Vol. XXXVIII, No. 42, November 2, 2009

This Week at Valencia

Tuesday, November 3

DOT Deans mtg., 9 a.m., Winter Park Campus, Rm. 123

Thursday, November 5

College Learning Council mtg., 2:30 p.m., CJI, Rm. 143

University Center Dedication Ceremony Held October 29

Gov. Charlie Crist helps cut the ribbon at the dedication ceremony for the University Center on the West Campus, October 29.  Dr. Sanford Shugart welcomed a crowd of several hundred. “This building is about dreams,” said Crist. “It is about the dreams of future engineers, future nurses and future business leaders.”

The $23 million, three-story, 100,000-square-foot building opened for classes in August, welcoming 775 UCF students to Valencia’s campus. The additional space enables UCF to offer complete bachelor’s degrees in Nursing, Electrical Engineering, Applied Science, Business Administration, Interdisciplinary Studies and Psychology on Valencia’s West Campus. Valencia’s engineering programs are also housed in the building, including an associate in arts pre-major degree that is articulated with UCF and associate in science degrees in Electronic Engineering and Computer Engineering.

Holiday Hiring Guidelines from Human Resources

Due to the large number of holidays during the months of November and December, we do not normally have new employees begin work during this period. New employees should begin work on or before November 9, 2009. After that date, recruitment activities may be conducted through the Human Resources department and offers of employment may be extended, however, newly hired employees may not begin work until January 4, 2010.

Reminders from Accounts Payable

An employee who requested a travel advance must return a completed Per Diem and Other than Local Mileage Voucher with all related receipts supporting the advance to Accounts Payable (MC DTC-3) within thirty (30) days after the trip.

Any employee who does not submit their Per Diem and Other than Local Mileage Voucher with supporting documents within 30 days after returning from the trip forfeits the right to receive any future advances for one year from the date of official notification by the Vice President of Administrative Services or designee. When completing information on the Per Diem and Other than Local Mileage Voucher please include PCard transaction numbers and include the owner of PCard.

Accounts Payable cannot pay pro forma invoices or prepay invoices. All invoices could be viewed online. For instructions please check the Finance tab in Atlas. We will be able to process your requests in a more timely fashion if you avoid stapling your paperwork. Please tape all receipts and back-up information on the back of the paperwork or on a clean piece of paper.

All payments, other than reimbursements, to any employees must be processed by Payroll, not Accounts Payable. This includes part-time, work-study and all full-time employees.

News from Procurement

Attention Procurement Cardholders - if your department number is “Missing In Action” in the drop down menu in PaymentNet, contact your PCard Administrator, Kacy Weekes, at ext.1974 so she can add whatever account number or index is needed. The account number and index defaulted at the time of download (noon on Wednesdays) is the account from which the amount will be deducted in Banner.

Purchase of Software - all software requests require OIT approval first. The reason is that we may already own the software and a license may be available through OIT. OIT staff will also need to evaluate the hardware and operating system before additional software is loaded onto a computer. Please contact the OIT Help Desk at ext.5555 for additional information regarding software purchases.

NISOD Nominations

Please consider nominating a worthy colleague for the National Institute for Staff & Organizational Development (NISOD) Excellence in Learning Leadership Award. The purpose of the NISOD awards program at Valencia is to recognize full-time members of the faculty, staff and administration for outstanding accomplishments in improving student learning. Recipients should have demonstrated meritorious learning leadership, as outlined in the award guidelines.

To request a nomination form and guidelines,please contact Natalie Ferenc, College & Community Relations, ext. 3126. Please note the submission deadline is Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

For more information about NISOD and this year's conference (May 30 – June 2, 2010), visit www.nisod.org .

The Valencia Chapter of AAWCC invites all members and their guests to the Thanksgiving Luncheon on November 11 from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Special Events Center on West Campus. For additional information go to http://www.valenciacc.edu/ aawcc.

Outlook Tip-of-the-week:  Outlook New Message Notifications

Are you unhappy with the way Outlook notifies you when new items arrive in your inbox? Good news! You have a full range of options that you can customize to your liking, options such as changing the sound that plays for a new message, having no sound play at all, or something a subtle as briefly changing the mouse cursor when new items arrive in your mail box. Would you like to have Outlook send a message to your desktop when new mail arrives, or disable those annoying little buggers from showing up? Follow these simple instructions to personalize the way Outlook tells you that you have new items in your inbox.

To change the sound that Outlook plays when a message arrives in your primary inbox:

• Start
• Control Panel
• Sounds and Audio Devices
• Sounds Tab

Under program events you should see a window with a scroll bar to its right

• Scroll to and highlight New Mail Notification
•  Click Browse
• Select the sound you would like to have play.

To turn notification sounds off or enable/disable notification flags on your desktop:

• Open Outlook
• Tools
• Options
• E-mail Options
• Advanced E-mail Options

Under the When new items arrive in my Inbox category

• Check/Uncheck items to adjust settings to your liking.

