This transcript may not be quoted, reproduced or redistributed in whole
or in part by any means except with the written permission of the
American Geosciences Institute (AGI).
This transcript is based on a Microsoft Teams interview deposited at
AGI. This interview has been auto-transcribed and edited by the
interviewer for clarity, and then further edited by the interviewee.
Note that the process of auto-transcribing may have introduced
occasional spelling and grammatical errors.
Please bear in mind that: 1) This material is a transcript of the spoken
word rather than a literary product; 2) An interview must be read with
the awareness that different people's memories about an event will
often differ, and that memories can change with time for many reasons
including subsequent experiences, interactions with others, and one's
feelings about an event.
In footnotes or endnotes please cite AGI interviews like this:
Interview of Raymond Brady by Luc Charbonneau on September 22, 2022,
American Geosciences Institute, Alexandria, Virginia USA, https://covid19.americangeosciences.org/data/oral-histories/raymond-brady/
Brady:
I am the director of RMBJ Geo Inc, and I have been here since 2005.
Charbonneau:
How many employees do you currently have at your organization?
Brady:
There are three of us working together.
Charbonneau:
From the details you provided you said that you work at three sites, and
you commute to your customer sites for work, correct?
Brady:
Exactly right. We are widely separated. I’m in the west, one is 150
miles northeast in Pampa, Texas and one is 150 miles southeast in
Abilene
Charbonneau:
How far do you commute to your customers or where are you commuting to
meet them?
Brady:
It can be as much as four hours to one of them. The only significant
impact was when they first started quarantine. Everybody shut down.
Somewhere not one of our customers was in a building. It had forced us
to get out and look for a little more work to stay busy.
As far as how we worked day-to-day, where we worked and how we met with
our customers other than some not having face-to-face meetings, we went
to Zoom. Everything else stayed the same. We were doing remote working
before, way before COVID.
When I started this thing, it was just me. No problem interfacing with
myself. But once we got a couple of people then went on down the road.
As far as working remotely, and affects along that, there were more
impacts to our customers than to us.
We kept it running last year. We had one customer that officed in at a
USDA building. In the building they had all their special rules. They
stayed home a lot and worked remotely a lot. But that was the only one
that was different.
Charbonneau:
Are you still opting to do some meetings over video? Have you noticed
that you have kept any of the modifications you made during the
pandemic?
Brady:
Yes. I would say the multiorganization meetings, groups of some of our
customers use video more. I went to one on Tuesday for instance, there
were four of my customers attending. There is part of another meeting
that ends up being remote. You can attend remote, those that offer it.
The part of that getting out and looking a little more for customers has
made us Improve our game, study, and learn new methods and take on
projects that normally we would not have taken on previously. That has
expanded our capability and certainly improved our productivity.
We took on some work for municipalities and towns as far as water supply
systems and design and work on those sorts of things. We had not done
that before. We partner on some projects as well. We did not get any
yet. We went through the process of giving a formal bid rather than the
handshake, which is how most of our work is done now.
Charbonneau:
Did the pandemic change any of the staffing levels at your organization?
Brady:
No. I have already retired three times, but it is hard to stay there.
Charbonneau:
What is the outlook for your organization going forward?
Brady:
I would suspect that sometime in the next couple of years we will add
another person. It will be a very selective thing. All of us have worked
together, either as employees for other people or altogether for this
company that we set up long ago. Everybody knows everybody, we know when
their birthdays are, their kids, all those things.
Charbonneau:
Can you travel and do all your field work business as usual?
Brady:
It is the same as it was before. I think we do get to do a little more
remote things for some of the larger meetings and things that we attend
at the request of our customers. We have done a little bit of that. But
as far as traveling and everything, we are back to where we were, maybe
a little less, not a whole lot.
Charbonneau:
What form of communication are you using between your colleagues and
customers?
Brady:
We see each other face to face. Sometimes at our quote-unquote offices.
Phone, e-mail, text.
Charbonneau:
What was your biggest take away for how you navigated some of the
obstacles you met because of COVID?
Brady:
For me, the biggest thing is to let your people have full authority to
do things. Just work, just go for results. They will solve it. They will
solve the problem, whatever it is.
If they do not, if they have questions, they will ask, and then going
down the road. So let your people do work to their full potential. Do
not try to micromanage anything. Just let them be.
Charbonneau:
What are like the crucial skills you must have to do the work you do?
