Minutes of the NIH Intramural Administrative Officers' Meeting
November 4, 1999
NIH Principal Administrative Officers:
Present: Alternates:
Robert Dennis, NIMH, Chair
Sandy Logan, NIMH John Savannah, ORS
Don Bortner, NIA
Rich Freed, NIAID
Susan Harrelson, NIAID
Marsha Hennings, NIAMS
Hillel Soclof, NHLBI
Carol Smith, NINDS
Bonnie Cramer, NINR
Linda Adams, NHGRI
Mary Affeldt, NIDA
Evelyn Burrell, NICHD
Corrine Abbott, NIDCD
Byron Mason, NIDDK Guests:
Olive Childers, NEI Mr. Leonard Taylor, ORS
Betty Fitzpatrick, NCI Ms. Colleen Barros, NIA
Lucy Greene, NCI
Donna Gellerson, NCI
Edie Smith, CIT
Eugeine Lackey, OIR/OD
Elaine Ayres, CC
Janis Mullaney, OD/OIR Liaison
Mr. Robert Dennis chaired the meeting.
I. Meeting of Principal Administrative Officers:
1. Acquisition Process - The new web based requisition system that NHGRI developed, called Genome Requisition and Acquisition Support Program (GRASP), will be demonstrated at the next meeting.
2. Office of Intramural Research (OIR) ISSUES - Ms. Janis Mullaney briefed the group on the following topics:
a. New Title 42 Manual Issuance - Ms. Mullaney distributed this document, which is the same thing that was distributed at the last SDs meeting. It was prepared by Edie Bishop, so if there are any questions, contact Ms. Mullaney or Ms. Bishop, OHRM.
b. Management Control Document - Ms. Mullaney distributed this document which was also given out at the SDs meeting. She asked the AOs to provide her with comments that would help make this process easier.
c. VF/IRTA 5% increase - Nellie Dennison said that OFM has most of the IC's inputs. AOs should send their spreadsheet to whomever at OFM normally handles their fellowship payments.
d. Specialty Allowances for Postdoctoral Fellows - The OIR is looking at this topic to present to the SDs in December and then take it to the Director, NIH. These stipend differentials are special pays for hard-to-recruit postdoctoral fellows with a degree in a speciality category.
e. New Fellowship Payment System - The status of this program is that two ICs have been participating in a pilot program for some time (NHLBI & NICHD), and two others are just starting the pilot program (NIDDK & NCI). Training is being arranged for the other ICs, to be given by IC by Kathy Chiacchierini. Feedback on this program is that there is a very high learning curve, because there is so much to put into the system, but once people learn the system, they really like it.
f. Chairs of the Promotion & Tenure Committees - Dr. Gottesman would like to convene a meeting of all the chairs of the IC's P&T Committees. He thinks the yearly BSC Chairs meeting works very well to share information and achieve some consistency in BSC reviews across ICs. Therefore, he believes that meeting with the chairs of the ICs promotion/tenure committees would be similarly helpful to the committees in their work. He has asked the SDs to supply names of their P/T chairs. After the list is compiled, Ms. Mullaney will go over it with the Principal AOs to ensure that no one has been inadvertently left off the list.
3. Orientation Process - Ms. Linda Adams is working on a committee which is developing an orientation web site residing on a CIT server. It will cover such topics as: travel, banned research, procurement, personnel, outside activities, ethics, delegations, contacts, NIH links, etc. Each IC will have their own site that they are responsible for maintaining. It can be easily tailored to meeting individual IC's needs. It can also provide an e-mail message saying that someone has reviewed the orientation module. Dr. Gottesman's office is looking at this module for NIH. He wants a working group to include everyone - currently, it only includes 6 of the smaller institutes, NIAMS, NIAAA, NEI, NIDR, NIDCD, and NHGRI. ACTION ITEM: Ms. Adams will look into having the system presented at the next IAO meeting.
4. Survey of Grades of Administrative Staff - Ms. Eve Burrell suggested that a survey of administrative staff be conducted. She said that one was done several years ago, and it helped her tremendously in getting her staff the grades they deserved and helped her to retain her staff. The survey would contain updated information, such as: how many people the AOs service; the grades of the administrative officers, purchasing agents, and assistants and the titles used (there seems to be variances between Institutes); gathering together position descriptions to use as samples; etc. Ms. Mullaney mentioned that there is already a committee whose function is to look at competency levels and grades of administrative staff. Therefore, it was decided that Ms. Burrell would head a sub-committee of this and would join forces to create this survey and collect data. ACTION ITEM: ask Ms. Kathleen Hargate to come to the next IAO meeting.
