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Davis honored for work on Spanish version
of CDL manual

Becky Davis doesn’t speak, write, or understand Spanish, but she recently won a national customer service award for her work on revising ITD’s Spanish language Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) manual.

Davis, an IT production specialist in Administrative Services, received the 2004 Customer Services Delivery Support Staff Star Search Award from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

Ed Pemble nominated Davis for the award because she volunteered to retype and revise eight chapters – a total of 134 pages – of the outdated Spanish publication in a language that is foreign to her.

The CDL manual is produced to help drivers prepare for the Idaho commercial vehicle driving exam. Both the English and Spanish versions are posted on ITD’s website at www.dmv.idaho.gov.

According to Pemble’s nomination, the ITD General Services unit was contacted first to take on the task, but staff there estimated that it would take eight or nine hours to retype each page – a total of more than 1,200 hours.

“A desire to serve the Spanish-speaking community and fulfill limited English proficiency requirements gave this project high importance as a customer service enhancement,” said Pemble.

When Becky learned of the dilemma, she quickly volunteered to help out. “This was in addition to her normal duties,” Pemble said.

“It took me about three months to complete the job. I worked on it whenever I had some free time,” said Davis. “I set a goal of finishing it by the end of summer, and I was able to complete it ahead of that goal.

“I took a little Spanish in high school, and it did help me see some things that didn’t look quite right in the copy. I marked them for the translator to look at,” she said.

“Becky’s contribution to completing Spanish data entry was a key component in completing this project,” Pemble wrote in his nomination. “The Spanish CDL manual will be a valuable resource and study tool for thousands of Spanish-speaking Idaho individuals who will now be able to prepare for the CDL test in their primary language.”

Pemble said that Becky’s work saved time and also reduced the overall cost of producing the Spanish CDL manual by eliminating the need to go outside the department for services.

A 30-year ITD employee, Davis is an apparent animal-lover, sharing her office with a shelf-full of stuffed Scooby Doo dogs, and photos of her own canines, one of which is Petey the pug.

“Petey’s full name is BJ’s Pistol Packing Pete,” Davis said, showing a photo of the year-and-a-half old, big-eyed, short-nosed Chinese Pug. She said the AKC registered pup “has an attitude,” griping and whining at Davis when she’s been away from the house for a while and insisting on sleeping next to her on a pillow each night.

“He’s a handful, but he’s my main squeeze,” she said.

Davis, who will be eligible for retirement in about five years, said the AAMVA award was a total surprise. “I didn’t even know that Ed had put my name in. He never said a word about it.”

“Becky regularly provides support for internal projects and customer service initiatives,” Pemble explains, “but her contribution in the development of the Spanish CDL manual was particularly outstanding.”

He said that her work went well “above and beyond.”