Next Meeting: May 5, 2006 - 12:30-2:30 p.m. - Bldg 10, Conference Room 2C116

 

Attendees	Substitutes
Adams, Linda, OD/OIR	Doug Price, NHLBI
Adams, Ronald, CC	Ruth Maraiao, NICHD
Affeldt, Mary, NIDA	Ina Broadnax, NHLBI
Betson, Ginger, NIDCR
Bullman, Laurie, ORS
Burr, Matt, NHGRI
Childers, Olive, OD/OIR
Dease, Deborah, NINDS
Domanski, Jeff, NINDS
Fonrose, Nadine, OD/OIR
Grosman, Gail, NIGMS
Harrelson, Susan, NIDDK
Klein, Pam, NIMH
Mancuso, Joan, NIAMS
Perry, Katy, NIAID
Sandler, Brenda, NIAAA
Scullion, Patricia, NIAID
Strickland, Marlyn, CIT
Taffet, Richie, HR Liaison
Tosten, Tim, NIMH
Wiggins, Bruce, NIEHS

 Minutes: Prepared by Francie Kitzmiller, NIDDK

Closed Session (12:30 - 2:30)

1. Hot Issues in Human Resources - Richie Taffet

Richie provided a status of hiring controls. Any exceptions submitted to the Department which has a "name" has been approved so far.

On March 23rd, Richie is allowed to verbally explain "We have confirmed that the categorical exceptions are extended until the hiring controls are approved".

Ritchie announced the HR office has a lot of openings from Specialist to Commissioned Corps Liaison. Anyone interested should apply.

He also announced that the "IT" series is currently being reviewed. The 2210 "IT" series is suppose to be specific in what type of expertise this position holds in parenthetical format. For example, the title should read IT (Sys Admin) if that is the specialty of the individual. There appears to be some that have been missed so HR is currently correcting this. No action is required by the IC's and a new SF- 50 will be generated to correct this issue.

An issue was raised about the awards attached to the Performance Management Contracts. The instructions received so far state that if anyone is rated "Outstanding", they are entitled to at least a 2.5% award. The AO community explained how this "entitlement" would blow everyone's budget. However Ritchie clarified that the instructions will state "if funds are available".

2. Tips to Ensure Adequate Space and Utilities Before Buying New Scientific Equipment - Cyrena Simons & Glen Stonebraker

This presentation was cancelled.

3. Miscellaneous Issues - Susan and Mary

a. Co-Chair Changes

Mary announced that she would be stepping down and her replacement is Tim Tosten, NIMH.

b. Personnel Security - updates for summer program and beyond

No changes at this point. As soon as the sub-committee makes the final changes, it will be sent out to the community via HR.

c. EO/AO retreat action item - discussion of AO in ethics requirements

Susan lead the discussion on the role of the AO's with ethics and how difficult it has been to convince others that the AO's do not have the expertise to add significant value to this process. It would require a lot of training and still the AO's would not have the legal nor scientific background to be successful.

Strategic planning was discussed.

AO competencies are still in the works. The group decided to have a few people develop some of these competencies and they would share them amongst each other.

d. NBS data clean-up to prepare for conversion

Susan alerted everyone that this will be a major task. Every open commitment, every open order, etc. would have to be moved from the ADB to the NBS. The major issue will be credit cards that have not reconciled as this will require additional work to keep a paper log as these transactions can not move from the old system to the new one. Therefore the sooner you can close out orders, clean up property, etc., the easier the workload. The next year will pass by sooner than you think.

4. Follow-up to the proposal for a vision committee and sub-committees, including info from the EAO group - Jeff Domanski, NINDS

Jeff updated the committee on the vision program and asked for volunteers to create a committee to create recommendations. The group asked Jeff to create a chart of recommended subcommittees for the IAO group. He will try to get something together and send it out soon.

5. DDIR Scientific Focus Group Initiative - Katy Perry and Laurie Bullman

A handout was distributed with Objectives and Milestones for the focus group initiative.

Katy lead the discussion about the survey of AO services. How does each IC do it, what are the "best practices", where do we go from here.

The AO/AO retreat wanted to get the Admin Policy and Procedures on "Best Practices" out to the community. They hope it will streamline the AO workload. Interns are being suggested to gather the information.

The objective is as follows:

1) Process Documentation

• High impact processes

  o What is captured?

  o How is it captured?

  o How is it disbursed?

2) Streamlining

• What has been re-engineered?

3) Contract Support

• Any support for this arena, what are they doing?
• What types of positions?

4) Automation

• What processes?
• How was it developed?
• What platforms?

5) AO Training

• What formal training is in place?
• What is the curriculum?
• Who performs the training?

6) Inter IC Collaborations

• What service centers exist?
• Resource pooling for efficiency

Next Steps:

1) What do you think is the most important aspect?

2) Recruiting working group

Next Meetings:

April 11, 9:30-11:00 joint IAO/EAO, building 31, Conference Room 6. Topics of interest to all AOs: DHHS audit FY 2006 & OMB A-123, Administrative Policies and Procedures and NIH Purchase Card Program. All Intramural AOs are invited to attend, please encourage your staff to attend.

May 9, 9:30-11:00 joint IAO/EAO, building 31, Conference Room 6. Topics of interest to all AOs: NBS data clean up exercise. All Intramural AOs are invited to attend, please encourage your staff to attend.