A Bi-Weekly Newsletter from ITA Administration
Office of the Chief Financial Officer
Thursday, March 29, 2007
|
A Bi-Weekly Newsletter from ITA Administration | |
|
Office of the Chief Financial Officer |
Thursday, March 29, 2007 |
ITA forms may be updated and/or revised,
as appropriate, when necessary to meet changing program or operational
needs. To request a change in
either an ITA form or ITA Smart Form, you may contact the Office of
Organization and Management Support (OOMS) within the Office of the Chief
Financial Officer/Director of Administration for assistance. The inventory of ITA internal
forms as well as public forms may be found at http://www.ita.doc.gov/ooms/forms.htm. Public forms are governed by the Paperwork
Reduction Act (PRA) and must be approved by OMB. If you have questions
about public forms contact Jacqueline Harris at (202)482-4011 or via email
Jacqueline.Harris@mail.doc.gov. Nina Harris is the primary OOMS
contact for revising internal ITA forms, and she may be reached at
(202)482-5436 or via email Nina.Harris@mail.doc.gov.
FY 2008 Appropriation Process Update On March 20th Under Secretary Franklin L. Lavin testified before the House Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriation Subcommittee http://appropriations.house.gov/Subcommittees/sub_cjs.shtml in defense of the FY 2008 budget for the ITA. The subcommittee, led by Chairman Alan Mollohan (West Virginia) and ranking member Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (New Jersey), delved into issues such as Free Trade Agreements, ITA efforts on behalf of small and medium size enterprises, anti-dumping, the manufacturing sector and trade missions. The subcommittee expects to bring their version of the budget to the floor of the House before the 4th of July. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies http://appropriations.senate.gov/commerce.cfm has not yet scheduled their hearing. Links have been provided for your use if you wish to monitor subcommittee progress with ITA's appropriation. If you would like more information please call Mr. Doug Allis at (202)482-9151. Attention pbViews Users and Data Measure Owners: Due to limited meeting spaces, OFM would like to announce new pbViews/performance office hours. Again, the purpose of these bi-weekly sessions is to enable ITA staff to:
April - June pbViews/performance Office Hour Schedule*:
* Please note all sessions will be held in room 4115. Please contact Dondi Ojeda with questions or concerns at dondi.ojeda@mail.doc.gov, or at (202)482-5204. |
Achieving a Meeting of the Minds on Performance By popular demand, OHRM is
announcing additional sessions on Performance Management and
Feedback. These sessions are
open to supervisors and employees.
You will: Learn how to
differentiate performance levels; Learn how to increase you or your teams’
performance scores; Learn how to give and receive constructive feedback in
order to perform better; and Learn how to document accomplishments in
accordance with your performance plan. The
presentation will be conducted Thursday, March 29th from 2:00-3:30 in
H4064 and Tuesday, April 3rd from 10:00-11:30 in H4064. Please contact Christine.Covington@mail.doc.gov or (202)482-3041 to
register. The first 100
attendees’ names will be entered into a drawing to win a door
prize. Premium Conversion is a
"pre-tax" arrangement that allows your biweekly health insurance premiums
to become non-taxable. As a
result, you save on Federal income tax and FICA taxes (Social Security and
Medicare taxes). In most cases, you'll also save on State income tax and
local income tax. The payroll
office signs you up for Premium Conversion automatically. You don't need
to fill out a form. You do have a choice, though, to waive this benefit if
you wish. An employee
participating in premium conversion generally has all the same flexibility
as an employee who chooses not to participate. However, because of
the tax laws there are two exceptions. If you waive premium
conversion, you will have the flexibility, without giving any reason
whatsoever, either to drop your health insurance altogether or
change from a self and family enrollment to self-only at
anytime. If you participate under the premium conversion
provision, you will be allowed to drop coverage, or change to self only,
only if your decision to do so comes at the time of a "qualifying
life event," such as when you get married or the birth of a
child or during the federal FEHB
open season from mid-November to mid-December every calendar
year. In any case, this is a decision only you can make. To learn more, visit http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/pretaxfehb/. Questions can be addressed to
Rhoda Chilcoat at
Rhoda.Chilcoat@ita.doc.gov, or at (202)482-1290. Procurement/Purchase Card CornerC. Request TrainingAs a
reminder C. Request was deployed on October 16, 2006. ITA’s Acquisition
Office is only accepting procurement actions that have been entered in the
C. Request system. Therefore, it is imperative that you
sign-up for the Requisitioner or Reviewer/Approval training
class.
Location Rosslyn/Alexandria.
If you would like to attend the Reviewer/Approver Training Class,
please send an email to dharden@cwc.gov. Requisitioner
classes are designed for anyone who needs an understanding of how to enter
a requisition in C. Request. Reviewer/Approver class is designed for
anyone who will be reviewing or approving a requisition, i.e. supervisor,
budget officials. If you have questions please contact Robin
Carpenter at (202)482-4989 or via email at Robin.Carpenter@mail.doc.gov
. Where Do I
Find... New Business Card
templates for ITA To obtain
the correct format for Business Cards, visit http://www.trade.gov/brand/ and
click on the link under "templates" labeled "business cards". All ITA
employees who have supervisory approval to have business cards can obtain
them by providing a completed SF-1 and an ITA Business Card Procurement
Form to the Commerce print shop. ITA will cover up to $60 for approved
business cards. The cost to print 250 cards using the template is
$35 and for 500 is $55. Additional templates reflecting the new ITA brand
may also be found at this location. |
Approved by the ITA Chief Financial Officer and Director of Administration
Send your suggestions or comments about this newsletter to Nina.Harris@mail.doc.gov