Author Archives: GovExec

Al Gore to Headline Excellence in Government in May

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Originally posted by Mark Micheli on Government Executive

20 years ago next week, on March 3, 1993, President Bill Clinton created the National Performance Review (NPR) and selected Vice President Al Gore to be its leader. Together with 250 career civil servants, Gore and the NPR (later called the National Partnership for Reinventing Government) set about scrutinizing individual agencies and government systems in order to create a government that "works better, costs less, and gets results Americans care about."

A movement that began two decades ago has continued ever since, manifest in countless individuals who have dedicated their careers to making government better. There remains much work to do. That's why today that movement convenes around one singular event--an event founded by the men and women who began the reinventing government movement under Vice President Gore--the Excellence in Government conference.

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Postal Service Defends Pricey Conference as Chance to Boost Revenue

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Originally posted by Eric Katz on Government Executive

The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday defended its decision to spend more than $2 million on an upcoming conference, saying the event is an opportunity to grow revenue.

USPS is sending 400 employees to the National Postal Forum Conference, an annual event held to educate businesses and mailing industry professionals on the services available to them. The vast majority of USPS attendees participate in the conference for free, as they are deemed to have added value, according to the Postal Service.

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GSA Cancels This Year’s Training Conference and Expo

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Originally posted by Charles S. Clark on Government Executive

Citing tight budgets, the General Services Administration on Friday announced it is suspending its signature Training Conference and Expo, which had been scheduled for May 14-16 in Orlando, Fla.

The annual event, designed for federal, state and local government employees and military members who make or influence procurement decisions, was attracting fewer than usual agency participants, GSA noted.

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Agencies Justify Conference Tabs Above $100,000

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Originally posted by Charles S. Clark on Government Executive

 

Agencies have submitted summaries of conference spending in fiscal 2012 to the Office of Management and Budget that include justifications for training events that exceeded $100,000. The reports are required by a May 2012 memo from Acting Budget Director Jeffrey Zients.

Expanding on a 2011 OMB directive and executive order from President Obama promoting efficient spending, the latest Zients memo requires reductions in travel and conferences in the wake of the spring 2012 scandal involving extravagant spending at a General Services Administration training conference. It prohibits conferences costing more than $500,000 and requires agencies to report on events costing more than $100,000. Reports from all agencies were due Jan. 31.

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GSA Offers Online Training in Conference Etiquette

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Originally posted by Brittany Ballenstedt on GovExec

This year has not brought the most positive of headlines for the General Services Administration, particularly after revelations agency officials spent excessively at an over-the-top Las Vegas training conference that featured a mind reader, bicycle giveaways and extravagant receptions.

But now the agency is using that "mistake" as a catalyst for an effort to train other employees on conference etiquette, a topic that will serve as one of the first courses of its new virtual training program set to launch in January, Lauren Concklin, a marketing analyst with GSA, said Thursday during a webinar sponsored by GovLoop.

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