Over the last six months, interest in our online training has grown! The new year rings in with 15 new and 39 updated courses to the RCUH Training Portal. You may want to check out the following:

• Coaching Skills 3.0
• Creative Problem Solving 2.0
• Diving In 1.0
• Giving and Receiving Feedback 2.0
• Multitasking Myths 1.0
• Working While Ill 1.0

Click here to view a complete list of courses. If you need access to the RCUH Training Portal, please complete the online request form. Any questions may be emailed to RCUH Corporate Services at rcuh@rcuh.com.

An important change to eSign accounts (administered by RCUH through the State of Hawai‘i Office of Enterprise Technology Services) will take effect during a planned outage on Thursday, January 14, 2021 at about 5:30 p.m. HST. Any documents that are in process will NOT be affected.

Adobe Sign will be changing its domain from echosign.com to adobesign.com. For those with existing eSign accounts under RCUH, please bookmark this URL for future logins: https://stateofhawaii2.na1.adobesign.com.

If you have any questions, please contact rcuh@rcuh.com.

The payment approval deadline on Thursday, December 24 and Thursday, December 31 is 12:00 noon. Online payment transactions approved by fiscal administrators by 12:00 noon on December 24 and 31 will be included in the daily check print and ePayment file.

The last check run for the calendar year will be on Thursday, December 31, 2020. Month-end processing will commence at 12:00 noon on December 31, 2020. During this period, online purchasing, payment, and travel transactions can be initiated, but fiscal administrators will NOT have the ability to approve transactions. Transactions approved after 12:00 noon on December 31 will NOT be included in the project reports for the month of December.

If you have any questions, please contact Maile Brooks at 988-8340 or mbrooks@rcuh.com.

The RCUH Training Portal will be down for system enhancements on Friday, November 13, 2020, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.

The Financial Portal User Profile has been updated with the following new features:
• Users with multiple user types will be combined into one user account so that only one login is required.
• Users with multiple user types will have the ability to switch to a different user type within the Financial Portal.
• Users will have the ability to delegate account access to a specific project account.

Please refer to the attached release notes for further details.

If you have any questions, please contact Maile Brooks at mbrooks@rcuh.com, (808) 988-8340 or Ricky Fujioka at rfujioka@rcuh.com, (808) 988-8346.

The RCUH Financial Portal will be down for system maintenance from Friday, November 6, 2020, 4:00 p.m. to Saturday, November 7, 2020, 3:00 p.m.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.

Although we are not able to celebrate these outstanding individuals at our annual awards luncheon, we hope that you will join us in recognizing their achievements with words of support and encouragement online. Before we announce the awardees, we want to give a big mahalo to the Selection Committee (Coralie Chun Matayoshi, Nelson Moku III, Ray Soon), which had the challenging task of reviewing and rating all nominations.

Without further ado, here are the awardees of the 2020 RCUH Outstanding Employees of the Year Awards:

RESEARCHER / PROJECT MANAGER / PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY

FIRST PLACE: 

David Cohen
Aquatic Invasive Species Biocontrol Specialist
Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit
UH College of Natural Sciences

Nominated by Principal Investigator Shaya Honarvar

 

SECOND PLACE:

Michael von Platen
TCR Systems Programmer
Telehealth Research Institute
UH John A. Burns School of Medicine

Nominated by Principal Investigator Benjamin Berg

 

HONORABLE MENTION:

– Fritzie Celino-Brady, Laboratory of Fish Endocrinology and Environmental Physiology, UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
– Serge Chastel, Pan-STARRS, UH Institute for Astronomy
– Stan Fichtman, Apprenticeship Programs, Kapi‘olani Community College
– Mark Huber, Pan-STARRS, UH Institute for Astronomy
– Dawn Namahoe Sidman, UH Hilo Research Office

 

PROJECT SUPPORT STAFF CATEGORY

FIRST PLACE: 

Yoshitake Nabeshima
Telescope Control System Technician III
Subaru Telescope
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Nominated by Principal Investigator Michitoshi Yoshida

 

SECOND PLACE: 

Hope Ronco
JIMAR PIFSC Research/Logistics Technician
Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
UH School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology

Nominated by Principal Investigator Douglas Luther

 

HONORABLE MENTION:

