I. Welcome (George Morris) - George reminded everyone to sign-in and then he outlined the evacuation procedures for an emergency. When there is an emergency, notifications will be sent via e-mail and loud speakers. If there is an emergency situation requiring a "shelter-in-place," everyone should go to 3rd floor of this building. In all other emergencies, everyone should vacate the building via the back ramp and meet in front of the American History Museum on the Mall.

II. Retroactive 2003 Pay Adjustment - Phase II (Lynda Wilson) There will be a conference call at 3:00 EST today to discuss the 1% Retro.

A. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - She has cases involving court ordered FEHB that are still in Suspense. Are these ever going to be fixed? A: Lynda is tracking these with the Phase II issues. She noticed several packages still out there from Phase I and she is sending messages to the agencies on them. FQ: Cheryl - this is a bigger issue than the 1% Retro. Also there are agency-to-agency issues. FA: Lynda is working on them with the programmers and plans to have guidance. NFC is also working on processing guidance for some of the other pending items. FQ: Wanda Vaughan (DOJ) - What about those cases with the Quarters deductions and other issues? FA: Lynda -Guidance is in development.

B. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Treasury submitted lists of individuals to manual pay for whom incorrect taxes were withheld due to the 1% retro HCUP cases. Are you aware of this? The corrections need to be completed before taxes. A: Lynda indicated that she knew manual pay had these lists, but did not know the specific status of them.

C. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Treasury's pay plan LE was not included in the 1% Retro for the 2nd phase. Why not? A: Lynda - agencies were told to identify those pay plans they wanted NFC to process. FR: Dora Lee - They were on there for Phase I. She did not know if they were resubmitted for Phase II.

D. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Inquired where NFC was on the processing of the 1% for separated employees? R: Lynda - Requested clarification as to whether this meant corrections for separated employees since PP-04. FQ: Cheryl responded no, she is inquiring about those prior to PP-04. FA: Lynda indicated the agency can process them whenever. FQ: Cheryl replied that she thought Mose was handling those. FR: Lynda responded that manual pay is only handling the monetary adjustments for leave. The agencies are responsible for processing the personnel actions. FQ: Cheryl - At one point Mose said he was going to provide a list of names of affected employees. Agency representatives who were on some of those conference calls are now asking for those lists. FR: Lynda responded that Mose is out for the week and she will have to check with him when he returns.

E. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Treasury has employees who are no longer active on the database who have packages in Suspense. R: Lynda requested names and socials. FQ: Dora Lee indicated that Treasury will send a list so Lynda can tell them what they have done wrong.

III. System Display & Search Facility (SDSF) Replaces JesMASTER (Joe Weaver) Joe welcomed everyone and discussed the Handouts from his PowerPoint presentation. A company called Zenoth developed JES-MASTER but they have not provided good support. NFC has decided to go to an IBM interface that works well with the NFC mainframe. The entry screens look nothing alike, but once in the software SDSF and JesMASTER are very similar. The most common function performed by users is to view their own jobs. To do this in JesMASTER, select "B". In SDSF select "S". Another common function is deleting jobs or printing jobs. When canceling a job that is executing, it stays on the spool in SDSF. Entering "P= purge" cancels and deletes the job where "C" only cancels it. To print a job in JesMASTER, the function key is "R= re-queue the job" which moves it from browse to output. In SDSF printing is a two-step process. "O" moves the job to the output queue. From the main menu select "O" to over type the class again. This activates the output queue on the option lists to send the job to the printer. Also from the main menu the user can overtype the class. Normally, the user is changing it from "X" to "A" and then selects the print. "Set Action ON" will list all of the commands which is very handy.

Overall SDSF is considered user friendly and contains good HELP for a mainframe piece of software. Once a user is accustomed to it, most users will prefer it to JesMASTER. SDSF is the most common interface in the mainframe community. SDSF is currently available, although the time frame for moving it into official production is October 1st. NFC is not going to use JesMASTER until the end of November when the license expires. Joe encouraged everyone to begin using SDSF.

A. George Morris - Will the bulletin be expanded to provide the type of detail you have described. The draft did not contain this level of detail. A: Joe - What type of information should be in a bulletin? FQ: George recommended details like Joe had provided. FA: Joe indicated he had not seen the bulletin, but that he will contact Tara and get information on it. FQ: George indicated that if he received a soft copy, he could send it out for comment.

