ORGANIZATIONAL UPDATES
The Temple Ministries Team met in retreat this past week working on
honing the team charter and discerning strategic direction on how the Temple
and its ministries serve as symbol for the church.
As we continue through this transitional time and as International
Headquarters staff receive requests for field ministry, please be in
communication with your Enrichment Group Leader before making specific
commitments as we continue to seek work/life balance as well as align the
ministries and services provided by world church ministers assigned at
International Headquarters.
Interviews of internal and external candidates will be accomplished the
week of August 28 for the Message Shaper and Deliverer Enrichment Group
Leader.
Additional interviews are ongoing for the other positions posted on the
Human Resource
Ministries web page.
Q & A
Q: From the August 11 NewsPEACE, I
understand the date to participate in the voluntary separation benefit has
been changed from 31 December to 1 September. It feels like the church is
now reneging on this benefit. I thought the purpose of the voluntary
separation benefit was to give employees in the new design an opportunity to
experience or "test drive" the new structure and then have the voluntary
separation benefit if someone felt that the new structure wasn’t a good fit
for them. Since not all positions have been filled and the design has not
been activated, this just doesn’t seem fair.
A: If the purpose of the voluntary separation benefit had been to “test
drive” the new organizational structure then changing the cut-off was
probably premature. However, the purpose of this benefit was to give those
who desired to stay a better opportunity to find a position by allowing
those individuals who might have been thinking about a change of employment
to make that decision early. At this point in the transition, the purpose
of the voluntary separation benefit has been met. Many people did take
advantage of both the early retirement benefit and the voluntary separation
benefit providing greater opportunity for others to remain employed by the
organization.
YOU'RE INVITED
Tuesday, September 12, at 6 p.m. you and your family are invited for
Dessert on the World Plaza followed by a concert by Edith Wallace in the
Temple sanctuary. Share in an evening of fellowship and uplifting music.
During Dessert on the Plaza, World Church Secretary Bruce Lindgren and his
family will be our special guests for the evening as we recognize Bruce's
retirement and the contributions he has shared with the church.
Thursday, September 14, plan to participate in Breakfast Discussions from
7:30 to 9:30 a.m. in the Auditorium lower assembly room. This time will be
focused on mutual discussions about where we are going and how we might
create our desired work culture. Following breakfast you are invited to
continue discussions in your respective Enrichment Groups from 10:00 a.m. to
noon. This discussion is a major building block towards our future and every
employee is strongly encouraged to attend.
If you work on an evening shift, we want you
to feel that you can participate in these discussions and you will receive
overtime compensation for your participation. If you are a part of the
International Headquarters staff not located in the Independence area you
will be receiving information very soon as to how you can participate
remotely in these discussions.
We look forward to our fellowship and
discussions together.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Outreach International, the church’s partner in working with the poor, is
pleased to launch their free monthly e-Newsletter, delivering the most
up-to-date news, stories and photos right to your inbox.
Through their monthly e-Newsletter, you can:
- Read engaging stories about
children and their families from villages and communities around the
world;
- Get up-to-date news to keep you
informed about health, livelihood, nutrition and other issues affecting
needy families;
- See a slideshow that takes you
on a unique photo journey;
- Test your knowledge about other
cultures through quizzes, quotes and facts; and
- Learn about ways you can take action
in support of the world’s poor.
You’ll also find out about upcoming events and receive crisis alerts when
emergencies or disasters unfold in the developing world.
If you would like to receive the e-Newsletter, take a moment to go to their
web site (www.outreach-international.org)
and sign up. Thank you for your interest and support of Outreach
International – a partner of the church in working with the poor.
THOUGHT YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW
As you all know we have seen an increase in the amount of SPAM E-Mails
coming into the system. We wanted to acknowledge this and tell you that we
are doing everything we can to minimize this occurrence. Spammers are
continually finding new ways to bypass all filters and deliver a variety of
E-Mails to users. It is our job to stay current and filter as much unwanted
E-Mails as possible.
At International Headquarters we have a SPAM filter that monitors
incoming mail 24/7. A service that comes with this filter is a subscription
to a database of known SPAM addresses. These addresses and Domains are
downloaded to our filter on an hourly basis. Even with this service it is
impossible to keep up with the latest tricks of the trade Spammers use to
evade filters. To give you an idea of what our SPAM filter stops every day
we wanted to give you some statistics.
|
Blocked: |
42,000 |
|
Blocked - Virus |
900 |
|
Allowed – Tagged (BULK) |
1,000 |
|
Allowed |
2,100 |
|
Total E-Mails / per Day |
46,000 |
Since we have installed the SPAM filter we have blocked 4.5 Million SPAM
E-Mails. One important step you can do is not respond or "Unsubscribe" to
SPAM mail you get. Doing this puts your address on other mailing lists for
other SPAM. If its suspicious just delete the message. And finally do not
open any attachments from unknown senders. If you have questions about an
attachment call the Help Desk at ext. 1234 and we can analyze any attachment
for you. It is not necessary to forward SPAM messages to the Help Desk. If
you feel you are receiving excessive SPAM (20 per day or more per day) send
an E-Mail to
infosys@CofChrist.org and we can block new SPAM. Please be assured that
we are doing all we can to minimize the amount of SPAM we all receive.
Thank you for your patience. -Help Desk
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