Brady:
A general understanding of how groundwater works. We have places where
the agriculture producers are producing 1000 gallons a minute. We have
agriculture producers that are looking to get 10 gallon a minute wells
and then chain wells together to get enough water to irrigate their
crops with. But you got to understand what the differences are between
locations.
Charbonneau:
I have not been to Texas. What is the significant difference between the
water on the east and the west you look for?
Brady:
We do not work the whole state. We work primarily at the Panhandle part
that sticks up near Oklahoma, and Colorado, and New Mexico in that area
in there. In the eastern part, water quality is not as good. We have a
lot of deep water. You have gypsum formations with water produced from
those. It is certainly not as plentiful. In the western part of the
Panhandle, we have the Ogallala, which is famous or infamous depending
on how you look at it. But it is better quality and quantity.
In Texas groundwater laws, the landowner owns the water, not the state.
Which is significant and leads to a lot of names calling and rock
throwing. You’ve just got to be thick skinned and take it calmly.
You must understand a little history. Understand how we got here at this
point and work from there.
One of us, not me, has been a groundwater district manager in the past.
We end up doing a lot of advising about what you need to do in this or
that situation. One time, we helped an elected board select a manager.
Our agreement was we would help select and get them some candidates.
They could interview candidates and make their pick. But then we had to
train him. Not your typical geologist job, but you know it is what it
is. It is what the customer wanted, so off we went.
Charbonneau:
As water becomes scarcer, do you see this skill set of having people
know how to handle certain situations becoming more of a critical skill
as time goes on?
Brady:
Yes. There is plenty of politics in water in Texas and I am sure it is
the same way everywhere. We are just more vocal about it.
Charbonneau:
It sounds like just because of your work and the size of your company,
the only substantial changes were to temporarily reduce operations,
which you ramped back up by changing the scope of your work. The other
big takeaway I have is that you started using video for some meetings
and doing less travel. But now those have returned to normal, and you
have more work now that you have expanded your operations a little bit
in terms of what projects you take on.
Brady:
That is a good summary. As far as for me personally, I would like to
slow down a little bit and have others pick up the slack. What little
slack that I might leave.
Charbonneau:
Do you think the pandemic was the trigger that really opened that door
for you to explore those other avenues and try those new projects or do
you think that is something you would have figured out on your own
eventually anyways?
Charbonneau:
Or would you have stayed in that rut where you are comfortable?
Brady:
The other customer base was the groundwater districts themselves. There
were many new people, new districts, that formed, and people were
starting up and did not know what they needed to do. We specialized in
helping them get started and everything. That was a lot of fun. As you
help people along, you see them grow. You see their organizations become
more functional and effective and see the individuals grow as well. So,
that was fun. It was like being a teacher.
I am not sure we would have jumped that rut if those opportunities kept
being available. But then again, we might have been forced to because
most of the state now has some sort of groundwater organization over it
at the local level. We would have drifted into that one way or the
other, but this may have helped a little bit to move us past our comfort
zone.
Charbonneau:
What is a piece of advice or a positive aspect you can take away from
the pandemic?
Brady:
Do not be afraid to move out and try something else. Do not get
comfortable. Do not get bogged down in administrate stuff because that
is easy to do. This tax report, that tax report, etc.
The other thing is, let us say you come out with a bachelors or master’s
degree in hydrology, or some water related field, do not be afraid to go
out on your own. You will have student loans; you need to pay off or
work for a few years at some larger company and get you a little
training. Get your debt paid off, but do not be afraid to get out and go
on your own because you will find that it is much more rewarding than
the old 8:00-5:00. Many of those guys do not work 8:00-5:00, they end up
working longer hours.
But do not be afraid to take off on your own and be independent. Get out
there and do it. That is what made America great. We’re people getting
out there and doing it.
Charbonneau:
That is why you made your company in 2005, that was your motivation?
Brady:
Exactly.
Charbonneau:
Is there anything else you want to add to your oral history?
Brady:
All I can say is from managing the company, the thing that helped me the
most was the military experience. Getting tasks carried out. What we
learned in the military was especially useful. I was shocked when I went
to the civilian world from the military. Most of the companies they were
all in their ruts.
I was amazed that opportunities for women were not out there in the
civilian work force. Let your people work. Let them learn. Let them do.
Challenge them. None of that was there. I was shocked at how restrictive
the civilian work environment was. After 20 something years of the
military where maybe I was just spoiled by opportunity. I do not know. I
was lucky and had a pleasant military experience that helped me in a new
career.
