Search results for 'Good-Gov'

Can I get a copy of my SF-50 from the Office of Personnel Management?

BureauPat — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:02:00 GMT

Dear Bureaupat,

I live in Washington, D.C. Can I just go to the Office of Personnel Management to get a copy of my SF-50?

Dear Local,

Wow, the questions about the SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, just keep on rollin' in. Unfortunately, this is one situation were living in Washington, D.C. — home of the federal government and one seriously underperforming NFL team — provides absolutely no benefit.

While the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) manages the civil service of the federal government, including the policies, procedures and development of the SF-50, OPM itself is not a short- or long-term repository for your file.

If you are currently a federal employee, the best place to get a copy of your Official Personnel Folder (OPF), which includes your SF-50, is your agency's Human Resources office.

If you are a recent retiree or job-changer and left federal employment within the last 90 days, you may be able to request a copy from the HR office at your previous agency.

But in situations where the fine folks at HR are unable to help, you may request a copy of your SF-50, a complete copy of your OPF, or certain other forms by writing to:

National Personnel Records Center
111 Winnebago Street
St. Louis, MO 63118-4126

It is important to note that The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 USC 552a) stipulates that requests for information from federal records be signed and dated and in writing. That's right: only written requests for records may be made. No calls, emails, or faxes regarding personnel records will be accepted. And pleading "But Bureaupat said you'd help" won't work either. Trust me, I've tried that one myself. Good luck!

Yours in Gov,

Bureaupat

Read More Q&A from Bureaupat:

[+] Can the new GI Bill be used for graduate education?

[+] What is the federal Career Development Program (CDP)?

[+] Are congressional staffers covered under federal government pay plans?

Are congressional staffers covered under federal government pay plans?

BureauPat — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Dear Bureaupat,

I'm considering moving up in government. That is, up to Capitol Hill as a congressional staffer. Can you tell me whether or not congressional staffers are covered by a federal government pay plan?

Dear Hill-Bound,

Moving from the halls of the federal bureaucracy to the home of Congress beneath the Capitol dome is quite a move indeed. Though all part of the federal government, there are some key ways the jobs are different, including on the pay and benefits side.

While federal government employees are covered by a number of different pay systems, some established by individual laws, some by administrative determination, none of these will apply to you. Your salary will be determined by the member of Congress you work for and you'll be at the mercy of his or her budget.

Congressional staffer salary can vary widely. There are caps too. In 2009, the maximum salary for a staffer for a member's personal office was $168,411. Committee staffers, in certain instances, are eligible for a slightly higher salary.

While that sounds good, only a few aides are paid at the cap. Many junior-level staffers make an embarrassingly paltry sum, for office jobs that can have a brutal intensity to them. This includes working for the sometimes wild and crazy personalities of the elected. And... all this in the expensive city of Washington, D.C.

Unlike their federal counterparts who are free to go home at the end of the day, when Congress is in session, Congressional staffers often work well into the night, sometimes into the early morning, to craft legislation or to broker deals with the administration. Not the typical day of a fed, but due to their prestige, competition for congressional jobs is fierce.

On the bright side, there is a potential pay-off. Many experienced congressional staffers leave the public sector to find jobs in the private sector making many times what they make in Congress.

Of course, their value in the private sector is sometimes enhanced not by their skills but by the personal connections they make while working for Congress.

Yours in Gov,

Bureaupat

Read More Q&A from Bureaupat:

[+] Can the new GI Bill be used for graduate education?

[+] What is the federal Career Development Program (CDP)?

[+] What will my new grade and step be for my government promotion?

10 Rules for being a good government Twitterer

Jenifer123 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:50:00 GMT

Since Twitter evolved from obscurity to media obsession (yes, we see the irony in that comment), an entire new economy has launched around the platform, including social media consultants offering advice on the best way for organizations to conduct themselves on this new social medium. The advice, called everything from twitter manners to twitterquette, provides at the very least some puzzling new words and fodder for punchlines. But how to behave amidst the deep crevasses of the twitterverse is far more important than learning all the vernacular.

Two federal agencies provide an excellent example of what to do and what not to do with promotional twittering. NASA (@MarsPhoenixhas) had great success with Tweeting about the Mars rover which toured the surface of Mars, sending back never-before-seen images from deep space. "By writing in the first person and being cute, followers were treated to what seemed like a firsthand perspective of what was going on with the successful Rover," said Ethan Klapper of socialgovernment.com, a blog devoted to covering Gov 2.0.

