On The Horizon

Combined Federal Campaign (CFC): Benefit to society or burden on the worker?

seniorexec — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:37:00 GMT

Are you one of the lucky feds that got the following message?

"Congratulations! You have been selected to be a Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) Keyworker or Team Captain/Coordinator."

Designed by Federal workers and managed by Federal workers on behalf of Federal workers, the CFC is the federal government's way to show how much ($$) they care about those in their local and global community by contributing cash to local, national and international charities.

The stakes are high as each federal agency has a goal to meet, and not meeting that goal can be quite embarrassing to the organization's leadership. While it is stated that CFC is voluntary, it is expected that donation goals are exceeded and 100 percent contact is made with all federal employees to give them an opportunity to contribute.

Competition is high among organizations as well as the pressure. High achieving organizations are recognized with:

The President's Award for achieving 75 percent participation or $275 per capita gift.*
The Chairman's Award for achieving 67 percent participation or $225 per capita gift.*
The Honor Award for achieving 60 percent participation or $175 per capita gift.*
The Merit Award for achieving 50 percent participation or $125 per capita gift.*
The Million Dollar Circle Award will be presented to any CFC Reporting Unit Number that generates more than $1 million.

*A per capita gift is the total amount of contributions collected divided by the total number of employees per agency.

Those that did not make the cut but increased participation are recognized with the Participation Leaders Award. And those that don't make the cut and don't increase participation receive the sort of recognition no one wants. Because of this, key workers and team captains are under a tremendous amount of pressure to make sure their organization and its leadership looks good, sometimes to the degree that one wonders if it truly is a voluntary program.

So if you've just been assigned or "volunteered" to do yet another ancillary duty as a member of the CFC team, your work load will be larger than anyone will tell you and the pressures to deliver may be very high. But the reward to your organization - should you meet your goal - is considerable.

There is another way to contribute and it means a whole year away from your job. Senior Executive Service (SES) members can apply for the Loaned Executive program which was initiated in 1961 by President Kennedy. A Loaned Executive is a Federal Employee that is "loaned" by their agency to work on the CFC. The role of a Loaned Executive is to conduct all solicitations among the federal employees in a campaign area.

Background on the Combined Federal Campaign

The mission of the CFC is to support and to promote charitable giving through a voluntary program that is employee-focused, cost-efficient, and effective in providing all Federal employees the opportunity to improve the quality of life for all. The CFC is the only authorized solicitation of employees in the Federal workplace on behalf of charitable organizations.

Nearly four million federal employees and military personnel are able to contribute to the charities of their choice during the annual charity drive, which runs from September 1 through December 15 of each year. Pledges made by Federal civilian, postal, and military donors during the campaign season support eligible non-profit organizations that provide health and human service benefits throughout the world. These contributions can be made either by cash or check, or can be automatically deducted from these employee's paychecks.

Federal employees created the original CFC-One campaign. Established by a Presidential Executive Order signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, it continues to be the largest and most successful workplace fund raising model in the world.

Individual contributors that make substantive contributions get either the Eagle Award pin for contributors who pledge 1 percent of their salary or the double Eagle Award pins for contributors who pledge 2 percent of their salary.

If you would like more information about the finances, services, benefits or programs an organization provides, you may contact the organization directly using the information provided in the charity listing available through your local campaign office. To receive a listing of local charities in your area, please visit the Campaign Locator section of the website where you can access a listing of local campaigns.

NASA becomes more transparent: uses iTunes to report on Ares Rocket program

seniorexec — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:31:00 GMT

Once again, NASA leads the government with its use of innovative technology, though still lags far behind public sector organizations. For years universities have been transforming learning on campus, off campus, and where there's no campus at all through the use of iTunes U, which puts the power of the iTunes Store to work for colleges and universities, so users can easily search, download, and play course content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows.

