[phas-faculty_staff_others] Concur and Foreign Travel
Brent Donham
Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu
Fri Mar 8 08:09:36 CST 2019
I am not sure what is being questioned. The information on the Travel Office web site shows the same 15 day prior requirement and 30 day for a high risk county.
http://www.tamuc.edu/facultyStaffServices/travelOffice/foreignTravel.aspx
Brent
-----Original Message-----
From: Carlos Bertulani <Carlos.Bertulani at tamuc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2019 11:06 PM
To: Bao-An Li <Bao-An.Li at tamuc.edu>; Kurtis Williams <Kurtis.Williams at tamuc.edu>; phas-faculty_staff_others at tamuc.edu
Cc: Brent Donham <Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu>; John Humphreys <John.Humphreys at tamuc.edu>
Subject: Re: [phas-faculty_staff_others] Concur and Foreign Travel
The president at the time (Keck) sent me an email with copy to the Dean and the Provost about the new 15 days policy after months of deliberations (please read the two emails attached below and pay attention to the dates).
I am not sure if I understand what is going on now.
Carlos
-----Original Message-----
From: <employees-bounces at tamuc.edu> on behalf of Faculty/Staff
Reply-To: "reply_to_employees_list at tamu-commerce.edu"
Date: Monday, October 16, 2017 at 11:43 AM
To: "'employees at tamuc.edu'"
Subject: [Faculty & Staff] Foreign Travel Changes
If you will be traveling internationally, you are required to submit a foreign travel request. This request must be received by the Office of the President prior to your travel. The required documents can be found here:
http://www.tamuc.edu/facultyStaffServices/travelOffice/foreignTravel.as
px
<http://www.tamuc.edu/facultyStaffServices/travelOffice/foreignTravel.a
spx>
After receiving email confirmation (and an electronic copy of your fully executed Request for Foreign Travel form and all other documentation), you have been approved and may begin to book international travel. Please note that any airfare booked before a foreign travel request has been approved will not be ticketed, possibly resulting in rate changes and the loss of a held seat.
President Keck has approved some changes to this process, which have been listed below:
·
Foreign travel requests (with all documentation completed) must be received by the Office of the President at least
15 days prior to travel. If traveling to a high risk country, requests (with all documentation completed) must be received by the Office of the President at least
30 days prior to travel. The Department of Campus Operations & Safety (Derek Preas) has the most up-to-date information on high risk countries. Check with your department for any internal deadlines. Requests not submitted by this deadline may be rejected.
·
The Foreign Travel Checklist must be included in all foreign travel requests.
·
Required trainings must have been completed less than one year prior to the trip return date.
·
The same rules/documents apply to Canada and Mexico.
·
Foreign travel must be booked through the Concur eTravel system or directly with a Corporate Travel Planner (CTP) agent, who can also assist with large group travel. Any travel booked through other means will not be reimbursed.
o
If booking through Concur is not possible (for example, your conference hotel is not found in Concur), please document this in your Concur authorization request and include a brief explanation.
o
All airfare should be booked through Concur.
If you will be traveling internationally or on a regular basis, it is recommended that you attend a Concur training session. You can register for a session through Training & Development:
http://appsprod.tamuc.edu/td/coursecalendar.aspx
To contact a CTP agent to assist you in booking travel, please call 877-727-5188. Please note that there is a nominal fee to your department for using this service.
Any requests submitted by the traveler to their department head on Tuesday, October 17, 2017 or after will operate under the rules above.
Amanda C. Brown
│
Assistant to the Chief of Staff
Office of the President
Amanda.Brown at tamuc.edu
P.O. Box 3011 │ Commerce, TX 75429
McDowell Administration Building (BA) 295 Phone 903.886.5009 │ Fax
903.886.5010 www.tamuc.edu <http://www.tamuc.edu/> Texas A&M University-Commerce
-----Original Message-----
From: Ray Keck <Ray.Keck at tamuc.edu>
Date: Friday, June 2, 2017 at 11:01 AM
To: Carlos Bertulani <Carlos.Bertulani at tamuc.edu>
Cc: John Humphreys <John.Humphreys at tamuc.edu>
Subject: RE: Request
Dear Carlos,
Yesterday's discussion suffered from a lot of misinformation. After the meeting, we looked into where the System and their rules are at present. As it happens, we no longer need to send the Chancellor these documents, so the 45-day window is not necessary. Our forms were devised and printed some time ago, when expectations and requirements were quite different.
We do need some advance planning, however, to ensure that trainings are finished and all documentation is in place. Your dean will soon get a new set of guidelines that will greatly simplify these matters.
I apologize for this situation which, had we understood it, could have been altered some time ago. Ray
Ray M. Keck III, PhD
President
Texas A&M University-Commerce
P.O. Box 3011
Commerce, TX 75429
903-886-5011
Ray.keck at tamuc.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: <phas-faculty_staff_others-bounces at tamuc.edu> on behalf of Bao-An Li <Bao-An.Li at tamuc.edu>
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2019 at 3:24 PM
To: Kurtis Williams <Kurtis.Williams at tamuc.edu>, "phas-faculty_staff_others at tamuc.edu" <phas-faculty_staff_others at tamuc.edu>
Cc: Brent Donham <Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu>
Subject: Re: [phas-faculty_staff_others] Concur and Foreign Travel
It took us tons of emails even involving the former president to get the administration to simplify/shorten the approval process over the last few years. It seems that we were just
wasting time....
________________________________________
From: phas-faculty_staff_others-bounces at tamuc.edu [phas-faculty_staff_others-bounces at tamuc.edu] on behalf of Kurtis Williams [Kurtis.Williams at tamuc.edu]
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2019 3:15 PM
To: phas-faculty_staff_others at tamuc.edu
Subject: [phas-faculty_staff_others] Concur and Foreign Travel
Y’all aren’t going to like the response I received to the question about 30-day vs 15-day foreign travel approval through Concur, so I‘m just forwarding the message to you. We can discuss this and how to proceed at the faculty meeting on Monday.
BTW, when Stephen says “they do not fully understand” he is referring to the Technology folks, not the faculty. I misread that the first few times.
Cheers,
Kurtis
Dr. Kurtis A. Williams
Associate Professor
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Texas A&M University-Commerce
kurtis.williams at tamuc.edu
(903) 886-5516
Begin forwarded message:
From: Stephen Starnes
Hi Kurtis,
I spoke with Jeremy Gamez yesterday regarding the travel issue. I have copied Jeremy on this e-mail. He indicated that he is more than happy to come to the Physics department to talk with the faculty about the issue - particularly if it is an issue that mainly
impacts just a few faculty.
It is my understanding that they do not fully understand how the 15 day policy came about and may question why 15 day approval is needed. It is also my understanding that for travel to safe areas, the 30 day approval before travel will be the standard policy
(note: this is not 30 day submission of a request before travel but instead 30-day approval before the travel so in reality the travel request would have to be made about 6 weeks in advance of travel).
Jeremy did note that with the travel request routing using Concur, a faculty member will always know at which stage in the approval process the travel request is, so the faculty member would be able to contact the individual whose desk the request is at in
order to try and expedite the process.
I will let Jeremy correct any mistakes that I made. Please do have the Physics department meet with Jeremy if there are concerns.
Stephen
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