Thank you Costas Spanos and Welcome Tsu-Jae King Liu

ERSO Welcomes New Employees

Maria Barerra joined ERSO on July 1st as a Research Support Officer on Elise Mills' team. She is located in Cory Hall. Scherry Royal will join ERSO as a Research Support Officer on July 7th and will be a member of Jane Doyle's team. Scherry will be located in Etcheverry. Sandra Joe-Hu will join ERSO as a Payroll Coordinator on July 14th and will be located on the mezzanine of Cory Hall. Welcome all to the ERSO team!

Mileage Reimbursement Rate Increases for 2008

The University's mileage reimbursement rates for expenses incurred in connection with the business use of a private automobile will increase on July 1, 2008 in accordance with the Internal Revenue Service standard mileage rates published in Announcement 2008-63. The new rates are effective for expenses incurred on or after July 1, 2008.

• The reimbursement rate for the use of a private automobile for University business travel will increase from 50.5 cents a mile to 58.5 cents a mile. Appendix A of Business and Finance Bulletin G-28, Policy and Regulations Governing Travel, will be revised to include this change. 
• The reimbursement rate for driving or shipping an automobile in connection with a move or relocation will increase from 19 cents a mile to 27 cents a mile. Business and Finance Bulletin G-13, Policy and Regulations Governing Moving and Relocation, will be revised to incorporate this change.

ERSO Travel Expense Report Form will be revised to incorporate this change for expenses incurred on or after July 1, 2008.

Relevant Web Link(s):
G-28 - http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/policies/bfb/g28.pdf
G-13 - http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/policies/bfb/g13all.pdf

ERSO Welcomes Diana Duong

Diana Duong joined ERSO on June 16th as a Research Support Officer on Vonis Moore's team. Diana is is located on the 5th floor of Cory Hall. Welcome to the ERSO team!

Intranet training available May 28 through May 30, 2008

We are pleased to announce that the following ERSO intranet briefing sessions will be offered: May 28 - May 30, 2-3 pm in 400 Cory Hall. The training sessions are specifically designed for faculty, graduate students and programmatic staff who are interested in using the ERSO intranet for on-line services. For over two years, ERSO Intranet’s users have enjoyed a quicker and more efficient method of transactions processing as well as 24/7 access to view up-to-date personnel data and monthly financial reports/projections. We are now ready to phase out the paper process completely. This transition will take place on Monday June 2, 2008. On that date we will also release ERSO Intranet 5.0. This release includes a new user interface that will allow more intuitive navigation and flexible delegation of authority. We encourage interested faculty, students and program staff attend one of these training sessions.

To enroll in one of the scheduled sessions or to schedule a custom session for your entire research team, please contact Kendall Moalem at 3-8424 or email at: kendallm@erso.berkeley.edu

Relevant web link(s):
http://www.erso.berkeley.edu/internal

ERSO’s Second Annual Take Your Child to Work Day

On April 24, 2008 ERSO once again celebrated Take Your Child to Work Day.  ERSO employees were invited to bring their children (or another lucky kid in their life) to the campus and experience what it is like to work at UC Berkeley.  We planned some activities that staff and kids could participate in or staff was welcome to bring the kids and just have them hang out.  This year we received lots of donations from some of the engineering research groups and other campus departments. The children left with bags full of goodies. During the day we were lucky enough to visit the police station, the athletics facilities and we took a trip up to the museum at Lawrence Hall of Science. The kids especially enjoyed seeing the bomb squad robot, climbing on the giant baseball bat at the baseball diamond and trying to engineer an effective dam at LHS.  Everyone had a wonderful time, although I think some of the kids believe we get to do the fun activities everyday instead of actually working!

This year’s committee did a wonderful job planning the day.  Many thanks to Vonis Moore, Eboni Wilson, Jessica Gamble, Leisa Sa, Sim Kallan & Stephanie Gangl.  We look forward to planning the event next year and having even more employees and their children participate.

View a photo gallery: Take Your Child to Work Day 2008

ERSO SPOT AWARD WINNERS

At the ERSO quarterly meeting on May 13th  ERSO recognized six employees who were nominated for the SPOT award. The awardees were nominated for achieving one or more of the program’s criteria of collaboration, inclusion, initiative, result-orientation, service or stewardship. Each employee received a certificate and a check for $250!

ERSO Celebrates Internal Promotions!

We are pleased to announce the promotion of two of our employees. Jean Lin-Wong was recently promoted to the position of Research Support Officer and Leisa Lei was recently promoted to a Human Resources Analyst in HR Operations. Both Jean and Leisa were selected through an open recruitment process and we are excited about their promotions. Please join us in congratulating Jean and Leisa and wishing them both continued success in ERSO.

