns enjoys action in his movies, fishing, hiking, boating, and dogs. Any kind of action will do. That’s why he gets up early and moves around so much at the shop, entering orders for Bellevue, building doors, preparing orders. Our man of action, Nate!
–Chad Witkowski, Jerome Truss
MAKE BUILDING EASY: “Your guys delivered the sheetrock today and were very friendly and cheerful, despite having to carry it all by hand (as it snowed/ sleeted) all the way around the house and up the stairs. They were very pleasant.”
–Customer email, submitted by Jim Hicks, Boise Supply. (Our guys on the delivery were John DeChambeau and Josh Iverson.)
GUIDE: “I thought it was about time to give a shoutout to the yard. Generally speaking, this is a department that we as a sales team don’t have to worry about. They are not perfect, but when push comes to shove, they always have our back. Makes it easy to make promises to customers knowing that we have them standing next to us. We don’t take the time to say things like this enough, so high-five to the Boise Yard and thanks for all you do.”
–Jason Green, CSR
MAKING BUILDING EASY: “I want to give Alfredo Juarez-Cruz a high-five for customer service at the job site. Alfredo is one of our best drivers and goes above and beyond to help the customer. Whether its placing material on the job site to make it easier for framers or picking up small returns that aren’t on the schedule, Alfredo is always looking out for the customer and how to help them.”
–Brian Smith Manager
–John Martilla, Fruitland
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BIG FUN IN STORE FOR 2021 Get ready for some interactive fun and games this year. Brought to you by your EO Committee, in April we will start the Franklin Fishing Derby. Any time you or your family members catch a fish, you can send us a photo with details, and it might end up on the company website. That’s a picture of the fish we’re after, but it’s okay if your mug is in the frame, too. More details coming soon!
In June, we are going to play Guess the Share Price, and we will give away cash prizes in each location. In October, we have a home game for the whole family as a way to celebrate Employee Ownership month. Then the big surprise is coming in November. Don’t peek behind the curtain yet. We are keeping the suspense going for a while longer. THE CONTEST WINNERS! Names are randomly drawn each month (from all correct entries) to win prizes. Congratulations to these winners of last month’s contest:
• Judy Baird, Boise • Eric Heiden, Burley • Neil Lewis, Burley • Julianne Meehan, Design Innovations
• Casey Hazelbush, Pocatello • Coltin Millward, Pocatello • Peter Moore, Pocatello • Cris Birdwell, Boise Fireplaces • Pablo Cruz, Jerome Truss • Brent Zollman, Caldwell
EO Prize Drawing We have an EO contest every month. Prizes are fun and entering the contest is super easy. All you need to do to enter the contest is send an email to Contest@FranklinBuildingSupply.com no later than the end of this month. In the email, write (1) your name, (2) the location where you work, and (3) the words “I love Employee Ownership.” Ten winners will be drawn randomly from all entries. Good luck!
