The Daily Bruin

A new year, a new month … It is time to think about nominating a colleague for the first Employee of the Month award for 2012. If you know of someone whose recent contributions make him or her worthy of this honor, please take a few minutes to send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg that includes a specific summary of the person’s contributions (past 30 days or so) and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.

The President’s Executive Leadership Team will select the recipient from the nominations submitted and he or she will be recognized and awarded a $100 gift card to The Allison at our community meeting later this month.

All university offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 2, to observe the New Year’s holiday.

Marketing Communications is collecting orders for name tags. For those who have regular face-to-face contact with the public and need to order a name tag, you may now submit and view your name tag requests at this link online.

Be sure to provide the name of the person for whom the name tag is needed; title or department; and the budget to be charged. Examples of title or department include: Dean of Students/Student Life and Admissions Counselor/Admissions. The next order will be placed Friday, Jan. 13.

Now is the time to submit your request for business cards. The marketing communications office will be processing a business card order soon. Place your order directly with B&B Print Source by Friday, Jan. 13. Please create a new “Individual Account” on the form.

Contact Danette Newkirk (Marketing Communications) if you have any questions.

It’s time to order university stationery. For order instructions, go to the marketing communications website. You will continue to purchase all non-departmental stationery (including “second-sheet letterhead”) through the university’s Print Services.

Orders are due by Thursday, Jan. 12.

To simplify the process of preparing for a new semester, IT automatically created a FoxTALE site for all of your spring and summer 2012 courses that are listed in MyGFU.

Spring 2012 FoxTALE course sites have “2112” in the title, and summer 2012 FoxTALE course sites have “2114” in the title. Please note that May term courses are included in summer 2012. Each FoxTALE site automatically enrolls students, but the sites are hidden from students. You have control over when, or even if, you make a site available (visible) to the students.

See the FoxTALE for Faculty web page for more details. Questions? Contact Gloria Doherty (gdoherty@georgefox.edu) or Sheila Abercrombie (sabercro@georgefox.edu).

All university offices will be closed on Friday, Dec. 23, as well as Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 26-27, to observe the  Christmas holiday.

IT is offering two webinars during the first week of January:

• FoxTALE Introduction, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 9-10 a.m.
• FoxTALE Assignments, Thursday, Jan. 5, 4-4:30 p.m.

Join IT throughout the spring for 30-minute webinars on FoxTALE, FoxFiles and Google Docs. View the schedule and sign up at this link. Information on how to join each webinar will be delivered via e-mail 24 hours prior to the webinar. We’ll continue to add webinars and post additional announcements.

Questions? Contact Sheila Abercrombie at sabercro@georgefox.edu.

Faculty members: As you enter final grades for fall 2011, please note the following change. If you enter an “F” grade for a student, this student’s name will be populated in a row at the bottom of your grade roster. You will be asked to select one of three “F Grade Attendance Reasons”: Never Attended, Attended Until Term Completed, and Attended Until (for this option you will need to enter the student’s last date of attendance in your class).

This feature replaces the FSA grade that has been used for students who stopped attending but are still listed on the grade roster. If you have questions, please contact your enrollment counselor.

Temporary employees and supervisors of temps: Time sheets should be submitted on the 16th as always (for hours worked from Nov. 16 – Dec. 15), but this month it is especially critical that these time sheets reach HR before noon on Monday, Dec. 19. This is due to the shortened payroll processing time as a result of the three Christmas holidays (Dec. 23, 26 and 27).

As always, information should be complete, accurate and legible – and the time sheet should be signed by the employee and the supervisor. They can be sent to HR at Box 6108 on Friday or dropped off Monday morning.

Many thanks,
HR

Just a reminder … The Bruin Bookstore’s web address has changed. You can find us online at gfubookstore.com.

It’s good to know you’re covered when the flu bug hits and you can’t work. Regular university employees, half time and above, have sick leave and vacation to provide continued pay during an employee’s own illness or that of a dependent child, spouse, parent or parent-in-law who requires care.

If that flu bug should lead to pneumonia, and you are off work more than five consecutive days or hospitalized, you will need to bring a doctor’s note releasing you to return to work. If you or a family member has a serious illness, you may be eligible for federal or Oregon family leave. In that case, you or your supervisor should contact HR to request this FMLA/OFLA leave.

These leave laws don’t pay you while you are off work – your sick leave and/or vacation will do that – but they do protect your job, usually for up to 12 weeks. Even if you have plenty of paid time off, if your leave meets the requirements for FMLA/OFLA leave, the university is required to offer it to you, so it’s always important to contact HR.

