NAATS A-76 Updates

Hi All,

I�m going to start this off with a recap of the dates, there has been several questions lately about time frame and I haven�t talked about it in a while so here is a quick recap. The Source Selection Decision will be made after January 1, 2005, after the decision there is a phase in period that will run between 6-9 months. Right now it looks like 9 months which brings the transition date to October 1, 2005 which is the start of the new fiscal year. Remember this whole process is about money and when you talk about money the agency operates on a fiscal year starting October 1st. If the MEO wins, you will stay government employees and the number employees that will be given RIF notices should be smaller, although not knowing what the bids look like it�s hard to say right now. If a vendor wins then the entire Flight Service Option will be given RIF notices and separated from government roles on October 1, 2005. This of course depends on the process finishing and excludes our Brothers and Sister in Alaska.

There has been discussion lately on whether or not the FSDPS was included in this process, here is what I know. The FSDPS was never included in the feasibility study, PWS activities dictionary, statement of work, or final SIR. Those employees have been following the transition plan that was negotiated in good faith as the FSDPS facilities started to shut down with the transition to OASIS (now put on hold) and lack of staffing. The agency is offering M1FC as government furnished equipment and would need to keep FSDPS employees in place until such time as the phase in and transition is complete. If left to be part of this process, employees in the FSDPS facilities would be treated like the rest of the Flight Service employees if a vendor wins and taken off government roles October 1, 2005. This is not only changing the rules mid-way through the process, but is a decision that was made solely because these employees are part of the Flight Service Line of Business. Since when is an acquisition/A-76 done on a line of business? It�s done on a job series or equipment, not a Line of Business. The reasoning that was given to me was that the Vice-President that covers the AF Technicians who would have been affected by this process promised to find them jobs and take care of them so they are no longer affected employees and are not a part of this process. However, the FSDPS Employees are covered by the Flight Service Line of Business and that Vice-President has not given those same assurances so they are affected employees and included in this process. Both the AF technicians and FSDPS employees assist in keeping government furnished equipment up and running so we can do our jobs, yet because of different Vice-Presidents they are being treated differently. This issue is far from over and I�m sure Scott will handle it accordingly.

Other rumors that are out there about decisions being made on the age 31 waivers and age 56 retirement issues are just that rumors, nothing has been decided to date. There was also a rumor that if the MEO won it would only keep about 30% of the work force in about 10-20 facilities, also just rumor. If that information has been leaked or is being talked about, someone is in serious trouble for violating firewalls on the acquisition.

There has also been talk out there about people being "threatened" that if they use their sick leave when needed that it may reflect badly on them if a vendor wins. It�s been said the Agency will somehow convey all this personal information to vendors about employees and those employees perceived to be using too much sick leave won�t be offered a job. If anyone threatens or tries to intimidate you about taking sick leave when you are not fit for duty let me know right away. There have been assurances given that this should not and will not happen, if it is I need to know about it or have the person who is doing the threatening call Nancy K. and ask how she feels about it. All you have to do is go by the book, do your job by the 7110.10 and if you are not fit for duty follow the process just like you�ve been doing. The pilot�s safety depends on your being fit for duty.

Larry from PIE brought up an issue about employees who came in from the military, are they eligible to cross option. What I was told in an HR meeting last week was that if an individual was a military controller who entered into the FAA prior to age 31 and trained at an FAA tower, that individual could cross option. If an individual was a DOD civilian controller prior to age 31 they could cross option, even if they came into the FAA after age 31. This is supposedly due to DOD civilian controllers being classified as 2152s also. Now retired military personnel do have other options within the agency and they should refer to HRPM EMP -- 1.20 Employment of Retired Military Air Traffic Controllers Program. To be honest with you I�m still a little unsure of this topic, so if you have a specific question please send it to me and I�ll be happy to either research it or forward to the experts.

Lastly, from a friend in Southern Region some information on flexible spending accounts. I�ve talked before about making sure that you don�t set up a flexible spending account with too much money because if you don�t use it by year end you lose it, well here is the other side of the coin that nobody talks about. Let�s say you set up a flexible spending account for $2000.00 because you need/want some medical procedure done in the upcoming year. You start to pay back into the account the beginning of January (approximately $80.00 per pay check), have the procedure done in February, and then retire in March. You have only paid back into the account that amount which was deducted out of our paycheck for those months (approximately $320.00 $80.00 per pay check for 4 pay periods) and the balance gets paid for by the flexible spending account. Bottom line is you get $2000.00 worth of medical work done for $320.00. It is a glitch in the system and they are trying to fix it, but until such time take advantage of it. They would have no problem keeping your money if you input too much or if you get RIF�d and you didn�t use it all. If it�s something you�re interested in, ask your HR specialist.

That�s about it for now, as always let me know if I need to clarify anything.

Kate Breen

Hi All,

Let me start with a quick update on A-76 issues, the technical bids are in and the costing bids are due September 3, 2004. At this time the FAA has already started evaluating the bids. Our protest on the SIR was filed, that is all I can say about that under direction of our attorneys. I know it�s hard not knowing what is happening or not being able to read about it on our web site, but everyone including vendors have been reading our web site. Please keep in contact with your Directors if you have any questions. The bids will not be released until after the award, if you hear any information now, its rumor. If someone is leaking information, it is punishable by heavy fines and possible legal action.

Now to the HR issues and meetings that have been taking place. For those who don�t know, the original schedule was more spread out in order for the same folks to brief facilities for consistency. That changed when HR was told to compress the briefings and get them all done by the end of October. What is happening now is exactly what the HR folks have been afraid of, inconsistencies when HR specialists are giving information and answering questions. Also there were supposed to be EAP personnel at every briefing. Well some how they got cut even though they were funded. Some of you may have EAP counselors present and some may not. From what I hear the majority will not. Don�t worry I�m sure the agency, in its quest to take care of their employees, will send them out at some point, maybe by the time we�re closing the door!

The briefing is basically the same briefing that was given at the leadership conference in May. For those of you who have seen it in person or who have watched the video after the fact, I know it�s nothing new, but let the folks who did not see either version try and get some information out of them. We were assured yesterday that HR Specialists would be out to the field again once the RIF negotiations were final and they had specific information. A couple of corrections/additions to the agency slides: when talking about Deferred Retirements, remember you are not entitled to health or life insurance benefits. The other one was talking about Article 29 Section 13 and sick leave buy back, it is for FERS employees only, they leave that part out. Another reminder, when being briefed on Priority Consideration, read article 64. It�s a little more definitive than what the agency would like to offer.

Let�s talk about the contract and agency directives here. The briefing in Leesburg yesterday was quite interesting. At one point the HR representatives said the agency did not have to follow agency/government wide direction surrounding severance pay when it comes to the age allowance of 2.5% of the basic severance pay allowance for each full 3 months past age 40. The take in the Leesburg meeting was sorry, the NAATS contract is silent on it so we don�t have to pay it. The take in the Millville meeting was it�s a federal/FAA benefit and regardless of whether the contract is silent on it, FAA employees are entitled. I also checked with Wally Pike and he has been given assurances that the employees will receive this benefit.

There are a couple of other issues we need to investigate filing ULPs on. First up is the information put out on the Supcom website that the FAA will not be seeking any waiver to the age limit for terminal/enroute opportunities. That issue is still on the table and shows that the agency is bargaining in bad faith. The next issue is we become surplus employees when the announcement is made. Wrong we can and should (in my opinion) be designated right now as surplus employees and but that is also part of the RIF negotiations. IF the agency has taken that stand there is another case of bargaining in bad faith and a ULP. You become displaced employees when the announcement is made and RIF notices are distributed. If this data on the Supcom website is wrong then maybe the agency needs to do a better job communicating with management on issues. Let�s hope the money they are spending on the management meetings September 1st and 2nd in central region and the meeting the week of September 20th in Baltimore is well spent and by the end of September Management has a plan and is better informed.

One small thing about the briefings that does kind of amaze me is they don�t bring the documents surrounding the information, except for the NAATS contract! Before your briefings, you may want to get together the following list of directives and have them in the conference room if needed. I would have hoped the briefers would have them electronically on their computers to be able to display any section in question.

Thanks to Mike Puffer for sending the list, he was at one of the briefings already.

Other things that have come up outside of the briefings:

I apologize for this being so long, but it�s a mouthful to try and get out. The agency�s blatant disregard for people and benefits is appalling to me and just know I am as frustrated as you all are.

As always if you have any questions please contact me.

Kate

07/23/04

The protest or as the Acquisition Management System (AMS) refers to it a "contest" on the terms of the SIR was submitted to the Office of Dispute Resolution for Acquisition (ODRA) on Monday July 19, 2004. The press and public release of the document should be today (7/23/04). The complete contest procedural rules can be found on-line at www.faa.gov/agc/odra/a-76, let me give you the "cliff note" version here.

Within 5 business days of ODRA receiving the contest, a status conference is set up. After that, the acquisition team, mainly the Contracting Officer (CO) will have 10 business days to respond to the contest with copies to both ODRA and the party filing the contest. Comments and procedural orders will be due 5 business days after the response from the CO was either received or due. Recommendations and or findings need to be complete within 30 business days or sooner after the comments or procedural orders are in. Recommendations and or findings will be released only upon issuance of the final FAA Order. The part that I�m unsure of is how long the FAA has from recommendation to Order, if I find that out I�ll let you know in another update.

