An all-employee meeting is scheduled from 3:40 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, in Hoover 105. The meeting will include an update from President Robin Baker, who will present a report on Institutional Vulnerability and Strategic Responses in Today’s Market in relation to George Fox.
Newberg campus community,
We will be conducting a test of our emergency notification system, FOXALERT, on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 9 a.m. The following message will be sent via e-mail:
“This is a test of the George Fox University, Newberg campus, emergency notification system: FOXALERT.
This is ONLY A TEST.
If this were a real emergency you would be directed to a website or phone number where more information would be available.
THIS IS ONLY A TEST.
Thank you for your participation.”
The following text message will be sent if you have opted into the SMS system via MYGFU:
“THIS IS A TEST OF FOXALERT. Please check your e-mail for more information or go to: http://www.georgefox.info.
On Tuesday, Feb. 2, you will receive the following confirmation message from 23177:
FOXALERT: You are confirmed to receive alerts based on account settings. More info text reply “HELP” or “STOP FOX” to opt-out.
If you are a T-Mobile subscriber, you will receive the following request for participation in FOXALERT:
FOXALERT: You have asked to receive SMS alerts from us. You must text reply “Y FOX” to confirm this request.
You must reply to the request in order to receive future FOXALERT messages. Once your reply has been received, you will receive the confirmation message.
Please note that if you have entered a number to receive text messages, you will receive all future SMS text messages from the 23177 SMS code. Please update your contact list to label 23177 as FOXALERT.
Questions? Contact Jere Witherspoon (Student Life).
Your safety is very important to us. Thank you for your participation!
Sincerely,
Brad Lau,
Vice President for Student Life
George Fox University
The lost and found located in the security office is filled to the brim! A large quantity of items that were found in Ross were just brought over, so please come by and check. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Goldfish are up for adoption from the biology lab. Bags are available to carry home your new friend for bowl or pond! Contact Teresa Arnold at ext. 2724 or Jane Sweet at ext. 2710 for access to the lab.
Greg Smith, chief information officer, will highlight several educational technologies currently used by faculty at a Faculty Teaching Forum scheduled from 12:40 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, in Cap and Gown A. New technology that is likely to be adopted at the university will also be discussed, along with emerging educational technology that universities will be exploring in the future.
To reserve a lunch, e-mail Jere Witherspoon (jwithers@georgefox.edu) by 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 2. Everyone is welcome to attend the session, whether bringing a lunch or reserving a lunch. Please have your lunch ready so we can begin the conversation at 12:40 p.m.
All faculty — full time, part time, and adjunct — are invited to attend Faculty Teaching Forums (FTFs). Video podcasts of FTFs will be available on iTunesU.
Would you please take a few minutes to submit your January time sheet (support staff) or time-off report (administrators) to your supervisor right away? As always, please be sure it is complete (including your ID number), 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.)
Support staff time sheets should show no hours for the Martin Luther King holiday unless the employee worked that day.
The link on the HR website for staff time sheets is: georgefox.edu/offices/hr/TimesheetJan10.xls
Find the administrator time-off reports here: georgefox.edu/offices/hr/Timeoffreport2010.pdf
Do you anticipate receiving a five-, 10-, 15-, 20-, 25-, or 30-year service award this spring? If so, please check to be sure your name is included in one of the lists below. Awards will be presented on May 3 to employees, half time and above.
If your name is not included in one of these lists but you believe you should receive an award, or if your name is on the list and you don’t think you should receive an award this year, contact Peggy Kilburg (Human Resources) by e-mail and include your hire date and any other information you think may be helpful. (If you are a rehire, your previous benefits-eligible experience at George Fox counts toward your service award.) Your help is most appreciated to ensure that the right employees are honored at this event. Only service at half-time or above is used in determining your years of service.
