In Brief

Wittenberg to Speak in Faculty Lecture Series
Professor Curt Wittenberg will speak on "Getting started: Regulating cell cycle initiation via transcription and proteolysis" as part of the La Jolla campus's Faculty Lecture Series on Wednesday, December 14. The lecture will be held at 5 PM in the Timken Amphitheater, Scripps Clinic, 10666 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla.

Sign Up to Give to the United Way
Over the next few days, you have the chance to make San Diego County a stronger community. By giving $5, $10, $20 or more per pay period to the United Way/CHAD Campaign, you can make a difference in someone's life. Your donation to the United Way will support a network of services that together serve entire families and neighborhoods. You'll be helping the United Way invest in children and youth, strengthen families, empower seniors and the disabled, promote health and wellness, and meet emergency needs in our community. Look to your e-mail or contact Human Resources, x4-8487, for more information on how to sign up.

La Jolla Campus to Host Blood Drive
The San Diego Blood Bank will hold a blood drive at Scripps Research’s La Jolla campus on Friday, December 16 from 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM. All donors will be awarded a limited edition San Diego Blood Bank "do it for the doughnut" T-shirt. To schedule an appointment, contact Debbie at x4-8534 or sign-up at hrinfo@scripps.edu. Walk-ins are also welcome as openings are available. Please eat a good meal and drink plenty of fluids before donating at the drive, which will be held in the Human Resources Training Room at 3377 North Torrey Pines Court, second floor.

Lunch & Learn: "Effective Money Management"
The San Diego County Credit Union will present "Effective Money Management" on Wednesday, December 7 from noon to 1 PM as part of the ongoing Lunch & Learn seminar series for Scripps California employees. Topics will include: establishing and maintaining good credit for non-U.S. citizens, loans and first-time borrower guidelines, personal debt management, and credit union accounts and services. No R.S.V.P. required. Feel free to bring your lunch. For more information, contact the Counseling and Postdoctoral Services Department, x4-9740.

Library Tip: Get to Know Ellen, the Library's Catalog
Ellen, the Kresge Library's catalog is the online organization of the library's collection. Search for books, journals, databases and useful websites in Ellen by title, author, keyword, or subject. Of course you can order that particular book title through our ILLiad service, but why not look to see what other titles the library might own in that subject area? Ellen also lists more detailed information about our journal collection than the Journal List. So introduce yourself to Ellen, our library catalog and find out about all of the great resources we have that you don't know about—like the Faculty Lecture series on DVD or ESL lessons on CD. For more information, contact the Kresge Library Help Desk, x4-8705 or helplib@scripps.edu.

Chocolates, Jewelry, Stocking Stuffers, and a Raffle for Charity
The Fall Craft Fair will feature handmade items—from chocolates to stocking stuffers—by Scripps Research employees on Thursday, December 8 from 11 AM to 2 PM in the Immunology galleria and walkway. In addition, a raffle will benefit the ScrippsAssists Senior Basket Project. First prize is two airline tickets to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies (courtesy of Culinary Concepts). Second prize is a $50 gift certificate to the Cohn Restaurant Group (Dakota Grill, Prado, Corvette Diner, Kemo Sabe, etc.) plus a 256 kb jump drive (all courtesy of The San Diego County Credit Union). Raffle tickets are $1 each and you need not be present to win.

Benefits Reminder: Grace Period for Health Care FSAs
Human Resources would like to remind all health care Flexible Spending Account participants who are actively participating as of the end of this year and who have a balance remaining in their account that they have an additional two months and 15 days to spend those dollars. Participants have until March 15, 2006 to incur claims and until June 30, 2006 for claims to be received for the 2005 plan year. If you have questions, please contact the Benefits Department at x4-8487 (or 858-784-8487 from Florida) or benefits@scripps.edu.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu