FALL 1996 - October 1, 1996
Well once again, we are getting the newsletter out "later than planned." That's the bad news. The good news is that PMAG has never before been so busy with activities as exciting as those of the last year and the next! Now then, that does have something to do with the newsletter not being as timely as some of us would like. PMAG continues to be an organization with too few people doing too much. On that point, I would especially like to call attention to the diligent efforts of PMAG Vice President Judith Anderson, whose vision and energy have played a substantial role in helping realize the critical role of the PMAG Board of Advisors, and, now, our plans for Project 20, which you will read about below. I've also been particularly grateful for the labor that PMAG Treasurer Fred Caison and Membership Director Melissa Benton (as well as the rest of the Board of Directors) have invested in keeping PMAG running. However, if we are going to achieve our ambitious goals for the coming year we are going to need additional help in some smaller ways, too. As you read through the following, please keep an eye out for anything to which you would like to devote some time or energy! In particular, we need help ranging from volunteers for a few hours to project coordinators for various aspects of Project 20. But we also need project coordinators for some of the continuing business of the organization. For example as we use technology more, we have an increasing need for people with skill in the use of list servers, development of web pages, and the like.
Speaking of technology . . . because 75 percent of the current membership has an e-mail address, the Board of Directors decided to move the newsletter to electronic distribution. This will save us postage and production costs and we hope will increase the timeliness of information. We anticipate that we will increasingly be sending out information as it comes up rather than having to save things for the newsletter. We will continue to mail a printed version to those without e-mail addresses, but as more information goes out via e-mail independent of the newsletter, it will become increasingly valuable to have an e-mail address. Therefore, if your e-mail address changes or if you received this in hard copy form and you do have an e-mail address, I urge you to send us your e-mail address by sending a message to: [email protected] (As a reminder feel free to send any questions, ideas, advise, or requests to the Board at that e-mail address.)
As you know the PMAG Board of Directors has had to spend an inordinate amount of time in the last few years lobbying to save and shore up the PMI Program. The bad news is that the same level of effort (at least) has been required this past year. The good news is that we are truly beginning to see dividends from our hard work. This year, the seeds that PMAG planted three years ago, blossomed into attention to the PMI Program at another Congressional hearing, in the halls of OMB, at the President's Management Council, and in the office of the Director of OPM. For the first time in four years we have a strong commitment from OPM to the PMI program. While it remains to be seen whether or not this commitment translates into a well-run program consistent, in vision, with the past and the future, we have regained much lost ground.
In addition to our plans for Project 20, our increased use of technology for the organization, and our positive impact on the program, I am particularly excited by our continued strategy of partnering with other organizations. Our new membership in the Public Employees Roundtable is only one example of the ways in which we can have a positive impact on the broader issues that impact each and every one of us as we work to enhance management of the public's business!
- Matt Crouch, President
The PMAG Board of Directors will conduct an election for the 1997 slate of PMAG officers. We invite all PMAG members who are interested in serving on the upcoming Board to contact Tom Killmurray, PMAG Secretary, by October 8, 1996.
Having successfully led the charge over the past two years in defense of the PMI program, PMAG is making big plans for to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the PMI program. In 1997, PMAG will host a celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the PMI program's founding, and also will comb the federal agencies to compile a directory of all former PMI's who remain in federal service.
If you wish to nominate yourself or another PMAG member to serve on PMAG's nine-member Board of Directors, please contact Tom at (202) 401-4677 or [email protected]. (The PMAG Officers are elected from among the Board of Directors near October of each year, by vote of the new Board.)
PMAG can also always use your energy, enthusiasm, and organizational skills on its many projects as a PMAG volunteer or project coordinator. If you are interested in providing some of your time in this capacity, please see the next article.
Once again, it is the beginning of our fiscal year, and time to renew your PMAG dues! PMAG's dues remains, at least for now, the bargain basement price of $15! You might note, that we hope to move to an individual renewal system (with reminder letters) next year, rather than the current system where everyone renews at the same time. However, for this year, we remain on the old system. An application/renewal form is at the end of the newsletter.
August 1997 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Executive Order that created the Presidential Management Intern Program! To commemorate the occasion PMAG has embarked on an ambitious path dubbed Project 20. Project 20 includes 3 major projects: 1) creating a database with contact information on former PMI's, 2) production of a 20th anniversary report using survey data provided by former PMI's, and 3) a 20th anniversary celebration event (a reception and possibly a conference).