Keep in mind that some of these options will only apply to your default email box.  For more tips and FAQ’s please click the OIT Tools icon on your desktop and select “Ask a Question”

Leadership Valencia

Here is a quick glance at upcoming Leadership Valencia workshops. For a complete schedule of all workshops and registration details go to http://www.valenciacc.edu/leadership.

• Circles of Belonging
• How to Run Reports in the Data Warehouse
• Organizing an Effective Office
• Fire Protection
• Outlook Q & A Webinar – Managing Your Mailbox
• Outlook Q & A Webinar – Distribution Lists
• Outlook Q & A Webinar - Outlook Calendar
• Outlook Q & A Webinar - Out of Office Assistant
• Using GoToMeeting for Virtual Meetings
• Using GoToWebinar for Engaging Virtual
• Making Sense of Your Data with Excel
• Dynamic PowerPoint

Success begins one step at a time. The Wellness program is happy to share with you some tremendous success stories at Valencia. Congratulations to those brave souls willing to share their stories. They make us all proud and also motivate us to make steps to healthier lifestyles. Our first story comes from Josh Murdock.

Josh Murdock: A Personal Weight Loss Success Story

People that knew me in the past might remember me as the overweight person but in a two-year period of time I transformed myself, body wise, to a new person. It was a long hard journey but shows that if you put your mind to a goal you can accomplish anything. January 2004 is when I decided I could not stand myself at the weight I had become; I was at 230 lbs and felt it was time for a change in my lifestyle. It's shocking to sometime see pictures of how much I changed. I still have my old photo on my driver license to remind me.

I started my weight lose program with just walking and jogging around my neighborhood. I noticed few pounds drop off and knew I had to do more. I started my job at Valencia’s West Campus in May 2004 and decided it was time to check out the free gym on campus. At the time I lived in Winter Springs with a busy commute, so staying after at the gym was great because traffic died down. I started to hit the gym 3-4 times a week, doing mainly cardio then some weights. For the first year, my goal was to get to less than 200 lbs. I achieved this goal by reaching 190 lbs and decided that I needed to kick up my workout. I joined a gym near my house while still using the gym at the college. I wanted to try to work out at least 5-6 times a week, depending on what other physical activities I was involved with during the week. The gym near my house helped me achieve this when the gym at the college was closed and helped change my workout routine, since they had different machines.

Another huge factor in weight lost is dieting, but I don't like to call it dieting, I like to call it eating healthier and in better portions. I'm not the type to keep strict to a diet because they don't work; you just need to limit your calorie intake to a certain amount during the week and burn more then you take in through normal daily activities and exercise. One important thing to remember is not to limit your calories too low, because fast weight loss is not good for your body and can slow down your metabolism. Another important thing for me was to bring in my lunch and breakfast to work, because eating out is what adds the calories to the waistline and emptied my wallet fast. I typically would have cereal every morning then a lean frozen meal or health option for lunch following with a low calorie snack for the mid morning or afternoon. For dinner, I would cook myself something usually high in protein and with some veggies, to get the nutrition I needed when working out a lot. Another thing is to not keep away from everything, don't limit little snacks and treats but don't overindulge. On the weekends, go out to eat with friends; don't hold yourself back too much, it will just make it worse. I drink lots of water, it will help you keep full and it’s what your body needs.

I reached my goal of 165 lbs in February 2006. I still make it to the gym about three times a week. You have to make it part of your day and part of your life, but not your entire life. It's all about keeping in shape for me. I'm not trying to look like a muscle head but I want to be in good shape to live a long health life for my family.

Picture Below: Josh 2004 vs. Josh 2009

A Fond Farewell to Retiring Full Time Employee

David Hosman, Counselor and LinC Coordinator/Academic Success Coach, West Campus, after 39 years, on October 30

Kudos

Donna Marino, donor stewardship manager for the Valencia Foundation,recently received her Certified Fund Raising Executive credentials. CFRE is the only internationally-recognized baseline professional credential for philanthropic fundraising executives.

Osceola campus humanities faculty who participated in the 2009 Summer Institute study trip to Cuba gave a presentation on their travels on the Osceola campus. Tammi Gitto, Paul Chapman and Kevin Mulholland shared their favorite images of the trip and described their perceptions of the island and its people. Professor Marlene Temes, chair of the 2009 Humanities Institute, arrange the trip and presentation.

Linda Speranza recently had an article entitled “Doing Well: A SEM Analysis of the Relationships Between Various Activities of Daily Living and Geriatric Well-Being” published recently in The Journal of Genetic Psychology. This is on-going research utilizing structural equation modeling to study wellness and longevity.

Submissions to the Bulletin are encouraged, so please e-mail your achievements, awards, recognitions and relevant information for the college community to Mary Jane Jones in the Marketing and Media Relations office. Deadline for submission is 5 p.m. on Tuesday to be included in the following Monday’s publication. Mary Jane can be reached at ext.1017, mc 4-34 or mjones2@valenciacc.edu