But that’s not all!

If your pneumonia lasts at least six days and longer than your sick leave and vacation, you may be eligible for short-term disability salary continuance. This benefit is available to employees who have worked for George Fox at three-quarters time for at least a year, and it pays 60 percent of your regular wages after sick leave and vacation are used up for up to six months from the onset of your illness. Medical certification is required, along with periodic updates and a release to return to work.

But wait, there’s more!

If you have an illness that lasts longer than six months, you’re still covered. Our long-term disability insurance would continue your pay at 60 percent until you are back at work, until you receive other benefits that exceed the value of your disability, or until you retire.

While these are great benefits to have if you need them, we hope you won’t! Stay well this winter (and read the details in the employee handbook online, pages 39-47).

– HR

To simplify the process of preparing for a new semester, IT will automatically create a FoxTALE site for all of your spring and summer 2012 courses that are listed in MyGFU. You will no longer need to log into MyGFU to activate FoxTALE course sites. Each FoxTALE site will automatically enroll students, but the sites are hidden from students. You have control over when, or even if, you make a site available (visible) to the students.

We estimate that the spring 2012 FoxTALE course sites will be created by Dec. 21. Watch employee e-nnouncements for a confirmation.

See the FoxTALE for Faculty web page for more details.

The Employee Council has been considering two topics specifically related to supervisors: employee recognition and readings/resources for those who oversee employees. Go to the Employee Council website to see comments about the employee recognition survey responses.

Supervisors are also encouraged to take a look at the “Readings and Resources for Managers and Supervisors.” Several short readings and a YouTube video on employee motivation have been posted thus far, and we’ll periodically add additional resources.

You can subscribe to new postings on the readings list or to other sections of the site by following these instructions. E-mail employeecouncil@georgefox.edu to suggest readings, to share stories of appreciation, or to bring a proposal to the Employee Council.

FoxTALE will be unavailable from 6 to 7 a.m. (Pacific Time) on Wednesday, Dec. 28, for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Now that December is underway, it is time to think about whether someone you know is deserving of the December Employee of the Month award. If so, please submit your nomination via e-mail to Peggy Kilburg by Tuesday, Jan. 2. Please share about the qualities this person has demonstrated and provide specific examples of his or her contributions in the last month or so.

The President’s Executive Leadership Team will review the nominations and select a recipient. The winner will be honored with a citation and a $100 Allison gift card at our next community meeting early in 2012.

Don’t forget our next “Let’s Learn Together” session on PowerPoint is happening tomorrow (Tuesday) from noon to 1 p.m. If you haven’t signed up yet, there are still spots available. Please do so with the link below. The event will be available to watch on a stream site (to be provided tomorrow morning).

Click on this link to reserve your spot for the session. We look forward to seeing you there! Please e-mail Rachel Powell (rpowell@georgefox.edu) if you have questions.

We always appreciate receiving time sheets and time-off reports in a timely fashion, but we are especially anxious to receive these as early in December as possible. This will ensure having plenty of time for processing and data entry in spite of extra vacation and holiday time off.

Would you please take a few minutes to submit your November time sheet (support staff) or time-off report (administrators) to your supervisor right away? As always, please be sure it is complete, accurate and signed by both you and your supervisor before sending it to HR at Box 6108. (If your supervisor is not available to sign it, please send a copy to HR and keep the original until it has been signed.) Go to this HR link for these documents.

A tip to help you remember to do this each month: Set a recurring appointment on your calendar for the first business day of each month with a brief notation, “Turn in Timesheet.” That gives you one less thing to have to remember, allowing you to save your brain space for other important stuff.

Thank you,
– HR

Don’t forget the all-employee meeting scheduled for this afternoon (Thursday) from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Hoover 105. Also please note that the Thursday, Dec. 15, meeting has been canceled.

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available at this stream site. A chat room has also been set up, and a video recording of the meeting will be available for viewing in the days following the meeting at itunesu.georgefox.edu.

Don’t forget next week’s “Let’s Learn Together” session on Tuesday, Dec. 6, from noon to 1 p.m. at various locations (click on link below for list of venues). Piper Parks (IT) will be sharing about PowerPoint. For those on other campuses, the event will be available to watch on a stream site (to be provided).

Click on this link to reserve your spot for the session. We look forward to seeing you there! Please e-mail Rachel Powell (rpowell@georgefox.edu) if you have questions.