It appears after looking at the calendar that we need to clarify our vacation policy. When the calendar says no one off early, that also implies that no one should take vacation.  There are numerous tasks associated with closing out the prior month and setting up the new month which make those 2 days much busier than the rest of the month.  It does appear that the last day of the month is not quite as busy as the first day so we will be monitoring it to ascertain the need for everyone on that day, however, until we make that decision we would like everyone to be here. That being said we all understand unanticipated events and pre planned trips can sometimes interfere with your work schedule we just ask that you take the groups workload into account when scheduling your much deserved vacations.
	Another issue that needs to be addressed is the last day of the year and the first business day of the year.  Absolutely no one can miss these two days due to the extreme work load.  In addition we would like to give everyone the opportunity to have time off around Christmas or Thanksgiving in order to do this we need to see who needs what days off.  Please let Casey or I know what your plans are around those holidays.  Until we know from everyone it will be hard to allow someone to be off for both holidays.  Please let someone know in the future when you are scheduling days off before you enter them in the vacation folder so we can minimize the issues related to too many people being gone at the same time.
	Also be wary of your vacation balance and remember that according to Enron corporate policy you can only carry over 40 hours of vacation time, all remaining vacation time will be lost.  With that in mind try to schedule your remaining vacation time in the next few weeks so the end of the year doesn't sneak-up on you.

Thank you
Donnie Vinson
Casey Evans
Stacey W White