There is one less potential service provider in the contest, Wade and Associates is no longer competing.

HR issues, I still don�t have the schedule of facility visits yet, they keep saying soon. As soon as I get it, I�ll let you all know so you can plan accordingly. I will be talking with the first few facilities to find out if 2 days was enough time to handle the questions people have. Personally, I don�t think 2 days is going to cut it. The Official Personnel Files (OPF) revues are supposed to be complete by 7/30/04. That being said, there was a problem that developed in the Southern Region this week. Dave Lombard from RDU was told if he didn�t get a copy of his original DD-214 to the HR Specialist by 7/28/04 his initial 4 years military time would not be counted towards retirement. Dave found out it takes approximately two weeks to get that document from the DOD archives. The OPF reviews need to be done by 7/30/04, however, the loose ends to tie those issues up should be given the time needed and not just given the blanket statement of if you don�t get it in by next week you�re out of luck. Especially when the DD-214 HR currently has on file reflects his initial enlistment. If there are any other situations like this out there please let me know so I can follow up.

I�ll close with the latest in "FAA Follies", giving people awards for jobs not complete and certainly not considered a success now and I doubt it will ever be. Now if you consider people should be awarded for pushing a political agenda and not a practical agenda, then I�m all wet! Bobby Sturgell, Assistant Administrator, the Office of Competitive Sourcing and Ron Page from the budget office were given an award last week from the DOT for their help in "getting to green" on the issue of competitive sourcing in the President�s Management Agenda. The fact this competition was and is ill-advised, poorly planned, and being run like a true folly, should not be rewarded. The tale of "no-money" is falling on deaf ears when a room at the Grand Hyatt in Washington was rented, nice desserts, pens, and a faux champagne toast were provided for approximately 100 people to celebrate their "green cards". I would�ve had pictures for you if I could work the digital camera, but none came out, probably just as well. The ceremony ended with everyone turning on their little green pens waving them in the air and toasting with the sparkling cider (who knows, it may have been champagne). I�ve cut and paste the message sent in to AOA Highlights from our FacRep in CDC Roger Koppes, he is once again right on the money and very articulate. Thanks Roger! The one member of ACA that did not attend the ceremony was Suzanne Hynes, my hats off to Suzanne for her integrity and for taking the moral high ground on this issue.

WHERE YOU STAND DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU SIT: Last week�s exultation in AOA Highlights about DOT ranking on top in terms of meeting the President�s Management Agenda drew a decidedly different reaction from some undergoing the A-76 process. Here�s a representative reaction from one reader, Roger A. Koppes:

Hi All,

The second amendment to the SIR is on the ACA web site if you would like to take a look. We are working on responses to it all and I should have more on that in the next week or so.

A short time ago I mentioned Article 29 Section 13 on Sick Leave buyback for FERS and I want to clarify something. It states "An employee who attains the required number of years service for retirement shall receive a lump sum payment for forty (40) percent of the value of his or her accumulated sick leave as of the effective date of his/her retirement." This is good not only if you have to 20/50 or 25 at any age, it also means if you reach 10 years of service and your Minimum Retirement Age (MRA) you could cash in your sick leave. Thanks to Jeff in Greenwood for asking the question and helping to straighten it out in my mind as well.

The HR Action Team did not meet this week with the holiday Monday, but I�ve got a couple of items from the previous weeks meeting. We talked about Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Representatives going out to facilities, originally they were going to hit only a number of facilities now they will be going to all facilities with the HR teams. I�ve had some mixed responses about them going out to the field, the first thing you all need to realize is you do not have to talk to the EAP representative if you don�t want to. They are there to provide assistance if you want it, so don�t feel as though you�re forced into talking with them.

If you plan on talking with EAP when they come into the facility, I suggest you take a look at the EAP Supervisory Desk Guide www.faa.gov/ahr/super/eap/eapsupguide.cfm before you do. It will give you background and also what they can and can�t reveal to the agency. These services are free to you and your immediate family and no names or identifying information can be provided to the agency unless the employee signs a written statement authorizing the counselor to do so. However, there are a couple of exceptions:

They leave off the fact that if you are in a safety/sensitive position and the counselor feels in their "expert opinion" that you have a problem with alcohol/drugs they have to let the FAA know. So educate yourself on the process and if you are going to talk to a counselor/representative, please no jokes so that nothing gets misconstrued and you end up in rehab or jail!

More later,
Kate

Hi All,

Let me start off with updates from the Leadership Conference back in May. The unedited tapes/DVDs of the meeting should be at your facilities within the next day or so, I believe they got shipped out of FAA HQ at the end of last week. The retirement CDs you should have in your hands already, if you don�t see either one of these items by next week (6/25/04) please let me know and I�ll track them down. The HR website is up and running www.faa.gov/ahr/competitive.cfm if you have sometime to look at it and have ideas or suggestions on what else you�d like to see on it either let me know or send a message to 9-AWA-AHR-A-76. The list of questions taken from the meeting is still being worked on. The HR Action Team had me take the first two cuts at the answers and they didn�t like some of my answers so they HR folks are working on them and hopefully will post them on the above web site by middle to end of next week.

I have been assured by HR nationally that both the national and regional HR offices have their resources and priorities in order so employees should start to receive more information. Let me say that just because I�ve been assured by HR nationally does not mean that I buy into it completely. There are a couple of issues that were supposed to be completed by 6/30/04 like the OPF reviews and a schedule of the field facility visits, those dates have slipped a month to 7/30/04. With everything going on standing up the ATO for Flight Service, HR going to shared service centers and planning for the largest RIF the FAA may have to do, it will be a miracle if these dates don�t slip again.

There have been a few topics I�ve discussed with people and sharing them may help answer some questions for you.

First up is Andrea Chay from SEA AFSS, she�s been asking about the PL 108-176 that would give ATCS 1.7% for "good time" even if you don�t have enough years and age for an immediate annuity, but at least 5 years of "good time" the time you have would be credited at 1.7% for the years you do have. In order for the law to be implemented, OPM needs to issue implementing regulations regarding deposit procedures for FERS employees. OPM has advised the agency that ATCS who must make a deposit to receive service credit cannot retire under this new law until the regulations are published. So here is the long and short of it, OPM is trying to change/appeal/kill this law, so as long as no "implementing regulations" are put in place it can�t be used, and there are no time limits on how long OPM would have to issue those regulations. They will hold it up while they try to kill it so don�t expect to take advantage of this particular law in the near future if at all.

Next up is Tom Renkey from DCA AFSS, he asked about deferred retirements and severance pay. The HR website has a chart on it regarding retirements, on the last line it says:

Under age 50 with less than 20 years of total service or any age with less than 25 years of total service

Involuntary Separation

Either a deferred annuity or severance pay

If you are eligible for an immediate retirement and you elect to defer it, you will not receive severance pay. However, they are still working on the answer that should read if you are not eligible for an immediate annuity and you defer the retirement, you should be eligible for severance pay as well. I�m hoping to have a definitive answer on this by next week. At least that�s my take on it, thanks Tom for the input.

Remember if considering deferred retirement, you are not entitled to health and life insurance benefits. Also, I�d like to throw in a reminder about your TSP loans, if you have any outstanding, be aware of the process for repayment or penalty.

Last up is Richard Anderson from PIE AFSS. Richard talked about Article 29 Section 13, which talks about sick leave buy back for FERS. If you are not eligible for an immediate annuity 20/50 or 25 at any age, you will not have your sick leave bought back. So do not plan on that money if you do not have the "good time" and years for retirement, if a RIF happens you lose it.

Thanks to Andrea, Tom, and Richard for bringing up the issues. If you have any questions either send them to me or send them to 9-AWA-AHR-A76.

There has been a little discussion this week also about a notice that was put in some mail boxes or in "read and initial" binders about GE stock and employees holding it need to get divest of all GE stock by 8/2/04. This has nothing to do with the competition/acquisition currently under way on us. If you went to the link on the notice, it takes you to the FAAs employee notice of prohibited financial interests. In that it explains the reason for the memo "The General Electric Company is one of the world�s leading jet engine manufacturer and service provider. It is also a very prominent lessor of aircraft. With operations in more than 40 countries, the General Electric Company is a highly visible company in the aviation arena and is regularly included in published aviation industry stock performance lists." I hope that answers the questions on that issue.

Jim Washington should be coming out with a "Words From Washington" in the next few days on the ATO web site.

Til next time,
Kate

Hi All,

The last "vulture" visit was about the same as the other four no surprises. Thanks to the folks in SJT for showing their support by wearing the shirts, to Oscar Hinojosa for not only helping out with the tours but for opening his home for a union meeting one evening. It is always good to be able to sit down face to face with folks and talk about what�s going on. Jim Hale did the cooking and it was outstanding, he didn�t even make me eat armadillo or jack-a-lope, thanks Jim!!!