ERSO Welcomes a New Research Support Team Lead

Vonis Moore will assume the responsibilities of Research Support Team Lead in Cory Hall on February 19th to replace Shivani Bhatia. Shivani recently accepted a position in Capital Projects. Vonis comes to us from UCOP where she has been an Administrative and Contracts Manager since August 2003. Prior to UCOP, Vonis was a MSO with the Institute of Transportation Studies, and had previously worked in both the Chemistry Department and in Chemical Engineering. Vonis will be located in 554 Cory Hall. Welcome to the ERSO team Vonis!

ERSO Welcomes New Employees!

Nick Monino officially joined our Shipping and Receiving team on January 16th. He is located in room 177 of Cory Hall. Wan-Yu Hsieh joined ERSO on January 28th as an Applications Programmer. She is located in room 177M of Cory Hall. Kendall Moalem will join ERSO on February 4th as a Business Analyst and will be located in room 185M of Cory Hall. Welcome to the ERSO team.

2007 W-2s Have Been Mailed to Employees' Home Addresses

2007 W-2s were mailed the week of January 21, 2008 to the home addresses on file in the payroll system for employees in Engineering Research Support Organization (ERSO), Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC), and Institute for Environmental Science and Engineering (IESE).

The home addresses used for the 2007 W-2 mailing were on file in the payroll system as of December 12, 2007.

Current employees, who moved and did not update their addresses by December 12, 2007, may retrieve the electronic copy of their 2007 W-2 statement online beginning February 15, 2008 through the campus blu business portal, self service option at http://blu.berkeley.edu:

To correct a home address, the information is available for update through the blu business portal, self service option at http://blu.berkeley.edu:

Requests for address updates may also be submitted to the ERSO HR Operations staff :
ERSO-HROPS

Former employees or employees who do not have access to the W-2 Online review and print option may request that the Central Payroll Office send a duplicate 2007 W-2 to their new address. All such requests should be directed to: PAYHELP@berkeley.edu, and must include Employee Name and Employee ID number or birth date, their NEW address, city, state, zip code and a phone number should there be any questions.

ERSO Welcomes a New Employee

We are excited to welcome Gwen Lindsey who joined us on January 2nd as a new RSO. Gwen is located on the 5th floor of Cory Hall. Welcome to the ERSO team Gwen!

ERSO launches ERSO's Scoop Salute!

ERSO launches ERSO's Scoop Salute, a new employee recognition program to recognize employees who demonstrate excellent customer service. The objective of the program is:

1. Recognize ERSO staff employees who demonstrate outstanding customer service.
2. Support one of ERSO’s key priorities and key measures of success- Customer Service.
3. Create a sense of community among staff members within ERSO.

Nominations are submitted online and will be posted in a blog format. Each month the Scoop Salute Troupe will select one winner from the nominations submitted for that particular month. The winner will receive a $75 gift card.

Bi-monthly ERSO will host an Ice Cream Social meeting where the winners will be announced. Please visit the ERSO's Scoop Salute webpage for full details of the program.

http://www.erso.berkeley.edu/recog/

ERSO Celebrates Our Employees!

At the Holiday Party ERSO recognized six employees who celebrated a service milestone this year. We thank these individuals for their dedication and service to the University. Thank you and congratulations!

ERSO SPOT AWARD WINNERS

Kim Chan - Kim is being recognized for her stewardship. She is currently involved in collaborating with an important semiconductor equipment manufacturer in the Bay Area, developing a new electron beam lithography machine. She is performing a preliminary lithography study which will later be used as a baseline for the new tool at the vendor site.

Kit Colwell - Kit was nominated for his outstanding service as a student employee with the specific job of keeping the Microlab and surrounding areas presentable for lab members and VIPs from industry.

Dr. William Flounders - William is the manager of the new CITRIS Marvell nanolab. He has worked effectively with a variety of people over the past few years to design and specify the new facility. This project has proceeded smoothly due to his keen supervision of technical details, initiative, and his diligence and assertiveness in communication.

Leslie Goldstein - Leslie was nominated for her Initiative, Results orientation, and Service. She is acknowledged as being diplomatic, supportive, efficient and effective. She uses good judgment in finding solutions and most of all is a good listener.

Robert Hamilton - Bob is being recognized for his initiative. He has a positive attitude in accepting complete responsibility for his work and never avoids handling and solving the difficult problems. He sets a high standard of work ethic for his staff and others in Cory Hall.

Charlotte Jones - Charlotte is receiving this award for the excellent service she provides to the professors, students and colleagues. She goes beyond the call of duty and sets a fabulous example for her coworkers.

Toni Kovats - Tony is being recognized for his extraordinary perseverance and natural calm has quickly mastered the necessary equipment/processes need for the fabrication of unique devices. He has demonstrated impressive problem solving skills, sound engineering judgment, while providing MEMS-Exchange services.

Julia Lai - Julia was nominated twice for this award for her initiative of anticipating future issues and quickly taking action to resolve complex problems.

Joshua Mendoza - Joshua is being recognized for his stewardship. His contributions of a detailed analysis of the gaseous and liquid nitrogen systems enabled the Microlab to proceed with a request for proposal.

