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BAND TOGETHER
COMMUNIQUÉ 

December 7, 2007

Union Notices

• Interim Council Election Deadline is December 10
• IAT Candidates' Forum 
• December 11th Forum on Proposed GAO Legislation
• EAC Employee Survey Closes Today
• Data Committee Update
• Interim Council First Meeting to be Held December 13
• Call for COMMUNIQUÉ Contributions
• Get Active Action Center – Give the IFPTE  Feedback
• DISCLAIMER

Please note that there were two withdrawn nominations:  Aisha Cabrer (Los Angeles) for the Hispanic Diversity seat and Michael L. Krafve for the Seattle FO seat, leaving 12 contested seats as follows:

Mission Teams (3): FMA, IAT & IT

PDP Representatives (5)

Designated Diversity Seats (2): Disability & Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity

Non-designated Diversity Seats (2)

If you have not already received them, the Voter’s Guide and Candidate Q&A are available at www.gaoanalysts.org.                   

IAT Candidates Forum

Thanks to IAT’s Ann Baker, Lyric Clark, Tom Costa, Lisa Helmer, and candidates Eugene (Gene) Beye and John (Jeff) Miller for organizing Monday’s well-attended, IAT candidates’ forum. IAT candidates for the Interim Council spoke and answered questions from their colleagues. Candidates for each of the 7 Diversity seats also participated in the forum and answered questions from bargaining unit members across GAO. 

December 11^th Forum on Proposed GAO Legislation

Mark your calendars for the Legislative Committee’s upcoming forum: “Discussion on Proposed HCIII Legislation, COLAs, and Independence,” on Tuesday, December 11th @ 12:00 noon ET. The live discussion will take place in GAO HQ room 2950A, and listening rooms have been reserved to allow for wider participation in the field and in headquarters, as follows:

Atlanta – Meeting room 6B

Boston – Training room 503

Chicago – Herman Conference room

Dallas – Room 2256

Denver – Denver Telluride room

Dayton – Main conference room

Los Angeles – Main training room

San Francisco – Main conference room

Seattle – Elliott Bay room

HQ – 4C48 and 5Z28

Matt Biggs, Legislative Director of IFPTE, will be joined by Jacqueline Harpp (EWIS), Ron La Due Lake (ARM), Dan Meyer (EWIS-Chicago FO), and Henry Sutanto (IT), to discuss issues related to recently proposed GAO legislation, including: cost of living (COLA) adjustments; requirements for selecting a GAO IG; and the independence of a GAO IG, the Personnel Appeals Board and the Office of Opportunity and Inclusiveness (OOI).

EAC Employee Survey Closes Today

Today is the deadline for completing the GAO employee survey requested by Chairman Danny Davis of the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia. To recap, all non-SES GAO employees were emailed a survey on November 15, 2007 asking for their views on the impact of personnel legislation on GAO operations. The Employee Advisory Council (EAC) was asked to administer the survey and to report the results directly to Chairman Davis. The Comptroller General (CG) was not involved in developing the survey and will not be involved in the analysis of the survey results.

The Legislative Committee encourages you to fill out the survey and submit it, and to encourage other non-bargaining unit employees to do the same. This is a unique opportunity to provide feedback to a Congressional Oversight Committee Chair. Also, your views will help IFPTE as it works with the Hill on the proposed HCIII legislation.

If you have misplaced the original e-mail from the EAC, please use the following link or paste it into your browser to access the survey: https://survey.gao.gov/gaopersonnelreforms.

If you still have questions about the survey, please contact one of the following EAC members (who are all, incidentally, members of the GAO bargaining unit): Elizabeth (Betsy) Morris (DCM-Norfolk) at (757) 552-8126; Bev Ross (ARM-HQ) at (202) 512-4872; or Nellie Shamlin (PDP-HQ) at (202) 512-5208.

Data Committee Update

As mentioned in last week’s Communiqué, a committee of bargaining unit volunteers is working to draft a data request that would allow the GAO union to conduct analyses to determine whether or not there are demographic disparities in ratings, performance scores, promotions, or adverse actions to GAO staff. The initial focus of this project is to better understand the incidence of ratings for GAO Band I and Band II employees that are below “meets expectations,” and the demographic characteristics of those impacted. Details of the request, and the methodology for the analysis, are still being worked out.

The Data Committee wishes to allay potential concerns about the scope and purpose of the data request. Specifically, the IFPTE has been asked to provide legal guidance to ensure that issues of employee confidentiality are being fully addressed. Furthermore, given the upcoming election of an Interim Council, the project will ultimately be overseen by elected representatives of the bargaining unit.  The members of the Data Committee are: Orlando Copeland (HSJ-HQ), Carrie Davidson (HC-HQ), Sandra Davis (NRE-Denver), George Duncan (DCM-HQ), Barry Kirby (FMCI-Chicago), Rhiannon Patterson (ARM-HQ), Jennifer Rellick (HC-HQ), Beverly Ross (ARM-HQ) and Jerome Sandau (ARM-HQ).

Interim Council First Meeting to Be Held December 13

The first meeting of the Interim Council will be held via telephone on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 4:00 PM EST.  This call will be chaired by IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Paul Shearon. The call will last no longer than 45 minutes so that GAO employees can use their lunch period to attend. 

The purpose of the call will be to review the agenda for an Interim Council training session which will be held on Monday, December 17, 2007 from 1:00 PM to 4:45 PM EST in GAO HQ room 4T57. Council members who cannot be present for the December 17 training will be asked to participate by telephone. The training agenda and materials will be provided to Interim Council members in advance by email.

Council members are asked to use their personal time to participate in the Thursday teleconference. There will be an agenda which will be followed carefully to respect the Council members’ time and ensure that the critical purpose of this call is achieved.  Further, GAO management has agreed to grant each of the 39 elected Council members 3 hours of official time for the Monday training session. Council members are asked to use an additional 45 minutes of personal time for the Monday meeting for the purpose conducting internal union business.

Call for COMMUNIQUÉ Contributions

The Communications Committee is soliciting contributions to the GAO union’s official newsletter. If you are scheduling a union-related meeting or have a union-related announcement and would like to ensure that the information is circulated throughout the bargaining unit, please forward the information to Shaunessye Curry (HC-Chicago, currys@gao.gov) or Regina Santucci (EWIS-HQ, santuccir@gao.gov) by 6 p.m. EST (5 p.m. CT) on Wednesday, December 12 for inclusion in the next edition. The weekly Communiqué is a joint effort of the volunteer members of the Communications Committee: John Bumgarner (DCM-Norfolk), Angela Pleasants (PDP-Denver), Rod Rodgers (DCM-HQ), Kathryn Smith (DCM-HQ), and Committee Co-Chairs Shaunessye Curry (HC-Chicago) and Regina Santucci (EWIS-HQ). 

Get Active Action Center - Give the IFPTE Feedback

As we get more volunteers, we have better ideas. To assist Analysts in advancing their rights and representation within GAO, we have developed an advocacy tool to allow Analysts to send feedback on local union governance matters. GAO Analysts are encouraged to sign up for the Action Center if they haven't already done so at www.unionvoice.org/gaoanalysts/home.html.