2. Engineer of the Year Award: It is time again for the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Engineer of the Year Award nominations. The Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE) has requested that each OPDIV submit their nominee for the Engineer of the Year. Each OPDIV can submit one Civil Service and one Commissioned Corps nominee as the OPDIV Engineer of the Year. The OCE will submit all candidates that meet the NSPE requirements for consideration for the Federal Engineer of the Year Award. Nominations are due at the OCE by October 20, 2000.
3. Literary Awards: Submissions for the 2001 PHS Engineer Literary Awards, sponsored by OCE and the EPAC, are due on November 1, 2000. The awards acknowledge contributions to the PHS by both Civil Service and Commissioned Corps Engineers and Architects. Awards are presented in each of five categories: management, research, regulations, engineering application, and engineering publications. More details about the awards can be found on the PHS Engineers web site.
4. Engineers’ Regalement: Again, this will be held after the EPAC meeting on October 26th. RADM Williams encourages all PHS engineers to attend.
5. Pre-Promotion Counseling: For those Officers who are up for temporary promotion next Spring, the OCE is offering counseling sessions that may assist you in preparing your OPF. Counseling can be arranged by contacting CAPT Sven Rodenbeck either by phone, at (404) 639-0648, or by e-mail at srodenbeck@cdc.gov.
6. Engineers and Architects Logo: The OCE hopes to have a winner announced by the end of October for the Engineer/Architect logo contest. There were some interesting submittals. The winning logo will be used to promote the OCE and the Engineers and Architects of the PHS.
7. SAME Ribbon: The OCE has sent forward a request to have the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) ribbon approved for wear with the PHS uniform for those officers who are members of SAME. The request has apparently hit a snag due to a misconception that SAME is an organization exclusively for Engineers. The OCE will continue to pursue this issue.
8. Healthy Building Initiative: The Healthy Building Initiative report is working its way through the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG).
9.
New Chief of Staff: As of October 1, CAPT Richard Barror is the new Chief of Staff of the
PHS. He will be working with RADM
Moritsugu and others in the OSG. He has
already received a lot of positive feedback from folks who have seen his
leadership abilities. We look forward
to the positive benefits of having an Engineer in the OSG.
10.
Engineer Leadership Award: The OCE is sponsoring a new award for this year,
the Engineer Leadership Award. CDR West
and the Awards Subcommittee are working on the criteria and specifications for
the award. Look for more information
about this award on the Engineer web page.
11.
Women Engineers Forum: There was a recent suggestion made for the
Engineer category to look at issues that women PHS Engineers and Architects
face that may be different than what most deal with generally in the
category. RADM Williams endorses this
suggestion and encourages that group to go forward with their plan.
12.
Retirement: RADM Carolyn Mazzella of the nursing category is retiring. When she was Chief of Staff she was very
supportive of the Engineer category.
Any suggestions for a gesture of appreciation should be forwarded to the
OCE.
EPAC Chair: CAPT Kinney reported the
following:
1.
CPO-PAC Chair Meeting: The OSG will remain very busy over the next
several months putting forward a number of initiatives before the end of this
administration. Many of the reports
deal with mental illness, youth violence, obesity, etc.
2.
SAME Ribbon Proposal: Thanks to those EPAC members who responded to CAPT
Kinney’s e-mail regarding the SAME ribbon proposal. As a result of your quick reply, CAPT Kinney was able to prepare
a response back to the OSG in a timely manner.
3.
Recruitment and Retention: As with the SAME ribbon proposal, CAPT Kinney will
be e-mailing to EPAC members the CPO’s draft report on Recruitment and
Retention for comment.
4.
Strategic Visioning: CAPT Kinney was impressed by the presentation at the CPO-PAC Chairs
meeting about a new vision for the Commissioned Corps. It talked about the concept of developing
Public Health professionals and providing the necessary training, mobility and
flexibility to accomplish this vision.
5.
Model Charter: The OSG has concluded a review of the EPAC Charter in comparison with
the Model Charter. We compare very
favorably with the Model Charter; however, there may be some possible
differences. CAPT Kinney will forward a
copy of the Model Charter to the Rules Subcommittee for review.
Division of Commissioned
Personnel (DCP) Liaison: No report was given this meeting.
Commissioned Officers
Association (COA) Liaison: CDR Poneleit reported the following:
The COA calendar of events is now available and will be distributed to the EPAC. The calendar includes the Annual PHS Professional Conference, scheduled for May 28 – 31, 2001, in Washington, D.C.
Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Liaison: LT Scharen reported the following:
The
PHS now has several people who are active in SAME committees. These committees include Awards, Industry
Affairs, Knowledge Management, and Readiness.
There are several other committees, such as the Environmental, Young
Member, and Education Committees that could still use some PHS representation. These committees usually meet once a month
and can be accessed by conference call.
Also, there was some information presented at the last meeting on the
types of engineers in SAME. The
majority are Civil Engineers, followed by Mechanical and Environmental. Incentives to join the SAME will soon
include the new PHS awards offered through SAME. More information can be found on their web site (http://same.org).
Junior Engineer Report: LT Boyd reported the
following:
The Junior Officer Ad Hoc Advisory Group (JOAHAG) has been working to
finalize its Charter and draft its Operating Procedures and Bylaws. The group expects to have a final Charter
for submission to the OSG and will elect its executive committee (Chair, Chair-elect,
and Secretary) by the end of October.