In the what not to do category, we have the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Since the USCBP feeds its regular news briefs onto Twitter, there is little reason to visit the handle over the website. "Hands down, the worst government Twitter account I've seen," said Klapper.

Of course, if the goal is to put information out there in various forms, the agency meets the requirement. What they don't meet, is the desire for followers on Twitter to be interested, entertained and informed; the killer combo every media organization aims for that few organizations master.

These days, every company and federal agency is devising or has devised its own rules on using Twitter, especially while on the job. In some cases, employees are required to sign contracts giving the organization rights over all creative output, to include twittering from your cell phone. Most people are familiar with the dangers of using a company computer for personal business, but it may not have occurred to them that their tweets might also be within earshot.

On the other hand, using Twitter in a manner that benefits organizations is something that many are encouraging. A number of federal agencies and businesses are taking advantage of this social media tool to get their information to the public in a hip and cutting-edge way, giving them access to a demographic they may otherwise not reach. When used well, Twitter can offer an agency or company that personal touch not available through a Web design and the ability to develop a personality to help branding efforts.

Branding. That's not a word most federal employees use, but that's not to say it isn't important for feds. Think about your views on NASA. Now consider how you perceive FEMA. Despite both having very publicized debacles, their brands are quite different and the power of NASA's brand allows them to continue retain public support even in the midst of incredible tragedy and failure. The same cannot be said about FEMA and part of the reason is the manner in which these agencies regularly communicate with the public, one aspect of which now, like it or not, involves Twitter.

To aid in navigating this new social media terrain, OhMyGov! has brought you the following tips, gratis.

1. Always know what your organization's rules are. If you aren't sure of the rules, or they are unclear, speak to your supervisor or human resources office to clarify. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

2. Everything you do online leaves a record. While it may be common sense to some, it's best to tweet your buddy about the football game while you're having a discussion with your boss about your last accounting error. These things do have a very traceable time stamp and can now be searched by other in real time.

3. Be very open about who you are, who you work for, and why you are on Twitter. A simple disclaimer saying that you work for the National Park Service but are twittering because you want to share your thoughts on "Dancing with the Stars," will provide you with a good cover at work and draw the kind of followers that you're actually looking for.

4. Remember someone reads these things. So always try to be as personable as you can when you tweet. Nobody likes automated responses or lazy self-promotion. This is equally true if you are a federal agency. In the case of NASA, a program that requires high public satisfaction to stay in business, they have found a way to tweet that makes you feel like you're a friend. In the case of USCBP, they make you feel like you're a bulletin board that just got a paper pinned to it.

5. FGS, try and keep the grammar correct and the acronyms limited. There exists an ongoing debate as to whether texting and tweeting are undoing the English language as we once knew it. To avoid fanning the flames, keep your messages plain and simple. Your followers will appreciate it if they have some idea of what you're talking about. This is especially true if you are tweeting on behalf of an organization.

6. Be courteous. This is not about please and thank you's. On Twitter, courtesy means giving proper citation (@ohmygov) if you lift a quote or idea from someone else, or by simply retweeting it (relaying what one person says to your audience). And if someone sends you a direct message, the respectful thing to do is reply, even if the reply contains a template message.

7. Exercise Discretion. Don't tweet about your boss and your co-workers; don't say things that you don't want everyone to know; and don't tweet while under the influence.

8. Mix it up. Don't just post the same titles to your already boring federal press release. Provide a fact from that press release with a link to the actual document instead. You have a new audience on Twitter; act like it. Feed them different information. You'll be surprised just how far a factoid can travel. When we tweeted that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook was women 54-79, it was retweeted 15 times within three minutes quoting OhMyGov! as the information source. In those three minutes, we reached an audience of approximately 60,000 people.

9. Less is more. We can't emphasize this enough. Even at 140 characters or less it is tough to keep up with all of the information out there. So send out only the most important information -- the stuff you really want people to know and think they would find interesting. Bombarding people with tweets every 15 seconds is a surefire way to turn them off, unless you are a celebrity and they have already developed an unhealthy obsession with you. In a crisis situation, less is still more as it ensures people follow the right advice and are not confused.

10. Benchmark. Don't just take our advice; get out there and see what other people are saying. Use Twitter Search to find them and ask them through Twitter about what they have learned. It is a great medium for communicating, so make the most of it!