Next up was the AFSS leadership conference, it was good to put both FacReps and managers in the same room to hear from the upper levels of management what was going on. Our folks came in prepared and ready to participate and ask questions and the others just came in. With the exception of a few that did participate, like the SUPCOM representative who put his update on their web page. The un-edited (what I mean by that is the content will not be edited, the tapes will be edited for dead time and camera angles only.) tapes will be out to the field shortly. There has already been a survey taken on what format the facilities want them DVD or VHS. I urge you all to take a look at them, my hope is once they get to the facility someone can maybe make a couple of copies so everyone can watch them before too much time passes. In the meantime Dan Hart did a great job on capturing some of what when on that week, his notes can be found at http://www.naatsalaska.org/facrepatmnotes040804.htm. Along with the tapes are CDs for each employee, make sure when you get the CDs you have the right one for your situation. There is one retirement CD for CSRS and one retirement CD for FERS.

Other IOUs from the conference are the list of questions HR took back for the HR team to work and get back to you on. Well, we�re working them, but it�ll be another week or so before you get any answers. The HR web site is up and running please take a look at it and provide feed back either through the contact link or myself, I�ve tested it and the message actually goes to a person! The web site is www.faa.gov/ahr/competitive.cfm I�ve only looked at it briefly, it has links to documents and other web sites along with some updated frequently asked questions. The one thing I would like to see added to the web page, to help people keep abreast of issues needing waivers or approvals, is something like the box below. Understand this is a rough sample of what I�m thinking, it isn�t real!

It would be a quick look for folks to stay on top of issues and a check and balance for the HR office. This would ensure the commitment made by Ms. Gibson at the conference to help people through out this process actually happens. Let�s face it, it�s been known for quite some time now this competition was happening and these answers need to be settled so people can make decisions in their lives.

One way you can help me and yourselves is to let me know if you�re regional HR offices are being responsive to your needs and questions. According to everyone in DC the regional offices are managing everything just fine.

The HR Action team is meeting twice a week, the Monday meetings I�m not allowed in because of discussion around the RIF negotiations. The Thursday meeting I do participate in and as issues unfold I�ll pass them along. The one thing that should be happening now/very soon is the review of your OPFs and letters updating you on the results. I�m sure it will take a while for all of you to receive letters so stay tuned.

Let�s switch gears and talk about the other side of the competition the requirements document that was released on May 3rd and other happenings in ACA. The pilot survey that was done a few months ago is now available for viewing on the ACA web site www.faa.gov/aca in its entirety. We will be making initial comments or asking for clarifications on the final SIR document by next Thursday. One of the items of discussion at the conference was the phase in period going from 6 months to 6-9 months. The clarification I got on that was the phase in period is still 6 months they will go to 9 months only if absolutely necessary.

There has been some e-mail traffic on the GAO ruling on unions standing to protest. That does not affect us, remember we are not protesting under GAO, but under ODRA the FAA�s Office of Dispute Resolution for Acquisition. The ODRA procedural rules for contests of A-76 Competitions can be found on their web site www.faa.gov/agc/odra.

A great big thank you to George Kelley for all of his work a couple of weeks ago, I can�t say enough about this man. It wasn�t only the time and effort he put into it, he also wouldn�t accept a dime for any of the expenses. We are lucky to have such a dedicated, hard working man on our team.

That�s it for now, if you have any questions/comments you know where to find me!

Kate

Hi All,

I�ve got a couple of things for you this week, let�s start with the "vulture" oops I mean vendor site visits I�ve attended the last two weeks in Seattle and Princeton. I know it was hard on the people in the facilities to have to deal with this, but you all were professional and dealt with the disruptions without skipping a beat. Not to mention you all looked smashing in those T-shirts! There really were no surprises during the visits, generally the tours of the operations area lasted around 30-60 minutes and then the people were brought through the equipment rooms. There were different people at different sites in order to allow the vendors to get as many of their people on these site visits as possible. This was not the first time into facilities for some of these individuals, they had been into facilities for counter briefs or tours prior to these visits on their own. What I could gather from watching the people on the tour is each person had an area of expertise, some it was equipment, some it was training, some were there to count positions and diagram the layout of the floor. Thanks to Oliver Jones (SEA FacRep) for helping me out in Seattle, and to Jack O�Connell (GL Regional Director), Judy and Scott Brandes (PNM Reps) in Princeton. A personal thanks to Judy and Scott for the hospitality at the Union Meeting and breakfast goodies the next morning, they were both terrific. I�ll let you know how the last visit at SJT goes in the next week or so.

HR issues, at the national meeting there was a web page that HR put together to help answer some of the questions you�ve had, well it seems as though the answers were not really answers so the web site has been put on hold again. At this rate the competition will be over before we see an accurate web site or get honest answers to questions! If you do have questions, send them to 9-AWA-AHR-A76/AWA/FAA. One issue that had come up was if "Pre-D" time counted towards your good time, I�ve been told yes, then no. The latest I�ve heard is that it depends on the date you began as a pre-developmental, I�ll check it further and let you know.

Process, the final PWS/SIR (requirements document) is set for release the first week of May as scheduled with technical bids in by August and cost bids in by September. I�m sure by now you�ve all heard the rumor of the SSA (Source Selection Authority) making a decision in October of 2004 at the start of the new fiscal year. It is not that it will be done, but it may be done as early as that, which would end the 6 month phase in period around April of 2005. The agency once again seems confused, they sent a letter to OMB requesting a deviation to the process regarding the time frame of this competition/acquisition from 12 months to 15 months to make a source selection decision because of its size and complexity. Then in someone�s infinite wisdom, they turn around and say heck we only need 9 months to make that decision now. What has changed? Is it because the agency has gotten more proficient at this A-76/acquisition process? Is it because they have hired more competent people to aid in this process? All of these questions are rhetorical and I�ll let you form your own opinions. Again this decision is not final, but is possible so please watch this closely.

If you hear or see any vendors calling or visiting facilities inquiring about this acquisition, please let me know ASAP. I need dates, times, and who was involved. It would also help if you know if the conversation took place on a recorded line. Any questions should be directed to the Contract Officer (Don King), the vendors know this and should be abiding by the rules. If they are not I want to know about it so we can raise the issue to the appropriate people, including our attorneys.

Some of the meeting next week will be taped so the folks in the field will be able to see what took place, thanks to Roger Koppes FacRep from CDC for the suggestion. I�ll let you know the logistics of this as soon as I find out myself! I also will supposedly have more HR information for you after the meeting to include some new interactive CDs and matrixes.

I guess that�s it for now, I apologize for this update being so late, but the traveling has kept me pretty busy the last couple of weeks. I promise to take notes next week and get an update out after the meetings have concluded.

Kate

Not much to report this week on process, so I�ll focus mainly on the potential service providers visit to Leesburg AFSS. I would like to thank Eastern Region A-76 representative Curt Lasley for standing in for me first thing Tuesday Morning and for helping to take data off the bulletin boards.

Let me run through the visits so the rest of you will know what to expect. The vendors arrive at the facility in most cases a half hour early. The facility manager introduced himself and the folks in the room. There were 2 representatives from ACA, the FAA attorney, myself, and 6 people either from the vendor or the company they are partnering with (total of 6). After the opening remarks, AF took the group on a tour of the equipment/telco/generator rooms, from there the group moved to the operations floor where a tour was given by the Support Specialist Pete Hall. The tour mainly consisted of the different positions and a generic explanation of what happens at each one. Then the group was escorted back to the conference room for the question and answer period, I was asked to leave at that point so there would be no conflict of interest of me possibly hearing what a vendor�s proposal might be.

For the upcoming visits, please remember not to answer any questions from individuals on the tour through operations. The vendors have strict guidelines to follow, and that includes not disturbing or asking any questions of Controllers on the floor. Information on how we do our job is not to be shared even through the question and answer period following the tour. Please take a look around at your bulletin boards and the like and make sure there is no staffing or productivity information, i.e., schedule information, calls per briefer, lost calls, any kind of graphs or data sheets with that information on it. The vendors should have no productivity or staffing information available to them, that would include the sign in/out logs and position assignment logs those should be kept behind the watch desk. The last thing to do is to make sure the display showing how many briefers available and how many calls is either turned off or displays a generic message.

What I understand is that the vendors will send different people to different facilities to get as many of their people into a facility as possible. It was interesting to watch the attentiveness of some of the people, some took a pile of notes and others seemed to just watch and listen.

Two things I found interesting if not a little disturbing, is how retired ATMs see to be popping up working for the vendors. The other is the last tour of the vendors was with Northrup Grumman and they came in with Unisys and NavCanada. I�ll keep my personal views to myself on both of these issues!

Hope to see you Vegas!

Kate

Hi All,

I�ve got a couple of things for you this week, mostly from contributions/questions from the field. First let me tell you about some visitors you may have in the coming weeks. It seems ACA is setting up site visits for potential service providers for the month of April, actually starting around the 30th of March. The information I have to date is that they will visit DCA, MIA, PNM, SJT, and OAK. According to ACA it has not been approved yet, but they have been advising facilities of the visits. There has been no coordination with NAATS on this. We will be getting more information out to you as this unfolds.

By now most of you should know that the "down-select" was done and the list of potential service providers are the MEO, CSC, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon and Wade & Associates. The second draft of the PWS was sent out to the potential service providers and the MEO on the 5th of March for comment.

