UW Home Improvement Fair is Today
Make your home green this year! Stop by the Home Improvement Fair today, April 13, from 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. at Mary Gates Hall Commons. Find out how you can “spend small and save big” by using re-purposed or used materials and get information on sustainable and urban garden trends. Over 15 exhibitors will be on hand to show you ways to make your home more eco-friendly. Among the companies represented are: Earthwise Home Salvage, Mariposa Naturescapes, Puget Sound Solar, and The RE-Store. There will be demonstrations, refreshments, and a chance to win door prizes, including an iPad. View more information.

This event is sponsored by HomeStreet Bank, a partner of the UW Benefits Hometown Home Loan Program. All expenses are paid by HomeStreet Bank and participating exhibitors.

UWPD Annual Open House
Come visit us and see what’s going on at the UWPD! Wednesday, April 13, 2:00-4:00 p.m. in the Bryants Building, UWPD Station, 1117 NE Boat Street (West of Brooklyn Ave NE). Events will include: awards presentation for Employee, Officer, DUI Officer, and Supervisor of the Year, and our first ever Community Partner of the Year Award (Phi Gamma Delta, UW fraternity); bomb dog demonstration; beer goggle obstacle course; department tours; Special Events Mobile Operations Center (SEMOC) bus tours; and electronics registration. We’ll also have displays from Housing & Food Services, SafeCampus, UWPD Recruiting, Rape Aggression Defense Program (RAD), Seattle Police, Student Legal Services, and many others!

Do Your “Home” Work!
Whether you plan to buy a home now or in the near future, understanding credit and the home buying process are critical to preparing yourself for a successful real estate transaction. Get valuable information about these topics and more by attending a free lunchtime seminar offered by our Hometown Home Loan partner, HomeStreet Bank. Access information and register for one or more upcoming seminars:

• Moving Up: Buying Your Next Home (Tacoma)
• The Path to Homeownership (Health Sciences)
• Refinancing & Using Home Equity (UW Tower)
• Home Remodeling & Renovation (Bothell)

Homeownership Counseling Opportunities
Get your mortgage questions answered! Free half-hour pre-qualification appointments, 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. monthly at Seattle and quarterly at Bothell, Tacoma, South Lake Union, and Harborview. Contact the Affinity Lending Center at 206-628-0207 or access information and register for an appointment.

Starting Out
Protect your money and stretch your hard-earned dollars! Attend one of these free seminars sponsored by Benefits and presented by our credit union representatives:

• Credit Reporting 101 (South Campus Center)
• Credit & Banking for High School Students (UW Medical Center)
• Financial Yoga: Stretching Your Hard-earned Dollars (Harborview, UW Tower)
• Identity Theft—When Bad Things Happen to Your Good Name (various locations)
• Life's Financial Milestones (various locations)

Preparing to Retire
Retire with greater confidence by creating a sound retirement strategy. Attend one of these free seminars according to your personal situation:

• Creating a Plan for Lifetime Income in Retirement (various locations)
• Designing Your Financial Roadmap (Bothell)
• Dispelling the Myth of Lifetime Annuities (UW Tower)
• Social Security: A Foundation for Planning Your Future (UW Tower)
• Retiring from UW Retirement Plan (UWRP) (UW Tower)
• Retiring from Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) (UW Tower)
• UW Supplemental Retirement Plan (UW Tower)

Quarterly Market Update for Active Investors
Have recent changes in the financial markets impacted your investment strategy? Do you enjoy keeping a pulse on the market? Join us for an exclusive look at what's driving the economy, the financial markets, domestic and international stock performance, and bond market interest rates. Attend a free Quarterly Market Update at Health Sciences on May 13. Presented by a representative from Fidelity Investments. Access seminar information and registration.

Focus on Your Total Financial Picture
Now that you’ve filed your 2010 tax statement, why not continue the effort by focusing on your total financial picture? Schedule a free, half-hour consultation today and let one of our fund sponsors guide you to the right resources for help with a variety of financial needs including:

• Consolidating your retirement accounts
• College planning, estate planning, wealth management
• Identifying strategies to help you meet your retirement and financial goals

To sign up for your free consultation, register by phone or online.

Invest on Auto-Pilot with a Life Cycle Fund
Are you looking for a well-diversified fund that automatically rebalances as you get older? What about an investment choice that doesn't require a lot of time to monitor? Consider a target retirement fund from Fidelity or Vanguard. These so called "life cycle funds" offer the following benefits:

• Simple choice—one decision, one fund for life
• Ongoing professional management
• Risk-managed by investing in other well-established funds
• Automatically rebalances over time

Learn more about the Fidelity Freedom Funds or Vanguard Target Retirement Funds.

April is Counseling Awareness Month
From everyday challenges to a life changing crisis, a skilled counselor can help you find ways to cope. Find the help that will work best for you through your UW paid medical insurance or one of the many other UW programs that offer confidential counseling, workshops, and other means of support for mind, body, and spirit. Learn more.

Advance Directives Ensure You Get Your Way in the End
We like to plan birthday parties and anniversaries, but we're not too keen on planning how we want to spend the last days of our lives. April 16 is National Healthcare Decisions Day, a day to remind ourselves to address this important issue sooner rather than later. Learn more.

