The EPAC welcomes your suggestions. Meetings are open to all PHS Engineers. Those who are not able to attend in person may attend via conference call.

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order at 1:05 p.m. EDT at the IHS Twinbrook Metro Plaza building in Rockville, Maryland. CAPT Cris Kinney, EPAC Chairperson, joined the meeting by conference call from Phoenix. The March 24, 2000, meeting minutes were approved. The next meeting will be held Thursday, May 25, 2000, at 1:00 p.m. EDT at the IHS Twinbrook Metro Plaza building in Rockville, Maryland.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Office of the Chief Engineer: RADM Williams reported the following:

1. CPO-PAC Meeting: News from the CPO Professional Advisory Chairs meeting.

• The Division of Commissioned Personnel (DCP) is planning to post the promotion results on June 1^st. The results will not include exceptional capability promotions. Letters of congratulations will be mailed at that time by the Chief Professional Officers (CPOs) to those officers who are being promoted. There will also be letters from the CPOs to those who are not promoted. Those letters will include statistical data to let officers who were not promoted know where they were ranked on the promotion list, as well as information on ways to prepare themselves for future promotion cycles.
• DCP is still undergoing reorganization. The staffing officers for the different professional categories have not yet been announced.

1. SAME Meeting: A reminder that the Society of American Military Engineers’ (SAME) National Convention will be held in San Diego from May 17 - 20. There are a number of PHS Engineers who will be attending, including RADM Williams.
2. Chief Engineer’s Newsletter: Articles for the July issue of the Newsletter are due to the Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE) by June 1^st.
3. Public Health Professional Conference: As a reminder, the COA sponsored Professional Conference will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, from June 5 – 10. The Engineer Symposium will be on Saturday, June 10^th. The Symposium promises to have many interesting topics, and should be an excellent opportunity to meet many of your fellow PHS engineers, especially those who are stationed in the southwest.
4. EPAC Membership Nominations: EPAC self-nominations will be due to the OCE by June 30. There will be an email reminder on this as well as an article in the upcoming Commissioned Officers Bulletin. Please spread the word to all interested engineers about this deadline. Those members who would like to serve a second term must also self-nominate.
5. Logo Design Contest: As described in the March issue of the Chief Engineer’s Newletter, the PHS Engineer/Architect logo design contest deadline is June 30. Submissions are to be made to the OCE, to the attention of CAPT Rodenbeck. The OCE will sponsor the contest winner to attend a professional engineering/architect conference of the winner's  choosing.
6. Junior Engineer/Architect Conference Call: The next conference call with the Chief Engineer will be in August. No specific date has been selected; however, an email with further details will be coming out soon, and will also be published in the July Newsletter.
7. SAME Briefing: RADM Williams attended a Service Chiefs Briefing for the SAME a few weeks ago. This was the first time the PHS was represented as one of the service organizations, which included the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. RADM Williams presented a history and overview of the PHS that was well received. There was a great deal of interest from both the other services and consultants at the briefing about the roll and function of engineers in the PHS, especially in the area of construction/design projects. As the PHS becomes more recognized as a uniformed service, RADM Williams would like to remind all Commissioned Officer engineers of the importance of wearing the uniform to meetings and other official functions.
8. Healthy Lifestyles: We have all been charged to participate in the Presidential Sports Fitness Award. To receive a certificate of your participation the necessary paperwork must be sent in by the end of May. RADM Williams announced he had received his certificate in fitness walking.

The Career Development Subcommittee has done an excellent job in putting together the agenda for the Engineer's Symposium at the PHS Professional Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 10^th. It looks to be one of the most interesting agendas we have had. I encourage Engineers and Architects to participate in this one-day conference.

Commissioned Officers Association (COA) Liaison: CDR Poneleit reported that COA had a meeting at the end of March and discussed the COA budget, insurance committees, and third-party administrators. Some other worthwhile items were noted. Hotel reservations for the COA sponsored Conference in June should be made by now. Also the discounted registration fee for the Conference expires May 1^st.

Division of Commissioned Personnel (DCP) Liaison: CDR Marylouise Ganaway reported the following:

The DCP reorganization plan has been approved and is tentatively scheduled to take effect June 1^st. At that time it will be made official who the new Staffing Officers will be for the different professional categories. As part of the reorganization, Staffing Officers will now be called Placement Officers, since the emphasis will be to assist in the placement of officers instead of just providing information on vacancies. Individual career counseling will no longer be available from DCP; however, group counseling sessions will be available from time to time. Most of these group sessions will be limited to the D.C. area only. CDR Ganaway is hopeful that she will attend the COA sponsored PHS Professional Conference in Scottsdale in June, and will plan on presenting a group counseling session there for those who are interested. CDR Ganaway also expressed her interest in recruiting for the Engineer category, and would like to coordinate further with us in recruiting engineer officers. CAPT Kinney suggested to the Recruiting and Retention Subcommittee that CDR Ganaway attend their monthly meetings. CDR Ganaway can be contacted at the following email address: mganaway@psc.gov.