I did get a response from HR on job abolishment, this is from Renee Anderson the HRA on this acquisition. "The only place I could find a definition of job abolishment is in the CSRS and FERS Handbook. An abolishment of position means the actual termination of the job, with the duties being eliminated entirely or combined with the duties of another position or positions. The positions in the FSS do not meet this definition because the duties are not being eliminated-they are being studied to be performed more efficiently. Here is the direct link to that document and you want pages 13 thru 16: http://www.opm.gov/asd/hod/pdf/C044.pdf."

The next issue was from Carroll at BNA, in regards to an employee having 20 years "good time" but not having the age (50). If that employee goes to work for another government agency until they reach 50 they can take advantage of the ATC retirement benefits. From HR: "You don�t have to be in the position to be eligible to retire at age 50, you just need to be working for the federal government." So if you�re 48 and have your 20 years in, you could go to work for AF or TSA for the other two years and keep your early retirement benefits. From HR: "If you separate to go work in private industry with more than 20 years but less than 25 years, you can apply for a deferred retirement at age 62."

Next up is Richard from PIE. He wanted just to remind people that if you have TSP loans and you end up separating from government, there could be tax penalties. Here is what the TSP loan booklet says: "What happens if I leave Federal Civilian service or the uniformed services? If you separate from civilian employment or the uniformed services, you must repay your loan in full, including interest. When your agency or service reports that you have separated, you will be sent a notice with instructions to repay your loan within 90 days. If the TSP Service Office does not receive your repayment in full by the required date, the outstanding balance of your loan and any unpaid interest will be reported to the IRS as taxable distribution. (See Section VI.). An outstanding loan may delay the processing of a withdrawal from your TSP if you have requested one.

Like all of you I was disappointed with the FAA cutting the rest of the OASIS deployment, it seems once again the agency says one thing and does another. The question and answer below is one of the agencies frequently asked questions that sounds good but doesn�t seem to mean a whole lot. Let�s hope they don�t stop deployment of any other new equipment we need to do our jobs.

Should FAA stop current initiatives focused around performance improvement and innovation?

No. Continuous improvement of all AFSS functions and processes is encouraged. Implementing even small innovations suggested by employees can often build momentum for additional ideas. Some innovations may be used in the development of the Most Efficient Organization (MEO). However, employees should be cautious about "advertising" such innovations, for the MEO could be placed at a disadvantage for the cost comparison should potential offerors learn of these innovations.

If you hear anything like a bid was cancelled because of A-76 or you aren�t getting new equipment because of A-76 please let me know ASAP.

Hope to see a lot of you in Las Vegas we have a whole lot to talk about. The RIF team is getting together next week, so they may have some initial information to you and HR is supposed to attend so hopefully you�ll get some information from them as well.

I�m going to end on what I hope will make you chuckle, it�s kind of pathetic and funny all at the same time. How about if we have a new ending called "FAA Follies"! This comes from George at IKK, he did as he was told, submitted his questions to his regional HR people and here is part of the email he received back. "...you mentioned A76 on the horizon. What is A76?" Need I say more!

03/02/04

Hi All,

I�ve got a few things for you this week hopefully you�ll find some of it of interest. The PWS team was in last week working on the second draft of the PWS as soon as it comes out I�ll forward it for you to look at.

There hasn�t been anything going on for the communications team, but I did have an impromptu meeting last week with the new Director of Communications Nancy Kalinowski. It was a good meeting and I believe Ms. Kalinowski will do everything in her power to make sure information starts getting out to the field. Understand that as the process unfolds what you�re told up front may change, but she is of the opinion that people need to be as informed as possible to make decisions that will affect their lives. I look forward to working with her and being proactive instead of reactive. If you should have a chance to meet her at some point you�ll find her sincerity and honesty refreshing.

Here is a story from the Central Region to illustrate the importance of making sure your Official Personnel Files (OPFs) are up to date. Thanks to Chuck Basye for passing this along. One of his members from COU while looking over her OPF found that they had her "pre-developmental time" as bad time which if a vendor wins and we are displaced in October of 2005 would not have given her enough good time for the ATC retirement. She got that converted to good time and will now have an extra year and 3 months fulfilling the requirement of 20 years for the ATC retirement. These are the kinds of things you need to look for and make sure are corrected now, please don�t wait until the last minute.

I�ve been promising to get some definitions and explanations surrounding Displaced Employees/Surplus Employees and Position/Job Abolishment. Well, I�ve got the definitions for displaced and surplus employees and we�ve got a telcon on Thursday to talk to the legal team about displaced and job abolishment. I figured I�d at least get what I had to you now and get the rest as it becomes available. These definitions come out of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs).

Again, I hope to have more information by the end of this week beginning of next. I hope you have all made your reservations for the national meeting the first week of April, it should be an informative meeting.
As always if you have any questions please let me know.

Kate

I�ve got a few things to talk about today, after a communications team meeting last week. First the ACA web site was updated to include the realigned/discontinued activities list, it is located under documents take a look at it and maybe pass it along to the customers that you provide these services to now. Tell them in an effort to make a better flight service we can no longer provide these services! One of the discontinued activities that makes me smile is "Provide seasonal time change information", so after all is said and done and a pilot calls in and asks is it 4 hours or 5 hours difference to GMT, tell him sorry we can�t tell you that anymore. Can this process get any more ludicrous! That�s just one, I could go on but there are more important things to brief you on.

Let�s go to HR issues, first HR is still working on their web site and it may be up and running the beginning to middle of March, stand by. If the contractor takes over either July 1, 2005 or October 1, 2005, it will not be a job abolishment, it will be a displacement of employees. The reason for this is different laws that govern both, I have to do a little more digging to give you specifics. I�ll follow up on that in one of my next updates.

Those of you that have asked what happens if a contractor takes over and I only need a day, week, or a month to get my retirement.....too bad, there is no grace period. If the contractor wins you will be displaced at the end of the Phase in Period and as a displaced employee you no longer work for the government, therefore you can�t use leave to get to your retirement date. On the other issues buy outs, early outs, waivers for age 31/56, and priority placement in other agencies the answer this week is NO. There will be none of the above, not to say that it won�t change as we get further down the road. If you are eligible to retire you might want to start thinking about it. Don�t hang around waiting for a buy out that may never come, now I can�t say that I�m 100 percent certain on this, the buyout still is possible, but not very probable. If anything, you may have a better chance of getting a retention bonus. This is far from being over and settled, the next steps are for me to continue to work with HR, the BOD is meeting this week and has every intention of putting together a game plan. Mr. Washington will be attending the BOD meeting on Thursday, and I�m sure the BOD will make their feelings known then. Finally, Wally will bring these issues to the top if they cannot be resolved at the appropriate levels. We will continue to fight for your rights, and I�ll keep you posted as things unfold.

Those looking for the FAA to save jobs within the agency in the event a contractor wins, one problem, after the ATO is set up there maybe quite a few surplus jobs in the regions and FAA HQ so those jobs maybe taken. The priority placement would not take place until the selection is made in either December of 2004 or March of 2005. If you wait until that time you will have up to 6 months to try and get another job in the FAA, mind you it probably won�t be in Air Traffic. The suggestion from HR this week, make sure your OF612 and resumes are up to date and current and check out the jobs web site.

I am very sorry that I�m bringing you bad news again, but it�s important that you know what�s really happening. The long and short of it is the agency is nervous that if they tell people too much, they may leave and that would put an already critical staffing situation over the edge. This is just my opinion here, but what I see happening here is the agency will string folks along to get to the end and then cut employees loose when they�re done with them. Don�t get caught short, watch and listen very closely to what�s going on and make informed decisions.

This conscientious workforce is absolutely outstanding and you have gone above and beyond the call of duty more times than I can remember with little to no thanks, other than that from the pilots we serve. To even think of treating you all like this is an absolute crime. I know the work you do is critical to the pilots and their passengers, they still deserve the outstanding service they�ve been getting and I know you will continue to do the best you can for the pilot even though morale may be in the toilet right now.

Many of you have heard there might be a managers meeting to talk about the issues surrounding flight service, and to date this is a managers only meeting. I�ve been suggesting it should be a manager/facrep meeting, but it�s been falling on deaf ears, you see there�s a budget problem. Evidently they don�t have to do the right thing for employees when there�s a budget problem. This meeting should be for both management and FacReps to discuss these issues. Hello, anybody home, if you want to show the employees you really do care about them, a good start would be to make this meeting a joint meeting, you can make it happen! Don�t tell us you can�t, you can make it happen, it�s just that you won�t!

On a more pleasant note, I had the pleasure of having lunch Friday with a union sister from the National Treasury Employees Union, Kim Moseley. Her title is Special Assistant to the National President for Competitive Sourcing, she is an attorney and has worked for NTEU for 8 years. She is a very intelligent woman and has a wealth of information to share. We will stay in touch and hopefully help each other any way we can the way unions should.

Kate

The PWS team met the week of October 27, in Alexandria, VA, to review the first attempt, by ACA and Grant Thornton, at writing an accurate PWS document for Flight Service.

It was a very disappointing, frustrating week.

