A Remarkable Way to Help Warfighters – Plus the DorobekINSIDER’s 7 Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• Pay for performance has been around for a long time in government, there was a lot of hype surrounding pay for performance especially when Al Gore unveiled his Reinventing Government Plan in the 90s. Pay for success builds on pay for performance but alters it slightly. Instead of paying for delivery of services, for output, government only pays when providers delivers outcomes. Pay for success sounds almost too good to be true. So how do you make it work at your agency?

You can find all of our programs online: DorobekINSIDER.com and GovLoop Insights at http://insights.govloop.com.

But up front:

• A remarkable event to help our recovering warfighters

I don’t often specifically recommend events, but if you want to have a remarkable evening and come together in support of a remarkable cause, I will recommend Operation Jump Start. This is the 10th year that the mostly government IT community has come out in support of the soldiers who have been out there representing us. And this is an event to help those soldiers “jump start” the rest of their lives.

There are many ways to help — and if you come on Monday, Feb. 10, you can actually see how this impacts people’s lives. Details can be found here… and below…

Operation Jump Start X

Monday, February 10, 5:30 – 8:30PM

The Army Navy Club in Arlington, VA

Details

Please join the organizing sponsors, 1105 Media and TechAmerica on Monday, February 10, 2014, from 5:30 – 8:30PM at the Army-Navy Club, 1700 Army-Navy Drive in Arlington, Virginia, as we hold our tenth annual “Operation Jump Start X” event to help the soldiers of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom transition to civilian careers. The event is also supported by ACT-IAC, AFCEA-Bethesda, AFFIRM, FedScoop and GITEC and open to all who want to give.

We are pleased to announce this year’s Honorary Chair from our community – Rob Carey! And we are honored to have in attendance the Undersecretary of Benefits, Brigadier General Allison A. Hickey, USAF (Ret.), of the Department of Veterans Affairs, who will provide special remarks marking the occasion.

Also, come learn about the volunteer internship program that is underway to assist these brave young men and women establish themselves in alternative careers and discuss how you and your organizations might participate. The price of admission is a donation to support the soldiers as they “jump start” their new career. Other suggested and valued donations are as follows:

Donations

All Phases: Cash donations

Cash donations are always appreciated and will go into a special, non-profit, tax-exempt fund established for the soldiers and their families. Make checks payable to the 501(c)3 organization The Aleethia Foundation, Tax id #51-0529300. Notate “Jump Start” in the Memo field. This fund is used 100% to support special needs for the recovering soldiers and their families as they work to build new lives, whether it is a “first month/last month” deposit, bills forgotten while recovering or to meet other educational/emotional needs.

Online donations are now being accepted by visiting aleethia.org. Click on “YOUR SUPPORT” and then click on the “DONATE NOW” button. Please fill out the required information and you will receive a receipt after the transaction is completed. When donating, please enter “JUMP START” in the comments field.

Donations to be brought to the Operation Jump Start X event on February 10^th:

Phase 1: Still in the Hospital, Keeping in Touch, Building up Strength

1. Gift cards in $5 increments from Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s and Subway

2. Gift cards for a nice meal out with the family – Baja Fresh, Café Deluxe, California Tortilla, Chipotle, Macaroni Grill, La Madeleine, Maggiano’s, Mamma Lucia, Mon Ami Gabi and Pot Belly Sandwich Works – these are all close to the Bethesda base ** in increments no larger than $25 please.

Phase 2: Transitioning to the Work Force, Moving Up and Out

1. Dry-cleaned mens and ladies suits, coats, ties, etc. for office wear. This is not a clothing drive; emphasis is on mint quality, not quantity. Donate only what you would be proud to see our soldiers wearing as they dress for success on the way to a new career.

PLEASE MARK CLOTHES with a TAG indicating the SIZE of the item (makes disbursement easier).

SPECIAL NEED FOR LARGER SIZES 44 -48+!!

ALSO, formal wear for both men and women appreciated, as many of these soldiers and their spouses are invited to attend formal functions around town.

2. Gift Certificates to:

• Grocery/Essentials Nearby: Target, Giant, Safeway, Trader Joes, Honey Baked Ham, Panera (in increments of $20-25)
• Coffee Shops Nearby: Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, Dunkin Donuts (increments of $15-$25)
• Drugstore Nearby: CVS (increments of $15-$25)

3. Thumb drives

4. New or Used Palm Pilots (used in Traumatic Brain Injury Therapy) – no phone capability required.

NOTES on Gift cards: Visa cash cards are hard for them to use as many places won’t accept them!!! So… while the generosity is much appreciated, those cash cards seem to be difficult to use unless they go to a bank.

Event Details

Please join us for hors d’oeuvres and the music of the Bank Street Band. There will also be a cash bar. We will also have special VIP visitors from Walter Reed Medical Center and anticipate a full house, so registration is required!

To Register: Please register online at www.operationjumpstartdc.com.

Registrations will be accepted through February 7th. In case of Inclement Weather the day of the event, please check the event website.

What has made this event so successful in the past is that everyone is there to give back to the soldiers for giving so much for us. Although the event is sponsored by several organizations and companies for monetary and organizational support, all are doing this for one purpose – the soldiers. Thank you.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. Politico: House Approves Bipartisan Spending Bill “Adopted 359-67, the giant measure literally touches every corner of government. And more than any single document to date, it defines the new budget reality that faces the president and his activist agenda.”
2. IRS enables Americans to download their tax transcripts over the Internet. “At the White House Education Datapalooza, an official from the United States Department of the Treasury informed a packed theater and livestream that students, parents and citizens would finally be able to do something simple and profoundly useful over the Internet:download a transcript of their tax return from the Internal Revenue Service.”
3. Washington Post: Senate report: Attacks on U.S. compounds in Benghazi could have been prevented. “A long-delayed Senate Intelligence Committee report released Wednesday faulted both the State Department and the intelligence community for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, in 2012.“
4. Washington Post: Air Force Secretary: 37 nuclear missile launch officers involved in drug, cheating scandal.
5. FCW: DHS deploys border bots. “The agency is expanding its wireless robot-based program to help it peer more deeply into the illicit cross-border tunnels that nag Southwestern border security, without putting agents in harm’s way.”
6. Federal News Radio: Archuleta studying best ways to ensure OPM continues HR evolution. “Archuleta’s goal is to both better understand OPM as an agency and OPM as a service provider to other departments.”
7. Defense News: The Navy’s number two civilian, acting Undersecretary Robert Martinage, has stepped down. “The Navy says Secretary Ray Mabus asked for Martinage’s resignation following a loss of confidence.

Before we finish up… a few items from the DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder… yes, we’re trying to help you make your water-cooler time better too… and we start with…

• Harvard Business Review: Hire by Auditions, Not Resumes: “It all starts with the way we think about work. In a lot of businesses, if someone shows up in the morning and he isn’t drunk, he doesn’t sleep at his desk, and he’s dressed nicely, it’s assumed that he’s working. But none of that takes into account what he’s actually created during the day. Many people create great things without living up to those norms. We measure work based on outputs.”
• The New York Times: Why sleep matters: How much sleep do you get per night? Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain’s physiological maintenance. As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor: It’s clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking.
• Wired: The Chrome browser helped silence that tab: You know when you have 24 browser tabs open and you can’t find the one that’s blaring a song in the background? Well, the new version of Chrome just fixed that problem.