Committee For The Agriculture Payroll/Personnel System Charter

The Committee for the Agriculture Payroll/Personnel System (CAPPS) is a committee established by the National Finance Center (NFC) to represent managers and users of the USDA/NFC Payroll/Personnel System.

Membership

CAPPS membership consists of one member and one alternate from each Department or independent agency serviced by the USDA/NFC Payroll/ Personnel System. Representatives from outside of the personnel community may be invited to attend as ex officio members on an ad hoc basis to address auxiliary issues on the agenda. Functional specialists may be invited to attend meetings to discuss problems in their functional area of expertise.

Purpose

CAPPS provides the framework for providing an interface between the Payroll/Personnel System user community, the program staffs at departmental level, and the technical systems staff at the National Finance Center. The Committee interacts with the other system users and NFC in implementing, operating, maintaining and continually improving the automated USDA Payroll/Personnel system. CAPPS provides leadership and guidance to user agencies regarding the Payroll/Personnel system and assures the integrity of the system.

Responsibilities

The Committee for the Agricultural Payroll/Personnel System:

1. Represents all users, large and small, assuring that user needs are fairly
   represented within the Payroll/Personnel System.
   
   
2. Promotes a single basic payroll/personnel system committed to responsible
   personnel, payroll and time and attendance practices which meet all
   regulatory and legal requirements.
   
   
3. Provides a unified approach to system management.
   
   
4. Identifies, develops, reviews and recommends payroll/personnel system
   procedures.
   
   
5. Identifies, develops, reviews and recommends proposed system improvements/ enhancements and recommends development priorities.
   
   
6. Assists in the design, testing, and implementation of new payroll/personnel
   systems.
   
   
7. Provides technical advice and assistance to the user community.
   
   
8. Provides a mechanism for sharing problems and solutions among users.
   
   
9. Develops consensus solutions to problems, system changes or proposed
   enhancements.
   
   
10. Recommends system development priorities.

Chairperson

The Chairperson of CAPPS will be a member of the NFC Staff. Responsibilities of the Chairperson include:

• Receipt, consolidation, development and issuance of agenda items.
  
  
• Notify members of dates, times and places of scheduled meetings.
  
  
• Call special meetings as needed.
  
  
• Distribution of notes of the meeting and written findings on matters of arbitration decided upon by the USDA management.
  
  
• Distribution of handouts to members not in attendance.
  
  
• Assures meeting is run in a smooth, orderly manner.
  
  
• Requests volunteers for special workgroups.
  
  
• Disseminates work to workgroup chairpersons.
  
  
• In conjunction with workgroup chairpersons, presents recommended changes with accompanying research to CAPPS, USDA management, and NFC.
  
  
• Reports on project status in absence of workgroup chairperson.
  
  
• Coordinates implementation of recommended changes.
  
  
• Submits proposals from NFC or user agencies to CAPPS for review.

Member Responsibility

Responsibilities of the representatives include:

• Submission of agenda items in required format.
  
  
• Submission of their department's views, comments and recommendations on changes or enhancements.
  
  
• Furnish members to participate as needed by CAPPS.
  
  
• Provides a research resource as needed by CAPPS.
  
  
• Serves as workgroup chairperson as elected.

Meetings

Meetings will be held every third Wednesday at 10:00 AM in the USDA complex. Special meetings may be called as needed.

Agenda

The Chairperson should receive agenda items from members at least six working days prior to the scheduled meeting. Agenda items from members should be received by the Chairperson at least six working Days prior to the scheduled meeting. The Chairperson will issue agenda items and a reminder of the meeting five working days before the meeting. With the exception of system problems requiring immediate attention, items not received by the due date will be deferred until the next meeting of CAPPS.

Examples of the agenda are:

• All requests for changes to the payroll/personnel applications/systems.
  
  
• Problems which affect more than one user, i.e. system application versus employee application.
  
  
• New applications, e.g. spot awards, etc.

Requests for changes to the application should include:

• Change
  
  
• Reasons why the change is needed
  
  
• Impact on users
  
  
• Regulation, law, etc., if applicable.
  
  

User Groups

Four User Groups have been established to identify customer needs and develop priorities for NFC system changes within the specific categories.  The four groups are:

T&A User Group
FESI User Group
EPIC User Group
Reports User Group

CAPPS members will furnish representatives to participate in the user group meetings and present their agency’s viewpoint on the subject. The user group members will select the Chairperson of the workgroup. The NFC will assign a facilitator to the User Group.  The user group will be limited to a reasonable working size. However, the Chairperson of the user group may allow other participants on an as needed basis. At a minimum, each user group will contain subject matter specialists and system specialists.

The Facilitator of the User Group will:

• Assist the Chairperson of the user group by scheduling meetings, obtaining meeting rooms, draft meeting notes, prepare agenda and other tasks as assigned by the chairperson.,
  
• Represent the User Group to NFC when discussing topics of interest or concern to the user group

The Chairperson of the User Group will:

• Coordinate all activities of the user group, ensuring appropriate expertise is available, etc.
• Furnish progress reports to the Chairperson of CAPPS.
  
• Present draft proposals to CAPPS for presentation, review and comment.
  
• Consolidate and incorporate comments and recommendations for changes to proposals
  
• Present completed proposals to the Chairperson of CAPPS for presentation to CAPPS and NFC.
  
• As needed, represents the user community in discussions with NFC during the development process.

The Members of the User group will:

• Attend scheduled meeting with completed assignments.
  
• Elect user group Chairperson.
  
• Develop written specification packages based on user requirements and laws and regulations.
  
• As needed, represents the user community in discussions with NFC during the development process.
  
• Work with the user group chairperson during the development, test and implementation phases of any new system and enhancements