5. NIH Acquisition Study - everyone knows about it.
6. Security Survey - This will occur in November. Mr. Dennis and Ms. Mullaney will be part of the survey team. It is based on an OMB directive as a result of the Oklahoma City bombings, and will look at internal security, especially in the laboratory areas.
7. Dual Compensation - Starting November 1, people who have already retired from the commissioned corps may be receiving additional income. However, people seeking permissive retirement are having their requests put on hold while policy issues are being debated. Among the issues are: can leave be transferred from the corp to civil service and do they start with 4 hours of annual leave or does the corp time count toward leave accrual.
II. Open Meeting
1. NIH Census - Mr. Leonard Taylor distributed material on how ORS plans to handle the NIH Census. The material provides an overview of the NIH Census and gives definitions for seven different employment mechanisms. The position types include FTEs, VF/IRTAs, contractors, special volunteers/guest researchers, etc. The material also included a copy of the website instruction page, a sample data input sheet and samples of various summary reports.
The NIH Census will be collected electronically from the IC Executive Officers for all persons "who use NIH facilities as their worksite and for whom facilities and other support services are provided." Each IC must choose the organizational level that they want to report the data by: IC, Division, or Lab/Branch. Once chosen and data has been inputted, the final IC census report will reflect the chosen level -- this cannot be reversed. The census will be collected in November, using data as of 30 October 1999. The FY'99 census data will be used to account for people and to determine how the new electronic system works. In July 2000, another census will be collected using data as of 30 June 2000. These results will be used by NIH as the basis for accessing ICs for "core" central services, which will be a portion of the FY'01 Management Fund assessment. The subject of how to count vacancies came up. Mr. Taylor said that vacancies that you intend to fill within the next 12 months and have allocated space should be counted in the census. He indicated that he didn't know if these vacancies or summer students would count against the Management Fund assessment, that this is an OFM and Central Services Review Committee decision. In the case where several volunteers rotate and are using one slot, office space, etc., they can count as one person. However, part-time individuals count as a full person.
The individual web site addresses and special PIN numbers will be sent to each Executive Officer. The web site address provides access to the site used to collect the IC's data. The PIN is to be used to "digitally" authorize the data. Once the Executive Officer electronically "authorizes" the data using the Report/Approve button and the PIN, the database is locked and can no longer be changed. It can still be reviewed and printed. EOs will also be sent the list of SAC codes for their institute that are presently "built-in to the program. If these need to be changed, please contact ORS so they can be changed before the data is entered.
For more information on the NIH Census, please call 402-2461 or email wattsb@mail.nih.gov <mailto:wattsb@mail.nih.gov> .
2. Charges on Purchase Cards - Mr. Hillel Soclof said that he had attended the purchase card survival session that afternoon, and the speaker said that funding which was set aside will be good for one year. Make sure on the reconciliation, that a CAN which starts with a "9" is used.
3. CD for Hazardous Shipping - Mr. Rich Freed said that his institute was told by their safety officer that the certification received from using the CD ROM does not provide certification for IOTA - international- shipping. He advised that people check with their safety officers. This created some discussion on the training of individuals to package hazardous materials. It was the general consensus that a recommendation be made that NIH centrally hold training sessions and keep track of who has been trained.
4. New NIH Business System - Ms. Colleen Barros reviewed the ways in which the Administrative Data Base (ADB), which is an integrated data base that services most of NIH's administrative and support functions, has become outmoded. The problems are sufficient that the NIH's ability to comply with the Chief Financial Officer's Act is compromised. The NIH Business System (NBS) will replace the ADB with modern technology. A management structure has been established to oversee an evaluation process which will determine whether one of the commercially available software packages (Enterprise Resource Planning) or an upgrade to the ADB would be preferable. In addition, a series of committees is developing a business case to determine the specific needs and carry out cost-benefit analyses.
DISTRIBUTION:
Administrative Officers (For distribution to staff members)
Scientific Directors
Executive Officers