To regress a little, NAATS has done everything possible to force ACA to include us in writing the PWS and QASP. We have talked to everyone from Ms. Blakey to Joann Kansier. We have filed a grievance. All to no avail.

Our reasoning is that the PWS and QASP will not be accurate without our input so why write an inaccurate document on the first try (without AT input) and then have to rewrite the entire document to attain accuracy? Ms. Kansier's answer is, in so many words: "Because I said so."

I stated, in this meeting, that Joann Kansier has a "vision" for what she has decided Flight Service will look like in the future. She will do her best to assure that the final A-76 product matches her "vision" no matter how many times she has to change, or break, the rules to get there. No one in the meeting, including ACA and Grant Thornton people argued with that assessment of the situation.

So what we were really doing, in this process, was trying to transform Ms. Kansier's PWS "vision" into a document that accurately demonstrates what we do in Flight Service. One of the largest points of contention is the 7110.10.

The dictionary was written with numerous and continuous references to the 7110.10. Practically every function was denoted with "IAW 7110.10". We (AT PWS team) had to argue, at length, to have this included in the PWS statement to the degree necessary. The problem seems to be that ACA/Kansier do not want a future contractor to be burdened by having to provide flight services in accordance with the 7110.10 and they are trying to find a way for the 7110 to go away. This has been a ongoing battle during the last several months. NAATS insistence that the 7110 can not be ignored vs. ACA's attempts to figure out a way to get rid of the 7110. At one point, in this meeting, an ACA person stated that there is no guarantee that the 7110 will be binding on a civilian (he must have meant non-federal) employees of the future. I view this as their latest attempt to exempt a future contractor from following the 7110. I wonder how the Air Traffic division, in HQ, will react to this strategy by ACA. Does AT really want a contractor doing flight service functions without the 7110? Can a contractor interact with the other branches of Air Traffic without following the 7110?

The problem that ACA/Kansier are running into is that they want to write a PWS that gives bidding contractors the ability to do this job any way they please. Ms. Kansier's "vision" of flight service can not be achieved if a contractor has to supply services IAW 7110.10. For her plan to succeed, the 7110 must disappear. My prediction is that somewhere in the PWS, QASP, etc. will be a statement that will allow a bidder to ignore the 7110.

Almost everything we do with the PWS, from now on, is procurement sensitive so you will get very few details about the accrual PWS document. We spent most of the week rewriting Section 3 of the PWS draft. I won't even try to list all the omissions and inaccuracies that were addressed. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the job you would have to understand how little overall knowledge ACA and GT have about our job. The best example is that when we looked at their description of flight plan services we realized that they completely omitted any reference to VFR flights.

In defense of ACA and GT, they have done an amazing job of trying to learn what we do in Flight Service and, in the year that they have studied us, they have picked up an incredible amount of knowledge and understanding of our job. But as hard as they try, they still don't know enough to write the PWS and QASP without our help. That is clearly illustrated by the fact that they overlooked the most basic aspect of our job, VFR vs. IFR.

But then again, accuracy is not a priority to ACA. Their only priority is to finish this study in December of 2004 and maintain Ms. Kansier's "vision" of Flight Service.

NAATS PWS Team

Update 10/17/03

Hi All,

The official announcement in FedBizOps starting the "clock" still has not been made, and it looks like it may not be made for a few more weeks. As I hear more, I�ll update you.

I attended the A-76 Institutes Human Resource Advisor a couple of weeks ago, and here are a few things I�ve pulled from it. This is not the end of the information I�ll pass along, but this simply starts to scratch the surface of some of the questions you have.

One of the biggest things stressed during the two day class is that the transition plan needs to be developed early in the competition process to identify projected employee impacts and the time needed to accommodate such impacts, depending on the potential outcome of the competition. The transition plan and the phase-in plan shouldn�t be confused, the phase-in plan is what would be offered by potential service providers responding to a solicitation. This is something I will do my best to push with HR to ensure everyone knows what their rights/benefits are leading up to any transition either to the MEO or a contractor.

Something you need to do for yourselves is request to see your Official Personnel Folders (OPF) from the region. Get them and go through them to make sure all of your information in there is up to date and correct. The next thing to do is request a retirement print out from the regional HR person if you have 15 years of service or more. Request one for the 12/04 date and then request another for 2-3 years down the road or what you�re ideal retirement date would be in maybe 5 years. I�ve had questions about combining ATC time with military time and the only way to get the answers for you�re individual case is to get the printout. Don�t be afraid to ask for this information, the agency has put us in this position, the very least they can do is let us all look at information we are allowed to see to make possible life altering decisions in a few years. It is also important that as the HR people come around to interview people and have you fill out different paperwork, that you be diligent in filling out any and all paperwork they give you in a timely manner. The last thing I want to see happen is someone miss an opportunity because "their dog ate their paperwork". You will probably want to punch me right in the nose over these issues as I repeat myself over the next few months, but it�s important to YOU. Ok, I�ll let it go for now!

There have been a ton of questions on Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay (VSIP). The Human Resources Office at FAA HQ has to request the authority on both programs from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to my knowledge this has not been done yet, but I have the question in as we speak and will update on that. According to the instructor, if the MEO wins and an individual has had 52 weeks consecutive service at a particular grade, that individual will save grade for two years and then save pay for two years providing there is no separation from service. The agency won�t get to the true MEO for approximately four years after the decision. I still have some research to do on this issue to make sure it applies to FAA and if there are any other restrictions involved.

I know there are still so many issues to be discussed like bumping rights, reemployment with other agencies, transfer of leave, PCS, age 31 limitations, and job abolishment to name just a few. You have my word I�ll try to do the very best in getting information out so you can make informed decisions about your future. The agency doesn�t feel the need to get that information out to you right now. If you�re poking around the internet, and have some time to do some reading there is a web site called SHARE A-76,

http://emissary.acq.osd.mil/inst/share.nsf/

Check it out, it�s a DOD web site but I�ve found some information there. I will ask John Dibble to post a sample RIF checklist to the NAATS web site so you can look at that. Finally, Bill Dolan is supposed to be writing an article on RIFs from the class he attended last month. I am trying to meet with the Human Resource Advisor (HRA) to see how I can "help".

I attended Competitive Sourcing Conference yesterday and it was pretty much the same rhetoric with one exception, they actually allowed two Unions to speak on the A-76 issue and its problems. Both Jackie Simon from AFGE and Kim Mosley from NTEU were eloquent in presenting the problems employees are facing with the new A-76 circular that lead to systematic bias to the contractors. One of the messages was that there is a place for competition in the government however it should not be done for a score card or a quota. The Union Representatives presented their information point by point and all the management side of the briefings seemed to talk about is the President�s Management Agenda and scorecards.

Now, if you�ve read enough and don�t want to see more negative information stop right here!

The video tape from the ATCA symposium that was supposed to be distributed for the field to watch has turned into another ACA feel good video about the A-76 process and does nothing more than restate the same ol� rhetoric. ACA is actually thinking about putting parts of the real ATCA symposium on a web site for those who want to view it. I�ll bet they cut the panel discussion at the end!!! That was my film debut! The next money pit thing they�re doing is developing a brochure on the same frequently asked questions that are on the web page and in the binders. I�d love to see the total money expended on just those to "projects" alone, what a waist of more time and money. The next thing they�re (ACA) is talking about doing is having a managers conference, what a boondoggle (sp) there. They are out briefing managers at regional meetings and then are going to set up a meeting to brief managers again at some location that I would bet is not going to be on the ten worst places to meet list! I�m pushing them to make it a manager/FacRep meeting, we have to work together on this to do the best for the employees. Let me apologize up front to the managers that have been very supportive of the employees during this whole mess. But let�s be honest there are those managers out there that are waiting for the right moment to put in their paperwork for retirement and have a hard time passing information along to the employees because this doesn�t affect them personally. So let�s get them all together to brief them again so they can put in the paperwork as informed individuals! Sorry, I�ll stop there....

NAATS national has filed a grievance on the lack of PWS team members� involvement in developing/writing of the PWS, it�s been forwarded to John for posting on the NAATS web site.

Well that was certainly a long update and I apologize, but there was a lot to pass along. Let me know if you have any questions, and again I�ll work on HR issues, I know their important.

Kate

Update 08/28/03

By now most of you should have at least one copy of the A-76 binder sent out to the facilities, the August Briefer was sent out, and the ACA web site is up and running. The communications team met this week and one of the major topics of discussion was the need for answers to Human Resource questions that have been coming in. It seems that most of you have a pretty good idea how this A-76/AMS process works, and the questions that are coming up have to do with what happens after the decision is made. The problem once again is the agency should have had answers to these questions before they started this process or at the very least shortly after starting it back in May of 2002. It appears they don�t have many answers right now having to do with movement to other options, PCS moves, save pay, early outs, buy outs, bumping rights, return rights, placement programs, and so on. If you have questions you need answers on right away on some of these HR issues please forward them to your regional HR people and see if they can answer them. In the meantime I will be digging, Bill Dolan will be going to a RIF class the middle of September, and if I�m still here, I�ll be going to an HR class the first week of October. Once again this is a huge area that should have been taken care of in pre-planning, but the agency is still planning to go ahead with the public announcement the end of September or beginning of October. It would be one thing if other government agencies had never been through this, but they have, in fact the Department of Interior has some good frequently asked questions on their web site and I�m sure I�ll find others as a dig further. The point here being the agency could easily ask for help if they need to, but their in-action on HR questions is just one more cruel way they are treating our people.

