I am very excited to be writing this as I kick off a brand-new company, Blue Sky Modeling, or BSM. We established BSM to provide a new kind of air modeling shop—one that is focused on modeling, one that is light on its feet and able to respond to its clients’ needs as quickly as anybody in the business, and one that is streamlined enough to be substantially more cost-competitive than other firms that offer modeling.
My name is Bill Jones and I’m the President of BSM. I’ve been in the air dispersion modeling world for 30 years. I got my degree in Meteorology from Florida State and then went straight to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management where I first learned about modeling. After about two years there it was on to Maryland which I now consider home. Since arriving in Maryland I’ve been an environmental consultant whose main technical focus has been air modeling.
With this blog we plan to keep you up to date on the world of BSM as well as all things modeling. We’ll keep you informed as to the latest from the world of air modeling, we’ll pass on some modeling tips now and then, and we’ll tell some interesting stories from various modeling projects.
With this first post I wanted to take a moment to explain what makes BSM different and why we’re so excited about the future. Essentially it comes down to two aspects of our company—the technical side and the business side.
From the technical side we’re an air modeling shop—we’re not a group of air modelers within a larger environmental consulting firm. As a result, everything at BSM is tailored toward modeling. When you deal with BSM you’ll be talking to a modeler who has the experience and the expertise to understand your situation and how best to apply models to help you meet your goals. Maybe you need to run a model to support a permit application—there are strategies to do that. Maybe you need to respond to air quality complaints from neighbors—there are different strategies to do that. It’s important to remember that modeling is a tool used to achieve a goal. Just simply filling in the blanks on a modeling GUI and pressing the proverbial “go” button will give you an answer, but will it be the right answer? Will it be the best answer? Those are questions that you have to understand when doing modeling.
Another way we’ve set up BSM to be different is on the business side—which immediately puts us in a position to serve our clients very well. As we’ve all seen over the last year or so the traditional ways of running a business are no longer the only ways. At BSM we take advantage of the latest in technology to streamline our operations which allows us to serve our clients better than ever has been done before. For instance, with videoconferencing we can interactively go over modeling results and work with the client real-time to refine the modeling analyses as necessary. When you add it all up our new business model makes us extremely cost-competitive which is a benefit to our clients.
Finally I want to take a moment to speak directly to modelers out there. If you’ve been thinking about making a career move I invite you to consider joining us at BSM. Our combination of flexible work environments and our streamlined approach to business means you’ll have the freedom to work how you want, you won’t have much if any “red tape” to deal with, and you’ll be able to able to compete better for work because your billing rate likely will be lower than what it is now. And that leads to my last point—at BSM we have a unique compensation package that is among the most rewarding in the business.
So as you can see at BSM we have a new model (pun intended) for an air modeling company. We’re excited at what the future holds and are looking forward to working with you.