Giving to CECO Is as Easy as Pie

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Supporting the San Diego County Employees’ Charitable Organization (CECO) is as easy as pie this month—plus just as delicious. For just $16, employees can preorder a Marie Callender’s pie and a portion of the proceeds will support CECO.

The cherry on top this year is that the pies will be delivered to one of six workplaces across the county. Employees can pick up their pie(s) between 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 22—just in time for Thanksgiving get-togethers. You must have your Eventbrite receipt when you pick up.

Pie flavors are apple, French apple, pumpkin, cherry, peach and razzleberry (raspberry and blackberry).

If you can’t decide, get more than one—it’s for a great cause. Through County employee and retirees’ donations, CECO has distributed more than $6.7 million throughout the San Diego region to local non-profit organizations and employees in crisis since its founding in 1956.

Pre-order these desserts by 5 p.m., Monday, Nov. 14.

In addition, mark your calendar for the annual CECO Bake Sale and Bake Off. This year’s sweet sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Nov. 18 in Room 402A at the County Administration Center. There will be great deals on many homemade treats. And there will be pancit and lumpia for sale, too!

To donate a baked good or more information about the event, please contact sdceco@sdcounty.ca.gov.

Learn more about CECO and how to contribute online.

Get Discounted Holiday Bowl Tickets

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Huddle up for a team announcement. For a limited time, County employees can score discounted Holiday Bowl tickets at $10 to $20 off.

The annual bowl game kicks off at 4 p.m., Dec. 27 after the Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade floats past the County Administration Center.

Participating teams in the Holiday Bowl are typically announced in early December. The annual bowl game, which has been played at Qualcomm Stadium since 1978, features a matchup of Pac-12 and Big Ten teams. Last year the Wisconsin Badgers took down the USC Trojans 23-21.

To purchase the reduced-price tickets, call the Holiday Bowl box office at 619-283-5808, ext. 303 and identify yourself as a County employee.

The play clock is ticking down—this deal will only last through Nov. 10.

InTouch – Make Time for Yourself

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Can you believe it’s November? And if it seems like the year flew by, you know the pace won’t let up as we get into the crush of holidays.

The scramble for some precious time never ends. You work at the County, so I know your job is demanding. A lot of you have families: kids with their own packed schedules, aging parents that need your help. Some of you have both! You volunteer in the community, have endless projects around the house or a million other daily tasks.

Many of you have also taken part in any number of County-sponsored events, from the annual homeless count to various walks. Sometimes I’ve used this column to ask you to join in. My heartfelt thanks to all who have devoted yet more hours to these causes.    

Now I’m asking for something different regarding your time. And I know it may be more easily said than done.

I’m hoping you can find a little time for yourself. Some “me time.” 

That term rubs some people the wrong way. It sounds so selfish.

Well, if you get carried away it might be. But the “me time” I’m thinking of is essential to your overall well-being. Carving out some time for yourself helps you refresh and grow in a way that makes you more complete as a person.

When we can offer the people in our lives an energized, fulfilled version of ourselves, we’re giving them so much more. Your partner, your child, your co-worker, your customer – they all benefit when you can come to them renewed by time you give yourself.

So how do you do that? For some, it might mean being alone for a bit. For others, it will be some uninterrupted time with a friend or date night with your significant other. For me, it’s watching a sporting event or spending time walking along the beach.

Experts say the quality of your “me time” is more important than quantity. Those who felt they had a high quality of “me time,” not just more of it, had better work-life balance and well-being, and they experienced more engagement at work.

With that in mind, here are a few suggestions from several sources.

  • Schedule your “me time.” Like so many things, if we don’t schedule it, we don’t get around to it. What sort of frequency or length is whatever works for you, but get it on the calendar!
  • Unplug. We all get addicted to our devices. The stream of posts, mails, messages, whatever – it just never ends, and the perpetual nature can keep you on edge.
  • “Satisfice.” That’s a mash-up of satisfy and sacrifice, and it means accepting that things may not always be perfect – especially when they’ll eat up all your free time.
  • Take advantage of small windows of time. Give the news a rest and spend five minutes with your coffee just watching clouds or the world go by. It’s a chance to be alone with your own thoughts.    