A couple of other things to update you on are a web cast by Jerry Lavey with ACA-1 as the guest and the ATCA symposium tape. First the web cast, if you watch it please understand that it is the management spin once again and Mr. Lavey assured Wally that he would preface the broadcast with a disclaimer stating that in some way. The ATCA symposium tape, or should I say what was supposed to be the ATCA symposium tape has turned into a full blown production. Instead of taking pieces of all of the speakers from the symposium, it ends up being an ACA-1 and 2 show, with a few words from a lawyer, an AF engineer, the OMB rep, a contractor from CSC, and the program manager. Now, I�ll be honest and say that I haven�t seen the tape yet, so I�ll reserve complete judgment on it until I see it. The only thing I will advise beware, it may anger you once more or make you ill. Looking at the script it has "this process is the best thing since sliced bread" spin on it. Oh and just because I didn�t make it into the flick I�m not bitter, I was just hoping it would be a catalyst for my acting career!!! (kidding, only kidding) I am amazed however that ACA is cutting the PWS data collection because of funding, yet they have the money to hire a producer, run back and forth to OKC, and all this for the workforce! In my humble opinion, we need the PWS done right and we could skip the fluff and propaganda on this issue. The one bright spot in the video is they went to Wichita AFSS and did some shots, I can�t wait to see those shining faces maybe it will kick off some of their acting careers! Seriously, thanks to the folks out there for letting them take your pictures and a big thank you to Pam Anderson the Central Region A-76 Representative for making sure our bases were covered.

I did travel up to the New England Region Quarterly a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed seeing everyone and giving a briefing on A-76. Thanks to Kurt for asking me to come up, it was great to see everyone. There was one IOU I came out of there with on transition time after the decision date. I�ve only touched the surface on some of the studies done and I will look further, but what I�ve found at first glance is that the Department of Interior figures only 60-90 days for transition. There again those jobs done are currently being done outside of government and are an easy transition. The thought right now on our process is more like 2-3 years from decision date. Please understand that nothing is cast in stone and I don�t know that it will be 2-3 years, but that is the best guess right now. I promise to update you as I know more.

Now on a personal note, at the top some of you may have noticed I said "if I�m still here"! Well the agency has decided that it wasn�t worth having me here full time so the funding for my detail ends on September 30, 2003. Wally is working the issue very hard and hopefully I will continue after October 1, 2003, because there is still a lot you all need to know and these "fluff flicks" are not going to do it! Stay tuned on this issue, I�ll update you there as well.

Hang in there and have a safe Labor Day weekend, I can�t believe the summer is over already.

Kate

Update 8/8/03

There hasn�t been a lot going on to update you on, Mark Jaffe did an article on what happened at the PWS meeting a couple of weeks ago.

Wally and I met with Joann Kansier last week to give input to the RFI and discuss how the PWS team meeting was handled. I will be following up with a letter to Ms. Kansier on our comments to the RFI. ACA is still planning on pushing ahead with the public announcement in September and we should hear something on Continuing Government Activities (CGA�s) by the end of this month.

The binders got shipped out last Friday, sorry I didn�t let you know sooner, but I didn�t know until after the fact. It seems the communication team has trouble communicating within the team! You have one binder right now and a second one should be sent in a couple of weeks or so. The next issue of "The Briefer" should be out in a week or two, maybe I�ll find out about that after the fact too!

Web-site, also expected to be up and running in the next week or two, if I hear anything I�ll let you all know.

A tape is due out from the ATCA symposium in June, it�s been delayed for editing purposes. I think it might be to take me out!!!

In the binders are some "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs), there are some answers to some of the HR questions people are asking. There will be more to follow on the HR issues in a month or so, hang in there we just want to make sure the information is correct.

Lastly, I would like to welcome Suzanne Hynes (CDC ATM) to the communications team, maybe we can get some more activity going on the communications end.

Kate Breen
NAATS A-76 Representative

Not much new to pass along, but I thought I would update you on the meeting that took place on Monday 7/7/03 between the people in ACA and the user groups. There were 22 groups invited, and 6 showed up among them were ALPA, AOPA, ATA, AAE, NATA, and SAMA. It was basically a briefing on the A-76 process first thing in the morning, most of them had never heard of A-76 before so there were a few questions surrounding the process. Joann Kansier talked about the time lines being moved up and approved by the Administrator, the decision date is now 12/04 instead of 07/05. The Administrator seems to feel that with the "strong political" winds they had better hurry up, so much for doing it right and Ms. Styles (OMB) assurances that we wouldn�t be put under any time constraints for this large, complex process.

I did get kind of a chuckle out of the ACA folks being confused in front of the group, there was a debate going on whether the 1st draft of the PWS was going to be made available to folks outside the agency and when that was going to happen. One would think that before you went into a meeting with people you were trying to instill confidence in that you were going to do the process right, you might all get on the same page!

We ate lunch in so the people at MITRE could go over a new survey that is going to be put out to the pilot community about our services currently and what they would like to see in the future. The survey is over 60 questions long and takes about 20 minutes to take, they are still going over a few of the questions. It should be out in the next month or so and stay on line at AOPA and maybe a few other web sites for 30 days. You will need a pilot�s license to take the survey, there�s a place to put your certificate number in.

That�s about it for Monday I got thrown out after lunch, or politely asked to leave! It seems that I may intimidate people, the user groups might have felt uncomfortable speaking their mind in front of me! Can you all believe that, my kind, sweet disposition being intimidating!! What I heard happened after I left, was unquestionable support for the people who do the job, they just want to see improvements to the system.

Let me tell you what I know of what�s going on with the other groups working A-76:

PWS -- Coming back into DC the last week of July to continue work on the dictionary and putting the PWS together.

A-76 Update 06/26/03

Hi All,

I don't have a lot of new information for you, but what I can do is brief you on the Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) symposium that was held in Washington, DC yesterday. This symposium was held mainly as an "industry day" to let the vendors that are interested in bidding on our jobs get a briefing of where the FAA is and to also check each other out in case they want to team with one another.

The morning started with the usual welcome from the chairman of ATCA and went into a briefing by Joann Kansier letting everyone know what a wonderful thing this A-76 process is and how it's going to improve Flight Service. With also the usual assurances that she wants a "level playing field" for all concerned. The one good thing that she did yesterday morning was tell Jack Kalavritinos (Associate Administrator for Competitive Sourcing, OMB) that she expect three deviations from the A-76 circular.

Please understand that nothing is cast in stone yet so expect changes, I'll do my best to keep on top of things and forward out the information I can to you all. Remember I've signed a non-disclosure form, so I can't reveal anything that is considered procurement sensitive.

One interesting statistic that came out of Ron Page's brief is that in the year 2001 41,725 jobs in the agency were inherently governmental 7,340 were commercial. In 2002 18,213 jobs were inherently governmental and 31,102 were commercial, bit of a swing don't you think! Well here's the catch of the 31,102 commercial 25,008 were listed under reason code A (including approximately 20,000 air traffic controllers (Ron's words not mine!)) and 4126 reason code B. I'd like to know who the other 1,126 FAA employees categorized the same as us to go through this wonderful process!

In Joann Kansier's brief she mentioned they were using the FAA cost accounting system to find out how much it costs to run Flight Service each year, she keeps saying over $500 million. Well the cost to run the Flight Service Stations in FY2001 was just under $290 million dollars, if you add in all of the AF costs, regional/headquarters costs, investment, and other categories you get over $500 million. Is the A-76 being run on any of the other categories, NO, so why are we taking them into consideration. Granted you will still have overhead costs, but they shouldn't be counted as the operational costs of flight service. With or without A-76 there are still going to be those costs so why do we count them in the overall scheme other than to inflate the supposed savings.

The "draft" schedule in Jim Little's presentation has the source selection decision made in 1st quarter of FY05, that means Oct-Dec, 2004. There really isn't a whole lot more on the process right now that I could give you definite on, everything is still very tentative. Hopefully, after the responses are in from the request for information the agency will have more guidance given to them by the vendors on how to do this!

James Sizemore briefed on the status of the PWS which is mainly that the group had finished the functional scoping workshops and were in Washington this week working on the PWS. Hopefully the PWS team will get something out to you all on how that went after the week is over.

Wally had asked if I would sit on the panel for him and I was happy too, I've attached my opening remarks which I have to thank Wally and Bill Dolan for their help in editing! Take a look at my remarks, the agency did tape it so it may be coming to a facility in your area soon! Let's just hope they get it out quicker than the binders or briefer, or you may not get it until 1st quarter of FY05!!!! Please don't let this get you down, the language is looking good, the faster the FAA tries to push this the more of an embarrassment it will be when it goes "belly up" and our team of attorneys are catching every miss-step as a last resort. On a final note for this week, I'm taking some time off to hopefully adjust my attitude a bit and try to unwind. Nothing special, going home to take Mom to the doctors, tend to some landscaping and maybe even do some painting, not very exciting but good for the mental health! I'll be back July 7th to attend a meeting at MITRE (FAA contractor) that meeting will be with user groups to release a survey for pilots to fill out. It should be released on or around July 8th and you'll be able to get it and fill it out off of the AOPA web site! That's it for now, everyone have a fun and safe holiday.

