April 24, 2023

• Bring Your Child to Work Day!
• Network Operations and Technology Support Staffing Updates
• New Leadership in the Communication & Digital Media Team
• PRO Tips: Best Practice for Dispositioning Records
• Style Guidance: contractions (can’t, we’re, you’re)
• Dates of Note: April 25-30
• Reminder: FY Cutoffs
• OSPI Fun Zone!
• Trainings & Events
• Shout Out!
• Resource Reminders
• Ada's Data

Bring Your Child to Work Day!

Thursday, April 27th, is Bring Your Child to Work Day. Our agency would like to invite staff to bring their child(ren) to work on this day. We have a few small in-person activities planned for a short duration of the day for children to participate in. Please see the schedule of events below. Schedule of events: 8 am | Check-in with Karen Conway to receive a special visitor badge 8:15–10:45 am | Activities (on your own)/work with parent 10:45 am | Agency tour with Karen Conway (meet at the reception desk, 2nd floor) 11:15 am | Pick up “treat” bag (2nd floor) 11:30 am | Agency welcome and meet and greet with Superintendent Reykdal (2nd floor) 11:50 am | Take a picture on the photo wall (2nd floor) 12 pm | Lunch (on your own) 1–5 pm | Activities (on your own)/work with parent If you plan on bringing your children to work with you on the 27th please keep in mind the following: You’ll need to register by Tuesday, April 25th and notify your supervisor. Children will need to remain with you throughout their stay. As much as we love to have children in the building, we also know it can be a distraction to staff. We will defer to the parent as to how long their child(ren) is in the building. We understand this event is being planned on short notice, and we already have ideas on how to make it bigger and better the next year. If you also have ideas for next year, please let us know. If you have any questions, please reach out to Amber Palmer, Jami Peterson, and/or Rachael Wagoner. Register for Bring Your Child to Work Day: Link here.

Network Operations and Technology Support Staffing Updates

Please join us in welcoming Bobbi Stockwell to the Network Operations Team and congratulating Tiffany Wiek as the new Technology Support Center Supervisor! 

New Leadership in the Communication & Digital Media Team

Written by Katy Payne, Executive Director of Communications:

Two of our team members have recently been promoted to new positions within the Communication & Digital Media department: Zac Murphy has been promoted to Director of Multimedia & Information Strategy, and Chelsea Embree has been promoted to Director of Publications & Engagement Strategy. In their new positions, Chelsea and Zac will work in close partnership to strategize and implement OSPI’s authentic storytelling and misinformation mitigation strategies through coordinated communication campaigns.

In his new role, Zac will continue to lead OSPI’s work on misinformation mitigation, and will also oversee and support OSPI’s videography staff and their work. In her new role, Chelsea will continue to serve as the primary manager and author for OSPI’s blog, and will also oversee and support OSPI’s social media staff and their work. Through their work together and the coordinated work of their teams, we will produce even more relevant, engaging, and authentic content that is backed by comprehensive release strategies to achieve the highest impact.

Please join me in congratulating these two fantastic leaders!

PRO Tips: Best Practice for Dispositioning Records

When your records have meet all retention requirements, you should disposition (i.e., get rid of) the records according to the “Disposition Action” set by the record series they fall under. Archival records will always be “transfer” and non-archival will be “destroy”. If your records are archival, they cannot be destroyed and must be transferred in their original format (so if they are electronic, we transfer them electronically) as soon as they meet all retention requirements. If records are non-archival, all copies should be destroyed (or deleted permanently) as soon as they meet all retention requirements. Staff should document the disposition of any agency records or have a documented process that outlines when destruction occurs that can be referenced. Archival records sent to Washington State Archives should always be transferred with  an Archives Records Transmittal & Box Content List, and staff should retain a copy for agency use. For more information see InsideOSPI: To Destroy or Not Destroy, the Records Management intranet page, and/or Washington State Archives’ Advice on Documenting the Destruction of Public Records. If you have any questions, contact the Agency Records Officer.

Style Guidance: contractions (can’t, we’re, you’re)

From the Style Guide: Contractions are acceptable in most informal writing, such as email, newsletters, and webpages. Do not use contractions in official correspondence, such as bulletins and legislative reports.

Dates of Note: April 25-30

[None listed]

Do you feel any observance was missed? Email Human Resources and let us know.