Todd Merport - Todd is being recognized for his result orientation. The Microlab computers operate in real time and are an essential feature of the recharge operation. If the system goes down we are losing income. Under Todd’s leadership we have had unprecedented high up-times in the Microlab.

Sia Parsa - Sia is being recognized for inclusion. He makes sure that contributions by his staff are recognized by all and seeks opportunities to reward them. His dedication to the goal of education, combined with friendly attitude makes our work environment pleasant, in which every one want to make a contribution.

MaryAnne Peters - MaryAnne is being recognized for her service. She is always concerned with the well being of the faculty, graduate and undergraduate students involved in the combustion lab. We can’t imagine how the lab would run with out MaryAnne being in charge of the lab operations.

Farah Pranawahadi - Farah’s nomination is based on her results- oriented approach. She recently facilitated the successful submission of the UC discovery proposal which included coordinating with 20 industry sponsors, other Universities, multiple faculty, and the agency.

Alexander Proshurowski - Olek is being recognized for his result orientation in recent work of migrating hundreds of programs from an older operating system to the latest Solaris release. This required high-level skills in UNIX system administration, C programming, INGRES database administration, and a dedicated approach to understanding Microlab operations.

Jose Santiago - Jose is receiving this award for his results-oriented approach. Recently Jose worked diligently to meet specific requests of an agency which required him to contract 20 sub-awardees, reformat budgets, search old files for data, and respond to the agency. He did all this without neglecting his regular responsibilities.

Nora Segrestan - Nora was nominated twice for this award for demonstrating her collaboration, initiative, and results orientation during the process of preparing the award from NSF/DNDO which resulted in a potential $7.1M award to UCB.

Jukka Pekka Vainio (JP) - JP has distinguished himself and his workgroup through his unselfish commitment to collaboration and knowledge transfer. His efforts to integrate the BSAC network and computing infrastructure into the support and development organizations of EECS has been exemplary.

Matthew Wasilik - Matthew routinely demonstrates his service orientation by being on-call to the process needs of several faculty. His dedication was clear from the multiple evenings and weekend he invested in completing the effort in order to ensure on time delivery to the potential research sponsor, and for this he is deserving of this award.

Wesley Neighbour - Wes has consistently demonstrated tremendous initiative and stewardship in keeping the laboratory fully functional. Recently he took the lead on developing a program to upgrade the safety systems for the hydraulic system which runs most of the equipment. He is a great asset to the operation.

Rebecca Foster joined ERSO's payroll services team on December 3rd. She is located in room 195 on the mezzanine of Cory Hall. Welcome to the team Rebecca!

In the ongoing effort to provide increased customer service and support to the campus, UC has purchased a new Non-Resident Alien (NRA) tax compliance system called GLACIER. GLACIER is a secure, web-based system that will enable our foreign individuals to provide their immigration and tax data to U.C. Berkeley via the internet 24 hours a day. The system helps determine tax residency, withholding rates, income tax, and treaty eligibility.

This software will help keep your foreign individuals up-to-date on their tax information and you will no longer need to be a foreign tax expert. Department support staff will complete the “Initial GLACIER Information Form” (http://payroll.berkeley.edu/GLACIER/GLACIERform.pdf) for each foreign individual who will be receiving payment from the University. This includes non-resident alien employees as well as those individuals receiving scholarships/fellowships, taxable post doc benefit premiums, visiting scholar payments, honoraria, consulting fees, prizes, awards and rent. The foreign individual will enter their tax information directly into GLACIER.

There are two ways to obtain more information about the GLACIER NRA system:

1. The Payroll website (http://payroll.berkeley.edu) has a PowerPoint presentation explaining the department process, forms, FAQ’s and a link to GLACIER.
2. Payroll is hosting several optional training workshops for foreign individuals and department staff who support them. Current workshop dates for foreign individuals are November 20th, 21st, and 26th. Workshop dates for department support staff are November 8th and December 3rd. To sign up for these workshops, please visit ICE at (http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/ice/home/).

Relevant Link(s): http://payroll.berkeley.edu/GLACIER/GLACIERIndex.htm

Business Travel Insurance Available for UC Employees

[If you travel on University business, or if you work with students who travel for University-affiliated activities, please read this message].

Effective immediately, the University's Business Travel Insurance carrier has changed to ACE USA. When traveling on official University business, employees will still be covered worldwide, 24 hours a day, for a wide variety of accidents and incidents; however, the new coverage is broader and more generous than UC's previous coverage. (Students are covered by a similar policy and they are receiving a separate message describing the new coverage.)

The new coverage includes:

• Emergency Medical Evacuation
• Security Extraction
• Out-of-Country Medical ($50 deductible)
• Loss of Personal Effects (passport, baggage,wallet, etc.)
• Other Travel Assistance Services (legal referrals, translation services, etc.)
• Accidental Death, Dismemberment, Paralysis, or Permanent Total Disability
• Repatriation of Remains

NOTE: Travelers must register at http://www.uctravel.org to ensure coverage for each business trip.