– Mary Jo Riehm, UH Hilo Research Office
– Sean Tanimoto, Applied Research Laboratory at the University of Hawai‘i

 

TEAM CATEGORY

FIRST PLACE: 

Maunakea Weather Center
– Tiziana Cherubini
– Ryan Lyman

Nominated by Principal Investigator Steven Businger

 

 

SECOND PLACE: 

Applied Research Laboratory
– Benjamin Jones
– Joshua Levy
– Ted Ralston
– Aricia Argyris

Nominated by Principal Investigator Margo Edwards

Effective October 23, 2020, RCUH’s micro-purchase threshold (MPT) for purchases made using federal contract funds is increasing from $3,500 to $10,000. The MPT for federal contract funds is being raised to meet the $10,000 MPT for all other funds (e.g., federal grant and cooperative agreement funds, non-federal funds), because the $10,000 threshold was recently adopted by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). The $10,000 MPT amount now applies to all types of funds.

Revisions to the MPT have been made in the following policies/documents:
• Policy 2.103 Request for Quotation (Sections I.A.; I.B.)
• Policy 2.106 Sole Source Purchase (Introduction; Section I.D.1.)
• Policy 2.107 Exempt Purchase (Introduction)
• Policy 2.110 Cost or Price Reasonableness (Sections II.A.; II.B.1.)
• Policy 2.201 Purchase Orders (Sections II.D.)
• Attachment 28 Procurement Checklist

Also effective October 23, 2020, the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT) for requirements in Policy 2.111, is being increased from $150,000 to $250,000 for federal contract funds, as the $250,000 amount has also been adopted by the FAR. The policy is now entitled, “2.111 Purchases Over $250,000 (Federal Funds)”. The $250,000 SAT amount now applies to all types of federal funds.

Questions may be directed to Erin Yoda, RCUH Procurement and Disbursing Manager, at eyoda@rcuh.com.

Most people assume that hiking is a natural activity that anyone can do without training so it’s often taken for granted and workers aren’t often aware of or focused on the hazards from slips, trips, and falls. The objective of this 40-minute training is to teach you how to stay on your feet and be more in control when walking in the wilderness. You’ll also learn what to do if you slip or fall and how to report any injuries to your supervisor and RCUH.

This online training is split up into three modules:

• Introduction & Hiking Techniques (22 minutes)
• Slipping & Falling Techniques (8 minutes)
• Hazards & Injury Reporting (9 minutes)

The course is available in the RCUH Training Portal. If you need to request access to the RCUH Training Portal, please complete this form. To access transcripts for these modules, click on the “Additional References” tab in the course.

We want to give a big mahalo to the O‘ahu Army Natural Resources Program and the Ko‘olau Mountains Watershed Partnership, and all of our external reviewers who guided us with their knowledge and years of wilderness experience during the creation of this course.

It is our pleasure to announce this year’s nominees for the RCUH Outstanding Employees of the Year Awards. Congratulations to all of the nominees!

Researcher/Project Manager/Professional Category

• Fritzie Celino-Brady, Laboratory of Fish Endocrinology and Environmental Physiology, UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
• Serge Chastel, Pan-STARRS, UH Institute for Astronomy
• David Cohen, Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, UH College of Natural Sciences
• Stanford Fichtman, Apprenticeship Programs, Kapi‘olani Community College
• Mark Huber, Pan-STARRS, UH Institute for Astronomy
• Dawn Namahoe Sidman, UH Hilo Research Office
• Michael von Platen, Telehealth Research Institute, UH John A. Burns School of Medicine

Project Support Staff Category

• Yoshitake Nabeshima, Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
• Mary Jo Riehm, UH Hilo Research Office
• Hope Ronco, Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, UH School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
• Sean Tanimoto, Applied Research Laboratory at the University of Hawai‘i

 Team Category

• Applied Research Laboratory at the University of Hawai‘i (Benjamin Jones, Joshua Levy, Ted Ralston, and Aricia Argyris)
• Maunakea Weather Center (Tiziana Cherubini and Ryan Lyman)

The purpose of the outstanding employees awards program is to encourage, recognize, and reward RCUH employees who have made demonstrable, significant, and exemplary contributions to their project during the past fiscal year or years. Please look for our awardees announcement on November 2, 2020.