New Member Highlight

MEMBER HIGHLIGHT

Kerie Arrowood
Member Spotlight: Kerie Arrowood

  • How long have you been living in the Des Moines area?

    I grew up in Wisconsin and Minnesota. After high school I was primarily a Minneapolis girl until I married my husband and moved to Des Moines when we got married in 1997.

  • When did you start working for ARAG and what brought you here?

    I started on February 5, 2007 as the receptionist. I had been working part-time as secretary at my church, but after our youngest daughter graduated from high school, I decided to get a full-time job, hopefully with benefits. I found the opening at ARAG through Career Builders.

    I eventually moved into the role of Executive Assistant for our CEO, but after he retired, our new CEO did not need an assistant. I was very fortunate that they chose to keep me on and created the role of Office Assistant.

    In 2017, we moved into our new space at 500 Grand. During renovation of the space, I assisted our coordinator for the project. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the tasks involved with that process. Since we had moved into a much larger space and office maintenance was handled differently from the process we had in our old office, they needed me to step into the Facilities role.

    I stumbled on IFMA while researching an issue that arose in our new space, and it seemed like it could be a beneficial connection. I received my FMP designation last year. Based on those I met through the FMP courses, my role in Facilities is much less life-encompassing than many in the Facilities world. However, I do have quite a handy list of repair people that I’ve pulled together over the past couple of years. I thoroughly enjoy the discussion threads on the IFMA site, and I look forward to connecting with others that understand the joys and frustrations of all things related to office buildings.

  • What parts of your job do you like the most?

    I love the variety of tasks and researching successful resolutions to issues that arise. I also enjoy shopping for our office needs, as well as assembling various Amazon products such as carts, podium stands, extra storage cabinets…

  • What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

    I spend anywhere from 2-5 weeks a year in the country of Denmark as that is where my wife is from and where all of her family still lives.

  • What was your most interesting job?

    Probably my current job. I just never know what weird thing will need to be dealt with next. Our first year in this space, we had water damage three times due to three different issues, so that was quite the learning curve to determine who I needed to work with for the various problems.

  • What is your favorite time of the day? Or when are you your happiest self?

    I enjoy my job, but I LOVE being home! So, my happiest self would be doing pretty much anything at home.

  • What do you like to do when you’re away from work?

    I love to bake, work on house projects, and watch movies with my husband.

  • How would you describe your ideal vacation?

    When we escape from Des Moines, we like to keep things pretty low key. Our normal life is rather hectic, so on vacation we generally have one or two significant things to DO, and the rest of our days are spent finding fun places to eat – hopefully including great ice cream and coffee. Then we get the lay of the land and decide each day what looks like a fun and unique experience.