A very popular activity in our Employee Wellness Program has been the meditation sessions. If you’re at one of the locations we’re able to offer them, give it a try.  Employees have told me the sessions are an ideal quiet center to a busy workday.

Those are just a few ideas. I’m hoping you’ll find a way to choose what’s right for you and have some time when “it’s all about you.”

Live Well is our vision for the region, but that vision only means something when we apply it at the individual level, too. Having “me time,” creating balance in your life, is fundamental to being healthy, safe and thriving.

The holidays are often filled with get-togethers, travel and preparations, so the next couple months it may be even harder to stake out time you need for yourself. But sneak it in where you can and maybe consider self-care as a resolution for next year – and beyond.

I’ll close with words that are often a casual substitute for “good-bye,” but in this case I really mean them: take care!

 

 

Last month's InTouch column: Our Election By the Numbers

All InTouch columns

 

Perk Alert: Get 25% Off Diapers and Baby Items

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Updated at 12:37 p.m., Nov. 3: This promotion is no longer available through PerkSpot. To see a complete list of retailers' coupons and deals, visit PerkSpot online.

Being a new parent just got easier! Get 25 percent off at Diapers.com through PerkSpot. Diapers.com sells clothing, toys, everything you need for a nursery, as well asdiapering, feeding, bathing and safety accessories.

PerkSpot offers benefits and discounts to County employees through hundreds of service providers and retailers, from movie theaters to florists and jewelers. Using PerkSpot is both easy and free. Simply go to SDCounty.PerkSpot.com and shop. If you are new, click on “Create an Account” to register.

Each month, one of the most popular PerkSpot deals will be highlighted on InSite.

County Celebrates a Spirited Halloween

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Join ghosts and goblins for a hauntingly happy Halloween at the County. There's a cornucopia of activities to participate in.

Head over to County’s creepy carnival-themed Halloween festivities from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the County Operations Center plaza. “Carn-evil” activities include a frightening fun house, ghoulish games, master of disguise photo booth and the Lip Sync Battle.

Can’t make it to Carnevil? Watch the fun live on InSite. (Stay tuned.)

Enter the Halloween costume contest. Five finalists will be selected by sundown. Be sure to vote online for your favorite Tuesday.

Enter the County’s Halloween Costume Contest

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Jose Gonzalez at the Centre City FRC last year.

Jose Gonzalez at the Centre City FRC last year.

There’s still time to get your costume together for the big day! Wipe the cobwebs off your box of Halloween gear or head to the store this weekend to find the perfect disguise. The County is hosting a costume contest Monday for employees.

The rules are simple, not scary:

  • Send one photo of yourself in costume to communications@sdcounty.ca.gov by 4 p.m., Oct. 31.

  • Include your full name, title, department and who (or what) you are dressed as in the body of the email. Please type the information even if it is in your signature block.

  • The photo should be taken between Thursday, Oct. 27 and Monday, Oct. 31—this ensures employees who wear a uniform or work an alternative schedule can participate.

  • One entry per employee. You can enter as an individual or as a group—but not both.

  • If you enter as an individual, be the only person in the photo—we want to make sure we know who you are.

  • If you enter as a group, have just one person submit the photo.

Check out InSite for a photo gallery of creepy and creative costumes, and be sure to vote online for your favorite Tuesday. You’ll cast your vote for one of five finalists.

Halloween Carnival Coming Soon!

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There’s just a few more days until the County’s creepy carnival-themed Halloween festivities on Oct. 31. Dubbed “Carn-evil,” the get-together will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the County Operations Center plaza.

Spooktacular activities include a costume contest, frightening fun house, ghoulish games, master of disguise photo booth and the Lip Sync Battle.

Battle contestants are:

  • Chris Cardwell, Nolberto Colon-Droz, Nate Griffiths and Ernie Liwag, Environmental Health

  • Shelly Castle, Purchasing and Contracting

  • Matthew Parcasio, Aging and Independence Services

  • Angie Solom, Human Resources

You won’t want to miss their performances, and you’ll be able to watch them live on InSite if you can’t make it the festivities in person.

In the meantime, show off your wicked workplace decorations by emailing a photo to communications@sdcounty.ca.gov, and it may be featured on InSite. (See the full gallery of Halloween decor.)

Tell us Now! There's an App for That!