The first part of Project 20 is a major effort to obtain addresses for all former PMI's currently working for the Government (and those outside that we can get) and the creation of a database for this information. (We will be using the OPM personnel database, which lists names & agencies of all Federal employees (and contains a designator for former PMI's) as the starting point to track down former PMI's, agency by agency.) In addition to providing a way to conduct surveys and to collect success stories, this will provide us with the ability to contact a large number of former PMI's.
The results of this data collection effort will be used in two ways: first, to develop an up-to-date comprehensive directory of all graduates of the PMI Program. Secondly, survey data collected with the contact information will be used to create a report. "The Presidential Management Intern Program - A 20-Year Perspective" will provide summary data on the program and graduates. It will also celebrate the personal experiences and professional success stories of alumni, present testimony on the value of the PMI experience, and provide examples of contributions PMI's have made to the federal government.
Finally, in September of 1997, PMAG will host a 20th anniversary celebration. PMAG will be joined in sponsoring this event by many of the organizations represented on our Board of Advisors, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management will participate. Preliminary planning for this event has just begun, and includes the possibility of holding a conference on issues facing public managers today, and the possible participation of President Carter and the White House. PMAG will use the data collected on former PMI's to extend invitations to Project 20 events.
Project 20 is a very ambitious undertaking, and PMAG requests the support and assistance of all current and former PMI's and PMAG members in this endeavor. If you are interested in participating you may contact:
Conference: Tom Brandt at 202-622-8211
Survey: Melissa Benton at 202-401-3947
Report: Judith Anderson at 202-606-1908, or . . .
You may come to a Project 20 kick-off meeting which has been scheduled for October 15, 1996, 5:30 at the Department of Education, (600 Independence Ave SW) Room 5165. For more information contact Melissa Benton. If you are taking Metro, get off at L'Enfant Plaza and follow signs for Smithsonian Museums, Maryland Ave and 7th St. (Cross Maryland Ave from the Metro exit). If you need assistance getting into the building the conference room phone number is 401-4222.
The purpose of the PMAG Board of Advisors is to strengthen PMAG's ability to support and enhance the PMI Program. The Board meetings provide a forum for discussion and a vehicle for recommending improvements to the PMI Program. The Board also provides guidance to PMAG on how to meet the needs of the PMAG membership.
The newest addition to the Board of Advisors is Sean O'Keefe. Sean O'Keefe is currently Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy at Syracuse University's Maxwell School. He was a PMI from the class of 1978 and rose to the position of Secretary of the Navy.
The Advisory Board met on April 24, 1996. At that meeting the Board encouraged PMAG to consider hosting a celebration of the twenty-year anniversary of the signing of the Executive Order creating the PMIP. Board members offered to provide support and assistance for the event.
The next Advisory Board meeting is currently scheduled for November 6, 1996. At this meeting the Advisory Board will discuss changes to the recruiting and selection process of PMI's and plans to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 12008 creating the PMI Program.
This is a nine-month work and study program that begins in September 1996 with an introductory seminar in Bonn. The focus of this month-long seminar is the political, economic and cultural environment in Germany. It includes discussions with top-level elected officials as well as leading representatives from industry and academia. Fellows then work as interns at the executive level in federal, and subsequently regional, government institutions and in private industry.
Applicants should possess a graduate or professional degree and some relevant work experience in one of the following fields: Business Administration, Economics, Journalism, Law Mass Communication, Political Science or Public Affairs. The application deadline is October 15, 1996.
Interested individuals should contact Elisabeth Helmke at (212) 760-1400. The Bosch Foundation is represented in the U.S. by CDS International, New York, NY.
The Presidential Management Intern Alumni Group has joined 37 other public employee associations as a member of Public Employees Roundtable (PER). PMAG President Matt Crouch will serve on the PER Board of Directors as PMAG's representative.
The Roundtable is a non-partisan, non-profit coalition of management and professional organizations with a combined membership of more than one million public employees and retirees. PMAG joins PER in its mission of educating Americans about the quality of people in government and of the services they provide, encouraging excellence and esprit de corps in government, and promoting public service careers.
PER is engaged in several projects to further these goals, including Public Service Recognition Week, Public Service Excellence Awards for federal, state, and local government units demonstrating excellence in public service, scholarships for college students planning careers in the public sector, and sponsorship of the National Forensic League's debate on issues of public service.
In joining PER, PMAG joins the campaign to restore public service to a place of high calling in our nation. Membership in PER gives PMAG access to resources and networks that enable us to better inform the public of the contributions of public servants, an established network of other organizations interested in promoting public employees, and participation in PER's events which recognize excellence in public service.
The Winter 95/96 issue of Public Manager published the results of a panel discussion on affirmative action entitled, "Affirmative Action...and Reaction." The moderated discussion, which took place in late November, 1995, solicited the views of a group of current and former PMI's gathered by PMAG. Check it out for compelling opinions of young professionals on the Federal government's equal opportunity program nicely wrapped up by GAO's Tamara Lumpkin and Jacquelyn Werth.
PMAG Treasurer Fred Caison authored a piece in the Summer 96 Public Manager Young Professional Arena. "Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: PMI's Face Reduction" reviews the history and recent troubles of the PMI program. Included are quotes from PMI alumni who benefited and others from more recent classes who describe a diminished program and a diminished intern experience. Mr. Caison argues that despite fewer resources and government downsizing, the Federal government still needs a pipeline for skilled and educated federal managers, which the PMI program can provide.
This summer in a special arrangement with the Public Manager, PMAG had copies of the Winter issue shipped to current dues payers. The Public Manager has made a special subscription offer to PMAG members of $22 ($5 dollars of the normal rate). To subscribe send your check and mailing information to: The Bureaucrat, Inc., 12007 Titian Way, Potomac, MD 20854.
PMAG has been working with the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) in monitoring the development of a new recruitment and selection program for the PMI class of 1997. PMAG welcomed the new Executive Director of NASPAA, Dr. Michael Brintnall, to the PMI family. Dr. Brintnall is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was Director of Professional Affairs, American Political Science Association from 1990 to his recent appointment with NASPAA. This summer PMAG played a role in increasing communication between OPM and NASPAA on the PMI program. A representative from OPM will attend the NASPAA conference to be held on Oct. 16 - 19 in Denver to discuss the recent changes in the PMI program with NASPAA's member schools.
A number of former PMI's sat on focus groups organized by Syracuse University's Center for Advanced Public Management, designed to assess how well the Nation's schools of public administration and public affairs are preparing students for the challenges faced by today's practitioners. The focus groups are part of the NASPAA's curriculum review efforts.
The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) is proposing an intern program very similar to the PMI program that would be focused on information resources/computer systems management in the Government. The program would be run by NAPA. Members of PMAG's Board of Directors have provided extensive background materials on the PMI program for this effort. PMAG President Matt Crouch sat on a focus group that provided advice on the program. And PMAG Vice President Judith Anderson has been working with the NAPA Center for Human Resources Management to provide additional advice on the proposed program. Matt indicated that he viewed the proposed program as having potentially positive benefits for the PMI program, in that, first, it would be compatible since it is more specialized than the PMI Program, and second, it could serve as a test of program design and management changes that might improve the PMI Program.
PMAG continues to work closely with the Communications Liaison Committee, or CLC, which is the coordinating group for current PMI's (consisting of one representative from each Career Development Group (CDG)). PMAG has especially focused on keeping the current PMI's informed about changes in the overall structure of the PMI program and PMAG's actions. This summer the current PMI classes were instrumental in providing feedback to PMAG on possible PMI changes and letting their concerns be known to their agencies, which in turn provided input at OPM's Agency Working Group meeting.
PMAG has also extended invitations to current PMI's to a variety of PMAG events and has solicited ideas for future joint events. With the recent pass off between classes in the leadership of the CLC, Evan Farley (Class of 95, OMB) has become the CLC co-chair responsible for liaison with PMAG and OPM. Jennifer Ballen (Dept. of Ed.) also from the Class of '95, was elected to fill an Associate Member vacancy on the PMAG Board of Directors this spring. She serves as the PMAG liaison to the CLC.
In order to ensure that the 1995 PMI class had group mentors, PMAG stepped in and found a number of willing high-level government officials who were former PMI's and other friends of the PMI program to volunteer to serve as mentors for a group. Since many mentors had never worked with PMI's before, some teamed up and many groups got the benefit of more than one mentor. PMAG sponsored an orientation for the new mentors and matched mentors up to the PMI groups. To put on this major effort Jennifer Ballen, herself a '95 PMI, donated many hours of her time to PMAG. Thanks to Jennifer, and thanks again to all the mentors who volunteered! (OPM has indicated that they will return to sponsoring mentored CDG's, hopefully beginning with the Class of '96.)