Learning from the contributing universities in collaboration with Apple Inc., NASA is using the iTunes platform to be more transparent, inform the public, and excite a new generation about the exploration of space. The quarterly progress reports offer viewers a rare glimpse at the on-going development work of the next-generation launch vehicles that will take explorers to the moon and beyond in coming decades. The programs range in length from five to 15 minutes and spotlight the detailed evolution of the Ares vehicles, from earliest conception through various design phases and the most recent testing. Some of the videos include:

Wind tunnel testing of scale models of the Ares I test vehicle, known as Ares I-X, and the Ares V rocket. The testing aids engineers in designing aerodynamic vehicles.
Disassembly and inspection of part of the J-2X engine - known as the powerpack - that will produce the thrust needed to power the Ares I rocket to orbit. The powerpack pushes liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the engine's main combustion chamber. This test series helped address early design risks. Engineers are now evaluating hardware used as part of the recent testing.
The first tests to weld together pieces of the rockets being developed. NASA recently tested a new robotic friction stir welding facility by fusing space shuttle fuel tank panels. Friction stir welding is an innovative technique invented in 1991 that uses forging pressure and frictional heating to produce high-strength bonds virtually free of defects.
A test of a parachute for the Ares I rocket. The parachute will slow the rapid descent of the rocket's reusable first-stage motor as it falls back to Earth after detaching from the rocket during its climb to space. The parachute permits recovery of the motor for use on future Ares I flights.

To view the Ares quarterly progress reports visit iTunes or to learn more about the Ares rockets and view the Ares quarterly progress reports visit NASA's Ares web site. For additional interactive NASA features and podcasts visit NASA's multimedia website.

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Need to know: DoD bans use of flash media and storage devices

seniorexec — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:49:00 GMT

The Department of Defense (DoD) has banned the use of removable flash media and storage devices from all government computers, starting this week. In a campaign to reach all DoD military, civilian and contractor staff, DoD has shotgunned notifications regarding the use of media storage on DoD computers. While DoD won't confirm the ban for security reasons, OhMyGov! readers have flooded our site with news regarding the following message:

"Joint Task Force Global Network Operations has banned the use of the following forms of media usage on all military computers. Thumb drives, memory sticks, camera flash memory, compact flash, sd, mini sd, etc. Secondly, they have required deletion of all computers and accounts on the military sites (.mil) that have not been accessed in 90 days. If you have a laptop, VPN in and make contact. If you use Outlook Web Access (OWA), check in. Questions should be directed to your active duty installation communication support administrator."

So why did it take so long to put administrative controls - "GovSpeak" for regulations that depend on human behavior - that ban the use of such devices. Didn't the information security (IT) staff or DoD leadership see the 2003 movie, "The Recruit" where a memory stick was used to covertly steel our most guarded intelligence secrets?

Apparently not, as this action comes from report of a worm virus known as "Agent.btz" that was discovered infecting some DoD networks; not information security. The worm virus "Agent.btz" is a variation of an older worm that copies itself to removable USB drives from infected computers and then spreads itself to whatever new systems it is connected to through USB ports, Wired reported. The worm seriously degrades computer performance by copying itself to multiple programs.

For security reasons, DoD officials won't discuss "specific measures commanders in the field may be taking to protect and defend our networks," but for years progressive DoD Chief Information Officers and Chief Information Security Officers Offices have placed IT controls to prevent USB ports from working with any storage devices.

Currently, the only authorized media for use on DoD networks is media purchased and provided by the government, under no circumstances will personally owned removable media be considered mission essential or used on government networks.

DoD's Global Information Grid includes more than 17,000 local- and regional-area networks and approximately 7 million individual computers.

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Guest Columnist: Chris Asch, Remembering Rambo

seniorexec — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:55:00 GMT

How many of you have seen "Rambo"? Not "Rambo IV," the latest blood-spattered installment that was released earlier this year. No, I mean the Cold War classic, the one released in 1985. For those of you who may not have gotten the 20th anniversary box set of the Rambo movies, let me fill you in. John Rambo is a Vietnam veteran who is charged with the seemingly impossible task of going back to Vietnam, ten years after the war ended, to find missing American soldiers. The buff Rambo heads into the jungle often shirtless, of course and spends much of the movie blowing things up and killing Communist Vietnamese soldiers left and right.

