Happy New Year to all!

I always dread January. The legislative session begins and it demands a lot of our attention with requests for information and/or feedback on whatever topics they are working on. And then we also have business chores like annual employee evaluations and 100% evidence inventories. It also tends to be when my parent agency works to update policies. It’s a busy time and everything is on a short deadline. With this on my mind, I want to take a moment to draw your attention to a very handy resource you can find on the ASCLD website. It has been around for awhile but is often overlooked. It’s ASCLD’s Manager Toolkit in the members only area. https://www.ascld.org/ascld-managers-toolkit/. It’s a gold mine of information compiled by the Member Resource Committee (MRC). They have case acceptance policies, employee DNA database policies, a forensic acronym glossary, information on vicarious trauma and stress, telework, interview questions for hiring, and more. They also have the 2019 salary survey posted which is always in demand during legislative sessions across the country. There are links to local, state, and federal laboratory manuals. I think the toolkit is often forgotten and underutilized. If you are working on something for your laboratory and want to know if there are other labs who will share what they already have in place, ask us and we will ask the community for you. The MRC encourages all members to submit policy examples when advertised in the Crime Lab Minute using the MRC Sample Policy Template. Why reinvent the wheel? I also like to look at other laboratories’ policies and procedures to compare to our own. So take a look at the page. If you have things you want to share or want to ask us to request information from other labs, my email is Laura.Sudkamp@ky.gov.

I hope you have a great week (especially since it’s dreaded January)!

Laura