B. Joe Weaver - Joe indicated the on-line help is very good. In addition, there is a menu bar that is very handy and works well even though it is a mainframe menu.

C. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - On the crosswalk provided at the FOCUS meeting last week, there were several additional items mentioned. Treasury was not satisfied with this crosswalk. Dora Lee also wanted to know if Treasury can get a copy of the tutorial as a word file either electronically or on a CD? And finally, she wanted to know if it is possible the screens could be set up to go to the main menu when you go into SDF? A: Joe requested information on what is needed for the crosswalk. Please send this information to joe.weaver@usda.gov and he will provide the corresponding SDSF maneuvers. When users send the e-mail it will be helpful specify what should be on the menu.

POST MEETING UPDATE: The only tutorial Joe knows of is the one found through the "Help" on the SDSF panels or his attached SDSF Primer (see Attachment 1 to CAPPS Notes). It is not possible to change the main menu of SDSF without voiding NFC's service contract with IBM. The web site for the "SDSF Guide and Reference" is: http://www.dcs.rochester.edu/Documentation/SDSF/isf1gr20.pdf. This is the official IBM manual on how to use SDSF.

D. Mary Arnold (DOC) - Currently CULPRPT and RFQS is programmed so the "F6" key will transfer the user to JesMASTER. Will it be re-programmed to take the user to SDSF instead of JesMASTER?

POST MEETING UPDATE: Joe spoke with the programmers for CULPRPT and RFQS. They are working on redirecting those systems to go to SDSF instead of JesMASTER.

E. Joe Glenn (DOJ) - At the FOCUS Users Group meeting users were able to preview the SDSF screens. Can the screen be expanded to include more information such as where the job is in the status queue, etc.? A: Joe Weaver - If the user shifts the screen to the right, more data is available for viewing. FQ: Joe Glenn indicated he had tried that, but was unable to see what date the job was submitted. This is useful when he has submitted several and wants to compare results. FA:

POST MEETING UPDATE: If the user enters a "?" on the Command Input line of the Status of Jobs (ST) screen, an alternate format for the display appears. This display has more columns of data including the start date of the job. Please let Joe Weaver know if this information is helpful.

F. Joe Glenn (DOJ) - Can users assume all the JesMASTER equivalent commands are there and can be used by the agency users? FA: Joe Weaver indicated that, as with JesMASTER, NFC has disabled certain SDSF functions. For example, those that prevent the user from deleting part of the operating system. NFC does not intend to take away anything that users would need and the SDSF users guide lists everything a user might need. If representatives think something should be added, send Joe an email.

IV. Wright & Company Life Insurance Program (Billy Dantagnan/Glenda Dorsey) Glenda received a call from Wright & Company Life Insurance Programs which is a Third Party Administrator (TPA). NFC provides payroll services for approximately 12,000 employees (across all three databases) that have enrolled with this third party insurance provider. Wright & Company has changed their bank from Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust (B&HB&T) to the Bank of America. As a result, routing numbers for these employee's must be changed. Normally, the agency processes these requests; however, due to the large volume, NFC plans to sweep the routing number for these employees. A date has not been set for this sweep; however, NFC wanted to assure the CAPPS Reps were aware of the situation in the event someone actually noticed the change. The sweep will be based upon a list of names and social security numbers provided by Wright & Company Life Insurance.

A. Mary Arnold (DOC) - How are agency reps going to know who is on the list? A: Billy - The document they are sweeping is a financial allotment. The employee is probably not even going to notice since the amount of the deduction will not change. FQ: The routing number is on the E&L statement and they may notice. Mary indicated she needed to make sure that if a question does come up, she can respond appropriately. She does not want to assume a routing number change in a specific pay period is attributable to this sweep. FA: NFC is only going to do this for individuals identified by Wright & Company. The amount will vary from employee to employee.

B. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - If the employee elected to pay this premium via a discretionary allotment, will NFC be sweeping those also? A: NFC will sweep based upon the SSN and routing number supplied by Wright & Company.

C. Is it possible to get the routing number for B&HB &Trust so the agencies can run reports? A: Yes, the routing number is 056001066.