APRIL ANNIVERSARIES
APRIL
LOCATION - EMPLOYEE - YEARS
BIRTHDAYS
Jaguar Boise Elko Jaguar DDF Boise McCall Boise Truss Jaguar Pocatello Elko Fruitland Fruitland Jerome Boise Supply Caldwell Boise Boise Boise Burley Pocatello Boise Jaguar Boise Truss
31 28 22 20 18 18 17 15 15 15
Ken Leavitt Chris Harris Frank Cardenas Kathy Weaver Adam Davies Bob Liehe Ben Thomas Abel Lima Sr. Kris Jenkins Tony Williams Steve Cowling Patrick Bollman Rachel Spurgeon Chad Strout Travis Owens Brent Zollman Stephen Inman
Burley Boise Truss Caldwell Boise Jerome Truss Jerome Truss Boise Pocatello
Chris Poulton Pedro Duran-Torrez Steven Anderson Amber Hall Alan Akberdin CJ Bridwell Angela Vissotski Isaac Hazelbush Jayar Lamadrid Chuck Sisco Mitch Montgomery Tyler Krueger Wendell Thompson Kasey Jensen Spencer Davis Brandon Daigle David Inocencio Julianne Meehan Robert Smith Freddy Real Eric Nickasch Kevin Magana Travis Mauk Alicia Allen BreAnne Penrod
4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1
Kathy Weaver JP Martilla James Dowen Ivan Barriente Ozzy Arenas Elijah Lavender Fred Narbonne Ben Thomas Ian Lowe
Jessica Vineyard Bryan Tidwell Corey Garcia Casey Gurnett Trevor Custer Adam Ingle Dixie Garrett Jeff Ward Jeff Keeney Donnie Karst
1 1 2 3 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 8 9 9 9 9
16 17 18 18 19 20 21 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 24 25 25 25 26 26 27 28 29 30 30
Boise Boise Twin Falls McCall
Bob Owsley Cris Birdwell
9 9 9 9 8 8 8 7 7 6 5 5 4 4
Eric Mann Ron Cripe
Danny Martinez Robert Ruffridge Marie Delsarto Jenny Tibbett David Bautista Teyan Curtis Ronald Peeples Ricardo Rodriguez Serrato Maycee Brown Simitrio Martinez Al Garcia Jose Garcia Sarah Hall John Weitensteiner
Nate Hamson Kristine Scott Austin Burrup Castulo Morales Erica Bullock Brent Hoyt Chris Morrison Crispin Perez Cody Vreeland John Hinshaw Erik Olsen Jason Plank Chris Wirdzek Moises Chavez
Boise Boise Boise Pocatello Jerome Truss Boise
10 10 11 11 12 12 12 12 14 15 16
Greg Silvas Lou Bourget Russ Hinds Preston Wells Marco Ramirez-Juarez Derrikk Broughton Julie Bondi
DDF DDF McCall Caldwell McCall
Theresa Wright Mark Bizallion
Boise Boise
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PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
www.franklinbuildingsupply.com 9222 W. Barnes Dr. Boise, ID 83709
I N S I D E
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Nothing Much New About ‘New’ Vaccines
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Sawtooth Has Gone to the Dogs! The Absolute Beauty of Saying ‘Good Job!’ We Are 100% Employee-Owned April Birthdays and Anniversaries
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Spotlight on Benjamin Bowman
DRIVING AROUND WITH BENJAMIN BOWMAN Our March Spotlight’s Deliveries Are a Little Bigger Than Pizza ...
and a great one: “If you can drop stuff out of the way but still close enough that they don’t have to move it far themselves, they won't forget it,” he says. Benjamin says he likes his other duties as well. “From time crunch to the physical aspects of the work,” he’s loved it since first walking in after seeing a local ad. “I talked to Al and Brian, and it turned out to be the perfect fit for me. What an awesome team,” Benjamin says. That’s especially true in the summer, when things can get hot and hectic out in the yard. “That’s when you’ve got to know where you’re going,” says Benjamin. As much as he likes his work, Benjamin also enjoys his time off. “I love to go fishing and camping with my wife,” he says. “Once we get out there with our dogs [they have two] and a guitar, that’s when we’re really happy.” It’s a sentiment that many of our employee- owners know well! Thank you, Benjamin, for your hard work, and, everyone, please check in next month to see who’s featured in this spot. It could be someone you know — or it could be you!
There are people who work doing deliveries, but few of them drive around with an entire story of a house in the
back of their vehicle. FBS employee-owner Benjamin Bowman does exactly that, working hard out of our location in Twin Falls to meet contractors' needs all while being
an asset to his team members.
“I’ve been doing this for almost two years now,” says Benjamin. Between his work here and his prior construction experience, he’s “gotten to know local contractors really well. I show up and know how each one wants things dropped and where.” Offloading tons of materials in a few short minutes might seem daunting enough, but Benjamin has hit on the difference between a good delivery driver
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