So what does this have to with government? Read on.

As I look back, what strikes me as remarkable about this film is that the villain of the movie is neither Communist nor Vietnamese. Instead, he is a wimpy American bureaucrat named Murdoch. Yes, a feckless government official who tries to stymie Rambo in his heroic quest. At the end, Rambo bravely rescues the American POWs and confronts the cringing Murdoch in his office at the end.

Rambo represents Hollywood's dramatization of a larger cultural phenomenon that took root during Vietnam and Watergate, flourished during the Age of
Reagan, and remains entrenched even after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina even, amazingly enough, after Wall Street moguls came running with their tail between the legs to the government for a massive bailout last week. That phenomenon involves the reflexive denigration of public service, the frequent association of the word "public" with "inferior," and the widespread rejection of public sector work as meaningful or important.

Yet, the evidence shows that smart government regulation and administration not only can avert disasters such as the financial meltdown but also improve our quality of life. Take environmental regulations, for example. Despite howls of protest that such regulations would choke off business and lead to financial ruin, the environmental regulations put in place during the 1970s have led to cleaner air, cleaner water, expanded wilderness areas and national parks, rivers that don't catch fire ‹ and the American economy flourished (until last month, at least). Just ask folks who went to the Beijing Olympics whether or not such environmental standards matter.

The Rambo mentality lives on, but perhaps the financial crisis will lay it to rest. Let's hope so.

Chris Myers, 33, runs the U.S. Public Service Academy.
Write him at: asch@uspublicserviceacademy.org.

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We Neglect the Public Sector at Our Peril

Chris Asch — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:43:00 GMT

The financial crisis has once again brought the issue of government regulation to the front pages. After decades of belittling those meddlesome government regulators, Wall Street now comes begging for a bailout. How interesting...

Once the panic subsides, we would do well to reconsider our approach to regulations and the regulators. Mock them though we may, we rely on them tremendously. When they do not fulfill their duties - or when our political leaders make it impossible for them to do their duties - we all lose.

Given our cultural disrespect for public servants, it is perhaps not surprising that we face a looming crisis in public service. Back in the late 1980s, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker warned of "the quiet crisis" in public service. "Government in general, and the federal government in particular," Volcker warned, "is increasingly unable to attract, retain, and motivate the kinds of people it will need to do the essential work of the republic in the years and decades ahead."

That "quiet crisis" now screams out at us as the Baby Boomers, who went into public service in greater numbers and rates than their successors, are now retiring. There are more federal workers in their 60s than in their 20s, and the Partnership for Public Service warns of a "federal brain drain," as 44 percent of all federal workers become eligible to retire over the next five years.

The problem extends beyond the federal government. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that more than 2 million teachers will be needed in this decade because of teacher attrition, retirement and increased student enrollment. Similarly, more than 80 percent of the nation's 17,000 law enforcement agencies report that they cannot fill needed positions due to a lack of qualified candidates.

Everywhere you look in the public sector, you see massive and growing shortages.

Why should this matter? After all, aren't we in a new age where the lines between public and private are blurred, where people bounce from one job to another? Shouldn't we be thinking about ways to outsource public sector work to a more effective and efficient private sector?

Perhaps, but we neglect our public sector at our peril. As private sector scandals from Enron to Blackwater to the current Wall Street mess show, turning public functions over to private entities without bright and highly skilled public servants providing careful oversight and strict accountability can be a recipe for disaster.

In the 21st century, the most pressing challenges our nation faces - from educating our young to taking care of our elderly to battling terrorists - will take place in the public sector, and we need strong public institutions and public servants to tackle those challenges. There simply is no substitute for having top-quality people who are accountable first and foremost to the American people, not to their bottom lines.

