MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHRM

August is here! For me, it is start of a new fiscal year and a reminder that there is only five months left in 2015. YIKES!! Time sure is flying by, but what am I doing with it? This is a question that I’m sure we all ask ourselves from time-to-time as we contem-plate our efficiency and our business impact.

As vacations are coming to a close and fall starts to creep in, take a moment to stop and really think about how you can improve professionally. When was the last time you invested in yourself? Can’t remember the last time? Then consider attending the MD State Conference in Ocean City from September 27-29th. I attended this confer-ence last year and gained so much from the speakers and the networking with fellow HR professionals throughout the state. There are further details provided in the news-letter on how you can register. Don’t think you can be away from the office that long, no worries! I invite you to attend our August 19th dinner meeting and mark your cal-endar for our upcoming Professional Development half-day seminar on October 29th.

Whether it is for an evening, a day, or a couple of days; we all need to ensure we are continuing to educate ourselves on our ever changing profession. If we don’t, we risk becoming obsolete and not being able to continue to have a seat at the executive ta-ble we all have worked so hard to achieve.

Five months to go in 2015….what will you do to ensure you end the year a stronger HR professional?

President’s Corner by: Robin Marquart, PHR, SHRM-CP

A U G U S T 2 0 1 5

August 19th

Dinner Meeting Fostering Critical Thinking

Skills through Socratés Cafes -

Asking the Right Questions -

Approved for 1.5 HRCI - Gen-eral Recertification Credits and

Eligible for 1.5 SHRM PDC’s

Gaithersburg Hilton

6:00pm—8:30pm

Click here for more info

September 16th

Dinner Meeting

How Technology is Changing

Recruiting and Job Search

Gaithersburg Hilton

7:00 am to 9:00 am

Click here for more info

Sponsor a Meeting! Contact Ola Abiola

at ola.abiola@hosthotels.

com

Sponsor a

Networking Event!

Contact Kelly Collins

301-217-5415

V O L U M E 2 6 I S S U E 8

Join MCSHRM on Social Media

MCSHRM Calendar of Events

HR Strategic 1 day conference – “Critical LeaderShift”

Thursday, September 17, 2015 8:30am - 04:30pm (Includes Lunch)

FCSHRM is partnering with Ideation Consulting to offer a 1 day HR Strategic Conference in Frederick called "Critical LeaderShift."

FCSHRM members receive a special discounted rate of $269. The rate for non-FCSHRM members is $299.

FEATURING:

Nationally Recognized Speaker, Management Consultant, Author and Strategic HR Ex-pert

Sara Christiansen

The conference has been pre-approved for 7.0 SHRM and HRCI strategic business recer-tification credits.

LOCATION: Residence Inn, 5230 Westview Dr, Frederick, MD 21703

Click here for conference details and registration

MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHRM

P A G E 2 V O L U M E 2 6 I S S U E 8

MCSHRM will award a $2,000 scholarship to an active SHRM member who is enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program and pursuing a career in the Human Re-source field. Preference will be given to an individual who is an active member in the MCSHRM chapter.

Who is Eligible: To be considered for this scholarship:

You must have a current SHRM membership as of July 1, 2015. SHRM Professional, General, Associate, or Student members are eligible for this program. Preference will

be given to an individual who is an active member in the MCSHRM chapter.

You must be enrolled in a degree-seeking program pursuing an undergraduate, masters or doctorate degree in an HR-related field (includes business, psychology, organizational development, etc.) through an accredited insti-tution of higher learning, show promise in the field of Human Resource Management, and possess excellent leadership skills.

Full-time, part-time, online and distance learning programs are acceptable. Scholarships are for college degree programs only, and may not be used to attend professional development seminars.

You must be accepted and ready to begin your studies within six months following notification of the award. Scholarship recipients will be required to provide evidence of acceptance or enrollment in an HR-related pro-gram of study in order to claim their award. Applicants who have already completed their studies are not eligible for this award and may not apply for a scholarship to cover past expenses.

You must be a resident of the DC Metro Area (Maryland, Virginia, or Washington DC) or enrolled in an accredited institution of higher learning in the DC Metro Area (Maryland, Virginia, or Washington DC)

Each scholarship is a one-time award; however previous applicants and past scholarship recipients are eligible to re-apply.

