Page 48 - 2022 Annual Report 2022 01.18 0528

AUSTIN LIFE

Among other benefits, our new Austin office provides a much more comfortable location for our
Monthly Staff Meetings, which had been held virtually since the advent of Covid, but are now in-
person again. These gatherings include a catered lunch, a project presentation, office news, birthday
and anniversary congratulations, and conversation. We have also been experimenting with trivia
games, though finding the sweet spot of knowledge for staff of multiple generations, ethnicities, and
interests has been challenging for emcee, Joe Chronister. Answers have varied wildly, from English
Romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to rapper, Lil Peep. Discovering that Rich DePalma and Kim
Kardashian share the same birthday, however, has made it all worthwhile.

Birthday celebrations always involve a delicious dessert and, occasionally, golf lessons from Ronda.

Jaime Palomo joined FGMA in May (see
more below) and, almost immediately, saw
the need for a second-Thursday-of-each-
month-after-work-happy-hour-outing to
one of Austin’s many brew pubs. One of his
first efforts included a chance to meet up
with another architectural firm at Easy Tiger,
one of their recent projects, for some
professional camaraderie.

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