Thanks to everyone for your response on the subagreement issue.  This forum is a
 great resource.  I m one of those members who, in the past, could read the
 messages but not write to the group, so I have a few issues I ve been wanting
 to discuss.  Here is another:

My institution recently went to an automated timekeeping system.  Hourly
 employees are required to dial into the system via a telephone to record the
 time they arrive at work, the time they leave for lunch, the time they are back
 from lunch, and the time they leave at the end of the day.  Salaries employees
 are only required to dial into the system once a day to indicate they are in.
 This system has some capability of recording effort worked on projects,
 although you can imagine the nightmare of dialing into the system every time
 you changed directions and went to another project.  For this reason, we have
 maintained our paper time and effort reporting which is done on a monthly
 basis.  In addition, our scientist are quite upset by the fact that they or
 their staff (salaried employees) should have to clock in each day.  My
 questions are: 1) have others gone to automated timekeeping, and if so, can you
 tell me a little about your system (i.e., do you use the phone, the compu!
 ter, a badge reader, etc., is any  class  of employee exempt from using the
 system, and do the scientists have any role in reviewing/approving their
 staff s time?); and 2) is such a system used to generate time and effort
 reports.  If so, how well does it work, do staff complain?

Again, I appreciate your responses.

Diane Austin
Marshfield Clinic
Division of Research
1000 N. Oak Avenue
Marshfield, WI  54449
PHONE: 715-387-9134
FAX: 715-389-3131
EMAIL: xxxxxx@mfldclin.edu