How to Apply: To apply for this scholarship, complete and submit the online application by clicking here.

Timeline: Applications must be completed and submitted online by August 15, 2015. All applicants will be notified of the scholarship results at our September chapter meeting. Scholarship checks will be distributed by the end of the year, and sent directly to the college or university on behalf of the student.

For more information, please visit our website at http://mcshrm.shrm.org/mcshrm-scholarships, or contact me at mcshrm@gmail.com

MCSHRM Scholarship – Accepting Applications until August 15,

2015 By: Dawn Atwood, PHR, SHRM-CP, PMP

MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHRM

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 2 6 I S S U E 8

Programs by: Ola Abiola

Fostering Critical Thinking Skills through Socratés Cafes - Asking the Right Questions

About the Program:

Some organizations pay a lot of money for “The Five Questions” used in the Lean or Six Sigma approaches to organizational improvement. But actually, this practice is nothing new under the sun. Socrates fostered the spirit of true inquiry in the Western world through open-ended questions and his form of the “dialectical method” over ~2500 years ago.

In 2002, with his book Socrates Café, American philosopher Christopher Phillips started a movement in U.S. Thousands of Soc-rates Cafés formed in workplaces, retirement homes, schools, churches and prisons where ordinary people have practiced the Socratic Method approach to asking questions and exploring new ways of looking at many aspects of our lives and world. In this age of incessant sound bites and superficial analyses in so many corners of our culture, many people are hungry for deeper thinking and an open exploration of ideas with others in more meaningful conversation.

Through sponsoring a Socrates Café gathering, anyone with basic facilitation skills can start a “critical thinking revolution” in his or her workplace that can, in turn, support various organizational improvement initiatives. –-While also being a hero for not spending down limited performance improvement budgets!

About the Speaker:

We're excited to welcome guest speaker Veronica Adams, an independent training and organizational development consultant with considerable expertise in diversity & inclusion, creativity & innovation, and leadership development.

Veronica’s clients have included The Center for Creative Leadership, Accenture, Exec Online/Columbia University Business School, Cook-Ross, Inc., The Reina Trust-building Institute, Georgetown University, healthcare and food service companies, and various federal government agencies.

Her formal education includes a masters degree from Harvard Divinity School, organizational develop-ment graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a bachelors degree in Theater, University of Detroit.

She is a student of Vietnamese Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and teaches mindfulness and meditation.

Date:

August 19, 2015, 6:00pm – 8:30pm

Location: Gaithersburg Hilton, 620 Perry Parkway, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Price: $35.00 Members; $45:00 Nonmembers; $55.00 Walk-ins

This event has been Approved for 1.5 HRCI General Recertification Credits and eligible 1.5 SHRM PDCs

For more information and to register, please visit our website at http://mcshrm.shrm.org/ and click on the meetings and events tab.

For more information about Sponsorship and Speaking opportunities…

Contact Ericka Carmona-Vega at ecarmona-vega@4-H.org

~or~

Go to the “Meeting and Events” page on the MCSHRM website and click the “Sponsorship Information” link.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHRM

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2011 Had Its Share of Wacky Work Stories by: Kathy Gurchiek SHRM Online

Membership Update by: Vivie Yen, PHR, SHRM-CP

Reduced Membership Rates through 2015!

As a reminder, membership dues for the remainder of the year are just $30 for Professional and Associate members (Student membership is only $15.00). For more information, please feel free to contact me via email yenviv08@gmail.com or phone (301) 237-3946.

We are happy to announce the following new members. Please

Introduce yourself to them at our next chapter Meeting.

Shania Hess

Lisa Fleming

Edward Fetrow

Jamie Popernack

Jonathan Stroebel

Gene Stanley

Christina Thompson

Cyndie Shadow

Kasey Witt

Annette Osborne

Special thanks to our Executive Sponsors…

All we do is work.

Calling all MCSHRM members attending the Maryland SHRM State Conference!!

If anyone is interested in going for a run or grabbing a coffee or just saying hello, please drop me a note, Meredith Leader (mleader@5amsolutions.com).