Kate

A-76 Update from Bangor Maine

The first week of functional scoping started off rough but finished a little smoother. When the NAATS team got to Bangor, there was no agenda and no start time given to us; our apologies to the other team members who had to wait for us. This has since been rectified and you should be getting a rough agenda and start times from here on out.

There were 6 employees of Grant Thornton there to start and run the workshops, the PWS team, NAATS Representatives from the three AFSSs, one from the FSDPS, ATM�s from BDR and BGR, an OS from BTV, James Sizemore from ACA, and our A76 Communications team representative Kate Breen.

The first day started with an overview of the A-76 process, and then went into a review of AFSS customers. The customer lists were broken into pilots/pilot groups/Internal FAA organizations/External Customers/Other Government Agencies. The PWS team had already put together a pretty comprehensive list, but the folks in New England came up with a few more and we expect others will be added at each regional workshop, as well. The next task at hand was to review activities, tasks, and unique requirements, this was a long and at times frustrating process. The New England team did an outstanding job working through a tough couple of days. Lessons learned should improve our success rate at future visits. By Wednesday afternoon we were supposed to be looking at activity definitions and capturing facility specific equipment and regulatory requirements. The team touched on some of the facility specific equipment, but not much of the rest was done. Thursday we were to look at workload drivers, and that never happened due to the slow and tedious process of reviewing activities.

One of the most important things that should come out of these workshops is site specific duties, please bring any LOAs, local orders, and any customer surveys that might have been done at your facility or region. The subject matter experts from the facilities should be ready to explain any specific duties to the PWS team so when they go to put all the information together in the requirements document the team will have a full understanding of those duties.

Our goal is to continue to make these workshops more efficient. We believe that can be accomplished. Time is the most important resource needed to improve our endeavors and the Agency is not providing any cooperation in this area.

The list of activities is huge and after the team gets to the Southern Region this week we�re sure it will become even larger. All those traveling into the workshops have got a tough couple of days ahead of them. We know you are up to the challenge.

Our thanks to our hosts from Bangor!
Dave Hoover, Jerry VanVacter, Tim DeGrazio, and Kate Breen

Sorry for the attitude, it's been a very long week!

See you in a couple of weeks!

Kate

Thanks to the PWS team for their update yesterday, they have a tremendous job ahead of them and I hope everyone of our bargaining unit members is ready to help in any way they can.

Now all I've been hearing from the FAA management side of the house is how they want to run this competition fair and keep everyone on a "level playing field" (geez, I hate that phrase). Well I'm here to tell you right out of the box they are not instilling a whole lot of confidence that this process will be run fair and honestly. By that I mean here they are talking to vendors and the Most Efficient Organization (MEO) has not be set up yet. The Request For Information (RFI) will be going out soon and we still have no MEO team put together. From what I hear it's still a money issue, or is it an incompetence issue with people making the decisions unable to get off the dime?

Let's talk about the vendor issue for a moment. If you get any inquiries at the facility from someone you don't know, please, please do not disclose any information about what we do and how we do it. The possible bidders are out there asking questions, I've gotten a heads up from a couple of people. If someone calls asking questions, send them to Don King at the FAA, he is the contracting officer (202-366-5509 [email protected]). I would hope FAA management would pass this along to their side as well, but if you get a chance please ask your facility management not to talk to the bidders/vendors either.

That's about it for today, if you get a chance take a look at Plane & Pilot Magazine this month. The editor Lyn Freeman has a great article/editorial titled "Lawnmowers and ATC", boy does it strike a cord. Maybe the folks at OMB and the FAA Administrator should take a few minutes to read it!

Hope to see as many of you as possible in San Antonio in a couple of weeks, hang in there. My thoughts and prayers are with any of you who have loved ones overseas, I hope they're home soon and safe.

Kate

03/13/03

Just to give you a heads up, you will all be receiving a letter from the new head of ACA Joann Kansier delivered to your very own mail boxes. The letter is simply an introduction to Joann and the ACA line of business, happy reading! There should also be something coming out shortly from Southern Region Director Dave Hoover who is the lead on the PWS team. He plans on getting something out introducing the team members and what he knows so far on PWS plans. Thanks to Tim DeGrazio for getting an update out yesterday after they had their first telcon.

So the PWS has had their first telcon, the kickoff meeting is scheduled for the week of March 24th in Washington, DC, and then they will be out to the regions. I hate to sound like a broken record, but has someone in your facility started writing down everything you do so nothing gets missed? This is vital to ensure we have a complete performance work statement. It really doesn't have to be anything formal, just a list to ensure when the teams starts making its rounds they have everything they need. History shows that in other competitions most of the problems came after the competition was over because the PWS was not complete. I do not want to lose the competition because of a low bid that a contractor would submit due to an incomplete PWS. Generally that's what a contractor will do is bid low and then ad fees on for services not originally included in the PWS. Let's be smart about this and ensure that everything is captured, I have complete faith in the PWS team to get the job done, but they will need your help to capture everything you do at your facility.

Now lets talk about the MOU for a moment! It seems that ACA has been in existence for about a month now and they have already violated Section 9 of the NAATS/FAA MOU on A-76. In the meeting on Tuesday morning, I was advised that Joann Kansier and Marilyn Jackson-Brame are going to MIV AFSS for a site visit much to my surprise. I asked why MIV and not DCA and was told because the ATM at DCA was out on sick leave so they decided to go to MIV. She also assured me there would be no surveys or questioned asked, they would be going up on Thursday March 27th meeting that afternoon and the morning of Friday March 28th with management and to give Joann a tour of the facility. I'm sure this is a simple oversight and they would love to comply with the MOU and have NAATS designate 1 representative from outside the facility to participate in a "walk-through", or other activities. I'm sure the invitation is in the mail and a blanket statement from Joann at the meeting stating that we're going to MIV if anyone else wants to go, doesn't really count as notification to the union. I don't ask for a lot in these meetings other than some professional courtesy, a heads up if you will. If someone from management is going to do a facility visit it sure would be nice to notify the NAATS A-76 rep other than oh, by the way. So as of this moment if anyone comes into the facility asking questions without either your Regional Director, myself or some other designee, please be the professionals I know you are and direct any questions to facility management for answers. The other thing that I find totally amazing is we have DCA AFSS right in our neighborhood and the things they are doing surrounding the ADIZ/Squawk codes and such would be interesting for someone to learn about. So why not take a day trip to DCA instead of spending extra money the agency supposedly doesn't have for a two day trip to MIV? (rhetorical)

Ok, I'm done with that for now! So the process is starting to march on and the contractors are starting to circle for information, now is the time to do what you need to do in order to make sure the PWS is complete. Thanks again to all the folks who are attending pilot meetings and seminars on their own time, you're the best! The pilots deserve the best service we can provide not only in the jobs we do day to day but in keeping them informed of decisions that could affect their safety of flight.

Not much meat to this update, and for that I apologize, just wanted to let you know the more things change the more they stay the same.

I'll keep you posted!

Kate

02/28/03

I thought I was going to have some news for you by today, but the meeting on Wednesday afternoon was cancelled and rescheduled for Monday morning. It seems if there is a flake of snow falling somewhere in the city of DC it causes people to panic and cancel meetings. So what I thought I would do is pass along a couple of suggestions I have gotten from members in the field for you all to take a look at. The first one is from Tim DeGrazio NAATS FSOSC Liaison and a member of the PWS team, the second one is from Richard Anderson from St. Pete...Thanks Guys!

Thanks to those of you who have contacted their congressional representatives; to those who haven't I urge you to get engaged. Again, particularly important are those constituents of Don Young, Jim Oberstar, Trent Lott, John Rockefeller, John McCain, Ernest Hollings, John Mica and William Lipinski.