In Iceland, Trying to Reprogram Government

samuel123 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMT

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Gudjon Mar Gudjonsson is not your typical entrepreneur. Although he has founded numerous high tech companies — his first at the age of 17 — and is clearly the sort of businessman that companies like Google and Microsoft recruit, Mr. Gudjonsson has instead chosen to devote much of his time and technological know-how to a think tank called the Ministry of Ideas. The group’s mission is no less attention-getting than its name: it is pursing how Icelanders can breakdown hierarchies that elevate people like himself far above the rest of society in the first place.

“I am a big fan of an active democracy and a participatory economy, and have been looking into open source governance for some time,” Mr. Gudjonsson explained, as we sat down to chat in his office. It is known as the House of Ideas, a former furniture store near Reykjavik's harbor that once also served the country’s fishing industry. The House of Ideas — no relation to the House of Blues — now provides free office space to successful applicants who have business ventures that are all dressed up with nowhere to go.

What sparked Mr. Gudjonsson's desire to be a social reformer was actually the same thing that drove the furniture store out of business. It is a nationwide calamity that will affect Iceland for generations. It’s what spurred the University of Reykjavik and the Icelandic Academy for the Arts to establish a place like the House of Ideas. And “it” is this: Iceland’s bankers, with the tacit support of its politicians, bankrupted the country.

In Icelandic, it is simply known as the kreppa.

Society Down The Kreppa

When Iceland plunged into financial crisis in late 2008, Mr. Gudjonsson decided that the raw emotion of demonstrations was not for him.

“People wanting change were basically split in two groups,” he said. “There were people who went to protest, and people who joined groups like the Ministry of Ideas, planning for the future.” The problem, as he saw it, did not arise because of one specific government, but was a result of the way that representative democracy functioned, or didn't. It was too passive, and a whole new social construct was needed.

The protest movement was spawned by the traumatic nature of the financial crisis. The value of Iceland’s currency, the krona, collapsed on foreign exchange markets, which led to vanished savings, high inflation and even higher foreign debt payments. Iceland's main banks – Glitnir, Kaupthing and Landsbanki – which had only been privatized at the start of the decade, had managed to acquire up to nine times the size of the country's GDP in debt. When, in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers' collapse in the U.S., the big Icelandic banks were unable to obtain the refinancing they needed for their gargantuan interest payments, they went into government receivership. Icelandic taxpayers found themselves stuck with the bill after the banks were re-nationalized, leaving them a touch upset at the ruling class to say the least. Weekly protests gained momentum and eventually forced a change in government in January 2009. The whole affair came to be known as the Kitchenware Revolution, named after the pots and pans Icelanders used as noisemakers.

At the Ministry of Ideas

In the wake of the Kitchenware revolt, Gudjohnsson felt that a grassroots think tank like the Ministry of Ideas, which is unaffiliated with any political party, could achieve something that the system itself could not. “[Parliamentarians] have worked for many years to get voted,” he said. “Certainly, to open everything up – it doesn't really fly for them.”

On Nov. 14, Gudjonsson’s Ministry of Ideas and several affiliated groups — known collectively as the Anthill — are hoping to take a significant step towards opening everything up. They are hosting a National Assembly where Icelanders will be invited to give their input about what sort of society the country should build in the aftermath of the kreppa.

Gov 3.0?

For the Anthill’s efforts to be taken seriously, they need mandate-like participation. That means inviting a large number of people to Laugardolshöll, the sporting arena in Reykjavik where the Assembly will be hosted. So Mr. Gudjonsson’s group has invited 1,500 people — roughly 0.5% of Iceland's population — to attend.

About 1,200 of these invitations will go to people picked at random from the national registry. If some fail to RSVP, more will be invited until the 1,200 “randoms” confirm that they will be attending, Mr. Gudjonsson said.

At the assembly itself, the masses will be broken down into groups of nine. With the help of discussion facilitators who have been trained to ensure the roundtable discussions are healthy, participants will discuss what values defines them as a nation. To ascertain exactly how these groups of nine will arrive at a larger consensus, when each participant comes up with a proposed value – Mr. Gudjonsson expects 20,000 ideas to be proposed – it will be “tagged” by that group electronically, like on a blog.

Tags will be monitored by a backroom staff who will ascertain which values were deemed important most frequently. The top nine will be considered Iceland's moral pillars for the purposes of the National Assembly. From there, slightly larger groups will discuss how to build social frameworks — economic, educational, justice, and health care systems — based on these core values. For each value, the assembled groups will come up with nine ideas on how to improve society (nine, according to Mr. Gudjonsson, is an ideal number for group work.)

