Brown bag sessions on merit pay increases

You are invited to a brown bag session to hear more about the merit-based performance evaluation system ASR is implementing for civil service and P&A employees. This change is due to a directive from President Kaler and will be implemented during the 2015 review cycle.

Sue Van Voorhis will go over the process and answer questions. Sessions are scheduled for:

• Wednesday, Oct. 22, 12-1 p.m. - Williamson 160B (OCM Demo Room)


• Wednesday, Nov. 5, 12-1 p.m. - Fraser B20

Bring your lunch and come hear about the new process!

ASR mini-poll results

Last week's poll asked employees whether or not they agreed with this statement "I understand how ASR supports the overall University mission and goals." 94% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they understood how ASR supports the University's mission and goals.

One respondent said that "We (ASR) are the spine," of the University, while another said that "If I didn't think that the work I do on a daily basis in ASR makes a positive difference in the lives of students, I would not be working here! It is very important to me to be able to make that connection in my work."

Just as a reminder: ASR's mission, vision and Values are posted on the ASR website. The University's history and mission and the University's current vision and goals are also available.

SR Training Team preview sessions

In October, the SR Help Training Team is conducting training preview sessions for the Upgrade. They held two sessions the first week of October, with 88 and 105 attendees respectively. This week, they are conducting two more sessions for University staff to learn more about the Upgrade and the avenues for training.

Upgrade testing - please respect your colleagues' time

Employees from across ASR will be performing system testing for the Upgrade over the next several weeks. System testing will require very focused effort - please be courteous to employees that are performing system testing and respect their need for time alone. If you are performing system testing, here are some ideas on how to alert colleagues to your need for privacy:

• Hang a sign outside your workspace


• Set your Google chat status to "busy"


• Reserve time for system testing on your calendar

Disruptions will result in wasted time and effort, so please be sure to avoid interruptions to system testing.

ImageNow upgrade

On November 7-9, Collaboration & Web Content Services will upgrade ImageNow to version 6.7. While changes to the user experience will be minimal, it is necessary to upgrade in order to maintain technical support from the vendor. In addition, based on vendor recommendations, the ImageNow infrastructure will be enhanced to conform more closely with industry standards.

The upgrade activities will require down time for the tool. To minimize disruption to University business, the majority of the work will occur over the weekend of Nov 7-9:

Status updates will be provided during the upgrade via IT Service Status. Additional details about the upgrade will be sent to ImageNow users in the near future.

If you have questions about the upgrade or ImageNow, send a message to imagenow-support@umn.edu.

Reporting hours, vacation and leave time after the Upgrade

To learn how you will report absences electronically after the Upgrade, please watch a short 3-minute sneak peek video about the process.

If you are are a full-time civil service or labor-represented employee who earns approved overtime or shift differential, please also watch the sneak peek on electronic time reporting (for overtime and shift differential).

Both electronic processes will offer easy, streamlined, and ink-free ways to report absences and overtime.

Community Fund Drive - donate now!

There are several ways to participate in the University's community fund drive:

Visit the University's Community Fund Drive donation page. Click the "Donate Now!" link in the upper right to make a donation. If you are not able to donate this year, or if you donate in some other way, you can still be be entered in the prize drawings by clicking the "Donate Now!" button < "donate on line" < scroll to the bottom of the page and click the box next to "Can't pledge this year, but want to be included in the prize drawings?"

You can also participate in the ASR Penny War. The ASR penny war will run October 6-24. Building winners will be revealed at the October 29 ASR Staff Event. Collection jars will be available in these buildings:

• Coffey - commons area, room 130


• Fraser - commons area near 261


• STSS - kitchenette, room 211G and


• Williamson - kitchenette, room 160K

Please remember: the value of pennies collected by a building count positively toward that building's point total, while the value of other coins or dollar bills are subtracted from that building's point total. So, putting pennies in your building's jar while putting other coins and dollar bills in other building's collection jars would be a winning strategy.