Five-Year: Sarah Marvin, Sheila Abercrombie, Jan Carpenter, Paul Griffith, Kris Kays, Matt Meyer, Robert Nava, John Schmitt, Robert Simpson, Kathleen Sims, Sarah Baldwin, Kathi Newton, Elaine Smith, Ben Kulpa, Travis Morgan, Peter Crackenberg, Christee Wise, Tim Goodfellow, Reid Kisling, Marcus Peters, Deb Herb-Sepich, Colleen Huffman, Ronecca Dockter, Julie Green, Sue Harrison, Shary Wortman, Holly Kirby, Sandi Gregory, Andrea Byerley, Ryan Backman
10-Year: Adina Briggs McConaughey, Brenda Burg, Ginny Birky, Neal Ninteman, Marc Shelton, Mark Sundquist, Lynn Scott, Cindy Howard, Ryan Dougherty, Brad Lau, Rich Bass, Chris Young, Russ DeVore, Tony Longstroth, Melanie Mock, Piper Parks, John Stewart, Edwin Espana, Elizabeth Holme, Carrie McNeal
15-Year: Steve Bearden, Anna Berardi, Dan Brunner, Jenny Getsinger, Richard Shaw, Dale Isaak, Clella Jaffe, John Natzke, Paul Corbett-Furgal, Carl Anderson, Mike Rader, Vicki Tschan, Cheri Hampton
20-Year: Doug Campbell, Alex Pia, Byron Shenk, Rodger Bufford, Howard Macy
25-Year: Terrie Boehr, Ron Mock, Ron Stansell, Sherrie Frost, Karon Bell, Patty Findley
30-Year: Jim Foster, Bonnie Jerke, Jim Jackson, Merrill Johnson
Employees may notice a change in their net pay on their Jan. 29 pay statements from 2009. This change is likely due to a change in the amount withheld for federal income taxes. New tax tables went into effect for 2010 as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
Student supervisors, please submit your students’ January time sheets to HR right away – by 3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2.
Please be sure the student’s name, ID number and cost center number is legible on each one. Also, don’t forget to sign them and be sure the students did as well. (If the student is not available to sign it this week, please send it without the signature, and HR will contact the student.) Please do not send students to HR to sign their time sheets.
Federal Work Study regulations require that students delivering their own time sheets must have them in a sealed envelope. If you happen to still have any paperwork to submit on a newly hired student who worked in January, please hand-deliver it right away – no later than Monday, Feb. 1. We need to set up students in the system before the time sheets arrive.
Thanks very much.
HR
This Monday, Feb. 1, Dan Merchant, the writer, director and producer of Lord, Save Us from Your Followers, will speak at the university’s Liberal Arts and Critical Issues Forum. Merchant spent the last four years traveling the U.S. talking to people from all viewpoints about Christianity and civility. He will show highlights from his documentary and share about his experiences.
Two sessions are scheduled, from 4:40 to 5:35 p.m. and from 7 to 7:55 p.m. Both will take place in Hoover 105 on the Newberg campus.
For more information, contact Caitlin Corning at ccorning@georgefox.edu or visit georgefox.edu/laci.
W-2’s were put in employees’ campus boxes on Wednesday (except for those that normally receive their pay statements at their home addresses). Please watch for yours if you have not already picked it up. Most of the information on these forms is easy to understand or explained in the fine print on the reverse, but we thought it would be helpful to provide a little extra information:
Items in Boxes 12a-12d are required by the IRS. The amount (if any) in Box 12a labeled “C” is the taxable cost of your group term life insurance paid by the university in 2009. (This amount was also included in your pay as taxable income in 2009.) The amount (if any) in 12b labeled “E” is the contribution you made to a supplemental retirement plan beyond the 3 percent that the university matches.
Box 14 shows the amount of your contribution to the university-sponsored retirement plan and is labeled “TIAA,” which is the IRS code/section assigned to our plan. This represents 3 percent of your pay from the time you began participation.
Employees (and their tax preparers) often ask why the amount in Box 1 is different than the amount listed in Box 3 and 5. Because any contributions you made to the retirement plan(s) are not subject to income taxes, those amounts (shown in 12b and 14) are not included in Box 1. However, those contributions are still subject to Social Security and Medicare (FICA) taxes, so they are included in the amount shown in both Box 3 and 5. If you add the amount in Box 1 to any amounts in Boxes 12b and 14, the total will equal the amount in Box 3 and 5.
You may find this information boring and/or confusing, but we recommend you save and keep it in a safe place, along with your W2, so you will have both when you (or your tax preparer) files your tax return.