Mining the data for a consensus in this section will be relatively more qualitative, but at the end of the day participants will have drafted a manifesto that will give the country a better idea of what sort of future society it would like to build. Not bad for a Saturday’s work.

“Before entering the meeting, no one knows what the values will be. We have a feel for it, but it’s up to the people of the meeting to find a government for themselves,” Mr. Gudjonsson said. Giving effective control of the nation’s monetary supply to a few avaricious profit seeking individuals will probably not make the cut.

The resulting manifesto won't have any sort of legal significance, but Mr. Gudjonsson said that holding such an event will be useful in holding the government more accountable. “We can always refer to the 2009 November national assembly,” he exclaimed. “If there are going to be discussions [about reform] in parliament,” which there have been and will be, “then the national assembly will be kind of a guiding light.” In fact, holding a Constitutional Assembly is something that some of the major parties in Parliament have discussed, and the National Assembly is something from which that they may draw wisdom. Even if it is just the case of politicians blowing hot air, then at least the National Assembly will be an exercise in participatory democracy.

First we take Reykjavik...

Of course, it is information technology that makes this all possible. The whole ordeal is essentially the first attempt to crowdsource a socio-economic-political manifesto in history. More importantly, as the whole event will be on an open source software platform, Mr. Gudjonsson claims that the entire world can look to the National Assembly as a model for reform. In addition to allowing the participants and the Icelandic public to scrutinize the information collected, people around the globe will be able to analyze the data and how it was obtained, thus ensuring the process' transparency and maximizing its utility to people everywhere.

People who are interested, for example, will be able to find out what age group in Iceland esteems which values more highly than others. Curious programmers, if they are interested in agitating for their own assemblies, can find out how the code was written so that the Anthill's administrators could quickly deduce the shared values of dozens of groups. If someone wants to produce a copy of the final manifesto, they will be able to do that as well, free of charge. This open aspect to the meeting, Mr. Gudjonsson hopes, will not only garner the attention of like-minded people abroad, but will encourage people in Iceland to act upon the ideas discussed by the National Assembly.

“Instead of focusing on a particular solution, I want to focus on the process. With a process, its something that can scale,” said Mr. Gudjonsson, detailing his inspiration for open source social reform. “It's like how Linux competed with Windows because of its open source software. The beauty was in the process, which can scale so clever people all over the world can participate.” And what better place to experiment with a scalable project in social engineering than one of the smallest, most educated countries in the world? When the house of cards that is global finance came crashing down, Iceland, one of the first to take a massive blow, was called the canary in the coalmine. Mr. Gudjonsson is now hopeful that the world will once more look to Iceland as an indication of what the future holds, but this time for all the right reasons.

“In terms of use of technologies, more people per capita use Facebook in Iceland than anywhere else in the world,” he said, pointing out the role that the social networking website played in Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution. Facebook isn't just a place where you can update your status with the angst ridden Alanis Morisette lyric du jour, you know. Such a tech-savvy, educated democracy as Iceland that took Facebook and used it to organize an effective social movement, with apologies to Iranians, could very well be a leader in government innovation.

“The feedback system so fast. You can implement change so quickly and you have access to politicians and leaders within the country,” he noted. Being a country with a population of just over 300,000, Iceland is a place where, despite a lack of trust between the population and politicians, a tightly woven social fabric makes wide reaching consensual reform possible. The government has even given support to the National Assembly, although it gets financial backing from a wide range of donors. Having such an in tune civil society as exists in Iceland, in Mr. Gudjonsson's opinion, makes the country “the testing ground for a more sustainable democracy.”

Rockefeller Foundation, This Isn't

A breach of trust by the country's elected representatives wasn't the only thing that irked Icelanders about the kreppa. It made many question how it was that a small group of bankers and investors essentially squandered all of the country's money and then some without any real democratic process. Voters may have given a mandate to the Independence Party to privatize the banking system, but that wasn't a carte blanche to bankers to pillage the country's savings accounts. The government wasn't the only one to blame.

This injustice has not gone unnoticed by the Ministry of Ideas who, Mr. Gudjonsson said, are also researching the idea of democratizing economics in addition to its work with the Anthill's National Assembly. “We've seen that [a grassroots economy] is based on trust, but we are still trying to see how it can work.” However it can work, it would need a reformed financial system, that Mr. Gudjonsson said should be “based on common values.” Again, in this respect, he believes that his diminutive country can set an example by combining lessons learned about resourcefulness in the private sector with the sympathetic worldview of non-profit organizations.