D. What if the employee banks with B&HB&T, but does not have the insurance? Can the CAPPS Reps get a copy of the listing from Wright & Company? A: The file supplied by Wright & Company Life is simply a listing with SSNs, accounts, & routing number. It does not contain agency specific data and thus cannot be distributed that way. C: Ethel Clayborne provided a Wright and Company account number that could be used in an agency's FOCUS report. However, someone else indicated that the number Ethel had was the newer account number. Apparently there is at least one additional account number used for some of their customers.

V. Flexible Spending Account (FSA) (Laurie Bodenheimer) - Ms. Bodenheimer, OPM, participated in CAPPS as a guest speaker. She discussed FSAs and the activities during the up-coming open season. On average, FEHB premiums are going up by 10.6% in 2004. FSA will be going up approximately 10%. OPM is planning many activities for this open season for the "official" kickoff of FSA. OPM provided few activities for the July 2003 open season period. The problems OPM encountered during that first open season will help OPM determine what is needed for the fall open season. As part of the advertising process, OPM is requesting permission to place an insert regarding FSAs in the E&L Statements. NFC provided OPM with ideas and information from typical E&L inserts. SHPS will bear the cost for this insert. OPM would work the preparation and mailing processes with NFC.

OPM currently has three plans for an E&L notice:

A. The first idea is a tri-fold, similar to the TSP insert, which appears to meet the size requirements. This insert will be in color and provides generic information such as "What it is?" "Where to call i.e., the FSA website and phone numbers".

B. The second idea is simply a Remark on the bottom of the E&L.

C. The third idea is a one-page attachment insert. As with the first option, the data would not be agency specific but has the toll-free information.

OPM is requesting comments on what option is preferable.

POST MEETING UPDATE: Jody requested replies from CAPPS Reps by 9/26/03. Most agencies have responded. All but three are interested in having the insert. However, several of those interested would like to see the insert prior to it being mailed by NFC.

D. Q&A

1. What time frame is OPM considering for this notice? A: The FEHB/FSA Open Season is from November 10 through December 8. Therefore, OPM is anticipating a November release.

2. Sue McMenamin (FMCS) - Will this notice be an attachment on the EPP? A: Jody - Yes, this will be on the EPP as an attachment.

3. Bettina Ponsant (TR-OCC) - OCC employees are not eligible. A: After discussion it was acknowledged that FDIC, Smithsonian - Trust Fund, and TR-AJ should not receive the insert. NFC can exclude them.

4. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Is it possible the information can be included the pay period before the open season starts? A: Jody - Agencies can educate their employees using a variety of methods. SHPS tried to contact agency benefits officers. If your agency has not heard from SHPS, please contact them directly at 1-877-FSAFEDS.

5. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Requested time to present the issue to her benefits representative and expressed desire to see the insert prior to agreeing to have it placed in the E&L for USDA.

6. Penny - NFC has the TSP insert scheduled for PP-20. In addition, NFC will need to have an agency's decision in writing if they elect to have the FSA insert. Q: Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Is agency approval needed in this situation since SHPS is paying the cost? A: Yes, this is standard NFC policy.

7. Laurie - Requested comments on the insert and an indication of which agencies are electing this insert. R: Vicki Cline (DHS) - Who is OPM working with at DHS? A: Laurie did not have a list of contacts with her.

8. Agencies are interested in exactly what the insert will look like. A: Laurie - The insert will look similar to the tri-fold on the FSA website now, only better. That website is www.fsafeds.com. CAPPS will get a copy of the insert when it is finalized. Jody informed agencies that if the insert is scheduled for PP-21, the information must be in New Orleans during PP-19. OPM needs to find out how much time it will take to get the insert ready for the E&L deadline. The CAPPS Reps requested a copy of the draft before making the decision on which idea to select. Jody will distribute the information as soon as it is available. Penny indicated it was okay for agencies to send their written elections to Jody and she could consolidate the list before sending it on to NFC South. Laurie requested the deadline dates for inserts.

9. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - IRS is allowing certain medications to be covered under an FSA, particularly those that used to be by prescription and now can be obtained "over-the-counter" (e.g., non-steroidal, cough meds, etc. - no vitamins or herbal supplements). Will these be included in FSAs in 2004? A: Laurie - OPM is hoping to include this benefit retro to July 1, 2003.

10. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - There are some concerns that some states treat pre-tax benefits differently, e.g., Pennsylvania. A: Laurie - She has some additional information. PA does allow favorable health care FSA benefits, but not dependant care FSA benefits. Puerto Rico is another area that treats FSAs differently (see P-00-23 dated October 2000). There is some information from PA's website that Laurie will send to Jody for further dissemination. According to Jody, NFC currently payrolls 55 employees in PA that are participating in FSAs. NFC does not know if these employees have been previously warned. Laurie and Jody will continue the investigation and Jody will provide the agencies with a list of employee's in the affected areas. FQ: Can the system be changed to block employees in those states from electing FSAs? FA: Laurie - Employees cannot be prevented from electing FSAs because there are other FSA benefits for which they can qualify. Jody - If it is an agency owned childcare facility and not a private company, the benefit is covered, i.e., Fed day care is favorable tax treatment. Jody is pulling PA tax code and OPM is also continuing to research.

11. Rhonda Hickey (SBA) - How does the agency pay the administrative fee? A: Laurie - This fee is paid at the agency level via vendor payment or invoicing. It is not an NFC function. A notice was sent out on this issue in May or June. FQ: Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Does the agency need to sign-up to pay this every year? FA: Laurie did not know. She will find out and share the information with Jody.

VI. PKI (Mary Lively) - Good morning. Most of you know that NFC has been testing the Get Access Product that is the portal for the PKI. The applications being tested are the Reporting Center (RC), STAR Web, and CLER. Effective a few days ago, everyone is able to test with a certificate. Most of the questions are application issues and not the "Get Access" portal. The test ends on Friday. All NFC clients will receive an announcement of the PKI Expo on September 29th & 30th. There will be an executive briefing on Monday.

A. Joe Glenn (DOJ) - DOJ is having problems with the PKI access .R: Mary - Are you using certificates or user ID's? FQ: Joe - User ID and password.

B. Joe Glenn (DOJ) - when testing the Reporting Center, DOJ was able to get into the system, but did not see any data for their reports. A: Mary did not know what data had been loaded out there for DOJ. How did the users go in? FC: The users went in with certificates. FA: Mary - Last night there were coding issues on the certificates, but getting into the systems has been resolved. NFC will look at the data that is there.

VII. TSP Catch-Up Contributions (Jody Nyers)

A. TSP Catch-up contributions are made from basic pay and cannot come from any other monies (e.g., bonus, award, incentive, lump-sum, etc.). An email was sent to CAPPS addressing this issue on September 11, 2003.

B. Catch-up contributions were not properly reflected on the TSP Account Balance page from www.tsp.gov. USDA identified this issue when they found no designation in the amount for one employee, but the employee's spouse's (non-NFC) account did show the information. They have another USDA employee that does have information on their account page, but in this case the data was combined with regular TSP contributions. Jody is working with TSP in New Orleans on this issue and TSP hopes to have the situation resolved by Monday, September 22nd. This information appears on the account page and should be displayed with a separate line item.

1. Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) - Is this an issue with the website, but the money is really there? A: Jody - Yes, the money is there. Agencies can check on PQ032 for the total amount. FC: Cheryl Ruf (USDA) displays this information on the E&L as a separate line item. FR: Jody - The information can also be seen on the 2nd screen of IRIS118. If an employee's action is not there, users should double check EPIC Suspense also. FC: Lynda Wilson - this is particularly critical if the employee entered the election via ESS or EEX. Personnel offices are not always correcting these documents in Suspense. Agencies need to do this for both EPIC Suspense and SINQ.

2. Deborah Berry (FCC) - Has Focus been updated for the 126 Document? She is trying to run a Focus report and she only wants the catch-up amounts. A: Jody - She will check and notify the clients. FC: Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) - DOJ already asked about this and they were told to use the alias for TS-Deduct. Jeannette Richardson in NFC provided this information. Cheryl will email the focexec to Jody and she will forward it to CAPPS. FC: Bettina Ponsart (TR-OCC) indicated the plan code for TSP Catch-Up is "6".

