A Publication of The UM Staff Advisory Council
THE UM STAFF ADVISOR
	Winter Issue
Volume 16, Issue 4		January 2004

Words from the Chair...
By now all of you should have received your new medical insurance cards. While you are looking at the cards, please take note that your member number is no longer your social security number! You should also start seeing the University gradually shift away from your SSN and toward your EmplID as your employee id number on various other forms and ID cards. Those of you who have been the victim of identity theft will know how important this is, even though most people won't give it a second thought.

I would like to take a moment to thank our Human Resources leadership for listening to staff concerns on this and other issues. With healthcare and prescription drug costs on the rise, the folks in HR/Benefits probably aren't getting their fair share of good tidings this holiday season, but they do deserve our thanks and gratitude. (Yes, SAC is still pushing for 80-and-out!)

New Year's resolutions: I'm not a big fan of resolutions. Most people who make them never follow-through or lapse sometime around the second week of January. This year, I hope that you will join me in a resolution that I have been trying to keep for years: That is, to go out of my way to thank someone for something they have done. I'm not talking about the kind of "thank you" that kids say to Grandma after they get that new pair of orange and green socks. I'm talking about one where you sit down and write a thank you letter and really mean it. For me this happens about once a year. I don't know if that is too often or not often enough, but I do know that we will all have a chance to do this soon.

The nomination forms for this year's UM-System Staff Recognition Awards are now ready. Please take the time to fill out a form nominating someone you feel deserves your thanks. Don't know anyone deserving at work? OK, do the letter thing. But for UM-System employees the staff recognition award is a great way to acknowledge someone's contribution to the University. The awards are based on the nomination form and a follow-up form sent to a nominee's co-worker(s). Submissions are judged by a panel of our peers, not by SAC itself. With all the talk of mergers and consolidation, this may be your last chance!

Andrew McAllister
Chair, UM-System Staff Advisory Council

Staff Appreciation Nomination forms...
The nomination forms are on the website! And the deadline is Friday February 20, 2004! Even though we might not like to think about it, this may be the last year you can nominate and recongize a fellow System employee in this special way, so don't put this off if it is something you thought about in past years, but did not make time for! The forms are at: http://www.system.missouri.edu/sac/srw/nom_form.html.

On our Staff Recognition Week pages, http://www.system.missouri.edu/sac/srw/index.html , you can see who our winners were last year and there is also a link for past winners. You will also find the links for last years' Trivial Pursuit teams and photos of all events from last year.

Saying Good-Bye to old friends...
There are always people changing positions and moving between System, Campus and Hospital and there have been a LOT in the last few weeks! We are always sorry to see them go, but with Extension leaving System it feels like a mass exodus! Since this is reducing the System staff by about 20%, we are reducing the Staff Advisory Council accordingly. Jeanne Miner is with Extension so we are losing her and Herman Ware took a job with Hospital so we voted not to replace these 2 positons and to revise our by-laws to reflect that change.

Staff Awareness...Show-Me Shape Up
If you are like me, my biggest New Year's Resolution always involves getting into better shape and being a healthier person. For some people that means dropping some weight and for others it just means becoming more physically fit. We all know Americans need to work on both for the sake of our future health and to set a better example for our kids. Make this the year you get serious about your health, and drag a friend along with you!

The Show-Me Shape Up (program of the Show-Me State Games) is coming to your rescue in January. Get a team of 2 to 10 people from your office or other friends to take part in a 5-month physical fitness and health program from January 26 through June 25, 2004. Your team can compete with other teams in 2 categories: team weight loss and/or accumulated activity. For more information on how to sign up a team go to their web site: http://www.smsg.org/showmeshapeup/index.asp

If you are anxious to know more about it, contact Jean Hough at 884-4998 or e-mail to houghj@missouri.edu.

Editor's Corner!
Staff Advisory Council meetings are open to all UM System Staff. Meeting times are 9:00am-11:00am the second Wednesday of the month. The locations are posted on our website on the "Events Calendar." Our website is by now familiar to everyone, I hope, but we add things all the time, so give it a look again. We have pictures of the Staff Appreciation Week Events on the web site now! To see additional pictures, click on the refresh button on the toolbar and the picture will change. If you have any questions about the Newsletter or the Staff Advisory Council, please send me an email!
--Donna Barnes