Women: It’s Your Time
The 12th annual National Women's Health Week will kick off on Mother's Day, May 8, and will be celebrated until May 14, 2011. This weeklong health observance—with the theme “It’s Your Time”—empowers women across the country to make their health a top priority and take simple steps for a longer, healthier, and happier life. Learn more.

Women: Time to Schedule your Mammogram?
Women age 40+ know it’s not always easy to find time to get a routine mammogram to screen for breast cancer. Thanks to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s MammoVan, now there’s a faster and more convenient way to get it done. The MammoVan, a mobile mammography service, is scheduled to roll onto Red Square and park near the “By George” statue on Tuesday, May 17. View more dates and schedule your next appointment.

Peace of Mind While Traveling
If you're traveling this summer, find out how you can protect your health while you're away from home. Knowing your health care options at your destination can give you peace of mind, save you time, and avoid confusion when it comes to possible emergencies. Learn more.

Professional & Organizational Development (POD) courses are open to all UW employees, subject to supervisor/budgetary approval and UW’s release time policy. Please view our policy page for additional information.

Conflict Resolution Skills for Health Care Professionals
This one-day class is designed to help patient care professionals and health care support staff develop more effective skills in dealing with tension, discord, and difficult behavior at work. (Note: Continuing education credit can be earned for nurses completing this class; see course description for further information.) Access course information and registration.

Cultivating Cultural Competence
This one-day class brings a light touch to a seemingly heavy subject. Through experiential learning in a nonjudgmental setting, develop positive strategies to handle the interpersonal issues that can arise from cultural differences and to increase your cultural competency. Access course information and registration.

Technical Writing
Designed for those responsible for conveying scientific or technical information, this class focuses on the fundamentals of technical writing and covers all phases of the writing process from audience analysis to final revision. Access course information and registration.

Hourly Career Counseling
As dozens of UW staff members have discovered, career counseling can help you uncover your unique strengths, be more competitive in the job market, or chart a new path for your current or desired career. Sessions are offered through Training and Organization Development Consultant Susan Templeton for $80 per one-hour career counseling session if paid with a UW budget number (with supervisor approval) or $92.48 if paid with cash, check, or credit card (due to a mandatory institutional overhead fee). Learn more about this service.

Be Prepared. Take Violence Prevention & Response Training
Did you miss your department's training session on violence prevention and response? You can attend a free session this spring quarter which covers the same important information. Sessions will be held on April 21 and May 18 at 1:00 p.m. in Health Sciences D209. Register now.

Together We Create a Positive Environment
We all have the right to study, teach, and work in a safe environment. The University does not tolerate behaviors, whether direct or through the use of University facilities, properties, or resources, that:

• Are violent
• Threaten violence
• Harass or intimidate others
• Interfere with an individual’s legal rights of movement or expression
• Disrupt the workplace, our academic environment, or the University’s ability to provide service to the public

Violent or threatening behavior can include physical acts, oral or written statements, harassing email messages, harassing telephone calls, gestures, and expressions or behaviors, such as stalking.

You can learn more about the policies that keep our community safe and counseling and support resources on the SafeCampus website.

Summer Care
What are your children going to be doing this summer? Check out these University resources to help with your planning:

• UW CareLink’s online resource, APS HelpLink, contains articles with information to assist you and your children in planning appropriate and interesting activities throughout the summer. Enter "UW" for company code, click on the "parenting" tab at top of page, then select Child Care in the dropdown menu, then Summer Camp from the links on the right hand side of the page. There is information for pre-school to teenager helping you to locate day camps, volunteer options, residential camps, and more.
• The Robinson Center Summer Program offers summer academic programs for students finishing the 5th through 10th grade. Classes provide an opportunity for fun and vigorous academic challenge in the company of other motivated students.
• UW Summer Youth Programs are designed for the elementary, middle school, and high school student. Classes are taught by experienced educators and involve hands-on learning in a fun and engaging manner.
• Washington Summer Sports Camps baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, women's gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, and volleyball—operate independently of the UW athletic department.

UW CareLink
UW CareLink, our faculty and staff assistance program, helps you make the most out of your personal and professional life. UW CareLink offers a wide range of services that can help you manage through the different stages of life, develop a healthy lifestyle, create a quality work environment, and save time by providing easy access to trusted experts.

Call toll-free: 1-866-598-3978 (TTY: 1-877-334-0489) (dial 9 first if calling from a campus phone) for all services, including urgent issues. Master's-level counselors are available to take your call 24/7. For financial or legal services, you will be referred to the appropriate professional.

Prefer to seek help online? You can access many of UW CareLink's resources through APS HelpLink (use "UW" as the company code to log in).

Recognition
Recognition is not a scarce resource; you just can’t use it up or run out of it. A quick email will carry your message. Why not use the colorful UW E-card?

Take a Break
The northwest corner of our Seattle campus offers a range of architectural styles and lovely open spaces.

• Denny Hall, dating back to 1895, is designed in a French Renaissance style with round turrets and candle-snuffer roofs.
• In striking contrast stands the brick and glass law school, William H. Gates Hall, dedicated in 2003. Replacing the old law school building, Condon Hall, the new structure has wings that reach out, projecting a spirit of openness and inclusiveness.
• Wrap up your stroll through this corner of campus with a pause for refreshments at the Burke Museum Café, renowned for its 18th-century French pine paneling and warm atmosphere. The Café makes a perfect place to relax, study, or socialize.