Chris Myers, 33, runs the U.S. Public Service Academy.
Write him at: asch@uspublicserviceacademy.org.

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States working to avoid health care crisis

Andrew B. Einhorn — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:34:00 GMT

You've heard the story before; there aren't enough nurses to go around. But the situation is becoming more and more dire as America's health care backbone begins to retire. As they do, states are fighting to avert a major medical meltdown.

According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, the U.S. will be short about 1 million nurses by 2020. A similar report by the Kaiser Family Foundation predicts that 44 states will face a nursing shortage by 2020.

The reasons for the shortage vary, but largely stem from the same problem the federal workforce faces: age. The average nurse is 47 and many will be retiring in the coming years. And given the rigorous physical demands of the profession, e.g. lifting patients, maintaining long shifts, and being on their feet, nurses don't have the option the feds do of being hired back post-retirement.

Another major reason for the nursing shortage - aside from a lack of interest in the field - is that nursing schools lack teachers. According to stateline.org, "a shortage of nursing instructors has left 40,000 qualified students on waiting lists nationwide." Since nurses can make more money providing care than teaching, only a small percent go back to earn the teaching certifications they need to train aspiring nurses.

State government are trying to address the shortage. A vast majority of states have set up scholarship and loan forgiveness programs to encourage more students to enter nursing schools. While results are encouraging, a major problem of attrition in the profession must be addressed to stem the flow of nurses out of medicine.

“Out of 300 nurses we graduate, we lose anywhere from 100 to 150 because the hospitals don’t appreciate the resources,” Deborah Burger, president of the California Nurses Association told Stateline.org.

Burger is referring to the common practice of having mandatory overtime for nurses, placing nurses in charge of too many patients, and maintaining work cultures that revere doctors but fail to appreciate the vital services provided by nursing staffs. The result is an overworked, underappreciated, agitated workforce that frequently abandons their profession for others.

The problem is also circular, as the more nurses leave, the fewer nurses remain to care for patients. Those remaining must then pick up the extra workloads, causing even more stress and job dissatisfaction, not to mention poorer health care.

To combat nurse attrition, 14 states have banned the practice of mandatory overtime hours in hospitals and clinics. California went a step farther in 1999, mandating that no nurse could care for more than five patients at any one time.

So far, it's not enough, especially since health care providers faced with the decision of obeying a law or providing health care to more patients who need it will typically do the job they were trained for and not leave patients unattended during times of need. What remains to be seen is whether loan programs set up will attract the enough nurses to help fill in the gap of nurses needed in the future and if retiring nurses can be convinced to teach the nurses of tomorrow. Without major progress in these areas, with an aging population of baby boomers, we might all have to get used to even longer waits for medical care.

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New tax "credit" for first-time home buyers

Jaime L. Hartman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:11:00 GMT

First time buyers making home purchases after April 8, 2008 and before July 1, 2009 may be eligible for a $7,500 tax credit under the recently enacted Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. So, if you recently bought your first home or are thinking about doing so in the next 10 months, you will want to read on.

The credit reduces the taxpayer's federal tax liability or increases his or her refund, dollar for dollar, even if the taxpayer owes no tax or the credit is more than the tax they owe. It is retroactive to the start date for buyers who meet eligibility requirements.

As with most great deals, it is important for buyers to realize that there is a catch. The so-called "credit" operates somewhat like an interest-free loan because it must be repaid over a 15-year period. So, an eligible taxpayer who buys a home today and claims the $7,500 credit on his or her 2008 federal income tax return must begin repaying the credit by including one-fifteenth of this amount ($500) as an additional tax on his or her 2010 return.

Any citizen who has not owned a home in the three years prior to the purchase who wishes to purchase a main residential home (the credit excludes vacation homes and rental properties) is eligible.

Married couples making $150,000 to $170,000 a year are eligible for a reduced credit and those making over $170,000 are ineligible. For single filers, the eligibility range is $75,000 to $95,000. Higher income taxpayers are ineligible for any such breaks.