POST MEETING UPDATE: Cheryl Cotton indicated the FOCUS report name is TSPCATCH and it can be found in the DOJ library.

C. RFQS Notification Letter - Are there any changes on the TSP Letter? Right now the letter provides a standard statement with "YNO" fill-in without the fill-in value. Is NFC updating this? Penny indicated that Glenda left to attend another meeting. Penny will follow-up with her and provide a post meeting update.

1. Sue McMenamin (FMCS) - Is this RFQS option for EEX only? Should this apply to ESS also? R: ESS will send an email to the employee. Once when the request is received and another when it has processed. George indicated the ESS user has the option to elect email notification. In addition, the user must complete the e-mail address portion of ESS.

2. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - TR has experienced a problem with TSP Catch-up's that have been cancelled or changed because the employee elected too much. A: Jody requested the SSN(s) for research.

D. Errors/concerns - Jody indicated users processing TSP Catch-up documents via the PRES should know the on-line help indicates a three-digit field for the dollar amount. An agency entered "100" which was read as "1,000." An entry of "17" becomes "1,700." This issue has been submitted to NFC for correction and help is going to be fixed. Agencies need to completely fill in the four digits.

E. Cliff Holloway (SBA) - Where on the IRIS 118 screen do you see the catch-up? A: Jody - Press the enter button to get to the next record.

F. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Will NFC correct those who elected $2,000 because the EEX information was misleading and thus the TSP was messed up. A: Jody - No. Reference the email from September 10th. There will be no global sweep because NFC cannot predict the employee's intent.

G. Mike Mire (TR) - Going back to FSAs for PA and the state tax treatment, those deductions should not have been pre-taxed so is this another W-2 issue? Who identifies these employees? A: Jody will forward the list of SSNs to CAPPS Reps. FQ: Dora Lee Rosendorf - NFC will not have a way to know if the childcare is/is not correct? A: Jody - Correct. FC: Dora Lee - Therefore, it is the employee's responsibility to adjust this on his/her taxes.

VIII. Employee Express Update (George Morris) The EEX meeting was held on September 16th. This fall there will be a two-phase release. Macon is tweaking the CFC process and expanding it to include Newark, NJ as a test site. The old test sites remain. This includes the Washington Metro Area. Employees in the covered areas will be able to access their unique charity information. This functionality is tied to the employee's duty station. The key reps for EEX should be feeding this information to their departments.

A. Smithsonian is pulling out of EEX. The date for this changed and NFC is shutting them off on September 28th. Smithsonian has elected to utilize ESS if the employee elects the PIN number. Otherwise the documents will come-in via paper.

B. The 2004 enhancements will be distributed via the EEX Key Reps. Comments will need to be forwarded to the appropriate representative.

1. Why does NFC have ESS since OPM provided EEX? A: Approximately one year ago, OPM required that payroll offices offer this functionality. Agencies, like Smithsonian, may drop out of the EEX to avoid paying duplicate costs for services provided by NFC.

C. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - At the EEX meeting Veteran's Administration (VA) raised the issue of agencies being charged a "transaction" cost when an employee mistakenly hits the update button when reviewing their data even though no changes are made. VA accidentally discovered they were being charged for this.

IX. Masking SSN on the E&L Statement (George Morris) - Effective in PP-18, NFC will mask the first 5 positions of the social security number. NFC would like to place a statement on the bottom of the E&LS notifying the employees of this change. However, some agencies have other remarks in TMGT105 scheduled for this pay period. Unless an agency specifically requests that NFC NOT place the SSN change notification on the E&L for their employees, NFC will do it. A review of the remarks on Table 105 indicates that USAID and TR-IRS have used all six lines available.

A. Is this going to be a one time only remark? A: Yes, in PP-18. NFC considered issuing a bulletin but bulletins are not distributed to the employee level so there would be very little benefit to a bulletin.

B. Is this only on the printed E&L statement? A: Yes. The masking will only be on the E&L printed out of the BATCH system. If the user submits a request to print via EARN - local or NFC - the SSN will not be masked. This is because NFC is sending the files from the batch system through special software. Any other request method will not go through this process.

C. What does the remark say? A: Remark: "For your protection, beginning this pay period only the last four digits of your social security number will appear on the Statement of Earnings and Leave mailed to you."

