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| A Letter from the President
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I
hope you have had a wonderful summer. Summer
is usually a time for vacations and
relaxation. CiHRG, however, has not slowed
down this summer we know that this is the time for
our members to stay on top of numerous HR topics,
however we also know that funds are tight so in
response we offered one meeting per month over the
summer. Our members were able to attend an
HR101 seminar and two educational brown bag
lunches and the meetings were all provided at no
charge. I want to recognize the Membership
Committee chaired by Becky Krueger for all their
work on these meetings. What a great benefit
they were able to provide.
Speaking
of benefits, CiHRG has partnered with the
Heartland Healthcare Coalition which will provide
new membership benefits to many of our
members. I hope you will be able to attend
our September 8 meeting where we will provide you
with detailed information.
CiHRG also
has a packed scheduled for the fall.
Starting with our September meeting on
Prescription Benefit Design; then to an October ½
day seminar featuring Cindy Guthrie instructing us
on how to keep the human in human resources.
In October we will meet a week later than usual
and it will be a breakfast meeting educating us on
the latest on ADAAA. Then December will be a
"can't miss" meeting with some "surprise"
entertainment.
Looking forward to
seeing you,
Tammy Hoggatt,
SPHR
President
Central Illinois HR
Group
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NEXT MEETING
SEPTEMBER 8, 2009
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Prescription Plan
Design, The Value of Medicines
Laura Burleson, MPH is an
Associate Director of Epidemiology for Phizer
Groton, CT Global Research and Development
site
In addition details about your new
benefit of CiHRG Membership will be
discussed. CiHRG has partnered with
Heartland Healthcare Coalition and come hear how
it could affect the bottom line for your employer!
September 8, 2009, at 11:30 a.m.
Hilton
Garden Inn, Champaign
RSVP to Deanna Wright
** Remember all meetings are just $13 at the
door unless you have prepaid for
meals.
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| Health and Productivity
Committee |
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| Barb
Wleklinski sent this information in from the
committee she stated this is a "must listen
to".
It takes 15 minutes to hear but is great.
Information such as this helps to educate
consumers on cost control.
Link to
Greg and Dan Show Interview 7-22-09WMBD AM on the
topic of "Preventive Screening That Doesn't Work
"
Click
here to listen
The interview
focuses on the Ultrasound Screening Industry that
has developed over the past 15 years. Temporary
clinics are set up in churches or community
centers offering ultrasound screens of various
body parts for a fee.
Most screenings are
ineffective and rated "D" (recommend against
because harm outweighs benefit) by the United
States Preventive Services Task Force.
In
Central Illinois screening costs $139. The
company reports having done over 5 million
screens.
While ultrasound does not
cause harm directly, these tests can trigger a
cascade of medical intervention that carries
significant risk of harm.
The only
screen offered that is evidence-based is abdominal
aortic aneurysm. This is recommended once in
men age 65-75 who are or have been smokers.
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Congressional Leaders Question Efficacy of
E-Verify, Call for Change
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7/28/2009 By Aliah D.
Wright
Calling E-Verify a
"half-hearted and flawed" system on July 21, 2009,
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on
Immigration, echoed the sentiments of thousands of
U.S. employers who, like Schumer, support a
federal electronic employment verification system
that would improve on or replace the existing
E-Verify system.
House members at a separate
hearing on government management listened intently
two days later as federal officials defended
E-Verify and outlined myriad changes to the
voluntary program, including the addition of a
photo tool.
E-Verify began in 1997. Yet, it
has proved ineffective in preventing unauthorized
employment, according to the Human Resource
Initiative for a Legal Workforce (HR Initiative),
of which the Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) is a member. SHRM submitted comments on
behalf of the HR Initiative during hearings in the
House and Senate.
Tackling Identity
Theft
On July 8, 2009, the Senate adopted an
amendment to the Fiscal Year 2010 Department of
Homeland Security appropriations bill that would
require federal contractors to use
E-Verify.
The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Jeff
Sessions, R-Ala., represents the most recent
attempt by Congress to show its support for
mandating the use of E-Verify by all federal
contractors. In 2008, then-President George W.
Bush proposed an executive order that would have
put such a mandate in place, but implementation
was delayed after several groups, including SHRM
and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, mounted a legal
challenge against the government that remains
pending. The two sides in the lawsuit have set
Aug. 16, 2009, as the deadline to respond to
motions filed with the district court.
"Despite
the best efforts of the men and women who
administer this program in the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services (USCIS) department,
E-Verify's continued reliance on outdated
technology and error-prone databases render it
inadequate to meet the needs of mandated use," the
HR Initiative stated in a release. "In fact, we
believe mandating its use would divert attention
from the development of the state-of-the art
employment verification system, as embodied in the
New Employment Verification Act (NEVA).
"NEVA
... would create an entirely electronic process to
prevent identity theft and ensure a fair,
efficient and secure verification process, and
could eliminate virtually all unauthorized
employment-thereby taking away a huge incentive
for illegal immigration," the initiative
states.
One of the biggest problems with
E-Verify is its inability to detect identity
fraud. The Social Security Administration has said
that Social Security numbers are meant to create
records for benefits-not to be a means of
employment identification, David A. Rust noted
during one of the hearings.Rust is deputy
commissioner for the Social Security
Administration's Office of Retirement and
Disability Policy,whose agency oversees the
administration of the nation's social insurance
programs.
Any applicant can present stolen
Social Security numbers, fake certificates and
fraudulently obtained photo IDs to bypass the
system and gain employment, the HR Initiative
points out.