Reminder: FY Cutoffs

Our State Fiscal Year (FY) ends Friday, June 30, 2023. All goods and services using State FY 2023 funds must be received by our agency on or before June 30. The following are cutoff dates established by Purchasing:

Correctional Industries (CI)

• Standard orders greater than $100,000, any custom products: Feb. 28
• Standard orders under $100,000: Mar. 31
• Fast Fulfillment: Jun. 1

IT Equipment 

• Synchronous Tech: May 1
• DELL: May 5
• Items needing an exception request: May 13
• Zones: Software: Jun. 13
• Other: May 16

Office Supplies

• Office Depot: Jun. 15
• Amazon: Jun. 15
• All Other Vendors: May 31

Keep in mind, if the purchase requires additional processing, or requires a quote, additional time must be factored in.

Submit questions to Purchasing.

OSPI Fun Zone!

A collection of puzzles, riddles, problems, and games! If you have any ideas for the Fun Zone, please send them to CommTeam@k12.wa.us. THIS WEEK: Custom Wordle! There is one big concept in Ada's Data this week. Can you guess what five-letter word sums it all up? Try it here!

Trainings & Events

This Week

Bring Your Child to Work Day
When: 4/27, 8 am
Register: Link here.
Contact: Amber Palmer, Jami Peterson, or Rachael Wagoner

Upcoming

WA State Employee Night with the Mariners
When: 5/6, 6:40 pm
Where: T-Mobile Park
Versus: Houston Astros
Price: $32 main, $16 view
Contact: (206) 346-4504; website here

Gov't-to-Gov't: Office of Indian Affairs
When:
May 8
June 5
Where: DES, 1500 Jefferson St SE, Olympia, WA 98501. Check in at front desk.
Register: Learning Center. Submit your External Training form located on the Training intranet page ($220 per person)
Contact: DES Training Information
Note: This training does NOT count for certificate renewal.

Public Service Recognition Week
Olympia: 5/10, 11 am-1pm
Spokane: 5/10, 11:30 am-1 pm
Tri-cities: 5/11, 5:30-7:30 pm
Info: Website here
Contact: OFM Planning

OSPI DEI Summit
When: 5/25, 8:30 am
Where: OSPI
Contact: Juwariyah Sou

2023 WA State Employee DEI Empowerment Conference
When:
June 7 (8:30 am–5 pm)
June 14 (8:15 am–5 pm)
June 21 (8:30 am–5 pm)
June 28 (8:30 am–5 pm)
Info: OFM website

Shout Out!

Have a shout out to share? Email it to the Comm Team!

Resource Reminders

Agency Intranet Calendar

Share what's happening in your department, division, or office! Everyone is able to add items to the agency calendar. See here for more information.

Pet of the Week

Do you have a pet who deserves the spotlight on the internal TVs? Contact the Comm Team with a picture of your animal, along with fun facts, good stories, or any other details about them!

SEL Smartsheet

The Social Emotional Learning (SEL) team has created a Smartsheet for SEL-related topics, webinars, training, workshops, committees, etc. Use this link to request access. Reach out to Debra Parker with any questions.

Ada's Data

Facts, Stories, and Musings

Email Ada Foote with comments or questions.

THIS WEEK: It's Sensible

How many senses does the average human have? Popular knowledge says it’s five: Sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. That is only a subset of the truth. A sense is any one of the body’s many mechanical, chemical, and optical inputs that our brains try to use to form a coherent view of the world.

These are some of the less recognized senses that keep people oriented in space and moving through life.

BALANCE: People can sense what angle their heads are at. This allows them to know if they are tilted in comparison to the planet and to remain upright. It also allows a human to see the world correctly even at an angle—turning your head slightly will not affect your ability to read text, for example.

MOVEMENT: Humans can also sense when their bodies are moving. This is why people, even if they were unable to see out a window, would still know when a vehicle is in motion.

PROPRIOCEPTION: sensing where the body is in space. Thanks in part to muscle tension, people can sense where their body parts are relative to the rest of them. This is the sense that allows a human to walk without constantly watching their feet, or type without monitoring their hands.

There are many other sensations not included on the list—like those sense our own hunger or internal pains. Any artificial bounding box around the interconnected world of human sensory perception is limited and simplified.

All of our senses are lenses into our reality, not objective windows. Think of optical illusions, fake scents, simulated noises. There have long been ways to fool our senses; you have to work with your own brain to figure out what’s real and what’s not.

Luckily, humans are historically very good at that. I don’t think it’ll be a problem.