About USA Services

Who We Are and What We Do

The "Didn't Duck" Award

The 'Didn't Duck' stuffed animal Over the past few years, USA Services has presented the “Didn’t Duck” Award to a new agency at each Advocate meeting. It is awarded to: "Those Who Best Embody or Have Acted Pro-Actively Above and Beyond the Norm to Implement Misdirected Communications, FirstContact task orders, and support and implement USA Services programs."

Since its inception on March 30, 2004, the following agencies and their advocates have received the award. They “didn’t duck” when called upon to improve the customer service that government provides to citizens:

Your agency’s Chief Information Officer usually determines the appropriate individual to serve as the agency’s Advocate and act as a liaison between the agency and USA Services.

	Department of Veterans Affairs - The Department of Veterans Affairs was an early participant in the Misdirects Program (July 30, 2003) and has actively participated in the Citizen Service Levels Interagency Committee (CSLIC). VA demonstrated their commitment to excellence and cost effectiveness in citizen service by using the Citizen Services Cost Calculator and the FirstContact contract vehicle. They used FirstContact three times to stand up call centers, which responded to calls from veterans concerned about identity theft, as well as veterans seeking education benefits.
	Department of Housing and Urban Development – HUD has also been a very active participant with USA Services programs. On March 7, 2006, Donna Eden, E-Gov Lead at HUD, received the “Didn’t Duck” award on behalf of her Department. HUD implemented the Misdirects program in 2004, hosted the CSLIC message board in 2004, attended CSLIC and Partner & Advocates meetings with 3 representatives, worked closely with USA Services to use FirstContact and actively tested the Cost Calculator during its development, being one of the first to use it.
	Department of Health and Human Services – Charles Havekost, CIO of HHS, accepted the “Didn’t Duck” award for HHS on October 20, 2005. HHS is one of nine founding partners of the USA Services Partners and Advocates program. They are a visible and active participant in CSLIC and have successfully implemented the Misdirects program along with two FirstContact task orders.
	Social Security Administration – Bruce Carter was recipient of the “Didn’t Duck” Award for SSA on April 13, 2005. Not only did Social Security sign a misdirects working agreement on June 12, 2003, but they also forwarded the second highest volume of misdirected email to the National Contact Center. Mr. Carter has also been active in CSLIC (the Citizen Service Levels Interagency Committee), and he provided useful information to the advocate / partners group via the budget data request (BDR).
	Department of Labor – Paul Craven is leading the charge to maintain and improve the GovBenefits.gov website. This valuable site helps citizens determine what federal and state benefits they may be eligible for. Gov Benefits has been an email customer since October 15, 2003. The Department of Labor also signed a misdirects working agreement on July 18, 2003.
	Department of State – The State Department’s Overseas Citizen Services Hotline, an effort initiated by Jim Schuler on March 18, 2003, fielded tens of thousands of calls in the aftermath of the December 26, 2004 tsunami. U.S. citizens were concerned about the safety of family vacationing or living overseas, and together, the State Department and we handled this large call volume. The State Department and USA Services have also been providing customer service via Spanish emails since June 14, 2004. Bruce Morrison accepted the award for the State Department.
	Department of Justice – The Department of Justice signed a misdirect working agreement on July 18, 2003. Blane Dessy invited us over to the department to help spread the word about this free service to all employees who handle correspondence with the public. Justice was also the first agency to host a partner meeting and they have had a representative at every meeting since.
	Department of the Interior – Sheri Harris was instrumental in establishing the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-344-WILD. This was one of our first customers. The Department also signed a MOU for recreation.gov email on December 16, 2003 and a misdirect working agreement on April 8, 2004.
	Department of Agriculture – Ron Anderson was the first recipient of the Didn't Duck Award. The Department of Agriculture signed a misdirect working agreement on September 22, 2003 and they were the first partner to develop an E-Gov Implementation Project Plan that included our program.