This is what was discovered during
the 2006 raids at several Swift & Co.
meatpacking plants. All of the hundreds of
employees arrested at the plants were found to
have used false identities or forged paperwork.
All were approved by E-Verify.
Winds of
Change
Gerri Ratliff, deputy associate director
of the National Security and Records Verification
Directorate at USCIS, which oversees E-Verify's
records division,acknowledged before members of
the House subcommittee meeting on July 23, 2009,
that fraud is a problem.
"We cannot today
catch every form of identify fraud," she testified
during the hearing, after Diane E. Watson,
D-Calif., chairwoman of the House's Government
Management, Organization, and Procurement
Subcommittee, asked what the "breakdown" was
during the Swift incident.
Ratliff noted that
the federal government has made changes to
E-Verify-most notably adding a photo tool so
employers can double-check photos against a
government database. "We're planning next year [in
2010] to put in the U.S. passport photos, but the
biggest document used for the form I-9 is the
driver's license."
However, no state has
volunteered to let the government access its
driver's license records database for this
purpose. Not everyone holds a passport or driver's
license.
Ratliff said USCIS is monitoring for
duplicate Social Security numbers, working with
the Immigration Customs Enforcement division and
exploring adding a biometric component, such as
fingerprints, to E-Verify.
While introducing a
biometric component has raised privacy and
security concerns, it is a solution supported by
Schumer as well as the HR Initiative.
"Simply
put," Schumer stated, "it is not difficult for
illegal workers to scam the [E-Verify] system by
providing the personal information of a legal
worker." He said a "non-forgeable" biometric
identifier is necessary to authenticate the
identities of potential employees.
"We commend
Senator Schumer for his vision and leadership-and
for providing a much-needed spotlight on the
problems with E-Verify," said Michael Aitken,
SHRM's director of government affairs. "The HR
Initiative has previously endorsed a voluntary use
of biometrics as embodied in H.R. 2028, the 'New
Employment Verification Act,' and will support
similar measures in the Senate."
According
to USCIS, a half-million U.S. worksites use
E-Verify voluntarily, out of 7.2 million employers
in the United States. Studies show the system
verifies about 97 percent of potential employees,
prevents the employment of 2 percent who are in
the U.S. illegally and rejects erroneously about 1
percent because of database errors.
Aliah
D. Wright is an online editor/manager for
SHRM.
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H1N1 Flu
Virus..are you
prepared??
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Make
your plans to attend the 2nd Annual Champaign
County Preparedness Summit. This is an
affordable seminar on September 29-30, 2009.
Featuring John M. Barry the author of "The Great
Influenza" For more information and to
register please CLICK
HERE
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Upcoming
CiHRG Meeting Schedule
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Plan to join us at
the following meetings this
fall:
September Lunch
Meeting:
Date: September 8, 2009
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Location:
Hilton Garden Inn, Champaign, IL
Topic:
Prescription Plan Design, The Value of Medicines
and the Unveiling of the new CiHRG Member
Benefit - Membership with the Heartland Healthcare
Coalition
October Half-Day
Seminar
Date: October 20, 2009
Time:
7:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Location:
Hilton Garden Inn, Champaign, IL
Topic:
Keeping the Human in Human
Resources
Speaker: Cindy Guthrie, MS,
SPHR Three Degrees of Change
November Breakfast
Meeting
Date: November 10, 2009
Time:
7:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.
Location: Hilton
Garden Inn, Champaign, IL
Topic:
ADAAA
Speaker: Mark H. Chu, Associate
Thomas, Mamer & Haughey, LLP
December Lunch
Meeting
Date: December 8, 2009
Time
11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Location: Hilton Garden
Inn, Champaign, IL
Topic: Holiday
Suprise
January Lunch
Meeting
Date: January 12,
2010
Time: 11:30 to 1:00
p.m.
Location: Hilton Garden Inn,
Champaign, IL
Speaker: Julie McNeil,
President/CEO, McNeil &
Associates
Topic: Diversity
RSVP
to Deanna Wright, SPHR
**
Remember all meetings are just $13 at the door
unless you have prepaid for
meals.
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Certification News
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For
those of you who would like to accomplish what
Karey did, a certification study group will be
forming in late August or early
September. Group study sessions
are a great way to keep you on track for preparing
for the certification exam.
These study groups are held weekly and lead
by resident experts (CiHRG members).
So, you get insights from other
SPHR's/PHR's who have already completed the
certification. And, you get to
ask these experts content questions.
The
second testing period for 2009 is December 1, 2009
through January 31, 2010. To avoid a
penalty, the application must be received by
October 9.
Fees
depend on three things:
·
Are you a SHRM member?
· Are you taking the PHR
or SPHR exam
· Did you register by the
deadline?
PHR
examination fees run from $175 to $350; SPHR
examination fees run from $300 to $475.
If you are interested in attending the
group study session, please get in touch with
Cindy Guthrie, Professional Development
Chair. Let her know what day
works best for you and for which exam you intend
to sit. If you have access to a
room where we could meet, let he know that
too. You can reach Cindy at cindy@threedegreesofchange.com,
or by cell phone at 714.3698.
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Training
Funds
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Is your
organization looking to add personnel by
6/30/2011?
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act
(ARRA) has funds to train employees that you may
need in the near future.
If you have a need to hire a group of
employees with similar skill sets, we
may have 100% funding to develop curriculum for
programs tailored specifically to your
organization.
If you are starting a new company or
expanding your operations, then this funding
program is designed specifically for you.
Contact Joe Streit if you would like
more information about this opportunity.
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