“[Iceland] could become a key partner in the G-20 for prototyping these new values, tools and processes for a more sustainable capitalism,” he said.

And what a better place to start than one's own institution? Promoting both a more active citizenry and innovating are both clearly important to Mr. Gudjonsson. As with the work it is doing for the National Assembly, the Ministry of Ideas does not claim copyright to any of its published material or ideas. “We are not about egos,” he ironically boasted. “We are about making society better.” When the Ministry of Ideas holds its weekly meetings, for example, individual enterprises are born, from which the Ministry itself – financed by donors and staffed by volunteers – sees no monetary reward. Mr. Gudjonsson himself expressed an interest in an economic system without copyright, even though he has filed a number of patents in his time. “We somehow need to pay for clothes and food and stuff,” he lamented.

What else is on?

The National Assembly and the idea of increasing participation in the economy and government don’t have the support of everyone in Iceland. Just who are they to decide Iceland's future, anyway? some have asked. Mr. Gudjonsson responds that the group’s experimental work is not legally binding and is fairly inclusive.

It is perfectly reasonable to question the results that can come from a grassroots effort, especially when a nation’s very political and financial structure are involved.

Nevertheless, Mr. Gudjonsson hopes the Assembly’s mission will catch on because “the right people will pick it up and do something about it.” By helping to found the Ministry of Ideas and getting involved with the Anthill, he hopes to increase the odds of that happening.

“If you have a grassroots meeting at 8 o'clock” Gudjohnsson said, describing the challenge, “then it has to be clear that it’s more important to join that meeting than it is to watch Jay Leno. To make that desire is to basically make people feel that they can have a role – that their voices can be heard, and that they have a sense for their role within the big picture.”

Perhaps more people, at least in Iceland anyway, will be convinced they can play an active role in the big picture after the National Assembly on Saturday. That is, unless there's something good on television.

Clever Commute a clever idea for easing traffic pains

amelia123 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:23:00 GMT

It’s a familiar scene for many of us: sitting in traffic amongst countless individuals in a sea of cars, separated by chrome and glass, everyone on their cell phone. Or, if you’re the public transit type, try and recount how many commuters spent your most recent ride hunched over cellular devices. If this is the stuff that annoys you, relax! They might be providing a very noble social service with the agility of their texting thumbs; they just might be texting Clever Commute.

Clever Commute is an up-and-coming information network where subscribers receive alerts on traffic and transit conditions in their area thanks to commuters who text in updates about trains, buses and traffic. It is, as creator Joshua Crandall described, a service where “only a few participate, but everyone in the community benefits.”

But that “few” is now a swelling 10,000—impressive, considering Mr. Crandall started the service in 2006 with the five guys he knew from his train commute from New Jersey to Manhattan.

It all started with Mr. Crandall’s observation that all commuters are constantly communicating, but not with one another. “One morning after a bad commute, I saw everyone on their BlackBerries on the platform and I thought, ‘Where were they last night?’” He saw the opportunity for a network where commuters could exchange information, and Clever Commute was born.

The service first connected commuters in New York and then Boston in 2007, and has since grown to include Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Portland, Washington D.C. and Baltimore.

And Clever Commute continues to grow. In talks with various institutional investors and major traffic reporting agencies, Clever Commute’s increasingly diversifying business model can only strengthen and expand influence. Posts on the service’s blog are accompanied with advertisements, the service is partnered with various social networking sites, and yup, there might eventually “be an app for that” on the iPhone.

Clever Commute illustrates the speed and influence of user-content communication networks, often alerting commuters of delays before transit authorities and news outlets. In fact, both New Jersey Transit and CBS radio in New York subscribe to Clever Commute, and use the service as a primary source, sending out helicoptors and representatives to investigate events reported by Clever Commute participants.

Despite the linked community’s exponential growth, Clever Commute’s users remain committed to the service and haven’t misused the increasingly connected network. Maybe it’s the website’s polite etiquette page or maybe it’s just commuter solidarity, but Mr. Crandall insists that no one has attempted “multi-level marketing” and most Clever Commuters are genuinely trying to help.