Prior to departure, travelers must complete the Business Traveler Insurance Form found at http://www.uctravel.org . Once the brief form is completed, the traveler will be able to print a Confirmation of Coverage containing information to use in an emergency while traveling either domestically or abroad. The confirmation will include the traveler's name, UC's policy number, and the travel dates. Registration at http://www.uctravel.org will ensure coverage for the traveler and any dependents traveling with the employee while on official University business. Registration information will verify eligibility to the insurance company in the event a traveler needs to use any benefit, request travel assistance services, or submit a claim. Registration for each trip will also facilitate University assistance for the traveler in the event of an emergency.

Travelers will need to get a new confirmation each time they travel. For future reference, please bookmark the website at http://www.uctravel.org. You can also find links to the website on the Travel & Entertainment website (http://travel.berkeley.edu) and on Risk Management's website (http://riskmanagement.berkeley.edu/).

For more information, please contact ersotravelhelp@erso.berkeley.edu or call the Office of Risk Management at 642-5141 ; email risk@berkeley.edu.

ERSO Welcomes a New Employee!

ERSO Intranet Version 3.0 Released October 15

We are pleased to announce that version 3.0 of ERSO intranet has been in production since Monday, October 15. You will find many improvements including:

• Single Sign On authentication.
• On-line submission of Entertainment Reimbursements requests (under "Services").
• A new "People" page with all the personnel associated with each of faculty’s research grants, refreshed monthly. This includes pay rates, and is only visible by faculty and by authorized ERSO personnel.
• Excel downloads of your archived purchase request records.
• Automatic email notifications about financial reports, including direct navigation to the latest report.

We encourage you to visit http://www.erso.berkeley.edu/ and contact ERSO Intranet Team ersointranet @ erso.berkeley.edu with your comments and suggestions.

New NSF Award & Administration Guidelines

The Award and Administration Guide (AAG) (Part II of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide) sets forth NSF policies regarding the award and administration of grants and cooperative agreements and implements Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-110, Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education. The AAG can be found here:
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf08_1/aag081print.pdf

ERSO Celebrates Our Employees!

At our quarterly meeting and BBQ, ERSO recognized ten employees who celebrated a service milestone this year. We thank these individuals for their dedication and service to the University. Thank you and congratulations!

10 Years of Service
Carlos Andrade
Josel Calizo
Laneida Nakagawa
Shakhzod Takhirov

15 Years of Service
Christopher Brooks
Claire Johnson
Joe Gavazza

20 Years of Service
Madeleine Leullier
Todd Merport

25 Years of Service
Robert Amaral

ERSO SPOT AWARD WINNERS!

At the ERSO quarterly staff meeting and BBQ, ERSO recognized nine employees who were nominated for the SPOT award. The awardees were nominated for achieving one or more of the program’s criteria of collaboration, inclusion, initiative, result-orientation, service or stewardship. Each employee received a certificate and a check for $250! SPOT award winners:

Helen Kim - Helen took a leading role to facilitate necessary steps in helping create the new Science and Technology Center. She showed collaboration and set a great example by working with various graduate students and professors in the proposal preparation process.
Evan Stateler - Evan did great work replacing the laser light source used on an ASML deep ultraviolet wafer stepper. His hard work installing and aligning the laser and more importantly the coordination of the digital command from the stepper to the laser was a terrific technical achievement which brought accolades from Professors and disbelief from the tool vendor.
Danny Pestal - Danny is receiving this award for his innovative design of a digital microscope capable of precision measurements of extremely small features.
Jay Morford - Jay is receiving this award for his enthusiastic support of the Microlab’s outreach programs in addition to its research mission. He participated in fabrication of unique experimental setups for new areas of research (spintronics) and for his stewardship of equipment under his responsibility.
David Lo - David provides responsive support and liaison with equipment vendors enabling enhanced stewardship and development of Microlab’s equipment. The relationship that he developed with AllWin21 engineers, who support the legacy tools, resulted in them donating a fourth system and four computer upgrades to the Microlab.
Vincent Tannura - Vincent provides reliable service to the Microlab as a laboratory stocker, inventory clerk and for preparation and documentation of chemical waste disposal.
Robert Miller - Bob consistently provides excellent service. He troubleshoots problematic purchasing requisitions, and takes initiative to resolve and move along requests in a quick time frame.
Peter Tabada - Peter utilized his computer knowledge and skills to assist the Process Engineer Manager in a project to convert all current furnace recipes into word files. He also performed equipment qualification tests after the upgrade and repairs on Lam22 and Technics-C machines.
Raza Uddin - Raza is a very active member of the Microlab Process Staff. He often performs above and beyond the call of duty. More recently he conducted acid changes in sink 6 and sink 8, as well as tested monitors, both are great examples of his extra effort and willingness to get the job done when needed.