POST MEETING UPDATE: The explanatory remark did not appear on all E&Ls due to program variances.

X. Conversion of Military Leave from Days to Hours (Jo Bonner) Clients were reminded the changes for Public Law 106-554 Section 101(a) changing military leave from days to hours will be implemented in PP-19. Agencies must make sure the Uniform Service Status (USS) Code is updated to a code that qualifies the employee to use military leave after PP-19. Prior to the September CAPPS Meeting, a report of individuals currently on LWOP-US was distributed electronically. If an agency did not have anyone on the report they would not have received anything from JO This report was NOT all-inclusive. It did not capture individuals who were actively involved in the military but not currently on LWOP-US. Some agencies were going to run reports from PAYTA to capture usage of TC-65 and TC-68. Agencies were encouraged to do that. JO just provided a basic report that she could do quickly. Other agencies are sending info to their timekeepers to alert them on the issue and requesting entry of the USS Code. The T&A Reports for employees who intend to use military leave in or after PP-19 will reject in TIME if the USS is not properly coded. This can be upsetting for employees who were expecting payment for military leave and it cannot be made or is charged to annual leave. NFC has made a modification to the STAR client and it is available on the NFC Download Center. STAR Web will be updated for PP-19. Agencies that have their own T&A systems do not have to change the transmit layout at this time. It will NOT be changing with the PP-18 implementation.

A. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Is NFC issuing bulletins on this? A: Yes, two bulletins will be issued. One will address STAR Client and the other will discuss the Military Leave changes in general. These bulletins are on slightly different subjects but with different approaches to the same issue. The Military Leave bulletin was signed on September 16th and the other should be signed later this week.

B. Mike Mire (TR) - What exactly will happen in PP-19? What will happen to the number of days available from this year that can be used for next year? A: NFC is converting those days to hours. FQ: Will this be addressed in the bulletin? A: JO did not recall this being addressed. If she can catch the bulletin before it goes to print she will add a statement, but it may be too late. NFC can only convert days to a straight 8 hours, regardless of the tour of duty, e.g. 9 or 10 hours a day. Agencies will need to review the military leave usage over the past year and adjust (via TINQ) anyone who has partial days (i.e. hours) to be credited or debited after NFC performs the sweep.

XI. Special Employee Pay Codes (JO Bonner) - At the August CAPPS Meeting, JO raised the issue of database cleanup in this particular area. Thanks to assistance from Cheryl, JO can provide this information electronically to the clients. She wanted to know if this was acceptable and all clients indicated that it was not only acceptable, but also preferred. JO informed them she performed a preliminary scan of the data and most appear to be from USDA - this is probably because they have been on the system the longest. However, there are some from DHS, FDIC, and others. JO will Email the report to those agencies that have employees in special employee codes that require review. If an agency does not have anyone affected then they will not receive a report or notification.

XII. Table Cleanup (JO Bonner) - JO reminded CAPPS Reps that the agencies are responsible for updating several tables and the agencies must make sure they are kept up-to-date. In lieu of trying to remember whenever changes are made, agencies should develop a routine to check them monthly to ensure they are updated. These tables are critical to efficient customer support. For example, TMGT003 and/or TMGT063, contact #1, is the table NFC South uses to locate a contact person for T&A issues. If the contact's phone numbers are inaccurate, valuable time can be lost while NFC attempts to locate the proper contacts within the agency. In some cases, time may not be available and employees may not be paid accurately, if at all. Lynda Wilson indicated they were using TM063 for the 1% Retro Adjustment and the table is very outdated. While some agencies have access to additional tables and all tables for which the agency has access are critical, the following tables are controlled by most, if not all clients.

A. Table #1 (TM001) - Contains the Personnel Office Identifier (POI) along with a contact name and address.

B. Table #3 (TM003) - Contains name, phone and address information for all T&A Contact Points. The address on this table is the distribution point for the following reports used by the timekeepers for proper T&A maintenance.