Junior Engineer Report: LT Boyd reported that he plans to attend several upcoming subcommittee meetings to address those issues involving Junior Engineers.

Job Vacancies: There were no new vacancy announcements. There was a discussion about the vacancy list that is posted on the PHS Engineers web site. The list has not been updated recently. Mr. Mitch Williams volunteered to temporarily clean-up some of the outdated information; however, the issue of maintaining the list will be deferred to the Information Subcommittee for a more long-term solution.

OLD BUSINESS

PHS Professional Conference Update: Ms. Hayes and CAPT Rodenbeck announced that the agenda for the Engineer's Symposium is now final. The Symposium will be held on Saturday, June 10^th, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Thanks goes out to all who recruited speakers for the event. We have a great program planned and we hope that many EPAC members and others will be able to attend.

NEW BUSINESS

Engineer Career Opportunities Booklet: CDR Crump and the Recruiting and Retention Subcommittee are working on updating and reissuing the Engineer Career Opportunities Booklet. The Subcommittee would like to issue a call, via the EPAC, to engineers in all OPDIVs for photographs and information for the booklet. See the Recruiting and Retention Subcommittee report below for further details.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

1. Awards: CDR West reported the following.

• USPHS Literary Awards: The judging for the Literary Awards is almost finished. The Subcommittee should have the winners decided by May 1^st. Recommendations will be sent to the Chief Engineer.
• Ian K. Burgess Outstanding Young Engineer of the Year (YEOY) Award: The nomination deadline was extended and another nomination was received and is being evaluated. The goal is to have the evaluations completed and a winner selected by May 5^th.
• SAME Awards: The Subcommittee has started work on the SAME awards. We have requested appropriate judging criteria from other service awards, and have requested guidance from SAME on the format, content, and timeline for the award proposals. The goal is to have a final proposal ready for approval by October. There will be a request sent out soon to all Engineers soliciting suggestions for names for these service awards. There has also been a request made to DCP for guidance on getting approval for these awards and the proper display of the medals with the uniform.

The Subcommittee did not have an opportunity to meet this month. The following is an update on the "Healthy Buildings’ initiative. The Conference Report was submitted to the National Association for Physicians for the Environment (NAPE) for publication in a special addendum in Environmental Health Perspectives, and to RADM Robert Williams to be used as a supporting attachment to our proposal. An informal advanced copy was also submitted to the Office of the Surgeon General. This document also served as the basis for the CY 2000 strategic plan of the National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Building and Construction.

3. Career Development: Ms. Hayes reported the following.

• Engineering Leadership Development Seminar: Planning for the Engineering Leadership Development Seminar is well underway. We are considering having the seminar in conjunction with another event, such as Engineers Week in February or the next PHS Professional Conference in June of 2001. Other possible dates are also being discussed. Suggested locations for the Seminar are Las Vegas, San Antonio, Atlanta and Orlando. CDR Jo Ann Griffith and LCDR Jacqui Parker have volunteered to be co-coordinators for the Seminar on the condition that we hire a conference planner to handle the logistical arrangements.

The Subcommittee did not reach a decision on the length of the Seminar because the length may depend on whether the Seminar is held in conjunction with another event. Some ideas discussed included the following: how do we make the Seminar unique and offer something to the attendees and their supervisors that they cannot get elsewhere; should we use pieces of other seminars; how do we promote the engineering profession; what skills and abilities do leaders in the OPDIVs need? Specific topics mentioned were: effective communication (both writing and speaking); strategies for using continuing education; mentoring; and the future of PHS engineering.

The Subcommittee wants to make this Seminar relevant to both Commissioned Officers and Civil Servants and would like it to appeal to engineers who are at different places in their careers, not just entry level engineers as with the previous Career Development Seminars. We discussed dividing up the program and having different tracks for different levels and/or personnel systems. There will be a special conference call devoted to the Seminar on May 4^th. The Subcommittee’s regular conference call will be May 11, 2000, at 2:00 EDT.

• Welcome Program: The Welcome Program has been completed for all engineers hired in the second quarter of FY99. LT Sean Boyd has sent emails to EPAC members requesting their assistance in making welcome calls to engineers hired in the 3^rd quarter of FY99. LT Boyd will soon be sending out emails requesting assistance in making welcome calls to the 4^th quarter hires since CAPT Kinney reported that the welcome letter and package from the EPAC Chair had been sent out to engineers hired in the 4^th quarter of FY99. Welcome letters from the Chief Engineer are now being prepared for engineers hired in the 1^st quarter of FY 2000. Names of new hires for the 2^nd quarter have been requested from DCP and PSC.

LT Boyd is maintaining a database of new engineers contacted through the welcome program. He recently revised the database to include information obtained during the welcome calls such as whether the new engineer is interested in EPAC or mentoring. He will share the database information with the Chairs of the Mentoring and Information Subcommittees and any others who would like it.

• Junior Engineers: The subgroup working on Junior Engineer issues is developing pages, which will be included on the USPHS Engineers web site, containing information of interest to Junior Engineers. The Subcommittee asks that the EPAC members provide Ms. Hayes with the name of a contact in their OPDIV who Junior Civil Service engineers can contact for more information.

The Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee met on April 6. We continue to develop information requested from the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP). The information will help OEP understand what functions/tasks engineers can perform during emergencies and help OEP select appropriate engineers for assignment.

Recently, DCP contacted the Subcommittee Chairperson and requested additional information regarding the list of engineering specialties that EPAC sent to DCP last year. The additional information was provided to DCP.

5. Information: LCDR Coene reported (on behalf of CAPT Sullenger) the following.

The Subcommittee met by phone on Tuesday, April 18, 2000. LCDR Coene gave a discussion on the new web page that is being designed and that the contract with Verio ends in early June. At that time we will migrate to the NT platform. LCDR Coene hopes to put a beta page together by May 1^st for the entire Subcommittee to review for comments. The address for the beta page will come out later this month. If all goes well, the new page may be ready when we sign our new contract with Verio in early June. The Subcommittee as a whole feels that more EPAC involvement is necessary to make this a successful endeavor.

The Photobook was discussed. The Subcommittee agreed to attempt to take all of our photographs and make them available in electronic format. Once this is done we will send the originals to the PHS Historian. The electronic versions will always reside with the OCE. The Subcommittee discussed the need to look at how to index the photos, and there was some discussion of making them available on the new web page.

Finally, the Subcommittee discussed the maintenance feature of the Engineer’s database. It was decided to convert the data to MS Access from File Maker Pro, and that CAPT Bedick will continue maintaining the data. There was some discussion on allowing each Engineer to access their own data for updates, but this was voted down due to the need to create and maintain a database to track user ID’s and passwords.

6. Mentoring: Mr. Mitch Williams reported the following.

• All-hands E-mail: An e-mail message from the Chief Engineer was sent to all members of the engineering category endorsing and encouraging participation in the mentoring program. Unfortunately, the message has not generated much interest in the program.
• Mentoring Home Page: Some minor improvements were completed on the mentoring home page (www.usphsengineers.org/menthome.htm), including improving the mentor and protégé application forms. The web site is now complete, though a few forms for evaluating the teams’ effectiveness will be posted later.
• Program Advertisement: The next Subcommittee meeting will primarily focus on methods for encouraging participation in the program. Some suggestions have included emphasis in the welcome package sent to all new PHS engineers and additional articles in the Chief Engineers’ Newsletter.

The Subcommittee is working on updating and reissuing the Engineer Career Opportunities Booklet. The Subcommittee would like to issue a call, via the EPAC, to engineers in all OPDIVs for the following:

• Photographs of engineers and engineering activities that are done by various PHS Engineers. We have received a few from EPA and IHS, but we need photos from CDC, NIH, FDA, ATSDR, etc. Photos of Corps officers in uniform would be nice, but any photographs that portray the interesting things PHS Engineers do are acceptable.
• Quotes from PHS Engineers. The Subcommittee felt it would spice up the booklet to have short quotes from PHS Engineers describing why they like what they do, what’s interesting about their jobs, and why they like the PHS. The idea is to put a more human face on the booklet.

The Rules Subcommittee reviewed their year 2000 planning calendar at their April meeting. The Subcommittee will review the EPAC Charter and Bylaws for revision and handle nominations for 2001 EPAC member vacancies and EPAC Chair-elect. Terms of EPAC members from IHS, NIH, EPA, CDC and FDA will expire at the end of 2000. The Subcommittee will send out a call for self-nominations in May for the June 30 nomination deadline. EPAC members are encouraged to invite colleagues to submit self-nominations. In response to a request from the EPAC Chair in March, the Subcommittee discussed methods to expand Junior Engineer/Architect participation in EPAC. The Subcommittee will submit recommendations to the EPAC for the May meeting.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 2:55 p.m. EDT.

EPAC MEETING PARTICIPATION:

Participants: (Members in bold, with alternates attending matched by number to the members absent):

LT Sean Boyd (Ex Officio), CAPT Kevin Chadwick (IHS), CAPT Terry Christensen (NIH), LCDR Michael Coene (FDA), CDR Eric Crump (EPA), CAPT Jose Cuzme (IHS), CDR Marylouise Ganaway (DCP, Ex Officio), CDR Jo Ann Griffith (EPA), Ms. Lisa Hayes (At Large), Mr. Tony Iannacchione (CDC), CAPT Cris Kinney (IHS), LCDR Louis Lightner (HRSA), Ms. Jennifer Martin (CDC, Alternate #1), CDR Kenneth Martinez (At Large), CDR David McDonnell (Ex Officio), CDR Ron Mickelsen (CDC), CDR Kathy Poneleit (FDA), CAPT Sven Rodenbeck (At Large), CDR Maurice West (ATSDR), Mr. Mitchell Williams (NIH), RADM Robert Williams (Ex Officio).

Members Absent:

CAPT Thomas Bedick (NIH), CAPT Joseph Cocalis (CDC, #1), LTJG Alan Fogarty (IHS), CAPT Gene Sullenger (FDA).

Authorization

I have recorded the above EPAC meeting minutes: