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A belated Happy New Year to all of you and I hope and trust you had a wonderful holiday season. I’d like to quickly bring you up to speed on four topics:
The annual report meeting will be held the week of January 28 Sacramento, CA. In addition to each Enterprise Unit (EU) presentation on the status of their unit, we will have the two gentlemen from Boeing join us again. They will build on our efforts from the October meeting, which resulted in the causal loop analysis, and assist us in helping ensure our programwide business plan is complete as possible. If the October meeting is any guide, it will be a productive session. It is systems analysis in action.
Nine prospective Enterprise Units had their prospectuses approved. I will not list them all here but each would add to the Enterprise Program’s range of skills and offerings. A number of the proponents may join us at the annual meeting. Training for the prospective EUs is set to begin in February and we hope to have them present their business plans by April. So, for the first time in many years, we are getting closer to expanding the number of units.
Tiered to our approved strategic plan, we are now actively working on a program-wide business plan. At the October meeting we discussed an initial draft. Based on that, three EU Business Leads are working on a second round draft to be presented at the annual meeting. As mentioned above, the work with Boeing will also help advance the thinking into this document. It has been a good exercise so far: for me the process continues to be almost as important as the product.
One major component in the business plan will be program-wide metrics. We have identified ten metrics which fall under one of three interrelated dimensions: value, efficiency, and viability. All metrics will help lead the Enterprise Program to become a yet more effective organization. The metrics will be discussed at the annual meeting anafter that session, we will build the detail (the data dictionary) behind each metric. No date is yet set when we would begin data collection.
In closing, if you have any thoughts about anything I just discussed please be itouch with your respective Business Lead. As ever, be safe out there.
~Bill Helin, Director, Enterprise Program
Effective December 9, 2007 (Pay Period 25), the National Finance Center stopped mailing out Statements of Earnings and Leave (SEL). Employees are able to electronically access their SEL exclusively using the National FinanceEmployee Personal Page (EPP) https://www.nfc.usda.gov/personal. EPP is accessible from any web-connected device and is a secure method for viewing, downloading, anprinting your SEL. If you do not have access to the Internet or other agency web-connected device, you may submit a waiver request electronically or hard copy at any time to continue receiving a mailed paper copy SEL.
If you have questions, please call the ASC-HCM Contact Center at 1-877-372-7248, press 2.
Meyers Landfill, located in Meyers, California near Lake Tahoe, has been closed to waste disposal since 1971. After more than 35 years of being capped with a relatively permeable local material, the landfill has affected the surrounding groundwater. Various local, regional and national agencies have been working on the issue since 1974. Now Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team (AMSET) is participating in the project.
AMSET has a contract with Region 5 Regional Office to provide technical assistance/project management and Contracting Officer Representative duties for the private contractors who are working on the landfill project. AMSET also provides interaction with El Dorado County and the City of South Lake Tahoe, who are also involved with the clean-up of the site. This project requires knowledge of soil and groundwater contamination investigation and remediation and theUSEPA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) process to mitigate the effects of the landfill.
As recent as 1991, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), primarily vinyl chloride, were detected in the groundwater surrounding and beneath the landfill prompting the Forest Service to initiate the first of a series of remedial investigations (RI) under CERCLA, to evaluate environmental impacts caused by the landfill and feasibility studies (FS) to evaluate potential remedial alternativesTwo RI Reports and Feasibility Studies (FS) have been produced to date and one more RI and FS are planned.
Recently, the site was divided into two Operable Units (OUs) to expedite the decision on a remedy for the landfill mass. OU-1 is the landfill itself, which can be covered with an impermeable cap to preventinfiltration of rainfall and snowmelt as part of an EPA Presumptive Remedy. If all goes well, an impermeable cap could be installed in 2009.
OU-2 is the implacted groundwater. Installation of the impermeable cap will reduce vinyl chloride concentrations in groundwater, so additional monitoring will be needed to evaluate the effect of the cap. Once theeffects of the cap are known, a groundwater remedy can be selected.
Currently, the Record of Decision regarding the cap has been completed and a contract to design the cap should be issued in 2008.
Thanks to Gail Bakker, Hydrologist/Geologist, AMSET, for providing the information on the MeyerLandfill clean-up. For more information on her work wthis project, email gbakker@fs.fed.us.
A quote from the Superior National Forest which rings true for many of us, but often times feels impossible with the amount and severity of changes occurring in the Forest Service today. This quote was one of the many thoughts, ideas, and concerns shared durin“Change Through Exchange” on November 1, 2007. Across the country, unit managers had the opportunity to sit down with employees and talk about organizational change.
Although the day dedicated to "Change Through Exchange" has come and gone, opportunities to share still exist both at the unit level and on the web. Employees are invited to continuing sharing their valuable concerns, worries, and feelings on how change affects their work, lives, and relationshipsVisit the Change Through Exchange website to share stories, leave feedback, ask questions, or find help.
Now is the perfect time to cut down on junk mail. Did you know that each year millions otrees and billions of gallons of water are used to create junk mail, most of which never gets recycled? Get off of national mailing lists by sending your name, address, and signature to:
Mail Preference ServiceEnterprising People is a bi-monthly newsletter focusing on Enterprise teams and their partners. Partners and Enterprisers are encouraged to share topics and ideas or join our electronic mailing list by contacting editor Kristi Bray at kabray@fs.fed.us. Thanks You!
