09/26/2006

How are you going to tell the players without a scorecard? - We've had, and soon will have more than a few personnel changes. Let me bring you up to date.

Here's what's happened recently.
Doni McCarty - has transferred, effective September 25, from IPS to MTAS as Administrative Support Assistant II replacing Carolyn Hicks. Doni was with IPS for three years. She is working on her BA with UT in Accounting. She is on the training team and sits at our front desk.

Nancy Gibson - as you already know, Nancy started on September 5 as Administrative Specialist II on the codes team.

Sandy Selvage - has transferred from the MTAS codes team to the MTAS training team. This has been planned for some time. Izetta and Steve have done a good job sharing Sandy's time. As of Friday September 22, it's official and Sandy is a full time member of the training team - although I'm sure she felt more than full time during the recent TAMCAR conference.

Here's what's planned soon.

As you know Bill is going to be Assistant Director of the Harriman Utilities Board and his last day with MTAS is September 29.

We are transferring Al to Bill's position. Al will return to finance consultant for the East Grand Division and work with the TDEC contract.

As soon as the paperwork for Al's transfer is complete we will start the recruiting process to replace Al as the finance consultant with the primary responsibility for the Tennessee Municipal Benchmarking Project.

We also are in the middle of three recruiting processes: the new HR consultant in Knoxville, the new legal consultant in Nashville, and the Program Resource Specialist at the front desk in Nashville.

And we will start the recruiting process for Sandy's old position in codes this week.

IPS annual conference - Thanks to Catherine, Pat, Gary, (and Yana before she left us to enroll in UT) for their work to make this an enjoyable and beneficial annual conference. Like many of you I still have my portrait of Lincoln on my desk. And thanks to Margaret and SteveW for keeping us from being last in the Jeopardy game. I'd prefer to say we almost came in second.

UT Cars - While requesting a UT car for a field consultant I was informed that IPS has a policy of not approving any additional cars. For the cars we do have everyone needs to be aware that the UT motor pool charges us for about 1,400 miles per month whether we use them or not. Essentially, it's like Hertz, you can pay by the mile or by the month, whichever is greater. If a car is not consistently used for more than 1,400 miles per month, then we will consider either giving it back to the motor pool or reallocating it to staff who consistently meet the mileage target.

TAMCAR - Let me add my thanks for everyone who helped. This was the largest TAMCAR ever with 125 attending. And, it may have been typecasting but Bill graced us as part of his farewell tour by playing the part of Citizen Lou Natick in a mock city council meeting. As I say it was typecasting but Bill rose to the challenge. I also want to thank everyone else who played a part: Armintha, Ralph, Al, and Rex. Finally, thanks to Kurt, Sarah, Sandy, and Linda who worked to make the conference run well.

Cell phones - Almost all of our UT cell phone contracts have expired (we have two more to go) and we have converted everyone to using their personal cell phones for MTAS business. We set up a salary supplement for each person ranging from $20 to $50 per month. We computed the amount of the supplement based on previous phone usage. If your usage has changed substantially since began using a personal cell phone, please let me know and we'll recompute.

T-3s for state projects - When you travel for a state project, it's important that you check the box to make your employee type "state" rather than "UT". To make it easier for Tess, please close out the T-3 and start a new one each time you change employee type. It's a lot of trouble, but there's no other way to get the amounts computed and entered in the reimbursement system correctly. For the moment this only applies to travel for the contract with the Administrative Office of the Courts, the State Forestry Commission, and TDEC.

Bonus pay plan - Here's a copy of the bonus pay plan that IPS will submit to the UT board of trustees on behalf of MTAS and CTAS. It's very much like the copy you have already seen. Let me know if you have any questions.

Strategic plan - The deadline for our strategic plan submittal to IPS has been extended to December 31. The management team will take all the good work done during our session in Cookeville, prepare a draft, and meet with a strategic planning committee of our MTAS advisory committee. It's going to take a while, but we have a good beginning.