The next deadline for SPOT award nominations is November 9, 2007. Recipients will be recognized at the Holiday party in December.

Fall 2007 GSR Hiring Sessions

ERSO HR Operations will be hosting 4 drop-in GSR Hiring Sessions Monday, August 27, 2007. Hiring sessions will begin on the hour starting at 8:00 and ending at 12:00. The sessions will be held in Room 521 Cory Hall. Please bring two forms of identification (Social Security Card, Driver's License, Passport), a voided check and your completed GSR Appointment Forms A, B & C. Foreign students should bring any immigration documents ( I-20, I-94, DS-2019). HR Representatives will be available to assist you throughout the sessions. Space is limited to 30 students per session.

New Facilities and Administrative Cost Rates

The campus has a new multi-year Facilities and Administration (indirect cost) rate agreement with the federal government. The agreement, dated July 31, 2007, specifies the F&A rates to be applied to awards from federal and non-federal sponsors. Berkeley's last rate agreement expired on June 30, 2006 and allowed for provisional rates through
June 30, 2007. Under the new agreement the rate for on-campus research increases to 53 percent on July 1, 2007 and to 53.5 percent on July 1, 2009. The off-campus research rate will remain at 26 percent.

Rates for awards with start dates prior to July 1, 2006 will remain at their current levels for the remaining life of the award, including non-competing budget periods. The new rate schedule applies to new awards (including new competing budget periods) received on or after July 1, 2006. Thus the overhead rate applied to a multi-year on-campus competitive research award received on or after July 1, 2006 will be 52 percent through June 30, 2007, 53 percent from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2009, and 53.5 percent thereafter. These rates will be applied automatically by the Controller's Office.

ERSO Welcomes New Staff!

We are excited to welcome Chantel Evin and Cherry Yalung. Chantel and Cherry are new RSOs who joined us in July and August. Chantel is located in 3119 Etcheverry. Cherry is located on the 5th floor of Cory Hall. Welcome to the ERSO team Chantel and Cherry!

Office Self-Inspections

In an effort to reduce workplace accidents and maintain a safe working environment for employees the campus Illness & Injury Prevention Plan (IIPP) and Cal/OSHA require each of us to perform and document self-inspections of workspaces on an annual basis. Cal/OSHA mandates that we look for certain issues including;

• proper electrical grounding of equipment
• power strips have circuit breakers and extension cords are not used
• tall furniture should be braced
• the floor should be free of slip and trip hazards
• the self-closing device on doors should work properly
• employees should have an ergonomic evaluation done on their workstation if they spend more than fours hours each day working on a computer.

Please use the linked form to complete an evaluation of your own workspace. If you identify any issues that need to be addressed make sure that you explain them on the form. The Safety Team member for your building or the Department Safety Coordinator (Stephanie Gangl) will follow up with you to fix those issues. Forms should be completed by September 1st and can be sent to the Safety Team member or Stephanie.

Building Committee Member(s):
Department Safety Coordinator (DSC): Stephanie Gangl
Cory: Melissa Chavez, Isabel Chen, Elise Mills
Soda: Linda Stubbs
Etcheverry: Stephanie Gangl
McLaughlin: Alice Wong
Richmond Field Station: Nancy Nelson
O’Brien: Stephanie Gangl
BWRC: Tom Boot
Davis: Stephanie Gangl
Hesse: Stephanie Gangl

If you are unsure how to answer any of the questions on the form contact your Building Safety Committee member or the Department Safety Coordinator.

Self Inspection Form

Payroll Paper Direct Deposit Statements to be Discontinued
July 1, 2007

Instructions: Print Your Payroll Direct Deposit Earnings Statement

As of July 1, 2007, paper copies of earnings statements ("pay stubs") will no longer be automatically printed for employees who have their pay directly deposited into their bank accounts. (Note: July paychecks reflect June earnings.)

We believe this step will reduce departmental work loads with the added benefit of cutting back on clutter and paper use. Now is an excellent time to sign up for direct deposit so your wages will be automatically deposited into the bank account of your choice. Sign up on https://blu.berkeley.edu > People and you too can go to a secure webpage to view your wages and withholdings. Gone are the days of having to worry about getting to your Department or to the Payroll Office to pick up your check.

Employees who receive paper checks will not be affected by this change. For employees who have automatic deposit but prefer to continue receiving paper statements, more information is available on the Payroll website at http://payroll.berkeley.edu .

If you need more information, please contact Payhelp@berkeley.edu or Pam Heintzleman, Manager of Payroll, at pheintzleman@berkeley.edu.

