The Daily Bruin

Before moving forward with renting five canoes for our second annual Floatabout training, the spiritual life staff is checking to see if there might be any canoes available for borrowing (or even renting at a much-discounted price!) from within our Fox community. We would be looking to borrow them for our four-day float Aug. 16-19 on the Willamette River Trail from Buena Vista Park to Roger’s Landing in Newberg.

Floatabout is becoming our “preseason” training for our student chaplains and chapel leadership team, primarily for listening to God through solitude and community, in order to prepare for a year of ministry to our student community at George Fox.

If you can help us, contact Rusty St. Cyr at rstcyr@georgefox.edu.

The one-day-a-week courier service to the Salem campus is changing from Thursdays to Mondays for the rest of the summer break. The same service to the Portland Center will remain the same: every weekday Monday through Friday.

Questions? Call Mail Services at ext. 2555.

Now that we have started a new fiscal year, please make sure you are using the correct Budget Reference (Bud Ref) date when creating requisitions in PeopleSoft. You need to enter 2012 as the Bud Ref in order to have the funds taken out of your new 2011-2012 budget.

If you are entering a requisition and you don’t know where to find the Bud Ref, please call Andy Dunn at ext. 2162 or Kathi Becker at ext. 2166.

With June now behind us and a new fiscal year just underway, please think about a colleague who would be deserving of the first Employee of the Month award for 2011-12. As always, your nomination should include the person’s name, job title, a concise but specific summary of this person’s recent contributions (past 30 days or so), and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.

Please submit your nomination by Wednesday, July 27, via e-mail to Peggy Kilburg. The President’s Executive Leadership Team will then select the recipient from the nominations submitted. The winner will be announced at our next community meeting (date not yet set but probably in early August) and will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison.

Beginning today and using the heading “Benefit in Brief,” HR will highlight a benefit or two each month throughout 2011-12 with the goal of educating or just reminding employees about the various benefits the university provides to us.

July’s Benefit in Brief

There are two types of paid time off that employees don’t often use or think about: bereavement leave and time off for jury duty. Both of these are included as benefits for regular employees who work half time or above.

• Up to five days of sick leave may be taken for bereavement upon the death of an immediate family member: spouse, child/stepchild, parent, step-parent, parent-in-law, sibling, step-sibling, sibling-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, grandparent or grandchild. For those times when employees lose loved ones who are not family members, they should arrange with their supervisors to either use vacation time or make up the time missed from work.

• Employees are paid for time to serve on jury duty as long as they turn in any pay received from the court (excluding pay for mileage). Employees are expected to be at work for any part of their shifts that they are not required to actively serve. Administrators and staff should note time away for jury duty on their time-off reports and time sheets.

Information about bereavement leave and time off for jury duty can be found in the Employee Handbook on pages 43 and 44.

The deadline for ordering rental regalia for convocation chapel is approaching. Friday, July 8, is the deadline for ordering faculty regalia. Please notify your colleagues regarding the deadline.

The form for ordering can be found at this link. Questions? Contact John Stewart at jstewart@georgefox.edu.

There has been some confusion about our prior e-nnouncement regarding the printer service request form.

Point of clarification: This form is ONLY for printers. It is NOT for photocopiers. The photocopier service requests are still made through university print services (Richard Silver).

If your unit is a multi-function unit (photocopy, scan, print, etc.), then it likely falls under the “photocopier” category and your contact will be Richard at ext. 2551.

Join IT for an introduction to FoxTALE, the university Learning Management System (LMS) used by instructors and students to provide options for online classroom interaction. This seminar assumes no prior FoxTALE experience and begins with logging in to FoxTALE. Learn to develop your course site, upload course files such as syllabi, set up an online discussion forum, and set up assignments.

You can sign up at this link for sessions on Wednesday, Aug. 17, from 9 a.m. to noon in Stevens 307 in Newberg, or Thursday, Aug. 25, from 9 to 10 a.m. (Pacific) in an online webinar. (New regular faculty participating in New Faculty Orientation Aug. 16-18 will have a separate seminar as part of NFO.)

Visit Faculty FoxTALE Quick Guides for more information on using FoxTALE.

This is a final reminder that an all-employee meeting is scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 6, in Hoover 105.