While $7,500 is not a lot to offset astronomical home prices, it could be the difference that makes up a significant down payment and puts responsible homeowners in houses they can afford. The fact that it is not a handout but rather a hand-up in the form of an interest-free loan, similar to one a parent might give a young adult child to help them get on their feet financially, also makes it appealing. But the offer expires next July, so prospective buyers need to act soon!

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Need to Know: Hatch Act Reminder !!!

seniorexec — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:37:00 GMT

In this season of high-profile partisan-political activities, it is important that you as a Federal employee know that you are subject to the Hatch Act, which puts limits on your partisan political activity. In a nutshell, that law means that

YOU MAY NOT - While at work, or in a Government building, or using Government resources (including your government e-mail), take any action for or against any political party or candidate for partisan political office, or even if off duty and off Government premises, solicit, accept, or receive political contributions. This includes scheduling activities as a partisan political volunteer while on duty or using Government resources.

YOU MAY - While off duty, actively participate in partisan political campaigns and activities, except for the prohibitions expressed above, and unless you are a career SES.

If you have any questions please contact your General Counsel's Office or your Regional Counsel's office.

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Finally a reason for braille ATMs

Jaime L. Hartman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:59:00 GMT

What good is a brail ATM if you can't tell apart the bills that come out of it? Not much, said US District Judge James Robertson last week while pointing to a May court ruling that stated the current paper currency system discriminates against the blind. The court decision will soon require the Department of Treasury to create new bills that allow the blind to tell each denomination apart.

The lawsuit that incited the currency retooling was brought by the American Council of the Blind (ACB) whose executive director, Melanie Brunson, points to an unacceptably high rate of unemployment among people who are visually impaired. According to Brunson, job opportunities, particularly for young people and other first-time job seekers who are looking for entry level positions in stores and restaurants, are limited at best and often times completely unavailable to people who cannot efficiently identify paper money.

Judge Robertson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in late November 2006 that the government had to move to redesign the famous dollar bill. "I find, accordingly, that the Treasury Department's failure to design and issue paper currency that is readily distinguishable to blind and visually impaired individuals violates section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act," Robertson wrote.

A US Federal District Court upheld the ruling upon appeal, forcing the Treasury department to come up with a solution for the 937,000 blind persons and 2.4 million visually impaired individuals living in the US.

Over 180 countries incorporate tactile features into their paper currency as well as enhanced visual distinctions between denominations. The US is not one of them, despite having loads of bizarre iconic images on its currency capable of inspiring movie plots about their meaning.

The ACB suit does not favor any one feature for determining currency values tactilely, but instead asks for a meaningful effort on the part of the Department of Treasury toward making currency accessible to the largest number of blind and visually impaired persons.

Interestingly, a mandate to redesign US currency to include tactile elements is not universally accepted among disability activist groups. The National Federation for the Blind (NFB) adopted resolutions about currency in 1994, 2002, and 2008 that argue lawsuits such as the one brought by the American Council of the Blind are not only unnecessary but also harmful because they "serve to make [people with visual impairments] objects of pity - a perception that could have extreme, grievous, detrimental impact on the ability of blind people to achieve...equality."

Naturally, the situation is more complicated than it appears. Redesign of currency is an expensive proposition, and not just for those who print the money. One group that has a particular interest in the issue is the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), representing the vending machine industry.

Get ripped off by a vending machine lately? You haven't seen anything yet. An estimated seven million vending machine bill acceptors are in service in the US and each one would likely require modification if our currency is redesigned. Ironing out the kinks will most definitely result in lost money and hearing the ever-so-frustrating mechanical sound of bill rejection.

According to NAMA, changing the size of the bills would be the most far-reaching and expensive change, and you can bet your snack money will go to lobbying against such a change. As an alternative, the organization proposed the less costly (for them) method of placing Braille symbols on currency and trimmed or notched corners.