John Ellis, Associate Vice Chancellor-Finance and Controller

ERSO’s First Bring Your Child to Work Day

On April 26, 2007 ERSO celebrated the national Bring Your Child to Work Day. ERSO children had an opportunity to experience what it’s like to work at UC Berkeley. It was an action packed day for 16 ERSO children and their parents/guardians. The day consisted of various activities including: an engineering project using K-nex, conversation café where children created collages and shared their career aspirations, touring the police department, visiting the dinosaurs in the Valley Life Sciences building, attending the Chancellor’s sponsored lunch, visiting the Lawrence Hall of Science, and concluding with a wrap-up session where the children shared their thoughts for the day. The children also received goodies from various departments on campus. A special thank you to the Rad Lab who donated great Rad Lab backpacks- the children really thought the backpacks were cool! Also, the athletics department donated pom-poms, cheer posters, football trade cards, and other goodies. Printing services also gave us useful notepads. Overall it was a day full of learning and an exciting time both for the children and for the adults.

Many thanks to this year’s committee: Cindy Kennon, Eboni Wilson, Isabel Chen, Leisa Lei, Jennifer Kim, Melissa Chavez, Natasha Singh, Stephanie Gangl, and Cynthia Weekley who made the event a success. We look forward to creating an annual tradition with this event and hope more of you join us next year.

Click this link to view a photo gallery of our action packed day!

MICROLAB Internship Opportunity

ERSO announces its first internship opportunity. The Microlab is offering a 5- month internship at the Development Technician IV classification. The purpose of the internship is to offer career development opportunities to ERSO employees and to cultivate skills in the Development Technician IV classification in support of the current Microlab, and in preparation of the expansion of the new Marvell laboratory facility. We are now accepting applications for the internship. The application submission deadline is Friday, June 22nd. Please review the attached document which includes, the application form, details about the internship, and the job description. For questions please contact Cynthia Weekley, HR Director at 3-8423 or Rosemary Spivey, Microlab Administrative Manager, at 2-2716. We are looking forward to a successful internship and hope that you will consider this opportunity!

ERSO Welcomes New Staff!

We are excited to welcome Rebecca Weaver-Gill. Rebecca is a new RSO who joined us on May 14th and she will be located in Etcheverry. Welcome to the ERSO team Rebecca!

ERSO Welcomes New Staff!

Lena Lau-Stewart joined ERSO’s travel and entertainment reimbursement team on April 23, 2007. Lena will be working as a T&E reimbursement coordinator and will be located in Soda Hall.
Jeanette Witt will join ERSO on April 30, 2007. Jeanette is the new Purchasing Manager/Buyer who will lead the new purchasing services team for ERSO. Jeanette will be located in McLaughlin. We are very excited to have new colleagues and welcome both Lena and Jeanette to our team.

ERSO SPOT AWARD WINNERS!

At the ERSO quarterly staff meeting, ERSO recognized nine employees who were nominated for the SPOT award. The awardees were nominated for achieving one or more of the program’s criteria of collaboration, inclusion, initiative, result-orientation, service or stewardship. Each employee received a certificate and a check for $250! SPOT award winners:

• Heather Jones- Nominated for demonstrating SERVICE by going beyond the call of duty and commitment to BSAC’s success.
• Judy Tam- Nominated for SERVICE and RESULTS ORIENTATION for doing a fantastic job handling multiple, complex and ever changing project proposals.
• Janny Chiu- Nominated (twice) for COLLABORATION and SERVICE for always willing to share her knowledge with her teammates and inspiring others to do great work.
• Nancy Nelson- Nominated for INITIATIVE by providing outstanding leadership in EERC’s effort to develop a sustained K-12 outreach program.
• Joseph Donnelly- Nominated for INITIATIVE for organizing of family friendly summertime picnics for graduate students, faculty, campus and national lab researchers, visiting scholars, and industry affiliates.
• Phillip Guillory- Nominated for STEWARDSHIP by improving the safety and décor of the Cory Hall Machine Shop and for saving UCB energy.
• Susan Kellogg-Smith- Nominated for RESULTS ORIENTATION for working above the requirements of her position to help the Machine Shop while staff was on leave.
• Thomas Muniz- Nominated for STEWARDSHIP for the terrific work he did in designing a replacement photochemical image process tool for the Microlab.
• Rosemary Spivey- Nominated for RESULTS ORIENTATION for her diligent management of the Microlab budget and her meticulous attention to keeping the finances in control.

UC Berkeley Policy on Accommodation of Research Doctoral Graduate Student Parents (Effective Fall Semester 2007)

As many as one in ten of Berkeley's graduate students is a parent of a young child or children. Recognizing the special challenges involved in balancing advanced degree programs and family responsibilities, the University is committed to supporting policies, programs, and services to help graduate student parents meet their family care obligations while they pursue their academic goals.
Parental Accommodations for Research Doctoral Students In its revised 2003 policy, the Graduate Council of the Academic Senate encourages academic departments to be as generous as possible in accommodating student parents and it establishes minimum standards of accommodation. Research doctoral students who are undergoing childbirth or coping with other serious parenting demands must be granted additional time to meet established deadlines for passing preliminary and/or qualifying examinations and completing their dissertations. [more information]

