It’s happy trails time for OMB Watch Executive Director Gary Bass, who plans to leave the influential watchdog group he founded in 1983 to head the Bauman Foundation, according to a mass e-mail sent out this afternoon. From his experience in the nonprofit sector, Bass said in the message, “I have learned there comes a time when an organization’s founder needs to move on in order to strengthen the very organization the founder loves.” Bass added that he is “confident that the group’s commitment to high-quality work and smart policy advocacy will continue, and I have no doubt that OMB…
Yearly Archives: 2010
Has all this talk about federal pay and public perceptions of federal workers got you down? During a panel discussion on sustainable employment practices such as telework, Danette Campbell, a senior advisor for telework at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said that federal workers have gotten a really bad wrap. She said in her career in the private sector, sometimes her thoughts about federal employees ran negative as well. But then she joined the federal government, and was impressed with what she saw. I have never worked with such hard working, dedicated, professional individuals in my career. Keep checking…
For those of you interested, you can follow the conference on Twitter #elc2010 and us @federaltimes to get in on the conversation. Now on to your previously scheduled blog post. The American Council for Technology and the Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) opened their nominations for its 2011 Exellence.gov awards for outstanding government IT programs. Some of the categories include apps as well. So if youir agency has a mobile application that you think is the bee’s knees, then submit it. Nominees are accepted through Dec. 10, 2010. Categories include: 1. Excellence in Enhancing the Customer Experience – Programs that create a…
So what exactly is the Executive Leadership Conference? Well its a gathering of about 850 federal managers and private industry representatives in Williamsburg, VA both today and tomorrow. There are panel discussions related to IT issues, sustainability, management as well as special speakers. Keep reading the website for stories related to this conference, so that you can get a bit of that information yourself. Of course, we know how busy our readers are, so we will be condensing and covering a lot of this on your behalf. Some key themes so far. 1. Collaboration. Almost every speaker has touted the…
Next week, the TechAmerica Foundation will release its recommendations for reforming the procurement and management process for federal information technology. The recommendations follow the Obama Administration’s decisions last June to freeze spending on all large financial systems modernization projects and launch reviews of high risk IT projects. A group of 32 senior IT and federal aquisition experts from industry and academia collaborated to propose reforms, which will be released at a press conference on Monday. The hope is to have the recommendations factored into the administration’s 2012 budget planning.
Yes, political passions are at fever pitch this election season, but federal workers are risking their jobs if they cross in the line into activity banned by the Hatch Act, the Office of Special Counsel warns in a news release. The agency is responsible for enforcement of the act, which generally bars partisan politicking on government time. As evidence, the agency cites two cases that it took to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Both involved workers who in 2008 sent fund-raising e-mails while at work on behalf of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. In one of those cases, involving an IRS…
The FBI is one of several local, state and federal agencies looking into the fatal shooting of two women postal workers on Monday morning at a post office in Henning, Tenn., according to a CNN report. A dispatcher from the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department told CNN that the shooting occurred at about 9 a.m. on Monday. The names and ages of the victims have not been released. The Commercial Appeal, a community newspaper in Memphis, is reporting that the women were working at the front counter of the post office when a robbery attempt occurred. But the attorney general of the state’s 25th judicial…
Attention feds, if you have read the Washington Post recently, a new poll there delivers a message in the form of a survey. Stop making so much money and working less hard. I know, I know. The survey results are here if you want to see. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101703866.html The survey of 1,002 adults found 52 percent think federal employees are “overpaid for the work they do” while 33 percent think they are paid the right amount, and 9 percent think they are underpaid. According to the Washington Post poll, 49 percent said feds work less hard than peers in the private…
The Office of Personnel Management is hosting a series of focus groups to garner solutions for beefing up the government’s cybersecurity workforce. Starting today, OPM called on dozens of cybersecurity professionals and hiring managers to discuss strategies and best pratices for recruiting and retaining highly skilled workers. During the three-hour sessions, participants were given a list of potential solutions and asked to rank them as being the best or worst options for attracting cybersecurity workers. Possible areas of focus include: -Establishing a governmentwide cybersecurity certification process -Mapping a governmentwide cybersecurity career path -Create a new occupation definition, classification, qualification and standards -Invest more in…
Cliff Guffey will be the new president of the American Postal Workers Union after capturing 69 percent of the ballots cast in a three-way race, the union announced in a news release. Guffey, APWU’s vice president since 2001, will succeed retiring President William Burrus. As he moves up to the top job, his immediate challenge will be nailing down a new contract with the U.S. Postal Service, which is seeking to loosen work rules. The existing contract expires Nov. 20; Burrus recently described progress on its successor as “slow.” More broadly, Guffey’s three-year term is likely to be dominated by…