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 the upcoming all-employee meeting, scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 6, in Hoover 105.

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.

The IRS mileage reimbursement rate has gone up effective July 1 to $0.555. There is a new Expense Reimbursement Request (ERR) form available for download at the Financial Affairs webpage under the Common Forms link. Please update your files with the new form to ensure you are paid the correct amount for mileage.

If you have any questions, e-mail Andy Dunn or call ext. 2162.

All printer service requests should be submitted via the new web form. You will find a link to the form on the bookstore website. It is at the bottom of each page.

Click here for a direct link to the form.

We always appreciate receiving the previous month’s time sheets and time-off reports early in the new month, but we are especially anxious to receive June’s each year. This will enable HR to enter vacation and sick leave used in June right away so fiscal year-end balances can be reported and accounted for in a timely manner. This will, in turn, help the folks in financial affairs finish their work to close the books on 2010-11.

If you have any time-off reports or time sheets from earlier in 2010-11 that you have not yet submitted, please turn those in as well. If a supervisor’s absence will cause a delay, please send HR a copy of the original and submit the original after it has both yours and your supervisor’s signatures.

Thank you very much.

– HR

Student supervisors: Payday is Friday, July 15, so please submit your students’ June time sheets to HR right away — by Tuesday, July 5, by 3 p.m. Please note the earlier due date. The July 4 holiday will shorten payroll processing time.

Please be sure the student’s name, ID number and cost center number is legible on each one. Also, don’t forget to total them, sign them and be sure the students did as well. Please do not send students to HR to sign their time sheets. We will notify them if a signature is needed.

Federal Work Study regulations require that students delivering their own time sheets must have them placed, by you, in a sealed envelope.

Thanks very much.

– Human Resources

The Canadian postal strike has ended. All classes of mail to Canada are now being accepted by the U.S. Postal Service. Keep in mind that it will take some time for the Canadian Postal Service to catch up on all the mail that has not been distributed.

If you need something delivered in a timely manner, you may want to use the Global Express Guarantee service offered by the local U.S. Post Office during the next few weeks.

It’s time for our sixth annual Red, White and Blue Jeans Day. In recognition of Independence Day and the upcoming long holiday weekend, you are invited to wear casual attire in patriotic colors this Friday, July 1.

At 3 p.m. the all-American dessert – apple pie a la mode – will be served on the Stevens Center plaza for Newberg employees. We invite you to join us for this sweet treat and a time to visit with colleagues. Summer student employees are also invited.

Portland and Boise employees are also being provided a similar afternoon break.

You are invited to join George Fox University alumni, parents, students and friends for a Mariners game on July 16 at Safeco Field. The evening begins with a catered barbecue dinner in Lookout Landing, followed by the game against the Texas Rangers. The dinner starts at 5:30 p.m. and the first pitch is at 7:10 p.m.

Cost is only $42 and includes your meal and game ticket. Click here to register or call Anna Philipsen at ext. 2131 for more information.

The cutoff time at Mail Services has changed for FedEx packages. You must have the package at University Mail Services by noon each day (this includes FedEx letter envelopes and boxes).

If you miss this FedEx cutoff time, you can still drop the packages at the Newberg Mail Room located in the Springbook Plaza at 1102 N. Springbrook Road. They are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Their telephone number is 503-538-5555.

Just a reminder of other cutoff times for letters and packages at Mail Services:

• 9:45 a.m: Portland and Salem center mail
• 2:15 p.m.: U.S. Mail
• 3:15 p.m.: UPS

Questions? Please contact Sherrie Frost at ext. 2556.

The end of the fiscal year has arrived and with it comes a few notices about year-end purchases.

• Please remember that if you order merchandise, it must physically be here before July 1 in order to be charged to your 2010-2011 budget. Goods and services received after June 30 will to be charged to the 2011-2012 budget.

• All POs created before Jan. 1, 2011, will be closed Thursday, June 23.

• Starting Monday, June 27, Andy Dunn will be contacting purchase requesters to discuss the next steps for open POs.

If you have any questions, please contact Andy Dunn at ext. 2162 or adunn@georgefox.edu.

The university’s adult degree programs now have a Facebook page, and we are trying to get the word out. Please “like” our page at this link or log on to Facebook and search for George Fox University adult degree programs.