I.    Welcome (Cliff Lee) -

In the event of an evacuation during the meeting, participants are requested to exit through the back doors and report across from the mall at the American History Museum. If an evacuation is necessary, alarm bells will ring and an announcement will be made over the loudspeaker advising us to leave the building.

II.   Customer Service Improvement Project (Jerry Lohfink) -

Last summer Mr. Ortego and Mr. Lohfink attended a CAPPS meeting and one of the topics discussed was Customer Service Improvement. At that time we indicated that NFC would identify how it can improve its services with the customers. NFC has documented internal issues and now it is time to obtain info from the CAPPS community. NFC has acquired a partner in this process - Accenture Corporation. A customer service meeting will be held to provide input to the capabilities and processes. In addition, the info gathering team will be holding one-on-one interviews with some agency representatives, as well as with other individuals at higher and/or lower levels in the organization. The goal of these meetings is to help identify what is important to our clients and what is working and/or not working in your organizations as they relate to NFC. The info team will work with the CAPPS representatives to identify those individuals or positions that will be targeted for interviews. The info team plans to hold a focus group session after the July CAPPS Meeting to discuss these issues. The info team's goal is to conclude this review by the end of July before moving onto the next steps of best practices improvement and implementation of a plan. We will contact you before implementation begins to discuss findings and recommendations. We might receive twelve good recommendations, in which case, NFC will need to know what the priorities are. Jerry expressed his appreciation of the clients' continued support and requested involvement and participation in this project.

A. Q&A

1. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - You mentioned that the initial Focus group will be held on the afternoon of the July CAPPS meeting. How long is this meeting expected to last? A: Jerry - It is expected to go approximately 90 minutes.
   
   
2. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - How does USDA fall into this picture because they are unique as far as your customers are concerned? A: Jerry - USDA will be approached two ways - in the Focus group and via identify positions for the 1-on-1 interviews.
   
   
3. DoraLee Rosendorf (TR) - Does this mean you'll be interviewing individuals from some of the bureaus? A: Jerry - Probably; NFC will make initial contact at the department level to ensure that agencies want us to contact those levels.
   

III.   Client Rebates - (Jerry Lohfink)

Jerry reminded the clients of his discussions with them during the HR Customer Briefing this past April during which he mentioned the potential for a rebate in FY2003. He indicated that by early next week Pat Hanks will be sending notices of these rebates. The rebates are the result of NFC's projections thru the end of the fiscal year. Some of the recent unplanned and unbudgeted overtime from the pay raise have been offset by these rebates. The remainder of the rebate funds will be returned to the client agencies. The intention is to offset July's billing by the amount of a client's rebate. In essence, a client's July bill will be reduced by its rebate amount.

A. Q&A

1. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - How is USDA handled in this case? Jerry - USDA has already consumed their rebate. USDA's Working Capital Fund took the rebate off the top.
   
   
2. Tom Neumeister (SM) - To whom at the agency will Pat be providing the notice of rebate or whom will she be contacting about it? A: Jerry - There is a contact point on the reimbursement agreement with every agency. That is the individual who will receive notification of the rebate.
   
   
3. Mary Arnold (DOC) - Is this going to set a precedence that an agency might expect this every year? A: Jerry - Every year NFC strives to operate as cost effective as possible. This is not intended to set a precedent. We will try to set the rate more closely at the beginning of the year, if we can.
   
   
4. Mary Arnold (DOC) - Does that mean our FY 04 projection will be  amended? Jerry - Yes, we are working on this now based on reduced costs for IRMD and Operational areas.

      Jerry thanked the representatives for granting him time to discuss these       issues.

IV.   Retroactive 2003 Pay Adjustment (Cliff Lee)

A.  Recap of Pay Period 10 Processing - (Steve Cunningham) Many individuals have requested that NFC develop FOCUS reports to assist in monitoring personnel actions. Steve Cunningham has developed two reports ("FYI" library) RETRO and RETROXL for the Excel downloadable file. The foc exec goes against PAYTA and generates two reports: 1) employees that "processed normally" (i.e., the base salary changed from PP-09 to PP-10 and they had 19 pay records for PP-10); and 2) employees that did not "process normally" and MAY be a problem. (i.e., the salary stayed the same OR they did not have 19 pay history records in PP-10). The reports contain the following fields: SSN, name, occ series, PSG, and duty station. The reports are sorted by agency and then POI.

