Updates from Town Hall - Direct Deposit and Mileage

Direct Deposit:

Hi Everyone,

We are going “Live” with E-Mailing Direct Deposit Advices effective on next Wednesday’s payroll dated 12/22/10.   You will not receive a printed advice next Wed. 

There are a few basic steps to follow to view and/or print your electronic advice:

1. You will receive an email with an attachment from directdeposit@town.dennis.ma.us: Subject Matter: Direct Deposit Advice
2. Click on the link and you will see a pdf. Attachment. 
3. Open the attachment and you will be instructed to enter a password.  The password is the last four digits of your social security number.
4. You will now see your Direct Deposit Advice and you may print or save it.

You should receive the above email by Tuesday a.m. weekly.  It is generated once the Direct Deposit Advices are printed.  If you do not receive it or have any questions or concerns, please e-mail me directly: aclancy@town.dennis.ma.us or hr@town.dennis.ma.us.

Thanks for participating and pass the word to your fellow employees to sign up for this feature.

Anne

Mileage Rate Change:

The IRS rate for mileage reimbursement changes to .51 cents – January 1^st.  Please inform staff and update all forms used by employees effective that date.  Thank You!!!   - Sandy

CLAMS OverDrive Training

Elieen from CLAMS will be here at DPL on Tuesday, January 11, at 10 am to conduct an OverDrive training. This training will be on the REGULAR Overdrive software, and NOT the OverDrive Download Station that we have at the library (though both Eileen and I will be on hand to answer any questions about that).

OverDrive has changed a bit from when we first signed up for it, and with the recent explosion in E-book reader sales, it is becoming a tool that is being used more and more for both audio books and E-books. This training will allow you to be able to answer patron questions about how to download these books onto their devices AT HOME.

Kathy, it would be helpful if you could possibly arrange to have some extra volunteers here that morning, as the training is expected to last 1.5 - 2 hours.

I am asking that EVERYONE attend the training - if you are not already working, you can take comp or be paid, your choice.

However, since I know that the time may be difficult for some, the following is a list of other area libraries doing the training as well. If you cannot attend ours, please choose one of the other ones and let me know which one.

Wellfleet Public Library:   Wednesday December 22 at 9 AM

Brewster Ladies Library" Wednesday December 29th at 8 AM

Dennis Public Library: Tuesday January 11th at 10 AM

West Falmouth Pubic Library: Thursday January 20th at 10 AM

Orleans (Snow Library): Tuesday January 25th at 2 PM

I expect that many people will be getting e-readers and Mp3 players for the holidays, and we are likely to see an increase in people wanting to download media. While it will normally fall to reference to help these patrons, I would like all staff to be familiar with the process and be able to answer patron questions if needed.

Questions, please ask.

Thanks!

More Info on Vacation and Sick Time

I just received the following from Town HR. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Thanks!

COMP TIME ACCRUAL AND LIMITS:

Effective immediately comp time must not be accrued without the permission of the department head.  If Collective Bargaining Contracts are silent departments who have earned comp time in the past are limited to 25 hours accrued comp time or the language in the collective bargaining contract.  If an employee has greater than the limit please meet with your department head and work out a plan on use of the overage. Please forward a copy in writing of the plan to HR.  (An e-mail to the Town Administrator and HR will suffice.) Comp time must adhere to the policy or union contract by June 30^th, 2011.

VACATION TIME ACCRUALS

According to most union contracts vacation time on the books on the employee’s anniversary date is limited to a carry forward of no more than 10 days of vacation from one years accumulation. Example:  An employee earns 20 days a year. He may have 30 (20 he has earned for that year and 10 carry forward from previous year) days on the books on his anniversary date.  If an employee has greater than the limit please meet with your department and work out a plan on use of the overage. Please forward in writing the plan to HR.   Vacation time must adhere to the policy or union contract by the employee’s next anniversary date or June 30^th, 2011 which ever works best for the department.   Copies of the accrual use plans will be forward to the Payroll Administrator.  Accrual reports are attached to the weekly time sheets. In order to limit the liability to the Town moving forwarded vacation carry forward will only be approved by Administration for extraordinary and unforeseen reasons.