Ideally, Clever Commute will one day become the concrete stuff of “Good Gov.” As Mr. Crandall and surely his subscribers have noticed, the common denominator of many of the reported problems is infrastructural shortcomings. Issues with tunnels, switches, tracks and roads are all obstacles in our commutes, and interestingly, they’re all solvable. Not necessarily with a text message, but you gotta start somewhere.

State to spy on doctors' handwashing habits

Alex123 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:46:00 GMT

There are very few certainties in life, but sometimes you just know one when you see it. One of those things that everyone in the world should be able to agree on, regardless of personal philosophies or beliefs, is that it's a good thing for medical professionals to keep their hands clean at work. The folks in the Maryland statehouse seem to agree with this theory, and they are willing to put $100,000 of federal money where their mouth is to back it up.

According to a recent Associated Press report, Maryland state health officials have announced a new program in medical facilities across the state to secretly monitor, and report on, the hand washing habits of doctors and nurses. The program is being funded by $100,000 in federal stimulus money. (Yes, the cash that some thought was actually meant to stimulate the economy.)

Sound a little bit like a sanitized version of some sort of Orwellian fever dream? Not to worry says Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, no one is going to be tossed into a re-education center for failing to rinse and repeat.

"This certainly is not an effort to do a gotcha," Brown told the AP. "We're better off with providers actually using proper hand hygiene than calling out those that don't, so a big component of this in every hospital will be that continual education and awareness."

The AP reported on a plan where teams will be formed at 45 of the state's 47 hospitals to "monitor their colleagues after they leave a patient. The monitors will be given time separate from their regular duties to do the research, but they won't let the doctors and nurses know when they're being watched." ("Hey, Doc, funny bumping into you here. Yeah, yeah, third time today... some coincidence, eh?")

If all of this sounds a bit like spying to you, that's probably because on some level (ok, on every level) it is. The information gathered by the "monitors" will be compiled in a report due out early next year detailing hospital sanitation standards across the land of lake trout. Now, doesn't that sound like some riveting beachside reading? A government funded report on the hand washing habits of candy stripers...move over Dan Brown.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, infections caught in health care facilities are one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States. These infections account for about $30 billion a year in attendant healthcare costs. With the healthcare debate currently raging like it is, that is not a figure to sneeze at. (Like you could think of a better figure of speech.)

The director of Maryland's medical society, MedChi, seems to be on board with the plan. "If it was being mandated without discussion then that would be a different story," Gene Ransom told the AP. "But that is clearly not the case here."

At the end of the day, this does seem to be a relatively low cost/high reward proposition for Maryland. The program is being funded by $100,000 of a $1.2 million federal stimulus windfall provided to the state by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...hardly an overwhelming figure in the grand scheme. If the initial investment ends up saving the state millions of dollars in the long run, not to mention the health (and maybe lives) of more than a few residents, then it would have to be worth it.

Of course the possibility still exists that it can end up being something of a sunk cost, in which case the state can just use all its newly acquired information on filthy handed doctors and nurses to fuel a highly lucrative extortion scheme. That boys and girls, is what we call a "win/win."

What tenure group does the Senior Executive Service (SES) fall into?

BureauPat — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:20:00 GMT

Dear Bureaupat,

What tenure group does the Senior Executive Service (SES) fall into? Is it tenure group "0" for the duration of their appointments?

Dear SESer,

Understanding your tenure status is absolutely critical. Most feds just glance over their SF-50 personnel form and walk blindly into their federal career, only to run into pay, benefits and retention problems down the road.

To shed some needed light, the SF-50 is a permanent record in your Official Personnel Folder (OPF). It is the required form of notification for accessions, conversions, and separations, and for corrections and cancellations of those actions. The form is also used to document and report all personnel actions except mass transfer and mass change actions, which may be reported by a listing of the employees impacted. Got that? Good.

The area on the form related to your question is block 24. Block 24 identifies the nature of your appointment. This information is used to determine your rights during a reduction in force and retention during your first year if you are on probationary period. Employees in the Senior Executive Service (SES) are coded "0," and retain the "0" designation as long as they are an SES.

A word of caution for the new SES on the Probationary Period

The probationary period is really the final and most important step in becoming a career SES. It affords the supervisor an opportunity to evaluate your performance and conduct on the job, and to remove you from the SES if they see fit. So be on your best behavior!

Yours in Gov,

Bureaupat

Read More Q&A from Bureaupat:

[+] Does my 21 months of federal service count towards a career federal appointment?

[+] Is the Thrift Savings Plan website changing?

