Yearly Archives: 2010

Community Building: Why the Why is Vital

Yesterday, I stumbled across @nickcharney‘s post Lessons in Collaboration on GovLoop. He brings to life a construct developed by Simon Sinek on the topic of how great leaders inspire action. How do great leaders inspire action? It all starts with the why, as in Sinek’s “golden circle” above. The average person, as Nick points out,Read… Read more »

(Outrageous) Confession of a Government Man

Welcome to another blog. I am a retired Senior Executive (GSA) and the author of a recently published book, Confessions of a Government Man: How to Succeed in Any Bureaucracy. This post is another book excerpt, abbreviated and cleaned up a bit for family entertainment. My subordinates were aware of my many “rules.” This oneRead… Read more »

Public Meetings 2.0

(This was originally posted on GovFresh back in June. Luke was kind enough to let me re-post it.) ——— You’re busy – and so is your local government. You have work, errands, family activities, chores … the list goes on. Your local government, on the other hand is constantly working on issues that affect youRead… Read more »

How To: Obtain a Contracting Job in the Federal Government (GS-1102 series)

Times have never been worse, yet never better for obtaining a position in the Federal Government as a “contract specialist” commonly referred to as a GS-1102. My name is Robert Knauer. I am a certified professional contracts manager, certified professional purchasing official, and federally certified at the highest level (Level III) in contracts. I retiredRead… Read more »

VPS Hack Day Returns on 18 Nov

VPS Hack Day is an initiative under the VPS Government 2.0 Action Plan. Teams turn up on the day for an intense hack session to devise and build applications and mashups using Victorian Government data. Some really cool stuff came out of the first VPS Hack Day held last year. More info @ http://go.vic.gov.au/qqXTfm. FollowRead… Read more »

An ADDITIONAL Day Off With Pay For Social Security Employees

From GovExec: Social Security employees get bonus Thanksgiving holiday By Emily Long October 25, 2010 Social Security Administration employees this year will receive an extra day off to celebrate Thanksgiving, according to a report from Federal News Radio‘s Mike Causey. SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue told nonemergency employees they do not have to report to workRead… Read more »

The next steps in cyber security

Did you know this is the seventh annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month? Get out your protective gear and we’ll relate what we learned about cyber security from Gigi Schumm of Symantec at FedTalks 2010. If you go back seven years ago to 2003 the big viruses were blaster and slammer. In those olden daysRead… Read more »

Curbing tax expenditure addiction through procedural change

My organization (Citizens for Tax Justice) released a new report today describing how to reform the ways in which the Legislative and Executive Branches deal with “tax expenditures” (or special tax breaks). The reforms discussed within the report (such as performance reviews, sunsets, caps, changes to the committee system, etc) would serve as a usefulRead… Read more »

Does Social Media Really Matter to HR?

This morning, HCI Blogger Hillary Roberts asked, “Has the endless debate between risk mitigators and cheerleaders left HR confused about how social media should be used by your organization?” After surveying over 800 HR specialists, the Human Capital Institute wondered what social media sites were favored by HR professionals and how were they used toRead… Read more »