President’s Pen
by Betty Lonis, SPHR

I am pleased to announce that the Board has finalized our goals and objectives for this year. I'd like to highlight a few of the key goals for our focus this year. One of the first is strengthening our community involvement efforts. A few of the objectives related to this goal are: enhance our organization's community visibility in the area of diversity; identify potential partnerships or coalitions with schools, businesses, and/or organizations that promote workforce readiness; and develop alliances with government or non-profit organizations related to the mission of HRACI.

Another key goal is to continue to enhance the professional development of our members. We will accomplish this through our professional development opportunities, such as our monthly luncheon meetings and our half-day seminars. Surveys will be sent to members to better identify your professional development needs. In addition, we plan to develop informal networking groups to meet your needs. We will also provide members with an opportunity to attend the Indiana State Conference, which is scheduled for August 26th - 28th, courtesy of HRACI. We've done this the last couple of years and again this year will be giving away free conference registrations to up to 25 members. We will give away registrations at the May, June and July meetings. You will be registered by simply dropping your business card in the bowl at each meeting. We will have drawings at each meeting and if you are not selected at one meeting, your card will stay in the bowl for a chance at the next meeting. You must be present to win, so make plans now to attend these upcoming luncheon meetings.

Another key goal for us is to strengthen member involvement with the organization. To this end we have created a formalized committee structure, which we believe will help us achieve this goal. To learn more about opportunities to serve on a committee, click here. I encourage you to volunteer to serve on a committee - there's no better way to get involved with the organization. Please take a few minutes to complete an application and return it to me by the end of May. We would like to begin formalizing our committees in the June/July timeframe.

Please feel free to contact me at 317-277-5345 or president@hraci.org.

I look forward to seeing you at the May meeting!

Workplace Violence Tools: Using the New Workplace Violence Restraining Order Act

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April Luncheon Meeting: Shelly Swinford of Cigna Healthcare, offered an update on HIPPA during the April luncheon meeting. Swinford discussed the employer's role under HIPPA and presented details on protected health information. Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation.

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As the recent past-President of HRACI, I often thought about what role I might play in the Chapter once those responsibilities ended. I answered that question recently when I agreed to serve the Chapter as the Chapter's representative to the SHRM Foundation. With articles such as the one to follow, I hope to bring our members information each month on just what the SHRM Foundation is, the role it plays in serving the HR profession and advancing the HR professional, and updates on some of the Foundation's latest activities. As a practitioner in human resources for almost three decades, I have grown to love working in this chosen field. It has been good to me and to my family. I do owe a debt of gratitude to the Foundation for helping to make the human resources profession what it is today and I have hopes that as you develop your own careers in this field, you will become as "passionate" about it as I have become.

What is the SHRM Foundation? The Foundation is a 501©(3) non-profit organization affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). It was founded in 1966 to fund research, publications, and a wide range of educational initiatives to advance the profession and enhance the effectiveness of HR professionals. The foundation serves as a catalyst for leading edge research and education. Governed by a board of leading academics and HR leaders, the foundation is dependent on volunteer contributions to fund its projects. All contributions are tax deductible.

Research Projects. The SHRM Foundation currently funds more than 20 practical research projects to advance the profession and enhance your effectiveness. These projects focus on the critical areas of Technology & HR, HR Measurement, Global HR, and the Changing Role of the HR Professional. Results of this research will help to answer such questions as: How should an organizational mentoring program be structured for maximum effectiveness? What are the ethical dilemmas encountered by HR executives managing in a global business environment? How do HR leaders make a strategic impact on the organizations?

A current and significant research project is looking into the latter. The SHRM Foundation is now partnering with the Gallup Organization on a major research initiative to learn more about strategic HR leaders in a cross section of organizations. Researchers are in the process of interviewing 100 senior-level HR executives throughout the world who have made a significant impact in meeting the business challenges in their organizations. The objectives of this research are to 1) create research-based profiles of effective HR leaders in a cross-section of organizations and 2) to identify role models and real life success stories in the field of human resources. The findings will be published later in 2003 in an article or book and could generate a video or video series on the topic of HR leadership.

The Gallup Organization has also published some of their initial research in this area on the Society's Website. For more information about this and other SHRM Foundation sponsored research projects see "Engaging Your Employees: Six Keys to Understanding the New Workplace" at www.shrm.org/foundation. Click on Enhance Your HR Knowledge.

Kim Vosburg, SPHR,
Past President/Chapter Foundation Chair

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Are you just beginning your career in human resources? Would you like to develop more quickly in your personal and professional growth? At this point, four experienced human resource professionals are willing to take the time to assist individuals looking for guidance in the HR profession. If you are interested in our mentor/mentee program, click here for more details on the program.

Interested in becoming a mentor? Click on the appropriate forms:Mentor Application and Matching Questionnaire for Mentor

Interested in becoming a mentee? Click on the appropriate forms:Mentee Application and Matching Questionnaire for Mentee

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The Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) is announcing some very exciting changes beginning in 2004.

As a volunteer leader of SHRM we wanted to let you know that HRCI will be moving from administering its PHR and SPHR exams from a paper and pencil format to computer based testing (CBT) beginning in 2004. Last week we sent out a press release in partnership with Prometric, who will be our test delivery vendor, announcing the change. Please click on the following link to read the press release which is posted on our website: www.hrci.org/about/0403press.html

Professional Examination Service (PES) will still continue to process exam applications, issue score reports, provide test development and statistical analysis as well as manage the services provided by Prometric. The official rollout of CBT will be conducted at the SHRM Annual Conference. We will have a demo at the booth along with other collateral information. We will be creating a section on the HRCI website (www.hrci.org) dedicated to information about CBT. Please visit our site often for updates. If you have any questions feel free to contact HRCI staff at info@hrci.org.

Cornelia Cont,CAE
Director
HRCI

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Do you have a question you would like to ask your HR colleagues? Post in on the members forum chat section of the HRACI website. The forum gives HRACI members an opportunity to ask questions and share ideas with each other. Visit www.hraci.com/forum/ and post your questions and answers today!

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