I. Welcome – Wendy Moore, Government Employees Services Division (GESD), Payroll/Personnel System Policy Staff (PPSPS)/Dawn Hughes-Morris, GESD, Client Management Branch (CMB)

Dawn Hughes-Morris announced that CMB has been realigned under Dawn McGowan, the Associate Director for DC Operations. NFC is working under a Customer Advisory Board, and over the next few months, agencies will notice improvements.

II. Restructuring of CAPPS and User Groups - Wendy Moore/Jody Nyers, GESD, PPSPS

Members of the PPSPS will be the designated Chairpersons for CAPPS and the User Groups. CMB will continue to facilitate the meetings.

The CAPPS meetings will be held on a quarterly basis: January 21, April 15, July 15, and October 21 in the Lincoln Room, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. In the interim, important information will be captured and distributed via a CAPPS Update Notice. The creation and purpose of the new Customer Advisory Board resulted in changes to the CAPPS and User Group Charters. CAPPS may no longer be the forum for issues previously covered by the Charter. The CAPPS Charter will be finalized and distributed at the January meeting. Please direct any questions regarding the new CAPPS Charter to Customer.Support@usda.gov .

Action Item: The CAPPS and User Group Facilitators are currently developing a notice for announcing the registration to participate in CAPPS and NCF User Groups. Agencies should provide primary and alternate points of contact for CAPPS and the User Groups. CMB will also send out a notification semi-annually to request updates for these established Groups. Dawn Hughes-Morris (CMB)
Post Meeting Update: CAPPS NOTICE was sent on October 28, 2008 to announce the Agency Registration to Participate in CAPPS and User Groups. Also attached was the Draft CAPPS Charter and the UG chart.

The decision to move to quarterly CAPPS’ meetings will provide NFC more time to research and resolve issue’s reported by the CAPPS Community. In addition, the restructuring of CAPPS and User Groups to the PPSPS will allow CMB representatives to focus on customer issues.

Q: Have dates been established for the User Groups? A suggestion was made to change the UG to every other month.
A: NFC- Dates for the next User Group Meetings are listed on the CAPPS Agenda. Each group will decide the frequency of the meetings based on issues and deadlines.

NFC is requesting feedback from agencies regarding agency participation in the User Groups, which is currently at an all time low. Specifically, what must be done to ensure agency participation? User Groups can provide assistance or recommendations to Customer.Support@usda.gov .

III. Annual/Semi Annual Contacts – Dawn Hughes-Morris, GESD, CMB

Action Item: CMB is exploring alternatives to the Customer Notification Process. One option is to send email alerts to specific POC’s when new information is posted to the NFC Homepage. Currently, a notification requesting the submission of only 1 or 2 POC’s from each agency is being drafted. This will also be updated semi-annually. Dawn Hughes-Morris (CMB)
Post Meeting Update: Customer Notice dated October 28, 2008, the
Semi-Annual/Annual Updates to Customer Contacts was sent out to all NFC Clients. This notice is to be used for the registration for CAPPS and UGs in addition to updating all contact information.

IV. Database Change Update (DBC) – Randy Gonzales, GESD, Applications
Directorate (AD)

There have been several requests to extend the testing period; in response, the Data Base Change Project Implementation date has been moved to pay period 22. Testing will continue through pay period 20. The majority of reported issues for DBC testing have been resolved, and NFC will continue to work on critical issues. The DBC Weekly Conference Calls are held every Wednesday; however, the next call is tomorrow, October 16, because of today’s CAPPS meeting. Although many Customer Notifications regarding the database change are sent out, NFC believes it is important to keep you informed about this important change.

Q: Jeanne Hillock (SI) - when the database change is completed, will agencies get the opportunity to participate in lessons learned or a survey?
A: Randy Gonzales – sounds like a good idea.

Action Item: It was expressed that Penny Forbes has been documenting lessons learned throughout the Project. Randy Gonzales (AD)

V. NFC Mail Assessment – Randy Gonzales, GESD, AD

NFC contracted with Pitney Bowes. Based on the report from Pitney Bowes, NFC will establish a project to incorporate system changes into the mailing process (for Earnings and Leave Statements) to use the validated addresses from Finalist and VeriMove for mailing purposes. Two projects have been established; the first being an interim project with an estimated completion date of March 2009. The second is a long term project working with TMGT 16, as well as, creating a second table for residence addresses only. We are trying to move away from validating addresses using table 16, instead, using a USPS COTS package to validate the addresses in Finalist, Verimove and Mailstream.