J-1 Scholar New 5-Year Rule

New 5-Year Rule / 24 Month Bar for J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa for Professor/Research Scholar Categories On January 11, 2007 the U.S. Department of State (DOS) published a final rule to implement key changes to the Exchange Visitor regulations affecting the J - Professor and Research Scholar categories.
The effective date of the rule is retroactive to November 18, 2006. The major changes to the rule are as follows:
* The maximum period of participation for J Professors and Researchers Scholars has been increased from three years to five years. The five-year period is not an aggregate of five years. It is a continuous five-year period given to a participant on a "use or lose" basis.
* A new 24-month bar on repeat participation in the J Professor or Research Scholar categories will apply to those who complete their program participation in those categories.
* This rule applies to any J Professor and Research Scholar who completes their J program on or after November 18, 2006, i.e. any Professor or Research Scholar active at the Berkeley campus or elsewhere in the U.S. after 11/18/06 would be subject to the bar. (The J-1 category can be found in section 4 of the DS-2019.) [more information]

2006 W-2s Have Been Mailed to Employees' Home Addresses

2006 W-2s have been mailed to the home addresses on file in the payroll system for employees in Engineering Research Support Organization (ERSO), Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC), and Institute for Environmental Science and Engineering (IESE). The home addresses used for the 2006 W-2 mailing were on file in the payroll system as of December 12, 2006.

Requests for address updates may also be submitted to the ERSO HR Operations staff HROPS

Former employees or employees who do not have access to the ezW-2 review and print option may request that the Central Payroll Office send a duplicate 2006 W-2 to their new address. All such requests should be directed to: PAYHELP, and must include Employee Name and Employee ID number or birth date, their NEW address, city, state, zip code and a phone number should there be any questions. Central Payroll will begin sending out duplicate W2s by February 15th.

ERSO Relocations and Reassignments in Jan/Feb 2007
Materiel Management

ERSO will be reorganizing its Materiel Management group in early 2007. This reorganization will entail splitting out the Purchasing functions and the Travel and Entertainment functions into separate Teams. The Purchasing Team will relocate their offices from 412 O’Brien to 312 McLaughlin and the Travel and Entertainment Team will remain in SODA Hall. Ellen Chang will be the Manager of the Travel and Entertainment Team and ERSO is currently recruiting for a Buyer IV to lead the Purchasing Team.

Research Administration

The Research Administration Team currently serving the CEE faculty is now led by Jennifer Stone, previously a Team Lead on the 5th Floor of Cory Hall. We have recently hired a RSO, Jose Santiago, who has joined Jennifer’s team. In addition to the current team load, Jennifer will continue to provide research administrative services to BWRC and GSRC. Given the increased size of the team and limited space available in Davis Hall, ERSO will be moving part of the team to O’Brien once the purchasing team vacates and the space is configured appropriately. The team led by Shivani Bhatia on Cory 5th floor will pick up the research administration load for the DOP previously managed by Jennifer. Recruitment is underway for an additional RSO for Shivani’s team. Jane Doyle, SODA Hall Research Administration Team Lead became the Team Lead for the Etcheverry ERSO team as well December 1, 2006. Jane is a very experienced research administrator and skilled manager and will provide leadership and oversight to the Etcheverry Team as appropriate. To help facilitate the significant increased load that Jane is facing, ERSO has promoted Leslie Goldstein to Assistant Team Lead in SODA Hall.

Academic HR Services

Lena Holstein and her assistant, Natasha Singh, will be relocating to the Mezzanine of Cory Hall in order to be closer to the other HR functions of the organization.

ERSO Welcomes New Staff!

Jose Santiago joined the ERSO team as a new RSO on January 16th. Jose joined Jennifer Stone's team.
ERSO welcomes back Nora Segrestan who rejoined the team as a RSO. Nora joined Jane Doyle's team on January 17th.

We extend a warm welcome to all new, and returning, employees joining our team. Welcome!

ERSO SPOT AWARD WINNERS!

9 ERSO employees were recognized as the first recipients of the SPOT Award. Congratulations!

At this year’s Holiday party, ERSO awarded nine employees who were nominated for the SPOT award. The awardees were nominated for achieving one or more of the program’s criteria of collaboration, inclusion, initiative, result-orientation, service or stewardship. Each employee received a certificate and a check for $250! SPOT award winners:

• TK Chen- Results Orientation and Collaboration in developing the new ERSO website
• Damon Hinson- Initiative and Service for aiding in the recovery of funds and managing many complex grants, MICROs, and industry gifts.
• Cathy Jen- Initiative and Results Orientation in developing the new ERSO website
• Misty Kiuchi- Results Orientation for resolving long standing overdrafts and deficits
• Marilyn Kushner- Initiative for overseeing the successful annual Microlab Cleanfest
• Gus Monino- Results Orientation and Collaboration in developing the new ERSO website
• Carol Sitea- Results Orientation and Collaboration in developing the new ERSO website
• Cynthia Weekley- Results Orientation and Collaboration in developing the new ERSO website
• Changrui Yin- Results Orientation in upgrading hardware while making changeover transparent to Microlab staff.

