CCPS all-points bulletin

              September 2010
My hat is off to the Division of Emergency Management
employees who kept abreast of Tropical Storm Nicole
and provided state assistance to the coastal counties.
We have one of the best operations in the country when
it comes to preparing for and responding to disasters.
While our mission to enhance public safety was satisfied
following Tropical Storm Nicole, the Governor’s Crime
Commission was finalizing plans to mete out the second
part of the department’s mission, to reduce crime.
During October, GCC is offering grant workshops and
crime forums to representatives of various government
agencies and non-profit organizations. GCC will be
hosting the writing workshops for those seeking federal
grants for their programs or projects. After careful study, the grant recipients will be
announced the first of next year.
The crime forums will be held after the workshops to get feedback from the community
on concerns relative to victims of crime, the juvenile justice system, courts and law
enforcement. The Governor’s Crime Commission will use the information received in
future consideration of policy issues and funding priorities.
Once again, I am proud to be a part of this organization that reaches out and helps the
citizens of this state in so many valuable ways.
Reuben Young
Congratulations!
The following employees were promoted:
Alcohol Law Enforcement: Robert Putnam
Emergency Management: Stacey Fuller and Douglas Remer
State Highway Patrol: Robert Beaver, Theresa Burney and Henry
Kastelberg
The following employees celebrate significant service milestones in their state careers:
40 years
State Highway Patrol: Sandra Pritchard
30 years
Emergency Management: Patricia McCullers
25 years
State Highway Patrol: Robin Augram and Kenneth Kluttz
Pritchard
20 years
State Capitol Police: Reginald Newberne
State Highway Patrol: Lorie Hamby, Robin Benge, John Swinney, Gregory
Winstead, Barbara Julian and Marcus Pullium
Comings and Goings
Welcome to our new employees:
Alcohol Law Enforcement: Larry Houpe
Emergency Management: Ryan Wiedenman
State Capitol Police: Cynthia Ford and Gary Freeman
State Highway Patrol: Christina McDonald and Rodney Plowman
Best wishes to our recent retirees:
N.C. National Guard: Jim Carper
State Capitol Police: Henry McCray
State Highway Patrol: Mark Cain, Richard Carlyle, Anthony Chicelli, Micheal Jones
and Harold McLean
In Memoriam:
State Highway Patrol: Tammie Wilkie
Discover the Real George Washington
At the N.C. Museum of History
State Employee Discount
A traveling exhibition, Discover the Real George Washington: New Views From Mount
Vernon, is on a national tour and the N.C. Museum of History is the only venue in the
Southeast. The exhibit in Raleigh started Sept. 10 and runs until Jan. 21, 2011.
Three impressive life-size figures of
Washington based on cutting-edge
forensic research, show Washington
at different stages of his life: as a
young surveyor, as commander in
chief, and as our first president.
Approximately 100 original objects
associated with George Washington,
including the only surviving complete
set of his famous dentures, will be on
view.
The entry fee is $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens (60 and up) and $5 for state
employees.
For more information on the traveling exhibit, go here:
http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/wgo/press_03012010.html
Microsoft Home Use Program Now Available for CCPS
Employees
By Glenn Mack
Chief Information Officer
CCPS Information Technology Section
You are now eligible to participate in Microsoft’s Software Assurance Home Use
Program (HUP). This program enables you to get a licensed copy of most Microsoft®
Office desktop PC applications to install and use on your home computer.
Under the Home Use Program, you and our other
employees who are users of qualifying applications at work
(e.g. Office Enterprise) may acquire a licensed copy of the
corresponding Home Use Program software (e.g. Office
Enterprise) to install and use on a home computer. You
may continue using HUP software while you are under
our employment and as long as the corresponding
software you use at work has active Software Assurance
coverage.
To access the Microsoft Home Use Program Web site:
1. Go to http://hup.microsoft.com/.
2. Select the country to which you want your order to be shipped to and choose
the language for viewing the order website.
3. Enter your corporate e-mail address and insert the following program code
6ECD00569D
Note: This program code is assigned to our organization for our sole use in
accessing this site. You may not share this number with anyone outside our
organization.
4. Place your order online, and it will be shipped to the location you have chosen.
Please note that a fulfillment fee will be charged to cover packaging, shipping,
and handling costs.
Location, location, location
Reminder – please make sure you are saving all important work-related files and
archived e-mails to your assigned network share drive. Should your PC fail, all of your
files will be available on the servers. We DO NOT back up your local drives! If you are
not sure where you are saving your files – please submit a service desk ticket and we
would be happy to check for you.
From the Desk of Staff Development
By Terri Butler
Staff Development Coordinator
CCPS Human Resources
Want to Be a Better Communicator? Learn to Really Listen!
Most of us don’t listen as well as we think we do.
We talk. We think the better we talk or speak the
better communicator we are. Not so. Did you know
that listening is our most frequently used
communication skill? It is actually primary to all
other forms of communication.
