The Channel

Traditional organizational charts often depict the hierarchy of an organization but fail to depict the vital role that every employee plays in the organization. Last month, Ad Cabinet took another shot at our traditional organizational chart and created a second version designed to show the collaboration that exists among us to support the children, families and educators we serve. Can you find your role?

Several staff members recently participated in CPR training to ensure each location has people ready to assist in the event of an emergency. Shout out to Carolyn Wanatee and Larry Wylie in the Marshalltown offices and Dr. Carol Sensor, Laura Rinnels, Donna Perry, Amanda Hennigar, and Deb Hanson in Clear Lake.

Need a refresher on our Emergency Procedures? You can always find them on our staff website under Resources. (Remember to use your email credentials to access the staff website.)

Iowa’s AEAs bestow three awards annually to outstanding candidates for their contributions to education and the work of Iowa’s AEAs. These awards are the Friend of the AEA Award, E. Robert Stephens Award, and the Innovative Creator Award.

Further details for each award and its criteria can be found in this document. To submit a nomination, complete this application by Feb. 15, 2019. Anyone is welcome to submit a nomination.

The board of directors approved the office calendar for 2019-20 at their January meeting. The calendar contains the required 260 workdays and lists holidays and office closed days for the school year and can be found on the staff website under Resources.

The Culture & Climate Committee has created another round of bingo challenges for January through May. New cards were distributed at the December regional meetings and can also be downloaded from the portal. Be sure to submit your January Bingo by January 31, 2019. You’ve got this!

In the past couple days, the agency has received several fraudulent emails pertaining to direct deposit/banking information requests.  Please be careful when communicating any personal or sensitive business information via email.

Emails may appear to be sent from valid accounts that you may know.  But upon further inspection are actually from nefarious email accounts.  Please remember to use caution when asked for sensitive information pertaining to your personal accounts or CRAEA accounts.

Below are some useful guidelines to help you determine the validity of any emails in question.

1. Don’t give out personal information – legitimate organizations (e.g. banks, healthcare organizations, etc.) will never ask for personal credentials (username and password).
2. Look but don’t click– hover your mouse over any embedded links. Look at the domain, if it ends with a country code, beware (.br = brazil, .cz = Czech Republic, ru = Russia, etc)  If the link looks weird don’t click on it.  Many phishing attacks are orchestrated outside the United States.  If you think it is a valid shared Google document, log into your Google account first via your default Web browser, then click on the link.  If it is valid it will no longer ask you for your credentials.  Be aware, you must log into Google with your default Web browser first.
3. Don’t click on attachments – including malicious attachment that contain viruses or malware is a common phishing practice.
4. Don’t trust the display name – many phishing attempts spoof the display name (e.g. the “From” address”.  Hover your mouse over the From address to see the actual sender email.
5. Check for spelling and grammatical mistakes – organizations are serious about email.  Legitimate messages usually do not have major spelling errors.
6. Analyze the salutation – Is the email addressed to “Valued Customer” or such generic terms?  If so, watch out; legitimate businesses will often use a personal salutation.
7. Beware of urgent or threatening language in the subject line – invoking a sense of fear or urgency is a common phishing tactic.
8. Review the signature – lack of details about the sender or how you can contact the organization strongly suggests a phishing attempt.
9. Don’t believe everything you see – phishers are extremely good at what they do.  Just because an email has convincing brand logos, language, and a seemingly valid email address does not mean that it is legitimate.  Be skeptical when it comes to suspicious emails.  If it looks even remotely suspicious don’t open it and send it to your Info Tech support staff to verify its validity.

It’s hard to believe that it’s time once again for what’s quickly becoming an annual tradition. The Ugly Christmas Sweater competition will be held on December 19 for Rivers Hills staff and December 20 for all others. Separate contests will be held at each location with first place prizes of $25 gift cards and runner-up prize of $15 gift cards. Feel free to pair that ugly sweater with jeans as is appropriate for the day’s responsibilities. Let the games begin and the odds be ever in your favor! Happy holidays!

Hats off to the Marshalltown staff who worked together to make blankets for families impacted by tornado damage. Many children and families will be warmer this winter because of your efforts. Amazing!

The Climate & Culture Committee wishes to thank staff for participating in the Crazy Sock Day!  Overall, Central Rivers AEA raised $746.00 in donations to be given to the House of Compassion in Marshalltown.  The Clear Lake office staff raised the most money.

Great job everyone! The money collected will help families during the holidays who were affected by the tornado.