Hawaii Governor announces support for collective bargaining process in wake of Wisconsin protests

As the protests in Wisconsin continue and spill over into other states including Indiana and Ohio some governors are trying to quell any potential actions in their state by making statements of support for local unions. Yesterday, Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie submitted his budget along with a statement about Hawaii’s approach to state workers unions.Read… Read more »

Ph.D. Position: Multi Agent Systems and Public Administration, at Leibniz Center for Law

An announcement respecting a Ph.D. position in multiagent systems has been posted by the Leibniz Center for Law: A PhD position on agent concepts in public administration at the Leibniz Center for Law, University of Amsterdam. The PhD student will work on the design methodology for multi-agent simulations, and address the interesting theoretical questions weRead… Read more »

Fundamental Design of Learning Activities

by Aaron Silvers (ADL). Aaron Silvers has innovated the design and production of learning experiences with a variety of technologies for organizations large and small, in both the private and public sectors, for over 15 years. He led the development of a number of SCORM 2004 content examples. Aaron returned to ADL in 2010 asRead… Read more »

Understanding the 8(a) Business Development Program

There is a wide spread misconception that if you are a Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) you are also considered to be an 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business. First, there is no such designation as an 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business and second, the SDB designation is now a “self certification” through your Central Contractor Registration. The SDBRead… Read more »

How do you respond to “How’ve you been”?

How many times this week have you been asked the question, “How’ve you been?” or its cousin “How are you?” We’ll venture a guess that if you really sat down and counted, that number could be in the hundreds. Now, how many of you have answered with a “Fine, how are you?” Was the responseRead… Read more »

Earmarks, Facebook, super PACs, and issue advocacy in political law links for today

WHAT IS AN EARMARK? That’s the topic of this Hill report. “‘One of the questions that will be worked out over the next year is the question of “what is an earmark,”‘ said Matt Dempsey, Inhofe’s spokesman. ‘Sen. Inhofe has been strong in saying that as long as something is authorized and appropriated, it’s notRead… Read more »

Can Improved Internal Transparency Reduce Stress from Inevitable Federal Staff Reductions?

In Preparing your agency for big cuts ahead, Tom Fox wrote this about the coming Federal agency staff reductions: Kill the rumor mill. Agencies have well-developed rumor mills, and I’ve heard from many federal employees that the anxiety and frustrations associated with the budget uncertainties is high. While water cooler gossip is inevitable, as aRead… Read more »

Handling illegal interview questions

One of my job-seeking clients recently had an interview in which the employer asked her a question about her race/ethnicity. It was for a position that required a lot of cross-cultural understanding, and my guess is that the employer wanted to know whether the candidate had the cross-cultural skills needed for the job. However, employersRead… Read more »