Poor or “so-so” listening skills can be costly to your
job, career, and your personal life. When we don’t
listen well work has to be redone, deadlines are
missed, mistakes happen and trust can be
damaged.
The ability to listen effectively is critical to your
success. Good listeners get to the root of problems quicker, build trust and gain greater
insight to the people around them. Nothing makes people feel more valued, more
respected than when you really listen to them.
Here are just a few tips on becoming a better communicator – listener.
• Stop what you’re doing – Your full attention should be on the person speaking.
• Don’t talk, just listen – Become comfortable with silence. Listen without
thinking about what you will say next.
• Manners, please – Be polite, respectful, and sincere.
• What did you say? – Demonstrate your understanding of what you’ve heard by
restating the speaker’s message. Reflective listening and paraphrasing clarifies
the message and helps you both move toward a solution if there’s a problem to
be solved.
• I’m listening – nod, make eye contact, smile. Use your eyes and body language
to convey that you are actively listening.
Becoming a better listener takes practice and can be hard work. Be warned: once you
truly start listening you may find the process habit-forming.
When the department’s e-mail system crashed for
several days last November, it was Information
Services’ computer support analyst, Danny Barnes,
who worked around the clock to fix the problem. He
was hailed as a hero.
Deputy Secretary Rudy Rudisill sent Barnes a note: “I
want to thank you for your exemplary efforts recently
when our IT system “crashed”. Your expertise, sense
of urgency, and tenacity allowed a very complex
problem to eventually be resolved. You are a real “pro”
and we are fortunate to have you on the IS Team.”
This wasn’t Barnes’ first trial by fire. He was hired at
CCPS three years ago December, and within the month
a virus crippled the web server. Barnes was told the
website needed to be operational by noon that day, because of it’s ties to the AMBER
Alert system.
“I was having to hack the registry, and I can’t tell you how dangerous that is,” Barnes
said. “It was nerve-wracking. You’re putting everything on the line in a new
organization with people you don’t even know yet.”
Although the server was down only a short time, Barnes said it felt like a lifetime. He
met the deadline.
As a computer support analyst, Barnes’ responsibilities include general maintenance on
39 production servers, providing anti-virus protection, maintaining e-mail service
including Blackberries, resetting passwords, backing up information on tape and regular
support to users.
“Being in my field, you can get totally lost in work,” Barnes said. We’re always doing
more with less. An IT staff is never overstaffed.”
Barnes, who is always upbeat, energized and eager to help, was born in Keokuk, Iowa
and grew up in the small farm town of Ottumwa, Iowa. There, he played Little League
baseball, then moved up to high school’s Babe Ruth baseball. He sang in the school
choir, the Troubadours, and he was a cross-country runner.
His grandfather owned a large farm, and when he was in his early teens Barnes
detasseled corn. He also worked for a fast-food chain, a grocery store, a big-box store
and the local pork processing plant. “I’ve always had a job,” Barnes said.
After he graduated from Ottumwa High School in 1992, Barnes worked while going to
Indian Hills Community College where he studied data processing and computer
programming. He moved to Fayetteville, N.C. and took a job with Manpower. Not yet
unpacked from the move, he took a computer test, and was quickly hired by the
Cumberland County Department of Social Services, a job he would hold for nine years.
Barnes said the DSS offices at the time still had dummy terminals with green screens
and co-axial cables. When DSS moved to a new building, the offices were equipped
with new computers.
“Nothing in my lifetime was more hectic and complicated,” Barnes said. “The calls were
non-stop. People didn’t have home computers yet, and they didn’t know how to send e-mails,
how to open Word or how to surf the Internet. You can imagine the calls.”
Barnes was promoted three times up to network administrator where he managed all
the DSS servers. When Barnes applied for CCPS’s computer support analyst position,
he was hired and he started working in December 2007.
“Danny has been instrumental in the department’s initiative to upgrade and consolidate
our e-mail environments,” CCPS Chief Information Officer Glenn Mack said. “He has
shown a great deal of self-initiative to work through all the issues as they come up while
also continuing to provide a quality end-user experience for the staff. Danny’s areas of
expertise and responsibility has also continued to grow which shows he is hungry to
learn new skills. Danny brings lots of energy and smiles to our group and work area.”
In 2005, Barnes married Mary Beth, a psychologist working for the Fayetteville
Veteran’s Administration in Fayetteville. They live in Willow Springs. Four years ago,
they made two trips to Russia and adopted their daughter, Maia, when she was four
years old. “She picked up the (English) language quickly,” Barnes said. “She is just
amazing.
In his free time, Barnes said he is a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, (Iowa, he noted,
doesn’t have a professional football team). He loves to fish, goes bike riding with Maia,
(now 9 years old) on Sundays and just recently he started bowling on Thursday nights.
“I feel like I’ve been blessed. I’m lucky to be here, working with a good group of
people. I like to help people and they have been very appreciative.”
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