In case you don't have it, here is the contact info for the Congressmen Wally mentions above;

Rep. Don Young (R-AK At-Large)
16th-term Republican from Alaska.
Web Site: www.house.gov/donyoung

Washington Office:
2111 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0201
Phone: (202) 225-5765
Fax: (202) 225-0425
Main District Office:
222 W. 7th Ave., #4
Anchorage, AK 99513
Phone: (907) 271-5978
Fax: (907) 271-5950

Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN 8th)
15th-term Democrat from Minnesota.
Web Site: www.house.gov/oberstar

Washington Office:
2365 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-2308
Phone: (202) 225-6211
Fax: (202) 225-0699

Main District Office:
231 Federal Bldg.
Duluth, MN 55802
Phone: (218) 727-7474
Fax: (218) 727-8270

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS)
3rd-term Republican from Mississippi.
Web Site: http://lott.senate.gov

Washington Office:
487 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2403
Phone: (202) 224-6253
Fax: (202) 224-2262

Main District Office:
245 E. Capitol St., #226
Jackson, MS 39201
Phone: (601) 965-4644
Fax: (601) 965-4007

Sen. John Rockefeller IV (D-WV)
4th-term Democrat from West Virginia.
Web Site: http://rockefeller.senate.gov

Washington Office:
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4802
Phone: (202) 224-6472
Fax: (202) 224-7665

Main District Office:
405 Capitol St., #308
Charleston, WV 25301
Phone: (304) 347-5372
Fax: (304) 347-5371

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
3rd-term Republican from Arizona.
Web Site: http://mccain.senate.gov

Washington Office:
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0303
Phone: (202) 224-2235
Fax: (202) 228-2862

Main District Office:
2400 E. Arizona Biltmore Circle, #1150
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Phone: (602) 952-2410
Fax: (602) 952-8702

Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC)
7th-term Democrat from South Carolina.
Web Site: http://hollings.senate.gov

Washington Office:
125 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4002
Phone: (202) 224-6121
Fax: (202) 224-4293

Main District Office:
1835 Assembly St., #1551
Columbia, SC 29201
Phone: (803) 765-5731
Fax: (803) 765-5742

Rep. John Mica (R-FL 7th)
6th-term Republican from Florida.
Web Site: www.house.gov/mica

Washington Office:
2445 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0907
Phone: (202) 225-4035
Fax: (202) 226-0821

Main District Office:
668 N. Orlando Ave., Ste. 208
Maitland, FL 32751-4495
Phone: (407) 657-8080
Fax: (407) 657-5353

Rep. William Lipinski (D-IL 3rd)
11th-term Democrat from Illinois.
Web Site: www.house.gov/lipinski

Washington Office:
2188 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1303
Phone: (202) 225-5701
Fax: (202) 225-1012
Main District Office:
5832 S. Archer Ave.
Chicago, IL 60638
Phone: (312) 886-0481
Fax: (773) 767-9395

Incidentally I got those addresses from the Roll Call website. They have a great feature where you enter your zipcode and it lists all your representatives. Then it lets you email all of them at once.
http://capwiz.com/rollcall/home/

Tim DeGrazio

I do not recall seeing (nor did the thought occur to me) the suggestion for people to review their congressional representatives websites for contact information. I mention this only because I happened to look up one of my senators websites today (Bill Nelson - Fl.) and discovered that "has coffee" with Fl. constituents on the Wednesdays that they are in session from 9:30-10:15. I also discovered that my Congressman (Bill Young) has a special form to fill out to request a meeting.

Maybe you might make the suggestion in one of your updates for people to check their representatives website for any contact information or other useful bits of information.

Also maybe you or Wally could join Tim DeGrazio (or some other Floridian) over to Senator Bill Nelsons office for some coffee!

I have also discovered on the AOPA website a link that will address and format a letter to the Pres, congress and senate reps. based on inputting your address. All you have to do is type the body of the letter and print it. You do not have to be an AOPA member to use this. Check AOPA's home page and click "contact your representative". (Maybe if we can make it really really easy to write, more people will).

Richard Anderson
PIE AFSS

OK Have you gotten the picture now! If you have not already contacted your elected officials asking for support of S.338, now is the time. If you have, thanks for lending a hand!

I will try to get something new out by the beginning to middle of next week, the challenge to the fair act inventory is just about done, and I will ask John Dibble to post it on the web as soon as I can.

Kate

02/13/03

Well the announcement has been made the current A-76 being done on us has been moved over to the acquisition side of the house to a brand new line of business, the Office of Competitive Sourcing (ACA). The head of ACA is Joann Kansier and she will be getting a letter out shortly introducing herself and how she sees this process working. As this side of the FAA takes it over, the process will stay the same for the most part there will be a Performance Work Statement (PWS) written and Most Efficient Organization (MEO) developed. How exactly they get those things done and when is still up in the air right now, as soon as I can shed some more light on either group I will. What I can tell you is the PWS looks like it might have a kick off meeting the end of March, beginning of April at this point. That has already slipped several times so don't hold me to it, at this point they are still working on funding and waiting to see when the final revision to the A-76 Circular will come out. The revision is expected the end of March, but that has also slipped several times so that could change as well.

The tentative schedule right now shows that the final decision would be made sometime in the summer of 2005. Personally, I think that's very aggressive and would happen if everything worked according to plan (funding, scheduling, gathering all the information to do this right, and political issues). Working for the FAA for some 13 years now, I have never seen anything go "according to plan" so don't expect this process too either.

Bill Dolan and I have a meeting Tuesday afternoon to get a briefing and see if we need to re-open the MOU. I'm sure by the end of next week I'll have some more information to pass along as it unfolds. The bad news is they caught up to me this week and had me sign a non-disclosure form, I don't really see that as really bad, I just have to be careful on what I say now.

To the good news, I hope by now you have seen the proposed language written by Senator Lautenberg from New Jersey, Bill S. 338. We will be tracking this carefully to make sure there are no changes to it.

It's been said before that there has been no direction from NAATS National on what to do, well here is something for all of you to do! Make a copy of this bill and get it in the hands of your elected officials and ask for their support as it runs through the House and Senate. This is going to be a struggle and we have to get out there like never before. I don't want to hear that "I don't have a computer or a printer", if there is no one in your facility that can print and make copies of this bill and the other letters written by Senators Daschle and Hatch to name a few and the letter written to the President of the United States written by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure signed by numerous officials call me at NAATS HQ and I will print them for you and send them out in the US Mail. Find out if your Congressman/Congresswoman signed the letter to the President asking to put us back under the inherently governmental umbrella, if they have thank them and if they have not politely ask why not! If you can read the signatures that is!! I didn't see the letter to the Whitehouse on the web site, so I will have Denise scan it and get it to John Dibble for posting.

We now have a bill and several letters of support to carry into your Congressional and Senate offices, let's do it, if you just sit back and let the few people who have been doing all the work continue to do it shame on you. We have a tremendous opportunity here, let's not throw it away.

Thanks for your time, and let me know if you have any questions.

Kate

02/01/03

Sorry this is so late in coming, my mother had a fall and I've been a little crazed running between Connecticut and DC. Not a whole lot to pass along to you all, but a few tidbits.

You should now all know there are Frequently Asked Questions distributed and a web page (www.faa.gov/aba/html_budget/index) up and running, hopefully! The next thing to come out of the communications team is the facility binders, and they are expected to be completed by the middle of February. There will also be a monthly newsletter to come out around the first of every month to be placed in the binders.

I have just sent out my first message to our Regional A-76 Representatives, with the exception of New England, we still need a volunteer there. If your interested please let Kurt know so he can pass it along to me. The reps are:

AAL - Phil Brown, ACE - Pam Anderson, AEA - Curt Lasley, AGL - Randy Lueders, ANM - John Dibble, ASO - Derek Buchanen, ASW - Oscar Hinajosa, and AWP - Mike Puffer.

Thanks for volunteering!

A few rumors flying around, it looks like the requirements side of the house is going to take the A-76 away from budget. Nothing definite yet, there should be more news on that next week. This will slow the process once again, which is not a bad thing, remember there is no start date or timeline we have to adhere to at this point. The longer it takes the more time we have to work the issues and make sure things are done properly! Here is a good one for you, Chris Bertram (ABA-1) Chief Financial Officer who has been in charge of this whole debacle is leaving the FAA to go and work with the Senate Commerce Committee on aviation issues. Maybe he was afraid his line of business was the next one to come under the A-76 process!

There were so many comments on the draft A-76 circular, that OMB was heard to say "maybe we went to far"! So the new circular probably won't surface until sometime in March. No news on the Fair Act Inventory List, it has still not been released.

Let me talk to some of the things discussed at the Board meeting in January. The AOPA ad is ready to go and will be in the March issue of Pilot Magazine, it's posted on the web site. Other advertising ideas discussed were the internet banners (thanks to CE in GRB for doing the leg work on that for me), radio ads on WTOP here in DC, and an ad on WTOP congressional portion of their web site. Those ideas were not adopted at this time, not to say that we may not use them down the road. A national day of picketing will be discussed when the union leaders get together this month, I believe it's around the 20th of February or so. The one thing I would like to see everyone doing, is getting out to the FBO's and talking to pilots. This would also include finding out where the pilot meetings, seminars and the like will be held. I know you'll have to get out there on your own time, but it's now or never. Someone has to carry the message we've been spouting for the past several months, if you've forgotten, go to the web site and look at some of the letters and flyers we've done. I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence by repeating the same thing over and over again.

If you need flyers or maybe those cards that have the flight watch frequencies on them let me know. I'm going to have to order some more cards with the phone numbers and flight watch frequencies on them, but the pilots seem to like them and it's advertising what we do.

People ask me what more can I do, well a couple of things I've mentioned in the past is getting that list together of what you do at your facility to help the PWS team. Has anyone in your facility taken the lead on that? The other thing to do is just as I've said above find out where the pilot meetings, safety seminars, etc., are being held and get some folks out there to talk to the pilots. I'm hoping the regional reps will give me a hand in my job as an "informational conduit" to keep you informed and get the messages out.

My thanks to some of the people who have been going above and beyond, Jack O'Connell, Phil Brown, George Kelley, Steve Simms, Kyle Pitts, Randy Lueders, John Dibble, Curt Lasley, just to name a few.

That's about it for now, let me know if you have any questions.

Kate