Finally, big kudos and many thanks to Brooke McGillivray, Melodee Powers and Tory Cole for their extra efforts to get these 2,200 W2’s out ahead of the legal deadline of Feb. 1.
For anyone interested in events/opportunities/conversation regarding the Friends/Quaker church, please accept this open invitation to join QuakeSpace, a Google group administered by the undergraduate Friends Center at George Fox. Send an e-mail to Jamie Johnson (jejohnson@georgefox.edu) to be added, and join the 100 other people in the group.
I need a few more volunteers to help out with the Kaleo conference. I am looking for a few employees who would be willing to help out with various activities that day (Saturday, Feb. 20). If you are interested, please contact Amy Lorenz at alorenz@georgefox.edu or ext. 2134.
All Kaleo volunteers receive a $10 discount on their ticket price and a free Kaleo T-shirt. For more information about the conference, visit kaleo.georgefox.edu.
The community has spoken, and it is reflected in the university’s strategic plan, so plans are being made for a program that will nurture and develop the leadership potential of George Fox University women. If you aspire to develop your experience, style and skills as a leader, plan to join us for the February kick-off event.
Newberg event:
Monday, Feb. 15
3:30-5 p.m.
Klages Dining Room (west end)
Refreshments will be served
Administrators and staff will be released from office responsibilities
Portland/Salem event: TBD
During this time together, led by President Robin Baker, you will have an opportunity to hear about the significance of the women’s leadership development initiative within the university’s strategic plan, the steps that have been made to carry the conversation to this point, and our vision for the future development of leadership among women at George Fox. At the event your questions and insights will be valued.
The theatre’s winter production of A Grand Night For Singing will be showing in Wood-Mar Auditorium Feb. 4-6 and Feb. 11-13 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m.
A Grand Night for Singing is a musical review of 36 of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most memorable romantic ballads. The arc of Grand Night takes the audience on a musical journey through all the emotional stages of love.
All George Fox University employees and students receive one complementary ticket. Your complimentary ticket is only available at the Box Office in the University Bookstore. Additional tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for alumni and seniors, and $6 for students and children under 12. Tickets may be purchased on the university’s website.
Don’t forget to support the senior capstone community Saturday market on Saturday, Jan. 30, in EHS from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
There will be food, live music (including Chad Strutz from Just Lions), a wide array of different gifts from local vendors, and good company. Some of the local vendors include Honest Chocolate, Scarf it Up, and authors Dirk Barram, Jim Foster and Erin Macy. A percentage of sales are going toward the Patrick Kibler Fund and the Women’s and Children’s Shelter in Newberg.
The university is invited to a showing of Jesus Freaks at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 2-3, in Hoover 105.
Jesus Freaks is a character-driven documentary chronicling a Youth With a Mission discipleship training school that uses skateboarding and snow boarding as tools for ministry. The film follows the lives of students as they wrestle with faith, relationships, substance abuse and death.
A YWAM team will be here both nights the film is shown on campus. Come hear their stories, watch the film and support them as they take their ministry to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.
Do you want to receive Christian News Northwest newspapers in your offices? For aesthetics purposes on campus, the newspapers will now be placed only in wire racks in the same locations as the university magazine (except for the library and mailrooms). The editor, John Fortmeyer, will continue bringing the papers to the administrative offices for those who indicate interest.
Please write Tamara Cissna at tcissna@georgefox.edu if your office would like to continue receiving them, and specify if you want enough copies to leave a stack for visitors or just enough for employees to help ensure surplus copies aren’t wasted.
We are looking for extras for a short student film project. The film takes place on a bus, so were are looking for a wide range of ages, children through adults. Filming will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, in McMinnville. If interested, please contact Sarah Tremayne at stremayne06@georgefox.edu.
The university community is invited to hear Howard Kenyon, co-chair of the board of human trafficking for the Oregon Center for Christian Values, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, in Hoover 206. Kenyon will speak about sex trafficking in Oregon.
Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss and ask questions about the multitude of issues OCCV covers, what sex trafficking looks like in Portland, and recent legislation regarding human trafficking (look for info on HB 3623). The event is sponsored by the university’s International Justice Mission Chapter. It was originally scheduled for last week but was changed.
