Thursday, May 30, 2002

The Speakers' Series invites in-house speakers to discuss current issues and their impact on the rest of ITA. The series is designed to meet monthly and informally for an hour. Mark you calendar and join us on the following date:

Date and Time: Tuesday, June 4, 2002, at 10:00

Location: Room 1412

Speaker: Cory Churches, Editor, Export America

Topic: Export America

How can Export America, the full color monthly magazine of the International Trade Administration, help you reach your clients? Come hear how Export America can be used as a marketing tool to promote your programs, highlight the successes of your clients, attract recruits to your trade events, and generally educate the public about exporting. The magazine is distributed world-wide and via the Internet allowing small businesses to access information on regional developments, country- and industry-specific opportunities, trade events listings, technical advice, online marketing tips, and export statistics. For more information, call Rosemary Pappas at (202)482-0482.

Property Inventory

All certified property inventories are due to Jean Leslie (ITA’s property management officer) by Friday, May 31^st. Please help your property custodians with any last minute updates that they are doing this week. If you have questions, contact Jean Leslie at (202)482-3266.

Procurement Processing

OOMS is working with our procurement office at NOAA to process pending procurement actions. The Department has recently implemented a new procurement system which has resulted in a temporary backlog. NOAA procurement has asked that, if you include quotes from a company that you have used before, please ask the firm to input their corporate data on the NOAA website at http://www.rdc.noaa.gov/~amd/. This step will speed the award of actions by NOAA. If you have questions, contact Robin Carpenter at Robin_Carpenter@ita.doc.gov or (202)482-4989.

Leave and Earnings Statements

Employees are responsible for reviewing their biweekly Leave and Earnings Statement (LES). Report errors, corrections, omissions, and discrepancies to your servicing payroll/personnel office. The LES contains vital information regarding your salary and leave record, and if reviewed timely you may be able to avoid potential pay and leave problems. Careful review of the LES is imperative when employees make changes during various open seasons ( i.e., Combined Federal Campaign, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, Thrift Savings Plan, U. S. Savings Bonds Campaign, etc.), and when making routine changes in Federal and state tax and other voluntary withholdings. For assistance, contact the Office of Human Resources Management at (202)482-3301.

What's New With COOL (Commerce Opportunities On Line)?

There have been many changes and enhancements to COOL since its Departmental implementation that have made it a more efficient and user-friendly automated recruitment tool for applicants, managers and the human resources (HR) staff. Some of those changes and enhancements include a more simplified faxing process for applicants who need to provide supplemental documents with their on-line applications as well as a "Frequently Asked Questions" feature on the main menu. There is also a helpful library of COOL questions on the main menu for managers and HR specialists that is sorted by occupational series and grade. An up-coming "On-Line Application Status" feature should benefit all because it will provide applicants with easy, 24/7 access to information about the current status of their applications without having to depend upon an e-mail or telephone response from the HR specialist or a manager that they might have interviewed with. In the near future, interested managers will be given the opportunity to play an active role in shaping the COOL system by participating in a "Managers' Work Group" being organized by the Department's HR office. In addition, all managers will be able to voice their opinions about COOL via a survey questionnaire that is coming soon. For more information contact Jean Cheeks at (202)482-8064.

FY 2003 Budget

Markup of the Appropriations Bills has been delayed, and work will begin after the Memorial Day recess. For more information, contact Alan Zegas at (202)482-5739.

FY 2004 Budget

The program units have submitted base narratives and increase requests to OFM for inclusion in the FY 2004 Secretarial Budget. The completed document will be submitted to the Department by June 3, 2002. For more information, contact Alan Zegas at (202)482-5739.

Trivia Question!!

 

Answer to Last Issue's Question:

Do you know the project code and performance goal to use for your Transit Benefits Application?

Answer: Transit Benefits Project Code: 9796 Performance Goal: 06

No new trivia question?

Traveler's Corner

 

Question: What should a traveler do when a gift of cash or a check is offered for travel expenses by an outside source?

Answer: Under no circumstances may a traveler accept cash. Checks should be made payable to the Department of Commerce and not the traveler. However, in the event that a traveler receives a check made out to him/her, the check must immediately be endorsed over to the Department. Please be reminded that you must obtain advance approval to accept a gift of travel expenses from an outside source. If you have questions, call your travel contact or Sharon Russell at (202)482-3267.

 

Where Do I Find....

A Staff Directory for the Office of Organization and Management Support (OOMS). OOMS has revised their staff contacts link on the OOMS Homepage http://www.trade.gov/ooms to add an alphabetical listing of staff at http://www.trade.gov/ooms/OOMSemployees.htm . This staff directory includes the names, e-mail addressees, telephone, fax and room numbers for staff and their areas of responsibility. Bookmark this link for future use.

The Yard Stick: Measuring Performance with the Balanced Scorecard

As many ITA readers know by now, ITA has a well-defined Strategic Plan that defines the organization’s Missions/Goals/Objectives. ITA-wide performance measures are tied to these objectives and monitor our performance. In addition to aligning measurement to objectives and goals, ITA uses the same performance measures in a “balanced scorecard”. The Balanced Scorecard concept, developed by Professor Robert Kaplan of the Harvard Business School and David Norton, has been embraced by a rapidly growing number of large corporations as a vehicle to help effectively manage performance and strategy. The ITA scorecard groups performance measurement into four “balanced” categories: Capability Development; Key Business Processes; Customer Satisfaction; and Mission Accomplishment. It enables our senior management to assess ITA’s performance through a more balanced perspective and to “benchmark” our performance against others. The use of the scorecard will eventually be deployed to link an individual’s performance to the organization’s goals and objectives. For further information on balanced measurement and performance, contact Ed Meyer at (202)482-3304.