Short term option will include adding two types of reports to the Reporting Center. The first report will track those addresses with a forwarding order of or over 60 days old. NFC will continue to mail the SELs to the employee. The second report will track those addresses with a forwarding order of 120 days old. NFC will stop mailing SELS to these employees until the address of record is corrected. All Personal Identifiable Information (PII) data, has been removed from the printed/mailed SELs. Currently, NFC does not have a start date for these projects. Once the project dates have been established, CMB will provide a Customer Notification or Email Alert.

Q: George Morris asked if these changes will affect this year’s
W-2s?
A: No, but long term it could affect W-2’s.
Q: Will it work with APO and DPO address?
A: If it is validated via the Postal software, then yes.
Q: How will agencies update their system? Can it be downloaded from NFC?
A: This will be an edit on the NFC side, provided it is not cost prohibitive. No, it will not be provided as a download.

In the future, Table 16 will be used for Duty Station, City and County Tax only. This will allow the continued process of using ALLTAX to compute City and County taxes.

Q: Karen DeCesaris (DHS) asked if EmpowHR will be taken care of?
A: We will assess it based on the cost.
Q: Doralee Rosendorf (TR) asked if all of the SEL’s have been mailed out?
A: Dawn Hughes-Morris mentioned that she had a handful of statements that she will give out at the end of the meeting.

VI. Annual W-2 Testing Plan – Adrienne Jack, GESD, Tax and Benefits Processing Branch (T&BPB)

Testing will begin November 24 – December 5. W-2’s will be printed on blue copy paper. The test period will include pay period 25, 2007 through pay period 22, 2008. On November 20 2008, NFC will Fed-Ex the W-2, letter and template to the point of contact for each agency participating in testing. If the POC is not available to accept the Fed Ex., an alternate POC should be appointed. Calls and faxes will be accepted from the POC for each agency. Extra caution has been taken due to W-2s containing PII data.

Action Item: Dawn Hughes-Morris mentioned that she received the W-2 Suspense Records Report for pay period 18. It had numerous errors; missing names, street address’, city and Zip Codes. These will be the ones to potentially reject. The CSR’s will contact each agency to obtain a valid address for each employee that appeared on the pay period 18, 2008, W-2 report. Dawn Hughes-Morris (CMB)

VII. Pay Period 25 Reminder - Joe Henley, GESD, Certification and Disbursement Branch (C&DB)

Action Item: Pay Period 25 will be the 27th salary check for calendar year 2008. The paper check pay date will be moved from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2008. In calendar year 2009, the NFC will have 26 pay checks. A Customer Notification will be sent out with the information. Joe Henley (C&DB)

Q: Ginny (TR) mentioned that tax deferred deductions will continue through pay period 25. What about Flexible Spending Accounts?

A: Jody Nyers mentioned that there will be 26 deductions but 27 pay dates. There will be no FSA for pay period 25. NFC is moving the pay date forward but SHPS is not adjusting their date.

VIII. Benefits – Jody Nyers, GESD, PPSPS

• FSAFEDS Insert (attached to EPP) for PP 22 – no hard copy
• OPEN SEASON November 10, 2008 – December 8, 2008
  • Must elect FSA (does not automatically continue)
  • FEHB & Dental/Vision (will automatically continue); however, this is the time to make any changes
• Effective dates are:
  • FEHB effective January 4, 2008 (PP01) and 1st deduction will be January 29th
  • Dental/Vision effective January 1, 2008 and 1st deduction will be January 29th
  • FSA effective January 1, 2008 and 1st deduction will be January 15th
• Mail Handlers FEHB Plan Requires Enrollees to Pay Annual Dues
  • Mail Handles notifies NFC of the employees who have NOT paid their dues, NFC sorts the report by POI’s and notifies the agencies and agencies are responsible for notifying the employees then terminating their FEHB coverage if an employee fails to pay their annual dues.
• TSP Updates
  • Elected Deferral Limit - $15,500 is the EDL for 2008 and this serves as a reminder to ensure your FERS employees don’t exceed this amount before the end of the year to ensure they don’t lose out on agency matching funds
  • The TSP Highlights for October 2008 is available and shows the current “rates of return” (not sure anyone wants to read it but it’s on the TSP webpage)
• BAL 08-203 Extended FEGLI Coverage for Employees Called up on a Military Campaign
  • Currently our system handles extended coverage for FEHB; however, OPM has now decided that employees can also have extended FEGLI coverage; the difference is that the agency pays for the FEHB coverage; however, the employee must pay for the FEGLI coverage. We are working on a process to document this extended (Life Ins) coverage. This will require an expanded Current Employment Status (CES) code which will be done with the DB Chg. Most important at this point is for agencies to notify any employee that is eligible for the extended LI coverage of the option to continue it and if you receive confirmation from an employee that they want to retain the coverage and recognize they are PAYING for this coverage, please let me know. Agencies should keep the copy of the signed letter of intent to retain the LI coverage and as soon as our process is in place, we’ll alert you to what steps you need to take. DO NOT have the employee send in personal checks to cover this amount until we have the process in place….just notify me of their intent and we’ll go from there.