[+] Can I give access to my employee records to verify employment?

Does my 21 months of federal service count towards a career federal appointment?

BureauPat — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:06:00 GMT

Dear Bureaupat,

I was a DoD intern who completed 21 months of a career development program and was promoted to GS-9 but did not complete the program due to personal reasons. A year later I re-entered the government at the same grade. Does my time as an intern count towards a career federal appointment?

Dear Intern,

As you probably already suspect, the answer to this question is mixed.

First, the good news: Your time as a federal employee will count towards your retirement, and the time in grade ensured you re-entered federal government as a GS-09.

Now for the bad news... To obtain career status, you must complete three years of substantially continuous service before becoming a full career employee. Federal rules state that if an employee does not complete the three-year period, a single break in service of more than 30 calendar days will require the employee to serve a new three year period. In the powerful words of Homer Simpson: D'oh!

Specifically, a single break in creditable service of more than 30 calendar days will require the beginning of a new 3-year period, except under the following situations:

- Entry into or return from military service, provided the person is reemployed in federal service during his or her period of statutory or regulatory restoration or reemployment rights;
- Transfer to and from an international organization, provided the person is reemployed in federal service;
- Breaks during which an employee was eligible to receive injury compensation under the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs;
- A break which occurred before restoration of employment after an unjustified or unwarranted separation (e.g. you were fired unlawfully and were reinstated).

Unfortunately, the clock will be reset for you to reach your career status. This time around, I recommend staying the course and maintaining copies of your SF-50 throughout your three-year campaign.

Yours in Gov,

Bureaupat

Read More Q&A from Bureaupat:

[+] Is the Thrift Savings Plan website changing?

[+] Can I give access to my employee records to verify employment?

[+] What goes in my federal personnel records?

15 Halloween Costume Ideas for the Politically-Minded

alias — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:11:00 GMT

In case you don't feel like dressing up as Jon or Kate or any of their 8 this Halloween & since you're such governmental geeks (or at least we are), we thought we'd draft a few Halloween costume ideas that will truly make your friends say OHMYGOV!

1. Meghan McCain — Young girls have strained for decades to find seemingly innocent costume ideas that can be perverted into aesthetically smutty outfits. This one's got it all for you... but be sure to tweet about it the next day, wondering why everyone was freaking out about that picture of your cleavage and lamenting that others would respect you only if you wore pantsuits. Speaking of the "p" word, that leads us to...

2. Hillary Clinton — There are loads of Hillary masks, but seriously, a soccer mom haircut and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuit is all you'll need... and maybe a set of iron balls.

3. Rod Blagojevich — Easy for most men, if they really think back and try to recall how it felt to possess the maturity of a 12-year-old barely-pubescent male. Slick your hair back, flirt with everything that moves, and work that "charm."

4. Nancy Pelosi — This costume is quickly emerging on Twitter as the potential "scariest costume of the year." Take the advice of one tweetheart and complete the pantsuit and perma-surprised gaze with her "bitch, please" look.

5. Joe Wilson — The best costume if you're looking for a rowdy night: Get belligerent, sweat as much as you can muster, and continually yell "YOU LIE!", punctuated with begrudgingly grumbled apologies. Goes great with the...

6. Barack Obama — Whether you choose to dress up as Barack the Good, Barack the Bad or Barack the Vampire (i.e. Count Barackula from Taxsylvania), crafting a Barack Obama costume really helps America address tough, deeply-rooted issues, like whether wearing shoe polish on one's face is appropriate or not. (It's not, unless you're going as a shoe.)

7. Michelle Obama — If you decide to keep it classy tonight, a prim J.Crew outfit and pearls will do just the trick. However, to ensure that no one will mix you up for a Jackie O, be sure to hand out tickets to the gun show.

8. Mark Sanford — The most meta of the costumes; dress as an Appalachian hiker, but instead of a topographic map, fill your knapsack with plane tickets, cologne, and a stack of gushy love letters. Don't respond to calls all night or hell, all weekend.

9. Glenn Beck — A little hair bleach (if needed), a vial of eyedrops to induce tears, and flailing your arms as you spout proclamations that are alternately tender, patriotic and absolutely off-the-wall

10. Prostitute / ACORN Client — This one does double-duty, letting you pull off that acceptably slutty look (forgivable just this one night a year) while also showing your political news chops. Paired with Mr. Beck above, people will instantly recognize it, and then go "okay, we get it already."