1. Vickie Cline (DHS) - What about those individuals who left or arrived between PP-01 and PP-10? They were not there for the entire period. A: These individuals will appear on the 2nd report. Being on the second report does not mean that they were processed wrong it simply means that they did not have 19 records and MAY have a problem.
   
   
2. Cliff Lee (PPSPS) - Does the first report indicate the pay period amounts an employee was paid? A: No, that information is only for the 2nd report. The HR office will need to look for the anomalies.
   
   
3. Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) - Can NFC add a couple of fields? A: No, these reports were developed quickly to meet agencies' needs. Changes should be made at the agency level.
   
   
4. Mary Arnold (DOC) - I am assuming that wage grades are not on the list.
   
   
5. Vickie Cline (DHS) - What about all of the employees who were transferred in PP-05 to DHS. The only records that should have been one for them are those from PP-05 to PP-10 which is a total of 11 records and not 19. Can NFC change it for DHS since their office does not have a FOCUS expert on staff? A: No, if you need changes to this report, you will need to make them on the agency level. There should be someone in one of the origination agencies that knows how to do this.
   
   
6. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - We appreciate the report, but can we get one that shows the pay periods that they did NOT get paid? A: No, this is generic data that indicates what was manipulated in PP-10. We are not going back to previous pay periods to do the -/+ adjustments on this.
   
   
7. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Can we share our changed FOCUS reports with each other? A: Yes. PPSPS will send a report after the meeting to CAPPS and you can do a "reply all" to share your changes.

B. Pay Period 12 Processing of DHS and ATF HCUP packages in former agencies (Glenda Dorsey) - NFC is waiting until more of the PP-10 pending HCUP cases are cleaned-up and applied to the database before generating additional HCUP cases. It will not be done in PP-12. At this point, we don't know when it will be. It depends on how rapidly the pending items can be cleared from suspense/SINQ.

C. Pay Period 12 Processing of retroactive wage grade increases (Glenda Dorsey) - These items are on hold also until further notice.

Q&A: Vickie Cline (DHS) - I agree with the methodology. Will there be any testing or any advance notice of when NFC plans to proceed on these issues? A: Glenda - You will have advance notice and we hope that the agencies will identify issues in testing that can be worked on prior to the implementation.

V.   New Federal Income Tax Withholding Rates (Cliff Lee) -

The information relating to the new federal tax withholding rates is published and on the IRS website. NFC will be implementing the new withholding rates in Pay Period 13. We recognize that there are some rumors because the tax change is reported as "retro-active". Despite the controversy, the payroll offices were told not to make it retro to Pay Period 01. The "retro-active" clause will take affect when an employee files his/her tax return for 2003.

VI.  Thrift Savings Plan Update (Jody Nyers)

A. TSP Catch Up Contributions effective in PP 16. If you receive forms for entry you must hold them until PP 16. Employee Express will be ready in PP-16 also.

1. Mary Arnold (DOC) - Will the catch-up contributions be on the EPP? A: Yes, they will be there by September/October.
   
   
2. Bettina (OCC) - Will the plan code (06) be a separate line item on the E&L statement? A: No, due to the limitations on the paper E&L statement this is not possible.
   
   
3. Lucy McCabe (FDIC) - She can see hers on the EPP and  they do appear as a separate line item on the EPP. However, you cannot do this in EARN or the E&L. When you elect to print the E&L via the EPP, the print out reflects only a combined figure as it runs thru the ELS software. BUT, if you are viewing the EPP page you can print the page to obtain line item data. Post Meeting Note: Jody is following up on this issue.

