Searching for Scanned Entity Documents

We have added a new tab titled “Entity Images Inquiry” to the existing “PM Lease Images Inquiry” tool in Oracle. All entity documents are currently being scanned into Oracle.

Initially, you will be able to query the following entity document types (additional document types will be added over time):

· Management Agreements

· Development Agreements w/ Government Entities

· Master Leases (where Macerich or Center/operator entity is the Tenant)

· REAs, Declarations, Non-Lease Agreements

· Entity Title Reports, Title Policies & Surveys

How to access and use it

1. From the Macerich Collaboration Portal click the Oracle Applications link.

2. Select the Macerich Field Reporting responsibility followed by the PM Lease Images Inquiry menu option in the right column.

3. When the PM Lease Images Inquiry page opens click the Entity Images Inquiry tab to see the search parameters available.

**For more details on how to use these search parameters please contact your department power user.

Features

1. You can export your search results to excel.

2. You can email one or more document images to your Macerich email address. The attached documents will be in PDF format.

3. You can search for multiple document types at once. E.g you can search for Management agreement & REA’s in the same search.

4. You can search for documents across many entities at one time.

5. You can search at different levels within the entity hierarchy. E.g you can search for documents within parent entities such as SDG & PPRT.

Limitation

1. On the screen, users are limited to viewing 201 records, however all records found in the search (i.e. up to and beyond 201) can be exported to excel.

Note: When e-mailing a document image to your email address, you may need to allow 10-30 minutes for the document to reach you. (While the image is collated, converted to PDF and transmitted). The wait time will vary based on network traffic.

The following documents have been scanned in (more are being added every day):

• Master Leases (where Macerich or Center/operator entity is the Tenant) for the following properties:
  • Freehold Raceway
  • Great Northern
  • Tysons Corner Center
• REAs, Declarations, Non-Lease Agreements for the following properties:
  • Valley River Center
  • Danbury Fair
  • Freehold Raceway
  • Great Northern
  • Rotterdam Square
  • Shoppingtown Mall
  • Tysons Corner Center
  • Tysons Corner Property II

Getting to Nowhere - Why Are Your Meetings Lousy?

Good meetings are good only when they produce actionable results. That only happens when the leader of the meeting or conference call sets an idiot-proof agenda, maintains order and remembers the human factor.

Today is Wednesday and I have been in 9 internal meetings this week that I wasn't leading. Only 2 of them were well planned so I had 7 bad, bad meetings. Here are a few traits I noticed from these meetings and in some cases, I've added how I combat the issue:

• The first 8 minutes were spent discussing sports, weekend plans, kids, etc. Basically, it was absolutely unproductive and costs time and money. How much? Well on average, the meetings had 6 participants so that a total of 48 minutes that were lost for EACH meeting. Multiply that by 7 meetings and you have over 5 hours of lost time!
  


• Getting past this is very simple. As the leader of the meeting you need to be on time and you have to show some authority. I am not saying you should bring a gavel and bang on the table, but plan to be 2 minutes early and try to kill the small talk as it begins.
• If the meeting was scheduled to begin at 2:00, you should start at 2:00 regardless of who you are waiting on. There is no reason to delay 9 people just because 1 person is late.
  

• Issues that were important to more vocal people got the attention, whereas issues important to the project itself, seemingly got pushed aside.
  


• This is counter-productive and I've seen this before. Include an agenda that people can add things to in the days before the meeting. As the manager, objectively decide what is most important to the project and set the master agenda and distribute it. Less important issues are handled offline.
  

• This one has always killed me. A few of the meeting's I've been invited to had 2 or 3 hours blocked off in my calender. While certain topics certainly require that kind of attention, you need to watch this because you will always notice people not paying attention after the first 30 minutes. There is an old myth that says a human's attention span in minutes is 10 + the person's age. It's actually on Wikipedia and they don't buy it but I do. Take a look at people in your meetings and see if you agree. Blank stares, doodling, people hacking away at their blackberry - you will definitely see it. If people are in a trance, they are clearly not thinking about contributing or solving problems. How much does that help?


• For as simple as this solution is, I don't know why people don't practice it. If you meeting is this long, schedule small breaks or schedule a breakout session where small teams work on a task applicable to the topic. You have to break it up somehow.
• If someone is really typing on the blackberry, think about how important their involvement is in that particular meeting. Clearly this person either knows everything already or doesn't need to provide input. To be fair, certain issues do require an immediate response, but I've seen people typing away in meeting after meeting for 20 minutes.
  

• Things were solved but who is doing what?


• On most projects people are in charge of certain tasks and yes, I believe that those accountable should know their responsibilities. However, I've always liked the idea of either assigning a note-taker and sending a post-meeting summary to the group. I've seen too many instances where items from the meeting were either forgotten or misunderstood so we had to reconvene again AFTER hours were spent moving in the wrong direction. Again it's just a waste of resources.
  

As I am about to submit this post, I notice that Business Week this morning explains how Google tries to run their meetings. Similar to the above, but here are their main points:

• Set a firm agenda
  
• Assign a note-taker
  
• Carve out Micro-Meetings
  
• Hold Office Hours
  
• Discourage Politics
  
• Stick to the clock

As with anything in life, things done without proper planning often flounder. Spending 15 minutes today properly planning for a meeting tomorrow will absolutely increase the number of solutions the team comes up with. If a meeting is not worth planning, then it's probably not worth having to begin with.