11. The Cambridge Cop and Henry Louis Gates — Yep, you guessed it. Stand outside the party dressed in a police getup and confront every minority who comes to the door. Might cause some initial tension, but that can be relieved when you run into each other again by the beer cooler. (Note: grab a handful of ice to bring down that swelling on your face). Whatever you do, don't let anyone butt in the bar line just because they've come as...

12. Joe Biden — Wear a white hair wig, an expensive suit, and just roam around the party as the one random old guy that always seems to be there (you know the one). Your #1 job: Stand by the beer cooler and say inappropriate things to people so they'll quickly slink away, keeping the bar traffic flowing nicely.

And for those of y'all who hate going as actual figures and prefer abstract "only cool in D.C." concept costumes, we've got those too...

13. Gov Transparency — A see-though outer garment that reveals more than you ever wanted to know about what's underneath. Once you've had a look, though, you want more! Augment by passing out random spreadsheets of numbers and Tweeting nonstop.

14. Open Source — Don't go out and buy a costume; just come with an idea and let everyone else at the party help you build it. Works only if your friends are clever and have some spare time on their hands. Chances are you'll end up with something that looks like Gov Transparency.

15. Obama's Birth Certificate — We're not sure what this looks like, but you'll be quite popular among half the crowd, and disbelieved by the rowdy bunch over in the corner. Make sure to wear Kenyan clothing and speak Indonesian to really throw people off.

Hope these suggestions are useful. Note that OhMyGov is not responsible for any "What are you supposed to be?" comments, revoked invitations, unsolicited phone numbers, or party fouls, except our own.

Lastly, please remember this Halloween: 1. Be safe and 2. Sarah Palin is sooo 2008.

by Amelia Hassani and Mark Malseed

Can the U.S. gov engage citizens as Athens did?

andrea123 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:05:00 GMT

Ancient Athens saw democracy at its best. Not to say that Athens boasted a utopian government, but it did have a utopian idea of government: every citizen actively engaged in decisions and policymaking in a government for the people, by the people. Every derivation of democracy since, including the United States variant, has fallen short. This is not without necessity-the United States has a large population and not everybody can go to Washington and take an active role in government; hence, the need for elected representatives. But in this age of ubiquitous Internet access, engaging citizens directly in government becomes easier, via engaging them, so to speak.

The Office of Citizen Services and Communications at the U.S. General Services Administration recently released the newsletter Engaging Citizens in Government (pdf). Part of GSA's intragovernmental solutions efforts, the newsletter shares ideas, suggestions, plans of action, explanations, and studies of several prominent authors, including Katie Stanton of the White House, U.K. digital engagement chief Andrew Stott, and Jan Schaffer of J-Lab.

Newsletters don't typically scream "interesting," government ones especially. But if you're intrigued by the Gov 2.0 push to further engage citizens in government, this little e-pamphlet is full of compelling statistics, information, and perspectives, both global and national.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water, but You Can't Make Him Drink

Just because more and more citizens have access to the Internet in one way or another does not mean that they are all interested in participating in government. Just as an Athenian long ago could walk right past the town square, perhaps en route to watch the Ancient Greek equivalents of NASCAR or the Red Sox-Yankees playoff game, nobody is under obligation to log on and sign petitions or to sound off on a forum about what ails government. We might prefer to complain to whomever happens to be next to us on the bus. By holding town square meetings online, people can even multitask, discussing the performance records of the latest House of Representatives and American Idol candidates simultaneously.

Of course, engaging citizens online also enables concerned citizens living on the outskirts of Athens to participate in a government that they would not normally have access to. And this is the real gain that outweighs the problems that halfhearted or troublemaking participants cause.

The Road to Athens

The question then becomes: how can the government best engage its citizens so to better the government? Governance is still the responsibility of the government. Different government agencies must figure out which issues to present to citizens, how to best collect opinions from a wide variety of people, and how to protect minority groups who might view matters differently than the majority.

Cases documented in the GSA newsletter show that the citizens most likely to be involved with government online are those involved in government offline. Which raises the important question: If the participants are the same, has the Internet really changed the landscape after all? Another finding: the opinions that garner the most support are the ones first posted to a discussion.

The government's job is still good governance. Our job, the job of citizens in a democracy, is to ensure that the government delivers. With more citizen involvement, the quality of governance should go up, as there are more eyes and minds on the case.

And hopefully the U.S. can approach something like a digital Athens.