Case Studies

Sedgwick County Election

Get a Move On’s motto is “what can we move for you?” It was with this in mind that the company answered a call from the Sedgwick County Election Commission, based in Wichita, Kansas, just three weeks before the national election in November 2000.

Having lost their previous vendor for delivering voting machines to the appropriate precinct stops, the county was required to frantically resend requests for bids. Get a Move On responded to the request with a price in mind and a plan of action in process.

Following a meeting with the election commissioner and several members of her staff, the company took a team approach to the project, assigning different aspects of the task to company managers. Susan started the ball rolling, by developing a system to quickly map routes and reach contact. Paul, Marcia, Mike and Ernie worked making calls to each contact to confirm delivery times and fine-tuning the routes to make them as efficient as possible. Close contact was kept with the election warehouse manager, so the appropriate machines were ready to be delivered as the routes were put together.

Movers, managers and election officials worked together, sharing information and delivering the voting machines as quickly as possible, while at the same time following a system of that accurately tracked each machine’s path from warehouse to polling place and back again following the election. A total of 740 voting machines were delivered to 243 precinct stops in seven days, then returned to the warehouse during the six days after the election.

In a summary meeting following the election, it was related that no polling place or election worker had reported any problems to the election office. “It was amazing to me that your company did such a terrific job the first time, especially with such a big election,” said Marilyn Chapman, Sedgwick County Election Commissioner.

Garden Plain School District

One of the major phases of building new schools and remodeling old ones is figuring out what to do with the extensive inventories of desks, chairs, computers, bookcases and everything else it takes to teach these days.

In April of 2000, Get a Move On was contacted by the Garden Plain School District, a few miles west of Wichita, Kansas, and asked to provide an onsite estimate for moving items out of the existing elementary and high schools, and then back again once a substantial remodeling project was completed. It was anticipated the remodeling would take three months, requiring the moves to take place quickly and immediately following the end of the current school term and preceding the beginning of the next.

Paul met with school district officials for several hours, working out the logistics of making such a large move meet the needs of the district and the contractors hired to do the remodeling. Ten movers and four trucks were scheduled to complete the move out in three days and the move back in two.

Paul led the moves himself, making sure he was on hand and available to both movers and district officials who might have any questions regarding the moves. Constant contact was also kept with the office, so the regular schedule of moves was not interrupted or delayed.

Because of this careful planning, Get a Move On completed the move out in two days and the move back in one, saving the Garden Plain School District a significant amount in anticipated costs. District Business Manager Bill Hicks commented, “we were very pleased with the job you did for us.”