1. TIME 4004 / CULP0152 - Leave Error Report

2. TIME3201 / CULP0053 - Error Analysis by Contact Point

3. TIME 3202 - Error Analysis by POI (stats)

4. CULP0054 - T&A Rejection % Report by Contact Point

C. Table #63 (TM063) - Contains various points of contact for a variety of subjects such as T&A, Savings Bonds, VIP's, AD-343, etc. Lynda pointed out that several agencies have individuals requesting information or submitting AD-343's when the individual is not on this contact list. It is a security/privacy act violation for NFC to work with these individuals and she cannot stress enough the importance of keeping the table up-to-date.

D. Table #72 (TM072) - This table includes the signature block for the SF-50 documents.

E. Q&A's

1. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - If someone submits a document or request and they are not authorized, what will NFC do? A: They will contact the person who submitted the AD343 and confirm that person is a valid authorizing official.

2. Deborah Berry (FCC) - The CULP152 (Leave Error Report) report indicates a current run date but no data is being generated. Was this a PINE error? DOC and FCC called New Orleans who indicated the CULP152 will not run for PP 17. Is this correct - it is not running at all? Agencies are greatly concerned because they rely on this report. A: JO was not aware of the problem. Penny will check into it.

POST MEETING UPDATE: The problem with the CULP152 report was resolved the day of the CAPPS Meeting. JO emailed the information to the clients later that day - September 17th.

3. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Requested that NFC also look into whether additional reports may have been affected this pay period. A: JO requested that CAPP's Reps contact her if they are having any problems obtaining the bi-weekly reports this pay period. FC: Cliff Holloway (SBA) indicated the 2nd pass of the SF-50b's displays a count but when executing the print process the system displays N/A.

XIII. User & Work Group Updates

A. Awards (JO Bonner) - The next meeting is scheduled for October 8th from 9:30 to 11:30.

1. The programming to increase the cash values for Senior Foreign Service Rank Awards (NOA 878) is scheduled for PP-18. The new values are equal to the SES - 20% and 35%. This is effective retro to October 1, 2002, but NFC had to wait for the State Department to issue guidance.

2. JO reminded reps to provide her with any agency equivalents that would qualify for the new Senior Career Employee Rank Awards (NOA 849) no later than COB on 09/26/03. The regulations authorizing employees in pay plans SL and ST to receive Presidential Rank awards equivalent to the SES and SFS employees were passed in 2001 to be effective in October 2003. The programming will NOT be ready by PP-19 but that is not an NFC issue but rather an OPM issue because they did not release the new NOA and authority until a few days ago. George asked if agencies had pay plans that were comparable to the SL's and ST's.

B. EPIC (Lynda Wilson) - The next meeting is scheduled for October 16th at 10:00 am in Lincoln 1 and 2. Lynda reminded everyone to have their personnel offices ensure their staffs are checking the system-generated actions in suspense. This includes BEAR and PINE generated actions, plus any PMSO information messages indicating a personnel action is needed. There are hundreds of these types of documents/messages in suspense in SINQ and EPIC Suspense. Please remind your personnel offices to work these.

1. Q: Mary Arnold (DOC) - DOC has reviewed PMSO for some of the PMSO messages and there is no change so why are they receiving these notifications? A: If you have any cases like this, send the information to PPO@usda.gov. FC: Mary will send SSNs to Lynda for follow-up.

C. FESI - no report.

D. Leave Share (JO Bonner) - no update.

E. RIF (Debby Berry) - She has exchanged Emails with Rick Minella. NFC plans to have windows in the Reporting Center fairly soon, maybe by the next meeting.

F. T&A (JO Bonner) - The next user group meeting is scheduled for October 2nd from 9:30 to 11:30 in the Resource Room. The next requirements work group meeting is scheduled for October 2nd from 1 to 3.

XIV. Potpourri

A. Deborah Berry (FCC) - FCC would like the new employees to be able to use NFC's Employee Self Service (ESS) as soon as the appointment record hits the system, not when history is updated. A: George reminded her that the employee needs a PIN Number before accessing the ESS. In addition, this is an Entry On Duty (EOD) function. Having this done as soon as the employee EOD's is a great idea but it takes a lot of programming to ensure the PIN is received electronically. FQ: This information is already on the ESS and FCC is only asking for a nightly download of what is been placed in IRIS each week. FR: Lynda indicated that as soon as the employee is on the database with a salary and personnel record, the employee may sign-up and NFC will build his/her record. As long as the employee is on the Name Employee file, s/he can request a PIN and use ESS.