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You’re shopping, or you’re getting gas; you get back into the car, double-check your receipt and realize you’ve been overcharged. Or you’re leaving the house and see that abandoned car still sitting there, or a fresh new splotch of graffiti.

But you’re in a hurry. You don’t have time to figure out what agency to call or email for help.  You think, “maybe I’ll have the time (or remember) to report it later.”

If only there was an app for that, right? Some tool that would let you snap a quick photo, add some text and immediately alert someone to fix the error or clean up the mess.

There is! We’ve called it “Tell Us Now!” and it can be downloaded for free. We’ll be making a public announcement about it soon, but we wanted to share the word with employees first and encourage you to give it a try.  

Our Land Use and Environment Group departments already provide great customer service to the people who call and email us with questions and complaints.

But “Tell Us Now!” is going to make our customer service even better.

It will make our systems faster. The public can submit complaints and questions immediately — when they see them — and directly into our LUEG departments computer systems. It will also let them track the progress of their complaints as we look into them.

County employees, meanwhile, will have more information such as pictures to conduct investigations and will be more efficient since they won’t have to type people’s information into the system.

In the coming months, we plan to add more options into the “Tell Us Now!” app’s capabilities, including pothole, street signs and other road questions. But to start, the app will allow the public to submit questions about pricing, overcharges, air quality region-wide and Code Compliance issueswithin the unincorporated area.

That should be substantial. Every year we get more than 350 calls and emails looking for help with overcharges from inaccurate prices and scales; roughly 800 air quality complaints (weird odors, illegal burns, etc.) and about 3,000 Code Compliance complaints about trash, junk cars, illegal business operations and the like.

Here’s how the Tell Us Now! App works:

Say you want to report a gas pump at a station that overcharged you. Maybe the pump continued to charge even after the gas stopped flowing.

Hit the Tell Us Now! App on your smartphone and tap the “Price and Scales” icon. It immediately brings up a new page with selections for “Gas Pump,” “Price Verification (if you feel a store has charged you the wrong price),” and “Commercial Scale.”

Select “Gas Pump.”

That brings up a new page — “Complaint Details.”

Touch the camera icon, snap a photo or video, fill out the question fields, add your contact info and hit “Submit.”

You’re done!

So download the app! It’s available in the Apple or Google Play stores and ready to be used! Search for Tell Us Now!

Dine and Dance at CECO’s Biggest Bash Yet

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Don’t miss San Diego County Employees' Charitable Organization's (CECO) 60th Anniversary Celebration Dinner on Friday, Nov. 4 at Mission Valley Resort. Proceeds from the event will benefit CECO, which puts 100 percent of donations back into the community.   

The diamond anniversary party will include music, dancing, a live band and an opportunity drawing for electronics, gift baskets, and more. Plus, the County of San Diego Board of Supervisors will recognize CECO as Live Well San Diego partner.

Ticket options are $35 for the “one-carat ticket” including food and drinks for one, or $65 for the “two-carat ticket” for two. Get your tickets now before it is too late.

Learn more about CECO and other ways to contribute on its website. 

Some of the opportunity drawing items up for grabs.

Howling Good Halloween Happenings at the County

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Senior Human Resources Analyst Shauna Rose-Pfeiffer's desk is totally decorated for Halloween.

Don’t be a scaredy cat! There’s still time to sign up to compete in the County’s Lip Sync Battle on Halloween. To enter, send an email with the following: the names, titles and department of everyone on your team, and the titles of two songs you’d perform. Finalists will be announced on InSite on Monday, Oct. 24.

Angela Redmond, with CWS, is ready for Halloween.

The epic battle will take place at Carn-evil, a carnival-themed Halloween celebration, at the County Operations Center on Oct. 31 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The fangtastic festival will feature a frightening fun house, ghoulish games, master of disguise photo booth and more tricks and treats– so enter at your own risk.

Plus, don’t miss the County’s annual costume contest. Start cooking up creative costume ideas in a creepy cauldron. Details on how to submit a photo and enter the contest will be posted in the spirited days leading up to Halloween.

Get into character now. Show off your wicked workplace decorations by emailing a photo to communications@sdcounty.ca.gov, and it may be featured on InSite. The more ghosts, goblins and gravestones—the better! (See the full gallery of Halloween decor.)