2. TSP Implementation of the Daily Valuation System - TSP launched the system on Monday, June 16, with no advance announcement. The feature of greatest interest is the change from monthly valuation to daily valuation of accounts. This change means that investors will be able to get account balances updated every business day rather than having to wait until month's end, and transactions (e.g., loans, withdrawal requests, and transfers of money among the TSP funds) will occur much faster. Accounts now are being expressed in terms of numbers of shares owned and share price rather than just by a bottom-line dollar amount. NOTE: On June 17th, Jody attempted to access her account data several times without success. According to the TSP Board, the system received too many hits for it to handle at this time. According to the Washington Post's Federal Diary column, TSP had indicated that a device that routes information from one network to another broke down which slowed down the process. TSP also discovered that part of the system designed to speed access was malfunctioning. Despite these glitches, as of COB Monday, June 16, participants initiated 58,958 interfund transfers and 52,511 contribution changes.

VII.   Flexible Spending Account Update - (Jody Nyers)

OPM issued BAL's 03-801, 03-802, 03-803, and 03-804. The current open season runs thru June 27th. The PP-13 effective date is delayed due to an outstanding issue on the employee fees which agencies are now being encouraged to pay. OPM sent out a memo on June 13th urging agencies to pick up these fees for employees (the memo and the latest BAL were emailed to CAPPS Reps and Agency Benefit Officers on June 17th). It's imperative that agencies email Laurie Bodenheimber at lrbodenh@opm.gov advising whether or not your agency plans to pay the fee. If they are, then realize this is NOT an NFC issue but rather an issue between OPM, SHPS and the agency to collect the fees. If the agency is not going to pay the fee, then the employee will pay it. NFC will program as we did for Long Term Care Insurance and deduct the payment as directed by SHPS from the employee's salary check. However, NFC will not handle the collection of the administrative fees.

A. Glenda indicated that they would like to implement in PP-13 but that NFC has not been able to test because SHPS has not supplied the test data. If the testing does not happen, they will not implement in PP 13. Agencies must work with SHPS to arrange the payment of the administrative fee. This is not going to be handled by NFC

1. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) NFC's bulletin 03-4 dated May 27th indicates that FSAs will begin in PP-12, has this bulletin been revised? A: Glenda/Jody - The bulletin may be revised. However, NFC is waiting on SHPS to provide data for testing and hopes to begin in PP-13. At this point we cannot guarantee the effective pay period for a new bulletin.
   
   
2. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) OPM has indicated that open season closes on June 27th. However, the employee needs to know how many pay periods they can make a deduction for which they can control the amount of money they want to withheld. A: Jody - That is correct, but SHPS and/or OPM are causing the delay, not NFC. You should have the employees complain to SHPS and OPM.

B. SHPS will be at the Fall Health Fairs and plans to have web and phone access.

C. SHPS prefers claims to be FAXed to them (versus mail or E-mail). They have also indicated that they have a 5-day turnaround time for paying the claim.

1. FCC - Is there a formula that can be used to determine the Agency's savings if they pay? A: Jody - OPM is working on a BAL that can provide some of that information within the next week or two. Glenda indicated what the agency saves is the 6.5% on the amount of the FLSA deduction (i.e. the amount that the employee switches from post-tax to pre-tax dollars).

D. Representatives should check out the SHPS website for more info: www.fsafeds.com

VIII.   OPM Benefits Conference Updates - (Jody Nyers)

A.  Permissible Events - BAL 03-207 and 03-207a were issued on June 16th reflecting a change to the Table of Permissible Events (ie., Qualified Life Events (QLEs)) for premium conversion of health benefits. Now that the QLE's have been modified, all NFC systems will need to be updated. The BAL was issued with no advance notice to payroll offices so NFC has not been able to update the client version of EPIC at this point but we are working on it. In the meantime, agencies will need to use the "Event Code That Permits Change" in EPIC that best describes the transaction. Fortunately, the two most used codes are 1A "initial opportunity" and 1B "open season" did not change. Most of the other codes did change. We will let you know when EPIC has been modified with these changes. Eventually the SF-2809 will be updated but not before this Fall's Open Season.