CONGRATULATIONS to all of our SPOT award recipients and GREAT WORK!
Next deadline for SPOT award nominations is February 23, 2007

ERSO Celebrates Our Employees!
ERSO recognized four employees who celebrated a service milestone this year. We thank these individuals for their dedication and service to the University.  Thank you and Congratulations!

Adrienne Ruff celebrates 10 years of service.
MaryAnne Peters celebrates15 years of service.
Susan Mellers celebrates 15 years of service.
Kevin Zimmerman celebrates 20 years of service.

ERSO Intranet Release 2.03 Launched November 30
We are pleased to announce that the ERSO intranet release 2.03 is now available on line. The new release provides cleaner and simpler navigation, and a variety of features based on input of users over the past year. Some of the new features are:

• Add chartstring information on the email notifications;
• User with approval password can approve and submit request without re-entering the password;
• Provide file upload capability to purchasing staff without changing the status of an order;
• Add "order by" personal information to a request;
• One click to send email to the person within an order;
• Change "Not yet selected" to "Not listed";
• Change the button from "Upload document and/or save" to "Upload document and submit";
• Restore "Advanced Search" feature;
• Add a link for purchasing staff to see all canceled requests.

Thanks to all our users who provided feedback to ERSO Intranet team. Your participation greatly contributes to the intuitiveness and usability of ERSO Intranet. Please contact ersointranet@erso.berkeley.edu with your comments and suggestions.

2006 Energy Curtailment
The annual energy curtailment will occur this year between Monday, December 25th and Monday, January 1st. ERSO will be closed during this time and will reopen on January 2nd. Happy Holidays!

Academic Research Manual now available!
We are pleased to announce that the Academic Research Manual is now available on line. It can be found in the HR Reference section of this site in the Academic Research Appointment category. This tool will be very helpful in the appointment process. The manual includes important information regarding the various research titles, visiting titles, pay rates, appointment criteria, do's and don'ts, limitations, checklists, and other essential data regarding the academic research appointment process. Refer to this comprehensive tool for valuable information and please contact ERSO’s HR Operations team for assistance with your HR needs.

ERSO Welcomes New Staff!
Alan Briggs joins the ERSO Shipping and Receiving team. Alan started on November 1st as a Shipping and Receiving Coordinator.
Carolyn Remick has been hired as the first Executive Director of the Berkeley Water Center, a collaborative center with the College of Natural Resources. Carolyn will join us on December 1st.
Larry Rohrbough will join ERSO in January 2007 as the new Executive Director for TRUST.

We extend a warm welcome to all new employees joining our team. Welcome!

Intranet training available November and December, 2006
We are pleased to announce that the following ERSO intranet training sessions will be offered: November 29 and December 12, 2-3 pm in 521 Cory Hall. The training sessions are specifically designed for faculty, graduate students and programmatic staff who are interested in using the ERSO intranet system for on-line processing and tracking of purchase requests and supply reimbursements. ERSO introduced the purchasing intranet about a year ago and many intranet users have subsequently enjoyed a quicker, more efficient and transparent process. We are now ready to phase out the paper process completely. This transition will start in January, 2007, going completely paperless by July 1, 2007. We encourage interested faculty, students and program staff attend one of these training sessions.

To enroll in one of the scheduled sessions or to schedule a custom session for your entire research team, please contact Melissa Chavez at 3-3394 or email at m_chavez@erso.berkeley.edu

$100,000 in prizes for student “Big Ideas”
Rising to a challenge to design creative strategies to solve campus and world problems, 29 teams of students have been awarded over $100,000 in prize money. Selected from over 90 submissions in 10 categories, the winning proposals include a design for improved cook stoves for refugee camps in Darfur, blueprints for revamping a UC Berkeley campus plaza, and a strategy for using municipal waste materials to create electricity, ethanol and fertilizer.
[learn more]

2006 MacArthur Fellows
Claire Tomlin, an aviation engineering professor who holds a joint appointment at UC Berkeley and Stanford, is one of 25 MacArthur Fellows named this year. MacArthur Fellowships come without stipulations or reporting requirements, offering the opportunity for Fellows to accelerate their current activities or take their work in new directions - and they also are given $500,000 with no strings attached.
[learn more]

New Spot Awards Program for Staff, September 1
Now supervisors, managers, and other campus individuals have a new way to recognize noteworthy achievements by non-represented staff employees as they occur. Spot Award recipients will receive cash awards of $250 (less taxes) based on a defined set of criteria that are consistent across campus. Individuals may receive one Berkeley Campus Spot Award per fiscal year. You may read the Campus Memo and further details about the program and the criteria at http://recognition.berkeley.edu/. [learn more]