Brainfuse Training

Registration is now open for the Brainfuse training. This 1 ½ hour training session will be offered next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (September 19th – 21st) and is mandatory for all Frontline Public Services Staff**.

Supervisors, please use the attached spreadsheet to register the staff members in your unit or grouping. Please make all changes and updates in RED and submit electronically to HPL Training (hpltraining@houstontx.gov) using a subject line of “Brainfuse – Unit or Grouping Name.” Be sure to provide each employee’s Last Name, First Name in the spreadsheet. We should receive 1 completed spreadsheet for each unit or NL grouping.

Here’s the schedule at a glance:

Wednesday, September 19th from 9:15am – 3:00pm: PAR
9:15am-10:45am 1st session
11:00am-12:30pm 2nd session
1:30pm-3:00pm 3rd session

Thursday, September 20st from 9:15am – 3:00pm: JUN
9:15am-10:45am 1st session
11:00am-12:30pm 2nd session
1:30pm-3:00pm 3rd session

Friday, September 21st from 8:30am – 4:30pm: CEN Concourse
8:30am-10:00am 1st session
10:15am-11:45am 2nd session
1:15pm-2:45pm 3rd session
3:00pm-4:30pm 4th session

Please provide HPL Training with your registrations no later than Friday, September 14th at 5pm. Be sure to spread your registration requests evenly across all of the available days.

Questions may be addressed to Leilany Vazquez at 832-393-1675 (Leilany.vazquez@houstontx.gov) or Suzy Benton at 832-393-1505 (suzy.benton@houstontx.gov).

Additional web training may be available, but try to send as many people as you can to the in person training next week.

Thanks,

Laurie

Friends - Children's Booksale postponed

On September 7th, several local news agencies incorrectly reported that Houston Public Library had received a donation of books from a home in The Woodlands that was quarantined for a possible hantavirus exposure, and that up to 20% of the books had been distributed to children and families.

Here are the facts:

1. The books in question were donated to the Friends of the Houston Public Library, an independent non-profit organization that exists to support the Houston Public Library through the sale of used and/or donated books.

2. The books were never in the possession of HPL, and our collection was not exposed to the books.

3. The Friends reacted immediately upon learning of the possible exposure, isolating as many of the books as possible at their warehouse. Upon advice of local infectious disease specialists, the Friends have closed the warehouse and suspended operations there pending an investigation by the City's Department of Health and Human Services.

4. None of the books in question were distributed by the Friends.

5. No other books from the Friends' warehouse have been distributed since the Woodlands books arrived at the warehouse.


The Friends and HPL Communications staff have worked to contact local news organizations to correct the story, with some success.

Still, you might have some customers today who saw the stories last night, and not the corrections. If so, please use the information in this email to ease any concerns.

Finally, the Friends has taken the proactive step to postpone their upcoming Children's Book Sale, which was scheduled for September 21 and 22. Please remove all promotional materials for this sale and return them to the Print Shop.

Please let your Team Leader or Coordinator of Extended Hours know if you have any questions-
Thanks.
Mary

CMC Campaign

Who are the dream makers?

We are asking that every location select a unit CMC coordinator to be a part of the Dream Team. The unit CMC Coordinator is responsible for distributing CMC materials and information, coordinating CMC fundraising efforts for your location, totaling participation and monetary contributions, and securing all funds until they are turned in. Please forward the name of your Dream Team member to Belinda Cox (ext. 31682); or Leilany Vazquez (ext. 31675)by Friday, September 14th.

We thank all of you for working to make dreams a possibility in our communities.

Thanks.
Mary

Hi

Thanks to those that responded and have already signed up for this initiative. For those of you still thinking about this, your daily walk to and from lunch or, your walk around the library while helping customers counts!!! This should be fun and even a good team building exercise. Please consider! I’d love to have 100% participation in Neighborhood Libraries. NL Administration has signed up to participate as a group for this wellness initiative. Let us all work together to increase the number of participants. I have also attached Gwen's email below for reference.

Looking forward to positive responses from Neighborhood Libraries..........

Shammi

Hello All,

Hopefully, everyone has had an opportunity to review the information about the

wellness initiative and friendly competition that HPL is currently participating in

for the next three months called, “Get Fit on Route 66”, HPL vs. Parks. The

start date of this initiative is Monday, September 10, 2012.

We will all virtually be in Chicago, Illinois next Monday! Yay!

I am pleased to celebrate the 53 HPL Staffers who have all ready registered.

Thank You All Very Much! The 25 HPL Staffers who registered during the

HPL Biometric screening event on August 24, 2016, will receive a Wellness

T-shirt this week for their early bird response!

The entire staff at Stella Link Library has sent in their registration forms.

Thanks, Patrick Atkins!

These Stella Link staff members will receive a wellness gift bag treat this week,

courtesy of the COH Wellness Dept. Your group can be the next entire team

to register! We still have wellness treats to give away to whole group/staff

registration participants.

Currently, the Parks Dept. is leading us in registered participants.

Therefore, it is imperative that we accelerated our actions. If you have not registered,

please do so today. Send completed registration forms to me via interoffice mail

or email them to me at gwen.walter@houstontx.gov.

REMEMBER, We Are In It - to Win It! We can be successful in this Wellness Initiative.

It is an “easy to do” fabulous program. All we have to do is; walk, write and win.

WALK

All registered participants will receive their registration packet and pedometers

this week. When you receive your pedometers we ask you to wear them daily as

you track your steps.

WRITE

1. Pocket Log Cards - All library locations and groups will receive a supply of

pocket logs this week. Record your daily steps on this card.

2. Review how to earn “Bonus Steps” on the Route 66 Brochure. Participate in

Bonus Step activities. Record these points on your tally pocket card. Total

your points on your card for the week, Monday through Sunday.

3. Every Monday send your pocket logs to me via interoffice mail for tallying.

You can also email me a copy of your log entrees as well. Our scores will

be tallied by our COH.HR Wellness Team and published every Thursday.

Pocket Log Cards are due for the month of September on …

· September 17, 2012

· September 24, 2012

WIN

ü Improved Health

ü Bragging Rights over the Parks Dept.

ü Our Claim to Wellness Fame 2012!

TRACKING OUR PROGRESS

Every Library location will receive a ROUTE 66 Map Poster and be able track our

progress in this “no holds barred” competition. As our weekly totals are published,

you can track HPL’s progress on your locations’ Route 66 map poster. Thank you

in advance for participating in this life changing event. If you need more information

contact the COH Wellness Connection at 713.837.9364, wconnection@houstontx.gov,

or Gwen Walter at 832.393.1679 gwen.walter@houstontx.gov.

Kind Regards,

Gwen Walter

HPL Safety & Wellness

832.393.1679

This message was approved for library system wide distribution by Library Administration Deputy Director,

Roosevelt Weeks.

If you would like to receive periodic emails from Mayor Annise D. Parker and the City of Houston on topics of interest

to you, please go to www.houstontx.gov and register with CitizensNet.

HEAR is almost here

HEAR, Houston Employee Assessment and Review, is a new system that will provide a clear, two-way channel of communication between employees and supervisors. Work plans will be aligned with department goals and the Mayor's five pillars. And employees will be able to track and monitor job performance, giving them a clear roadmap for success.

Mandatory training for all managers and supervisors will start in October. Look for updates posted here regarding the HEAR implementation.

Log on to: http://www.houstontx.gov/hr/hear.html for more information. You can also log on the LMS system to see a brief video from HR Director Omar Reid.

To access LMS:1. Go to http://lms.coh.gov2. Enter your username – e123456 (six-digit employee number with the “e” – use leading zeros if needed)3. Enter your password – if this is your first-time logging in, your password is password (all lowercase)

Look for more information about training soon.

Thanks,

Laurie

Houston Housing Authority

Housing Choice Voucher Program Wait List Closure

A record 83,743 families and Houstonians applied for the Housing Choice Voucher Program wait list during the week of August 20-26. Houston Housing Authority had an additional 4,047 families apply for the Moderate Rehabilitation program wait list. Houston Housing Authority thanks all of their partners, especially Houston Public Library, Harris County Public Library and Houston Center for Independent Living, for their help in making the wait list opening a huge success.

Houston Housing Authority will conduct a lottery on September 3 to randomly determine applicants to be added to our current wait list. They will add 20,000 families to the wait list. Applicants can check their wait list status starting September 10 at https://www.waitlistcheck.com/ or by calling 1-800-376-5058. Applicants are encouraged to call the Wait List Call Center at 1-855-702-9130 to have questions answered. The Wait List Call Center will be open every day from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. until Friday, August 31st.

Thank you for assisting customers with accessing the website and answering questions! If you have anything to share about successes or challenges, please reply to this posting.

Thanks!

Mary Wagoner

Coin Copiers Phone Number

Yolanda sent this information today, but I thought that I would post it here too:

Coin Copiers has moved locations and they have a new contact phone number: 281-565-0805. Yolanda checked with IT and Coin Copiers technicians will be providing new labels with the current phone number soon. They said the old phone number will be rolling over to the new one for a couple of weeks

Thanks,

Laurie