The Daily Bruin

With the academic year now underway, Employee of the Month Awards will resume. This year’s winners will be selected from nominations from coworkers and other colleagues. Support staff and administrators from all sites are eligible to receive this award once each year. Monthly winners will be announced at the all-employee meetings and each will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Jory Restaurant at the new Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg.

Please send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg (Human Resources) if you would like to nominate a support staff member or administrator for Employee of the Month. Your e-mail should include the person’s name, job title, a concise but specific summary of this person’s contribution(s) to the university, its students, and/or its employees in the past 30 days or so (what was done, who was impacted, etc.) and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.

Please submit your nomination by Friday, Sept. 18. The president’s Executive Leadership Team will then select the Employee(s) of the Month from the nominations submitted. The winner(s) will be announced at the all-employee meeting on Thursday, Sept 24.

Last Friday, an updated e-mail went out to all employees about individual Serve Day assignments. Unfortunately, that e-mail did not specify which employees are driving.

The first e-mail to employees sent out in mid-August recorded drivers. If you were driving then, you still are now. If you have questions regarding transportation, please e-mail serveday@georgefox.edu or call ext. 2326. Thanks for all your help!

Selah 2009 is just around the corner! The annual women’s seminar is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, in Bauman Auditorium. This year’s theme is “Reimagine: Embracing change, trusting God and moving forward.”

This year’s speakers are Sarah Thomas Baldwin, Linda Lucas and Bo Stern. For their bios and a complete list of the breakout session presenters, please visit selah.georgefox.edu. If you have any questions or if you are interested in volunteering for Selah, contact Amy Lorenz (University Relations) at alorenz@georgefox.edu or ext. 2134. All volunteers receive a $10 discount on their registration.

See you there!

A new Google Group/listserv has been created for members of the George Fox community who consider themselves Quaker, are interested in learning more about Quakers, or for those who want to be informed of events on campus and in the area related to the Friends church. Please e-mail Jamie Johnson (jejohnson@georgefox.edu) to be added to the list.

The School of Management invites the university community to its Quarterly Speaker Series, which opens with the session “Negotiations 101: How to Drive an Effective Win-Win Deal,” from 7 to 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 18, in Portland Center’s Room 155.

Guest Jim Cross, a George Fox MBA alumnus, is a contracts and negotiations manager for Intel Corporation’s Global Indirect Procurement organization. Jim’s global organization leads negotiation teams on strategic supply chain engagements. He has worked in global supply chain management for more than 14 years and has been at Intel Corporation for 10 years.

Cross will address pertinent aspects of negotiation and dispel the notion that negotiations have a “win-lose” outcome. Effective negotiators know that long-term success is measured by “win-win” outcomes. Grounded in communication, these outcomes occur when negotiations bridge the gap of false information and miscommunication — skills especially needed by managers and leaders of complex organizations today.

Attendees will learn about negotiating, and in so doing improve their personal communication in a positive way that fosters “win-win” outcomes in all aspects of life.

Please R.S.V.P. if you plan to attend: georgefox.edu/som/events.html.

The Office of Student Life is distributing new copies of the “Faculty and Staff Guide to Working with Students in Distress.” You won’t miss them: they are bright orange.

Please integrate this document into your records and recycle last year’s yellow version. Questions can be directed to Jere Witherspoon (Student Life) at jwithers@georgefox.edu or ext. 2316.

Tuesday, Sept. 8, will be the last day for students to use their vouchers to charge to their student accounts in the University Store.

The seasonal flu vaccine will be available beginning Monday, Sept. 7, for those at high risk for complications from the flu, or caregivers of persons at high risk.

If you meet any of the following criteria, please call the Health and Counseling Center at ext. 2340 to schedule an appointment:

• Pregnancy during the flu season

• History of chronic pulmonary (including asthma), heart disease (except hypertension), kidney disease, liver disease, neurologic disease (including seizure disorders), blood disease or metabolic disease (including diabetes mellitus), or caregivers for family members with these risks

• Immunosuppression, including immunosuppression caused by medications

• Health-care personnel

• Household members and caregivers of children less than 5 years of age, and especially those caring for children less than 6 months of age

• Adults aged 50 years and older

• Children receiving long-term aspirin therapy

Beginning Sept. 14, the flu vaccine will be available by appointment to all other students and staff. The fee is $15. The H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine will also be available mid- to late-October (details to follow).