1. Glenda - This is more than an EPIC change. This is a BIG system change, which will take some time to accomplish. Currently, NFC does not have a timeframe for implementation. Glenda is concerned about making changes in the system prior to the new release of the SF-2809 and what issues that may cause if we have a code with one meaning on the SF-2809 and a different one in the system
2. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Do these codes go to CPDF? A: We are not sure. Cheryl expressed her concerned about the size of the CPDF error report if the "wrong" data is submitted to OPM.
3. Jody ran some generic reports for each CV to get counts on the number of employees not participating in PC-HB and they are: CV 5 = about 2,900 which includes about 1,000 DHS employees; CV 6 = about 2,800 and CV 7 = about 1,100.
4. Frank (TR) - Is Premium Conversion automatic? A. Yes, unless the employee elects not to participate.

B. Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) - OPM indicated that they had a very successful open season and 1st year. 265,000 applications were received and 200,000 have been enrolled and more continue each pay period.

C. FEGLI - OPM has received many questions on when the next FEGLI Open Season will be. OPM is not aware of any plan to offer an open season for FEGLI but plans to alert OFEGLI that there is a great deal of interest in having one.

D. BAL 03-206 - FEHB plan code AA (in Alabama) is being discontinued as of June 30th; make sure you check with your agencies so employees do not get caught without insurance.

E. LTCI has contacted Jody regarding some agencies that have employees who have moved to DHS and others who did not. The main question is were Agencies and/or POI's moved as a group? FEMA indicated "yes" while Customs indicated "no". Jody will send an e-mail to the pertinent reps for clarification.

Post meeting update: Jody ran a report and found several of these agency/POI combinations have employees in them and will alert LTCI not to delete these agency/POI's from their system.

F. Remark codes M94, M95, and M96 concerning "deemed FERS retirement" have been updated. One of the agencies needed to enter this remark but the system would not permit it and the agency had to use 499 to get the action to apply. Now that the remarks have been updated; if anyone uses them, let Jody know if they apply correctly.

IX.  Employee Express Update - (George Morris) -

Testing will run from June 15 -27,2003. The Macon staff has updated a lot of the hardware and software used for EEX. Some functionality is being updated as well. There were some minor problems with data feeds, but they believe that will be taken care of those issues.

EEX does not plan to permit enrollment in FSA or LTC; however, a link to the vendor will be provided.

OCC - Has there been any consideration for including union dues on the EEX? A: No, union dues are not currently on the table as a change that EEX will be adding for the Fall release. Each agency has a representative with EEX who should submit their issues. If OCC would like to see this added, it should be raised via the TR representative.

X. SPPS (Cliff for Lynda Wilson) -

Implementation of SPPS Web is on hold due to hardware purchases. NFC has no tentative implementation date for the client or web version at this time. Jo indicated it depends on when the web version comes up. Depending on the time delay for the web version there is a possibility that both may not be offered.

A. Cheryl Ruf pointed out that USDA would not authorize use of this data over the web without permission from OCIO. This means that they would not be able to use the SPPS Web functionality.

B. DOC really needs to have SPPS PKI enabled. Are you still going to have the work group on this? A: Steve - Yes, this is still going on and the Customer Support Office is going to contact agencies for this. Steve reminded everyone that this is to pilot test using PKI certificates as an alternative to logon boxes for the Reporting Center, STAR Web and CLER. This pilot will be in the Fall time frame. Steve is not sure how this plays into the SPPS issue since SPPS was not suggested as one of the pilot applications. However, it could be in the pilot since it is using the same technology as STAR web. DOC, USDA, DOJ, and Treasury indicated that they were interested in participating in the PKI pilot. NFC has grant money to do this pilot and will have to have it completed by the end of this FY. The PKI pilot will be a demo at the Fall HR Briefing.

C. Jo reminded representatives that this came up at last month's CAPPS meeting. Did you send your concerns to the GESD box? A: No. What is the mailbox address again? NFC.GESDREQUEST@usda.gov.