Programs Continued by: Ola Abiola

MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHRM

The 2015 MD SHRM State Conference Sailing into HR Excellence

September 27 - 29, 2015 (Sunday to Tuesday) Clarion Resort Fontainebleau Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland

The Conference has been pre-approved by HRCI and SHRM for 10.5 recertification credits! Including 5 HRCI Business

(Strategic) Credits (with an additional 1.25 Pending)! Don't miss the exciting opportunity to network with your peers at our Opening Welcome Reception on Sunday night at the

Clarion Exhibit Hall and Happy Hour/Tiki Party/Dinner on Monday night at the Clarion Oceanfront Deck. Take advantage of the all inclusive rate of $525.00 which includes Opening Welcome Reception, Monday Night Happy Hour/

Tiki Party/Dinner and all meals during the meetings. The conference will feature three keynote speakers:

Todd Hunt - Monday, Opening Communication Bleeps and Blunders in Business

Michael A. Aitken - Monday, Afternoon HR Public Policy: The 114th Congress and The Obama Administration

Gerry Sandusky (sports announcer), author of Forgotten Sundays - Tuesday, Closing Forgotten Sundays

The conference website (http://md.shrm.org/maryland-state-conference) will have detailed information on the schedule of events, program descriptions, and re-certification credits as they become available.

We encourage you to check it out!

To register go to

http://www.cvent.com/d/1rq8d7

Montgomery County Earned Sick and Safe Leave Act goes into effect on October 1, 2016

In June of 2015, the Montgomery County Council passed legislation providing paid leave away from work that can be used for such things as preventative care or the care of the employee or a family member’s illness. This employer paid time off will be provided to any employee working in Montgomery County with the exception of: independent contractors, employees working less than 8 hours per week, and on-assignment employees. The legisla-tion requires covered employees to accrue sick and safe leave of up to 32 hours paid and 24 hours unpaid for employers with under 5 employees & up to 56 paid hours per year for employers with 5 or more employ-ees. All covered employees must earn at least 1 hour of paid sick and safe leave for every 30 hours worked in Montgomery County.

Employers must notify employees of their entitlement for leave and provide a written statement of how much sick and safe leave is available each time the employee is paid. Employers may award earned sick leave as the leave accrues or may award the full amount that an employee would earn at the beginning of the year.

Click here to review the bill

For additional information or question contact jhammerschmidt@paleyrothman.com.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHRM

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FLSA/White Collar Rule- Proposed

On July 6th, 2015, The Department of Labor proposed an update to the current “White Collar” rule which would increase salary and compensation levels needed for white collar workers to be exempt. The last time The Department updated these regulations was in 2004. The cur-rent salary threshold for exemption is $455 per week ($23,660 per year).

Key Provisions of the Proposed Rule

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) focuses primarily on updating the salary and compensation levels needed for white collar workers to be exempt. Specifically, the Department proposes to:

set the standard salary level at the 40th percentile of weekly earnings for full-time salaried workers ($921 per week, or $47,892 annually);

increase the total annual compensation requirement needed to exempt highly compensated employees (HCEs) to the annualized value of the 90th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers ($122,148 annually); and

establish a mechanism for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels going forward to en-sure that they will continue to provide a useful and effective test for exemption.

The Department is not making specific proposals to modify the standard duties tests; however, the Department is seeking comment on whether the standard duties tests are working as intended to screen out employees who are not bona fide white collar exempt employees.

These proposed rules are just that: proposed. The public has 60 days to comment and then the DOL may modify them, but in either case, any final rule will likely not become effective until next year.

The impact to businesses nationwide could be costly, as business would need to decide whether to increase employees’ salaries who are close to the threshold in order to possibly keep them exempt, or keep employee salaries the same, change their status to non-exempt, and risk the possibility of paying overtime. Not only would this affect compensation and budgets, but could also increase employee relations issues within organizations. Something to start looking at and preparing for now.

Link to proposal: http://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/NPRM2015/OT-NPRM.pdf

Is your organization looking for ways to give back to the community this year?

Please consider participating in educational opportunities for staff or inviting the American Kidney Fund to participate in employers’ health fairs.