Provost Patrick Allen will lead a Faculty Teaching Forum titled “Classroom Practices: Three Paths to Better Teaching” from noon to 1:20 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, in Cap and Gown Room A (note different location than on academic calendar).

The session will review three “oldies, but goodies” in classroom practice: “Desirable Difficulties,” “Spacing” and “Metacognitive Monitoring,” and discuss how they can assist student learning. A recent Chronicle article suggests that they many not always be appropriate, so we will put our heads together and discuss when and where they work – and when they don’t. Inexperienced and experienced teachers invited!

To reserve a lunch, e-mail Jere Witherspoon (jwithers@georgefox.edu) by 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8. 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 noon.

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.

Please be watching for your final Serve Day assignment in your in-box. They will be sent Friday, Sept. 4. If you have not received an assignment by Monday, please e-mail serveday@georgefox.edu or call ext. 2326. Thank you!

With the start up of classes, please remember that all the chairs and tables in the Bruin Den, Klages Dining Room, Cap and Gown Room and everywhere else on campus are not to be removed for any reason. These need to be left in place, as they are critical for their intended purposes.

Please contact Event Services if you need to arrange for the use of tables or chairs for an event.

This is a reminder that the University Store’s price-matching program on textbooks ends Friday, Sept. 4, at 5 p.m.

Faculty Sharing will take place from 10:40 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 4, in Hoover 105. Faculty Sharing provides a time and a place for faculty members to share their ideas and opinions. Friday’s discussion will follow up on some of the topics, such as faculty review procedures or faculty governance, that the provost raised at Faculty Retreat.

Food will be served.

All regional site campuses (Boise, Portland, Salem and Redmond) will be closed on Monday, Sept. 7, in observance of Labor Day.

Come to the first Shalom of the year, scheduled for 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, in the Cap and Gown Room. Shalom is a space for creative worship and teaching from your student chaplain, Andrew Watson, and the director of spiritual formation, Rusty St. Cyr. Chapel credit is available for students. This weeks topic: “What is the Kingdom!”

Multicultural Services invites the university community to a “Coffee and Culture” gathering the first Thursday of each month. The first meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, at the Moore House (on Sheridan Street, across from the Penn parking lot).

Student speakers and guests will share their stories and things about their culture. If any students or employees would like to be a part of this or future events, contact Shelley Yonemura (Multicultural Services) at syonemur@georgefox.edu or ext. 2318.

Editor’s note: Please note correction to location information. The wrong street was posted in the original e-nnouncement about the event.

If you have not already done so, please submit your August time sheet (support staff) or time-off report (administrators) this week. Please be sure it is complete, accurate and signed by both you and your supervisor before sending it to HR at Box 6108. Be sure to include your cost center and ID numbers. You can find your Employee ID number in MyGFU and/or on your pay statement.

If your supervisor is not available to sign your time sheet by Friday, Sept. 4, please send a copy to HR and keep the original until it has been signed.

Link to the time-off report: georgefox.edu/offices/hr/Timeoffreport.doc

Link to August time sheet: georgefox.edu/offices/hr/TimesheetAug09.xls

Sign-ups for intramural volleyball and football are available on the intramural bulletin board in the SUB bookstore hallway. The deadline for sign-ups is 9 p.m. Monday, Sept. 7.

There are still openings in the MUSI 250 Beginning Guitar class. Although it is a beginning guitar class, players of various levels are welcome to come and develop their skills. The class is on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:35 to 11:25 a.m. in Ross 210. Contact Dave Iula at 503-460-7269, or by e-mail at daveiula1@gmail.com for more information. Registration for the class can be done through your MyGFU portal.

Iula also has openings for private guitar lessons (both electric and acoustic). Learn the styles you are excited about including worship, rock, blues, jazz, etc. Contact him or register via your MyGFU portal. The course is MUSA 105 GT Applied Guitar.

Come one, come all to a theatre season kickoff event at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4, in Wood-Mar Auditorium. It’s open to the entire campus, so come eat some free food, catch up with old friends and meet new ones, meet faculty and shop supervisors, and hear more about the 2009-2010 theatre season. This is the event to attend if you want more information on our theatre department.