Northstar News

Reflections on the 2004 Fall Conference
PHOTO ALBUM - CLICK HERE!
Our chapter hosted another highly successful Fall Conference on October 7th. 144 payroll professionals attended the event, which for the second year in a row was held at the Edinburgh USA conference center in Brooklyn Park. This beautiful facility was chosen again after receiving great feedback from the attendees at last year’s conference.

At the registration desk, attendees were given both a nice tote bag, sponsored by Medica Corp; as well as a handsome leather-bound 3-ring binder, sponsored by Health Partners Corp., which contained all of the session materials for the day. The theme this year was “The Many Hats of the Payroll Professional”

The day began with a breakfast vendor fair, where attendees could enjoy coffee and pastries while visiting the booths of fourteen organizations offering payroll software and services. In this great “window shopping” environment, chapter members had the chance to learn of a host of tools available to help them excel at their jobs. This was everyone’s first opportunity to experience the theme of the day—by playing a scavenger hunt game to find the location of various hats scattered within the vendor booths. Several chapter members and even a couple vendor representatives donned unique hats at this point, which added to the fun!

Everyone moved downstairs at mid-morning for the general session, opened by Chapter Vice-President Sheri Beck CPP. Sheri, whose term as Conference Chair had just ended in July, was largely responsible for coordinating the day’s events. She mentioned that planning for it begins about two weeks after the previous year’s conference, and that our new Conference Chair, Dominique Palks CPP, would be taking over all of the responsibilities next year. As an aside, Sheri encouraged all attendees to volunteer for the chapter, noting that most people equate volunteering with having to speak in front of the group. She noted, however, that there are lots of “behind-the-scenes” volunteer opportunities available. After this, her first order of business was to conduct several prize drawings for several neat prizes provided by the vendors.

Sheri then stated that this year’s theme was a chance to have a little fun with the truism that most payroll professionals do wear many hats in their positions. She asked the audience “What other hats do we wear in our jobs?” The answers offered were many, including “general ledger”, ”benefits”, ”HRIS”, ”systems implementation”, and the rather humorous “babysitter”! She asked the audience to discuss amongst themselves some situations when they’ve had to wear hats of a fireman, policeman, counselor, investigator, computer programmer, or salesmen. Sheri then asked if anyone wanted to share a situation they discussed. Robin Murphy CPP came up to the front and offered her example of when she recently had to be a salesperson, working to convince upper management that their post-merger paid time off system had to be set up the way it was for tracking holidays, in order to avoid an administrative nightmare. In this instance, Robin was able to successfully “sell” her position to her superiors.

Next, Sheri brought up a special chapter outreach effort initiated at the September monthly meeting. Member Gloria Hoffman CPP, who has volunteered extensively for the conference in recent years, has a daughter whose home was lost in a fire recently. Her daughter is a single mother of a teenage daughter. The board had asked members to consider donating funds to help Gloria’s daughter get back on her feet, and noted that all donations would be matched by the chapter. Sheri happily reported that together members and the chapter had raised $860, and she presented the check to a very grateful Gloria!

Then the first of two special guests from our National APA affiliation were brought to the podium. Carolyn Kelly, who works for the APA, talked about their newest member benefit, the Knowledge Assessment Calculator, or KAC. This web-based patent-pending software can be used for several purposes—evaluating the baseline knowledge of a payroll job applicant, evaluating an employee’s job performance, or as a study preparation too for the CPP/FPC exams. Carolyn noted that for $20 a payroll supervisor can determine what a new hire knows is just sixty minutes, versus months of observation and evaluation the old-fashioned way. The KACs are purchased online and contain 50 questions, which must be answered within a one hour time frame. Carolyn gave away two free KACs in a drawing, and thanked the chapter for inviting her to Minnesota, noting that APA’s chapters “are the lifeblood of our organization”.

The second special guest was Mr. Jim Owen CPP from APA’s National Speaker’s Board. Mr. Owen was given APA’s highest honor this last spring at Congress—their Payroll Man of the Year award! He, too, asked audience members to consider ways they may serve the organization, adding that his experience with APA to date has been very rewarding. Mr. Owen noted that he was staying through the afternoon to conduct the breakout session on Garnishments.

Audrey Thomas

The keynote speaker of the day was Audrey Thomas, commonly known as “Organized Audrey”, and whose byline is: “Transforming lives, not just spaces”. Audrey is an organizing consultant who trains employees in numerous firms and state and local agencies, large and small. One would assume an organization expert might simply lecture on tips and suggestions to improve one’s job performance. But Audrey surprised the audience by giving a pleasant motivational talk about facing your fears, and learning to trust yourself and others. Her vehicle for getting her ideas across was a fun story on having to learn to scuba dive with her husband—a prospect she completely dreaded. She noted that this experience, and the lessons she learned from it, is very similar to those one encounters in their career. Along with learning whole new levels of trust, she also learned to stay focused, avoid distractions, and pay attention to deadlines. She wrapped up by stating that she ended up loving the new activity she once dreaded. To learn more about Audrey and her ideas, visit www.organizedaudrey.com

At lunchtime, the conference volunteers were all thanked for their efforts and presented with certificates of appreciation in front of the group. The luncheon speaker was Kathy Honey, owner/operator of Kathy’s Gingerbread House, a retail store in Robbinsdale. Kathy was a very appropriate choice, given the theme of the day and her own strong penchant for the lost art of wearing hats! She gave a very breezy and amusing talk on the history of hats, and how she came to wear them regularly. She noted that, while her habit embarrasses her daughter, she’s treated extremely well by other people when wearing a hat. Kathy fielded numerous hat-wearing questions from the audience, who truly enjoyed this light-hearted topic.

After lunch, everyone moved on to the two afternoon break-out education sessions. Several pertinent topics were presented, including the new FLSA job classification law and Sarbannes-Oxley compliance. Our own chapter member (and ex-board member) Rick Seifert CPP of Deluxe Corporation presented on the topic of Documenting Payroll Processes. The end of the business day ushered in the Evening Social, with its opportunities to imbibe and network while some terrific door prizes were awarded. After such a terrific day, once again this writer has to say—no pun intended—“Hats off!” to our conference coordinators and all the volunteers who made it so enjoyable this year.

2004 Fall Conference Photo Album
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