The American Kidney Fund (AKF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that every kidney patient has access to health care, and that every person at risk for kidney disease is empowered to prevent it. AFK’s mission is to provide finan-cial support to patients in need, deliver programs that educate, build awareness, and drive advocacy, resulting in greater public understanding and ultimately the prevention of kidney disease. Last year, the AFK provided financial assistance to 20 percent of the nation’s dialysis patients. Their grants in 2014 enabled more than 84,000 people in all 50 states to maintain their health insurance coverage and to afford other critical expenses related to obtaining life-sustaining dialysis.

Legislative Affairs by: Kim Diebling, SHRM-SCP, SPHR

CommunityAffairs by: Rema Haddad, PHR, SHRM-CP

MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHRM

MONTGOMERY COUNTY CHAPTER SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

2015 Board and Directors: Robin Marquart, PHR President 301-212-8218 robin.a.marquart@erac.com

Dawn Atwood, PHR, PMP Past President 301-987-4620 Dawn.Atwood@sodexo.com

Allyson Mueller. PHR Treasurer 240-813-1729 allyson.mueller@rosefinancial.com Karin Inwood, PHR, SHRM-CP President Elect 240-632-7827 kwentz@mtb.com

Vivie Yen, PHR Membership 301 237-3946 yenviv08@gmail.com

Kimberly Diebling, SPHR, SHRM-SCP Legislative Affairs 301-380-6674 kdiebling@hotmail.com

Meredith Leader mleader@5amsolutions.com Secretary/Certification

Ola Abiola Programs 240-744-5144 ola.abiola@hosthotels.com

Kelly Collins Marketing & PR 301-217-5415 kellykrampcollins@verizon.net

Amy Galler, PHR Professional Development amygaller@yahoo.com

Erin Cresswell Hospitality/Logistics 240-864-7544 Erin.cresswell@thalesdsi.com

Rema Haddad Community Affairs 240-813-6929 rhaddad@ttlc.org

Susan Bennett, SPHR Communications 301-806-3598 sbennett638@gmail.com The MCSHRM Newsletter is published monthly. Topic articles and items of interest to the membership are welcome. Items may be sent to the attention of Susan Bennett , Editor, sbennett638@gmail.com ©Montgomery County Society for Human Resource Management 2008

MCSHRM Career Center Reach HR Professionals in Montgomery County

The MCSHRM web site and Newsletter is a very targeted and cost-effective way to reach Human Resource Managers and Decision-makers in Montgomery County, Maryland.

To post a job on the MCSHRM web site, please send the information listed below to Meredith Leader, job Bank Coordinator at: mleader@5amsolutions.com

If you would like the job posting advertised in the newsletter please send a copy of the posting to Susan Bennett, Communication Chair at: sbennett638@gmail.com There is no fee for current members of MC SHRM. There is a $25 fee per posting for non members. This fee provides a Job posting on the web site for one month, and you can place your ad in the next edition of the Chapter newsletter at no additional charge (see below for newsletter contact information).

If interested, please provide the following information:

Please be sure to indicate if you are a current member of Montgomery County SHRM. If you are not a mem-ber, you can pay by debit/credit card payment through PayPal on our website under the Career Center Tab. You can also send your check or money order of $25 made out to Montgomery County SHRM and sent to:

Montgomery County SHRM Attention Treasurer (Web Job Posting Payment)

P.O. Box 633 Germantown, MD 20874

Don’t forget to check out the Job Postings on the MCSHRM website!

Job Title How to Apply or Contact Information Job Description

Brief description of the com-

pany (optional but encour-

aged)

Job Qualifications (both required and

preferred)

Required Equal Oppor-

tunity Statement

MC SHRM * P.O. Box 633 * Germantown, MD

20875 *

Special Interest Networking Groups (SING):

SINGs are member-led networking groups that provide a forum for members to meet

and discuss specific topics, including industry challenges and best practices in their Area

of HR Interest: Benefits, Compensation, Employee Relations, HRIS, International, Re-

cruiting, Strategic, and Talent Management.

We are looking for MCSHRM members to organize, lead, and host SING events in 2015!

If you are interested in leading a SING discussion in 2015 or have access to conference

room/meeting space that may be used for these events, please contact Karin Inwood.

For more information or if you would like to lead a SING group, click here .