PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 27, No. 2, July 19, 2007

On the Job: Jason Jones

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Jason Jones works as an account technician at the UI. He has a 50 percent appointment in the department of recreation, sport and tourism and in the departmet of speech and hearing science.

People count on Jason Jones: at work, where he keeps track of spending accounts and inventory, and at home, where he and his wife, Holly, are raising twins, Cadence and Dalton. A native of Paxton, Jones has lived in Buckley for the past five years. In 2001, he graduated from Parkland College in Champaign with an associate’s degree in accounting, the same year that he began working as an account technician in the Office of University Payables. After 11 months in that office, Jones transferred to his current job in the department of recreation, sport and tourism.

What are your job responsibilities?
My position is 50 percent time with the department of speech and hearing science and 50 percent time with the department of recreation, sport and tourism. I reconcile all the accounts and the P-cards for both departments. I oversee the reimbursements for RST and will begin doing them for speech and hearing soon. I also do the equipment purchasing and track inventory for RST. And I assist both departments with payroll and human resources issues.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
The people I come in contact with within my department and elsewhere on campus.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?
The people. Just making everyone happy. Everyone thinks that their problem is the most important, and sometimes I have to juggle priorities.

What do you enjoy doing away from work?
Golf. The closest course to my home in Buckley is Onarga, but I sometimes come to Champaign, Danville or to Gibson City Railside Golf Club, which is my favorite course because it was the first course I played on that I actually played well. I started playing golf 11 years ago.

But our 2 1/2 year old twins, Cadence and Dalton, leave very little time for golf right now. They’re constantly busy doing something. I thought it would slow down a little bit once they got a little more independent, but no, it didn’t.

I’m building an oak wet bar for our house right now. It was supposed to be a project that could be done in a couple of weekends, and it’s turned into a yearlong project because we keep thinking of things that we want to add to it:  a sink, a granite tile top, a refrigerator, a liquor cabinet, drawers.

When do you expect to have it done?
Well, Holly has given me a deadline of two weeks. She got tired of my being in her stepdad’s workshop next door to work on it.

This is my first woodworking project, and I expect it’s going to snowball from here. We keep thinking of other things that we could build for our house, such as a shelf for my bar glasses, a new fireplace mantle, furniture for the pool-table area.

What got you interested in woodworking?
We bought a new house, and it has a room with a fireplace and pool table in it, and we decided to add a bar. Holly and I went online and started pricing a bar and the costs were outrageous. We mentioned to Holly’s stepdad, Lee, that we wanted a bar and he said we could build one for a fraction of the cost and customize it.

What other hobbies or interests do you have?
I started playing drums in the fifth grade, and when I got to Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School, I fell in love with playing in the marching band. In fact, that’s where my daughter’s name, Cadence, came from.

After I graduated from high school, the new band director needed someone to help him teach the fundamentals to the drum line. So, I went in and asked if I could be the drum line instructor. My younger sister, Heidi, was going through high school at that time, so I was her instructor. I did that for six years. Heidi assisted me for two years as instructor, then took over from me and is still doing it.  She graduated from the UI in May with a degree in sociology. My parents are really supportive “band parents.” My dad, John Jones, has been an account technician with Facilities and Services Division for more than 20 years, and my mom, Brenda Jones, works for the City of Champaign Parking Division.

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