Q: Can we get a status of the FERCCA cases from NFC? We are aware that contractors were hired to assist in this effort; however, we have not been updated on the status of the cases. Also, we are not receiving responses to the FERCCA.GROUP@usda.gov email. Please advise.

A: Jody will check on this.
Post Meeting Update: Jody is awaiting a response to address this issue.

IX. Bus Codes – George Morris, GESD, PPSPS

OPM has been issuing the new Bus Codes. DHS has just been released. George is reviewing all BUS codes against TMGT 090 active codes to insure matching against OPM data. As variances are found, he is resolving discrepancies. Once this review has been completed, sweeps will be conducted by CV to implement changes to individual employee records. If agencies/clients have determined to implement the new BUS Codes themselves, please advise ASAP so that sweeps can be bypassed for them (note: some DHS agencies have indicated a desire to self initiate these changes). If NFC makes the adjustments, it will be after the Database Change has been completed.

X. Retire EZ – Cheryl Ruf, GESD, PPSPS

There was a conference call on September 18th. OPM decided on a conference call versus a workshop. Notes of the meeting were sent out to the RetireEZ Phone Tree.

• Highlights
  • The OPM Acting Director, Mr. Hager gave the welcome and announced OPM is going forward with RetireEZ.
  • Reggie – talked about the Stop Work Order. This has been extended to 11/23/08.
  • DocHarbor is on hold until OPM can work on PII concerns.
  • Next Workshop will be October 23rd.
    Post Meeting Update: As of October 15, 2008, OPM announced that it will continue to progress with the RetireEZ program without the assistance of Hewitt Associate of Lincolnshire, Illinois.
• There are three major components to RetireEZ
  • Calculation Engine (Stop Order)
  • Data Cleansing (Agencies should continue to look at their OPFs)
  • Change Management (OPM Workshops)

XI. SL/ST/ISL Leave Ceiling Changes – Jo Bonner, GESD, CMB

Action item: The programming for the 720 leave ceiling for employees in the SL/ST/ISL pay plans will be implemented on the Earnings and Leave statements and the Employee Personnel Page in pay period 20. Agencies need to be aware that mainframe programming will be implemented with the pay period 26 annual leave role-over routines. This means that any use or lose leave reports that the agency may run against mainframe data will still reflect the old ceiling until pay period 01, 2009. One client inquired if a bulletin was going to be issued on this. A bulletin was not planned, but since the interest was echoed by other clients, Jo will work with Theresa to have a bulletin prepared. However, the bulletin will not be issued prior to the first phase of implementation in pay period 20. Jo Bonner (PPSPS)

XII. NFC User Group (UG) Restructure/Meeting Schedule – Wendy Moore, GESD, CMB

Action Item: Everyone should have received a handout of the new User Groups. The Benefits User Group is the only new group. Charters will be developed and presented at the first UG meeting in November 2008. UG’s are a strong vocal point. Participation is dwindling. This is a team effort. Customer Services Representatives will be contacting agencies for participation. We need one primary and one alternate point of contact. Communication comes from one organization. Dawn Hughes-Morris (CMB)

Q: Will NFC have a Security User Group?
A: We will ask Randy Speed? Action Item: Wendy Moore (PPSPS)
Post Meeting Update: Discussed with Randy Speed and awaiting a response.