Both the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) and NAMA argue that personalized technology may hold a more practical and desirable solution. For example, the KNFB Mobile Reader contains a currency reader and a stand-alone version could be produced for as little as $100, according to NFB President Mark Maurer. The device scans a bill and indicates its denomination by tone, vibration, or voice, and could be could be carried by blind persons in lieu of reconfiguring all the money in circulation.

In Canada, hand-held, pocket-sized bill readers are provided free of charge by the Bank of Canada under a program with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Future reader/scanner technologies may also effectively detect counterfeit bills, granting the technology a universal application beyond individuals with visual impairments.

World financial dependence on the dollar also supports the use of personalized devices over redesigning the money. The US dollar has a unique position in the world financial markets, in part because its consistent and uniform size over the last 50 years has enabled the US dollar to be less expensive to process than, for example, the Euro with its varying sizes. Many experts fear that a change to the size of the dollar, especially combined with significant other redesigns, would threaten the current position of the US dollar as the world's preferred currency...even if it's actual value has been on the wane.

While all the keys players in the lawsuit and other actions on this issue profess to appreciate the importance of making currency accessible to individuals with visual impairments, it is crucial that any redesign efforts - whether they be mandated by the court system, the Congress, or by the representative groups themselves - be carefully considered and undertaken with the greatest benefit in mind.

OhMyGov! highly encourages Congress to get involved and draft legislation which allows blind persons to write off the cost of personalized currency readers as an alternative to changing US currency. Avoiding the monumental and expensive task of changing our bills will buffer an already beaten economy from the ripple effects that would inevitable flow through it otherwise. It would also provide a much faster transition for the blind, as a phase out of old bills could take decades to fully accomplish. These devices could also be provided by employers of blind people, as part of a reasonable accommodation for disadvantaged workers.

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BRAC bringing big money to Northern Virginia

seniorexec — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:48:00 GMT

This week, federal agencies stated they are seeking $11.6 billion in funding for 190 construction projects in the Washington area between now and 2014, in response to the Department of Defense's 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC).

BRAC refers to the congressionally authorized process used to reorganize military bases to more efficiently and effectively support our forces, increase operational readiness and facilitate new ways of doing business.

The four previous BRAC rounds eliminated approximately 20 percent of DoD's capacity that existed in 1988 and, through 2001, produced net savings of approximately $17.7 billion with recurring savings of $7 billion annually.

While the Pentagon stated it would save $49 billion nationwide over 20 years, it appears northern Virginia will reap many benefits. In particular, Fort Belvoir in southeast Fairfax County would gain more than 20,000 workers, while its Marine neighbors to the south at Quantico would gain 6,000 employees.

Of the 26,000 inbound jobs expected at Fort Belvoir and Quantico, nearly 56 percent are held by DOD civilians, 20 percent by military personnel, and 24 percent are embedded contractor positions. The influx of workers is expected to have a positive impact on the economy of the Northern Virginia.

According to a report by the Center for Economic Assessment and the Center for Regional Analysis, approximately 6.2 million square feet of newly built office space and seven million square feet of parking will be constructed at Fort Belvoir in the next four years. The same report places total outlays associated with the proposed development programs at $4.1 billion, inclusive of construction activities.

In all, BRAC and non-BRAC related construction activities planned at Fort Belvoir would create 50,359 construction and related jobs, add $3.3 billion in new earnings, and $7 billion in total economic activity during the build-out phase between 2007 and 2011.

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The Anti-Government Campaign

On The Horizon

Combined Federal Campaign (CFC): Benefit to society or burden on the worker?

Most Popular:

NASA becomes more transparent: uses iTunes to report on Ares Rocket program

Need to know: DoD bans use of flash media and storage devices

Guest Columnist: Chris Asch, Remembering Rambo

We Neglect the Public Sector at Our Peril

States working to avoid health care crisis

New tax "credit" for first-time home buyers

Need to Know: Hatch Act Reminder !!!

Finally a reason for braille ATMs

BRAC bringing big money to Northern Virginia