 ALSO:

Please note employees who have been employed 12 months  or more can use Small Necessities Leave (up to 24 hours of leave per calendar year ) to care for an elderly relative, doctors appts etc., school activities  and charge it to sick time.  Please refer to your personnel guidelines on the HR website for more detail.  Please notify your payroll person if using Small Necessities Leave.  Have a great weekend!!!!

          Sandy Fife

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I know that some people are better than others at remembering to check this blog - which is why I end up printing out the stuff I absolutely need you to know, and putting it in your box. BUT, really, I want people to know about EVERYTHING - posted by EVERYONE - that goes on this blog, so....

Please use the following link to get blog updates in your email (or you can now sign up for the blog in a feed reader as well).

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This will (hopefully) eliminate the need for me to print out the blog posts, especially as one of the points of the blog was to lessen the amount of paper we use here.

I am not going to police you - if you read the blog at work and are consistent and don't want to get the email or sign up in a feed reader, that's totally up to you. But from now on I will NOT be printing up the blog posts. You are responsible for knowing what has been posted on the blog - I will leave it up to you how you choose to do that.

If you have questions or problems signing up, please ask!

Thanks!

Vacation, Sick, and Comp Time

Today at the Dept Head Meeting we had a rather pointed discussion about staying on top of staff time in terms of sick, vacation, and comp time. While no one in this dept is in danger of violating the rules - or "spirit" of the rules regarding comp time, I'd just like to cover the basics so that everyone is aware.

Comp Time - The general rule of thumb is that you are not allowed to carry any more than a week's worth of comp time for any length of time. Naturally, if the comp is the result of filling in for an absent co-worker and done at my behest, there is some leeway with this. But generally, if you have more than a week of comp banked, you should be planning on using some of it as soon as possible.

Vacation - No one is allowed to carry over (into the next fiscal year, July 1) more than the equivalent of ten days of vacation - without a memo from me requesting approval from the Town Administrator. People who accrue vacation time get a letter near their anniversary date which itemizes their accruals - please make sure that if you are in danger of going over your vacation time by July 1, that you use it.

Personal Days - Personal days are "Use it or Lose it." People who are benefited get three (equivalent) personal days a year. They do not carry over.

Sick Days - Sick days accrue and are banked from year to year - up to 525 hours. After that, even if you are not actually taking sick time, it will look like that on your paycheck because they will deduct the time from your accrual (all very complicated, and no one here is in danger of hitting that mark any time soon).

If you have any questions about your accruals, please let me know.

Thanks!

Four-Star Rating Recognition

The Friends have decided that they would like to do a very informal "recognition" for the star rating we got a few weeks back in Library Journal.

Cake and refreshments will be served to staff, volunteers, and whatever patrons are around

TUESDAY, January 26th

3PM

The meeting room is in use, so we will probably just use the table over in the reference section.

I'll post this on the volunteer board, but please mention this to volunteers as you see them.

Thanks!

NEW STAFF INFORMATION AREA

"Hmmmmmm, where is the mailbox?"

The mailbox, and a brand new BULLETIN BOARD are now located in that little alcove near Kathy's desk. I cleaned it up a bit so that we could have an area with more space for STAFF info, rather than smooshing it all in with VOLUNTEER info. There's already a bunch of stuff up - including the dates for the flu shot clinics (FREE, and very worth it this year, I think), so be sure to take a look (now and REGULARLY).

The board will NOT take the place of the blog, but is more intended for announcements that come to me from other town departments and etc.

The area where the mailbox used to be in now the dedicated volunteer area. Please post volunteer info on that board.

Questions, just ask!