DCL-08-03, National Child Support Systems Symposium: March 18-20, 2008

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-08-03

DATE: January 16, 2008

TO: ALL STATE AND TERRITORY IV-D DIRECTORS

RE: National Child Support Systems Symposium: March 18-20, 2008

Dear Colleague:

The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) is hosting a National Child Support Systems Symposium to be held at The Fairmont Hotel in Washington DC from March 18-20, 2008. The symposium is 2 ½ days and has two tracks. The first track is Replacing Legacy Systems. The primary objective is to cover issues of interest to States and Territories considering replacing their statewide CSE legacy systems. The second track Modernization Enhancing Your Legacy System, will provide refresher training on the Federal submission requirements for APD and IT procurements as well as discuss necessary and desired enhancements to state systems.

The symposium will provide an excellent opportunity for your staff to become familiar with the Federal submission and approval requirements, network with other States/Territories involved in similar endeavors and learn of innovative practices to enhance the automation of your child support enforcement system. The participation of attendees is crucial to the success of this interactive symposium. An agenda is attached. If your State staff is willing to participate as a presenter for any of the sessions, please contact the workshop coordinator for that session(s).

OCSE, through a contract with the State Information Technology Consortium (SITC), will pay the travel costs for one participant from each state or territory, as designated by the IV-D Director. Subject to the size of the meeting rooms, we will try to accommodate States who wish to send additional staff who attend at the State’s expense. Given the recent retirements and rapid turnover of IT staff, I believe that this is an excellent opportunity to provide training to your staff that is responsible for the actual Implementation and Annual Advance Planning Documents, the Feasibility Study and Analysis of Alternatives as well as the submission of Requests for Proposal and contract documents associated with Information Technology. OCSE will pay for lodging and travel costs for this participant. Travel costs include coach round-trip airfare and ground transportation costs incurred in association with this event. The M&IE per diem is not included.

If your state/territory would like to register additional participants with travel costs being paid by the state/territory directly, please have that person review the attached travel procedures and register online as well. There is no registration fee for the additional participants.

The State Information Technology Consortium (SITC) is assisting OCSE in the development and management of the conference. We anticipate a very productive meeting and look forward to seeing you in March!

Sincerely,

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

cc: Regional Program Managers
ACF Regional Administrators