In April, PMAG got some good news relative to the PMI program. OPM confirmed to us that they would begin to cover all PMI program management costs (personnel and overhead) from OPM's appropriated funds. This is a significant improvement over recent years, in which all PMI Program costs, including an overhead charge from OPM's central operations, were billed to the program. These costs led to the rapid increase in the fees charged to agencies during the last five years and resulted in the program being significantly de-scoped two years ago to save money. PMAG believes that, because the PMI program pays long-term dividends to the Civil Service as a whole, it is only appropriate for OPM to pay for some of the program's costs. We believe this return to the way the program used to be funded will inevitably lead to a reduced agency fee and/or increased program services. OPM also informed PMAG that they were beginning to conduct a re-examination of the program and that this effort would involve input from number of stakeholder groups.
On April 30, PMAG President Matt Crouch testified on the PMI program before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government. Mr. Crouch was accompanied by Al Zuck, then Executive Director of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, who testified on behalf of the PMAG Board of Advisors. At the hearing, Chairman Lightfoot reiterated his support of the PMI Program. (Copies of the testimony are available from PMAG.)
In May outgoing OMB Director Alice Rivlin (who has been a supporter of the program and was the focus of communication on the program from PMAG and recent classes of PMI's) placed examination of the PMI program on the agenda for the June meeting of the President's Management Council (PMC). This prompted OPM to put their examination of the program on a short timetable. OPM researched previous studies and recommendations on the PMI program which it assembled into a framework for discussion at a day-long meeting of a one-time working group of agency representatives. PMAG was represented at this meeting by PMAG President Matt Crouch. In preparation for the working group meeting, PMAG distributed a number of PMAG papers on the program to current PMI's and solicited input and opinions on a variety of issues. While this had the effect of providing PMAG with valuable input it also provided PMI's with information that they conveyed to their agencies' representatives to the working group.
The working group meeting produced a set of recommendations, many of which would have the effect of restoring elements of the program lost in the last few years:
-Reaffirm the purposes of the Program as described in the Executive Order.
-Retain the target of 400 PMI hires per year.
-Strengthen publicity and outreach.
-Raise the cap on nominations by a graduate program from 3% to 10% of its graduates.
-Restore the "regional" assessment center selection process.
-Return the screening and selection timetable to earlier in the year.
-The return of OPM-facilitated Career Development Groups.
The working group also considered a number of new steps. Chief among these was a proposal to eliminate the mid-year program conference while requiring that all agencies provide all PMI's at least one rotational assignment, and a total of at least 80 hours of formal training per year (agencies would be free to use any source for training).
At the June meeting of the PMC, OPM presented a set of recommendations which incorporated the items from the working group as well as some additional items (including establishment of a PMI Program Steering Group comprised of agency representatives). The PMC endorsed the OPM recommendations and OPM used the meeting as an opportunity to encourage agencies to use the program for their hiring needs.
OPM has since set out to implement a number of its proposals for the program. Chief among these to date has been a reworking of the screening process for the Class of 1997.
Application materials will be sent to colleges/universities in September. (Applications are available to individuals by calling (912) 757-3000.) Applications are due on October 31. Degree-granting graduate programs will be able to nominate up to 10% of graduates or 5 people (whichever is greater); this is up from the 3% cap that was in place for the classes of 1995 and 1996. The application itself is completely new and consists of a 10-page form (with about 90 questions to be answered by filling in a computer scan form), that will be reviewed and scored as part of the screening process. However, the computer form will not be used to determine semifinalists unless more than 2000 people apply. (PMAG believes that the multiple choice questionnaire has substantial problems, but OPM's stated intention to limit its impact on selection mitigates some of these concerns.)
Regional screenings will be reintroduced (with 3-member panels across the country made up of OPM personnel and agency representatives), and will feature a group exercise, individual presentation, and writing sample (as was the case in the past). For the first time OPM will not be using the Educational Testing Service, Inc. (ETS) to aggregate the results of the regional screenings; this will be done by OPM staff. Regional screenings will take place from December to early February.
A master list of finalists will be generated in March, and the job fair will be in April. OPM's current thinking is that a roster of 500-600 finalists will be produced, from which OPM has identified a target of 400 hires by agencies. (We do have some concern that this goal may be unnecessarily high and unreasonably optimistic.)
The new class may expect OPM-sponsored orientation and graduation exercises, but all other training will be agency-based. However, OPM will require that all PMI's will need an IDP to include 80 hours of classroom training a year and at least 1 developmental assignment. As of this writing, the per capita fee remains $5200, but OPM is planning on reducing that fee.
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