ADMINISTRIVIAL PURSUITS

In this Issue

ITA Sunflower Migration
Safety Tip of the Day
FY 2008 Appropriatiopns
Recent ITA PART Reviews
FY07 Performance Appraisal
Commerce Learning Center

Features

Travelers Corner
Where Do I Find

ITA’s Sunflower Migration

ITA’s migration from its legacy property system to the Sunflower Personal Property Management System (PPMS) has been declared a success! Property Custodians can now begin using the Sunflower PPMS immediately to enter inventory assets; update inventory records; excess property; report property lost, stolen, or missing; and conduct other inventory transactions. The Department’s Sunflower Helpdesk is now available to help your office’s Property Custodians get started in using the new Sunflower PPMS. Users can contact the Helpdesk Monday through Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm either by phone at (202) 482-4110 or by email at sunflowerhelpdesk@doc.gov. If you have questions, please contact ITA’s Property Management Officer, Jeff Scherr, at (202) 482-3266 or Jeffrey.Scherr@mail.doc.gov.

Safety Tip of the Day

Did you know that over 90% of accidents and injuries that occur at Headquarters are slips, trips, and falls? These types of accidents and injuries are also among the most preventable. Here are a few tips to remember. Take care when walking through the hallways- don’t run in the halls and beware slippery floors. Don’t allow loose cables to create a tripping hazard. Clean up spills quickly. Keep offices clean, and don’t block passageways. Don’t use chairs or boxes as ladders. As winter approaches, be especially careful when walking on icy sidewalks. Don’t become a statistic! If you have questions, please contact ITA’s Safety Manager, Jeff Scherr, at (202) 482-3266 or Jeffrey.Scherr@mail.doc.gov.

FY 2008 Appropriations

This week the Senate passed their version of the Commerce Justice Science Appropriations Bill for FY 2008. The Senate version provides $417.4 million for ITA. The accompanying report language specifies that $13 million is for the National Textile Center (including $1.5 million for Novel Polymerics Research at Auburn University), and $0.5 million is for the Arkansas World Trade Center. The Senate set fee collections at $8 million and prohibits Import Administration from absorbing any fees. Next the Senate version of the bill must be reconciled with the version passed by the House of Representatives in a House/Senate Conference Committee before it will be presented to the President. The Administration has threatened to veto this and all pending appropriations legislation for FY 2008. See October 4 Statement of Administration Policy on HR 3093 http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/legislative/sap/110-1/hr3093sap-s.pdf
legislative/sap/110-1/hr3093sap-s.pdf . Currently Commerce and the rest of the government is running on a continuing resolution through November 16. If you have questions contact Doug Allis at (202) 482-9151.

Recent ITA Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) Reviews Released to the Public

During Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, ITA worked closely with the Department of Commerce (DOC) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to complete PART reviews with ITA’s Market Access and Compliance (MAC) Program and with the Import Administration (IA) program. The PART review uses a standard questionnaire to assess a program’s purpose, strategy, performance and results. For each question, there is a short answer and a detailed explanation with supporting evidence. The answers determine a program's overall rating. Assessments also yield an improvement plan to advance even better program performance. Both ITA’s MAC and IA programs improved their ratings from prior PART reviews. Both programs were shown to be successfully performing and demonstrating results. These program reviews have now been posted to OMB’s public website, “ExpectMore.Gov”. Here is a direct link to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/rating/perform.html
/perform.html. If you have any questions or comments about posted ITA PARTs or general questions regarding the OMB PART process, please contact Ed Meyer via e-mail or at (202) 482-3304.

Completion of the FY 2007 Performance Appraisal Cycle

The deadline to complete performance appraisals for the FY 2007 cycle is October 30^th. It is important for you to familiarize yourself with the definitions of each of the 5-levels of performance. Please click on the link below for more information on performance management: http://www.ita.doc.gov/hrm/pms.htm. If you have any questions, please contact Ruben Pedroza, Chief, Strategic Human Capital Group, at (202) 482-3072 or via email at Ruben.Pedroza@mail.doc.gov.

Commerce Learning Center (CLC) User Guidance

Background: The Department purchased the CLC for deployment throughout all of Commerce -- D.C. as well as all our domestic and overseas duty stations. If you have a computer with internet access, you can access the Learning Center! How it Works: The CLC manages your professional development, helps plan your training, offers online training at your fingertips, and much, much more. When you are added to the CLC as a new user, and a CLC user account has been created for you, you will receive a system-generated message from CLCSupport@learn.com entitled “Welcome to the Commerce Learning Center!” inviting you to log in. Just follow the instructions included in the system-generated message. If you have questions please contact Diane Evans at (202) 482-4382 or CLCSupport@mail.doc.gov

Traveler’s Corner

ITA Citibank travel cardholders are reminded that Citibank offers an on-line payments system for ITA travelers to use. The system provides direct access to payment history, a 3-step process to make payments and is available 24 hours, 7 days a week to cardholders world-wide. The on-line payments system is available at: https://www.onlinestatements.cards.citidirect.com/ .If you have questions, please call Sharon Russell at (202)482-3267.

Where Do I Find... Past Administrivial Pursuits Articles

The Administrivial Pursuits Newsletter is designed to provide ITA employees with information that will assist them in performing their jobs, and also to support their personal work life needs. At times, employees may need to refer back to information contained in past articles. The Office of Organization and Managment Support maintains an archives of past Administrivial Pursuits articles dating back to 2002, which can be easily accessed at http://www.trade.gov/ooms/archives.htm . Employees can easily scan topics in newsletters to find what they are seeking. For further information, please contact Charles Jefferson at (202) 482-6078 or charles.jefferson@mail.doc.gov.