B. Wanda Vaughn (DOJ) - The have received reports lately about fill-in remarks not printing on the SF-50's or not filling in properly. During the retro 1% process, DOJ had several employees move from one agency to another within DOJ. After the HCUP cases applied, the employee's YTD information was reset. Cheryl Ruf indicated that was correct because of new accessions. In USDA's case it was not an accession and recommended that DOJ check the actions of employee's that were moved under the same department. The information appears to be correct in the system but incorrect on the E&L Statements and in EPP.

C. JO Bonner - DOC is interested in discontinuing the printing of the SF-50b's on awards. DOC has a process in place external to the NFC system to notify their employees. Is anyone else interested in stopping the awards SF-50's? A few agencies spoke immediately that they still rely on the SF-50B's for the notification process. JO indicated the agencies must decide since some agencies use them and others do not. If an agency wishes to participate in this programming they must notify JO via Jo.Bonner@usda.gov by October 24th.

1. Q: Will there be a charge? A: Yes, but it will be split among all who join now. Q: Can the programming be done by bureau? A: Yes, it can be by dept and agency code.

D. Deborah Berry (FCC) - FCC is requesting NFC to mask the SSNO on the printed timecard. The reps in attendance responded with yeas and nays on this. JO indicated that it should be submitted via the T&A Requirements Group. She requested FCC send a rep to the October T&A meeting.

1. SBA indicated they felt this would be a bad idea. If someone is switching offices or the employee is new, the SSN sometimes is entered incorrectly. Printing the full SSN can help catch this type of error.

2. Q: Will this need to go thru the IG's office? A: JO - Maybe. FC: George asked if FCC wanted JO to pursue this? A: JO indicated the process should start with FCC sending a rep to the T&A requirements meeting in October. JO is not sure if NFC is prepared to issue multiple versions of STAR to accommodate individual user requests.

E. Gwen - If DOJ is interested in requesting NFC discontinue printing their SF-50b's, who should they contact? A: Lynda indicated that they should send her an Email at Lynda.Wilson@usda.gov for further guidance regarding OPF filing requirements and EHRI.

F. Vickie Cline (DHS) - What is the proper procedure for canceling an erroneous cash award? A: JO indicated canceling an award would not remove it from ADJP. The ADJP portion is the 110 Document and not the 063 Document in IRIS. When you cancel the document via EPIC or PRES, the system cancels the 063 Document but not the 110 Document. As with other "loose documents" there is no mechanism for canceling it. Sometimes the staff working ADJP can catch the fact that it is no longer on IRIS (or is in ADJP twice if re-applied), but that is not a guarantee. The agency should contact ADJP so the staff member knows exactly what the agency needs to have done. If the award to be cancelled uses the PAY authority or is cancelled in a subsequent pay period, then the HR office will need to do a AD343 to collect the money.

XV. ATTENDEES:

NFC North - George Morris (chaired), JO Bonner, Jody Nyers, and Lynda Wilson

NFC South - Billy Dantagnan, Glenda Dorsey, Penny Forbes, Mary Lively, and Joe Weaver

Guest Speakers - Laurie Bodenheimer (OPM)

AG - Cheryl Ruf
ARC - Linda Gandara
AOC - Jingie Miller
CSOSA - Gwendolyn Holmes
DHS - Vickie Cline
DOC - Mary Arnold and Marie Waters
DOC-USPTO - Sharon Scott and Denise Kent
DOJ - Iram Baij, Cheryl Cotton and Joe Glen
FCC - Deborah Berry
FDIC - Lucy McCabe
FMCS - Sue McMenamin
GAO - Ethel Clayborne
IBWC - Willie Smith (via teleconference)
OFHEO - Stella Peters
OGE - Cheryl McMillan and Lisa Wade
OSC - Tina Harrison
Peace Corps - LaShawn Stone
SBA - Ronda Hickey (Cliff Holloway via teleconference)
Smithsonian - Tom Neumeister
Treasury - Dora Lee Rosendorf and Fred Walker (Mike Mire via teleconference)
        TR-BPD - Ginny Peck (via teleconference)
        TR-OCC - Bettina Ponsart