XI. LWOP US (Jo Bonner) -

One of the USDA agencies came across this and alerted us to a problem offices may have if they run reports against the Current Employment Status (CES) code. If you are using this in your reports, there may be an impact due to the implementation of the CES code of "9" in PP-03, 2003. If you were looking for CES = "1" in older reports to identify your military employees with FEHB, you may need to include the CES code of "9". It depends on the purpose of the report.

A. Mary Arnold (DOC) - Q: Has the new value been added to the Help screen in IRIS? A: No. Jo had also not run a new FOCUS dictionary to see if the changes were there. Jingie indicated that they were not. Cheryl indicated that none of the CES code definitions are listed in IRIS Help.

B. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Q: Where are we on the leave accrual reduction problem? A: Jo - For those who have not heard via their T&A representative on the User Group, there is a problem with the leave accrual reductions for individuals on LWOP-US. When we implemented the PP-03 changes, which included a routine to bypass the SCD counters, we accidentally by-passed the code for the leave accrual reductions for non-pay time. So, if a T&A is submitted and an increment of 80 hours of non-pay is reached for a FT employee, the employee will get leave accruals for that pay period. For whatever reason the accruals sometimes are granted when there is no T&A, but a personnel action is processed. An SPR has been submitted and the programmers are aware of the problem. However, right now everyone has been tied up with the retro pay raise. As indicated earlier this information has been shared with the TAUG, but if you do not have a participant, you need to make sure you alert your military employees so they do not assume they have leave to which they are not entitled. Jo will alert CAPPS when this is fixed.

XII. User & Work Group Updates

A.  Awards (Jo Bonner) - This month's meeting was very brief since there have been no updates on the pending items due to the Retro 1 percent. The next meeting is scheduled for July 9th in the Lincoln 3 conference room.

B. EPIC (Lynda Wilson) - Lynda had to leave early to attend another meeting. No one else had anything to report.

C. FESI - There was no one in attendance to report on this issue.

D. Leave Share (Jo Bonner) - There is no new information on this project. NFC's requirements staff is still reviewing the requirements.

E. RIF (Debby Berry) - No update from the NFC requirements staff.

F. T&A (Jo Bonner) - The TAUG met last week and STAR web was the big topic again. The next meeting is scheduled for July 10th. Please remember to submit all your requests to Johanna Heller; we have encountered some problems; this is our first major detailed editing and some issues have been experienced. Some clients are pleased with this process. 10,000 ee's have been paid via STAR Web. Requirements WG will be meeting on a regular basis to get this info to NFC. We were ranking some things and now need to prioritize these items. Next meeting July 10th 1-3pm.

XIII. Potpourri

Q: If anyone is aware or has downloaded data from OPM's "Go Learn"system? A: No.

XIV. Comments -

Both IWBC & FCC expressed their thanks for the hard work on the 1% retro pay - thanks!!

XV. Attendees

NFC North - Cliff Lee, George Morris, Lynda Wilson, Jo Bonner & Jody Nyers
NFC South - Jerry Lohfink, Steve Cunningham, Glenda Dorsey
Ag - Cheryl Ruf
AOC - Jingie Miller
Capitol Police - Catherine Clark, Shenita Wood
Court Services - Gwendolyn Holmes
DHS - Vickie Cline
DOC - Mary Arnold, Marie Waters
PTO - Sharon Scott
DOJ - Cheryl Cotton, Kay Fields, Wendy Moore
FCC - Pearlena Butler, Lillian Lowery
FDIC - Lucy McCabe
FEMA - Paulette Price
FMCS - Sue McMenamin
GAO - Ethel Clayborne, Maria Vargues
HUD - Rosa M. Dortch
IBWC - Willie Smith (via teleconference)
OSC - Caroline Byrd, Tina Harrison
Peace Corps - LaShawn Stone
Pretrial Srvcs - Shavon Butler
SBA - Rhonda Hickey
Smithsonian - Tom Neumeister
Treasury - Cawana Pearson, Bettina Ponsart, DoraLee Rosendorf, Fredda Walker
TR-BPD - Kim Pridgin (via teleconference)