Once these items are finalized the group will begin to tackle developing
specific goals and work items to reach Junior officers.
A message was forwarded to all engineers to encourage
Junior Commissioned Officer Engineers to get involved with the JOAHAG and to
identify an alternate to LT Boyd, the Engineer category representative. Interested CO Engineers can reach LT Boyd by
phone at 301-594-4654 x128 or via email at sbb@cdrh.fda.gov.
Job Vacancies: Known vacancies are now
posted or linked on the PHS Engineers web site.
Election Results for
Chair-Elect: CAPT
Chadwick, Chairperson of the Rules Subcommittee, had the following
announcement:
In
August the Rules Subcommittee solicited nominations for EPAC Chair-Elect for CY
2001. There was one nomination
received. The Subcommittee therefore
recommends that the EPAC consider LCDR Michael Coene for EPAC Chair-Elect. The Bylaws allow the candidate to make a
10-minute statement. After a short
recess, LCDR Coene made a brief statement to the EPAC. The members unanimously voted to elect LCDR
Coene as Chair-Elect for 2001.
OLD BUSINESS
There were no Old Business items discussed.
NEW BUSINESS
SAME Awards Proposal: CDR
West announced that the Awards Subcommittee has prepared and sent out for
review to all EPAC members a proposal for the SAME USPHS Engineering
Achievement Awards. The Subcommittee
would like comments back by October 13.
One area that still needs work is who to name the three awards
after. The Subcommittee has received
only five name nominations. The
deadline for name nominations is also October 13.
Literary Award Eligibility for Scientists: On another related issue, the Awards Subcommittee
received a question recently whether a visiting scientist (an engineer under
temporary government employment) can submit a paper to the Literary Awards
competition. The Subcommittee discussed
the issue, and concluded that visiting scientists should not be allowed to
submit papers as the primary authors.
The Subcommittee was looking to the EPAC to reaffirm this decision. After some discussion, the EPAC unanimously
endorsed the Subcommittee’s decision not to allow visiting scientist to be
considered for these awards when they are the primary authors.
Engineer Career Opportunities Booklet: CDR Crump reported that the Recruitment and
Retention Subcommittee has completed their draft of the revised Engineer Career
Opportunities Booklet, and has sent a copy to each EPAC member for
comment. This redraft of the existing
booklet attempts to update the information about the various OPDIVs and tries
to make the booklet more readable for the target audience. Some suggestions brought up during the
discussion is that the new booklet needs to begin more dynamically, with either
a discussion and/or photographs describing or showing some of the more dynamic
engineering activities happening in the PHS today. CDR Crump requested help from each OPDIV to identify good
examples of these activities. CDR Crump
requested that any other comments be submitted to him by October 13.
Associate Recruiter Program Proposal: CDR Crump discussed the proposal to the EPAC
Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee for the reactivation of the Associate
Recruiter Program. In order to
successfully reactivate this program, the Subcommittee has identified three
critical elements that need to be incorporated into this effort: 1) establish a
centralized management, 2) promote participation, and 3) develop a reserve of
standard “off the shelf” recruitment materials. A motion was made to endorse this proposal, and it was passed
unanimously by the EPAC.
SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS
1. Awards: See comments under New
Business. No further reports were
given.
2. Building Design &
Construction:
CDR Martinez reported the following.
The
last Subcommittee meeting centered on the upcoming NIH fair. The Subcommittee is preparing a booth to
promote the Healthy Building Initiative.
Unfortunately, the Healthy Building Initiative does not appear to be on
the Surgeon General’s list for implementation this year.
3. Career Development: Ms. Hayes reported the following.
Welcome Program Update: The welcome letters from the Chief Engineer have
been sent to the PHS engineers hired in third quarter of FY 2000. The welcome package from the EPAC Chair,
CAPT Kinney, will soon be sent. If you
have received an email from LT Boyd requesting that you make welcome calls to
some of our new engineers, please do so and report back to LT Boyd as soon as
you can. LT Boyd will be sending out
new requests for welcome calls shortly after the welcome packages are sent from
the EPAC Chair.
Engineering Leadership Development Seminar: The dates and location for
the seminar are now set. The seminar
will be held March 26-29, 2001 in San Antonio, Texas at the St. Anthony Hotel. The hotel is in an ideal location, 1½ blocks
from San Antonio's famous Riverwalk and 4 blocks from the Alamo. The hotel facilities are very nice and
should be quite conducive to having a very productive seminar. Many speakers for the seminar have been
identified but still others are needed.
If you have any ideas for speakers, please let Lisa Hayes know. We anticipate having the agenda finalized in
late October or early November. Please
begin to "talk up" the seminar to your colleagues. A preliminary conference announcement (one
without registration information) will soon be sent via email and U.S. Mail to
all PHS engineers.
4.
Emergency Preparedness: CAPT Rodenbeck reported the following:
The Subcommittee met on September 7. The Subcommittee began working on gathering
some new information requested by the Office of Emergency Preparedness. The Subcommittee will be coordinating these
efforts with the Environmental Health Officers category because of the
cross-links. The Subcommittee is
continuing to develop training materials for Engineers that wish to be a part
of the CCRF. The next meeting is
scheduled for October 19.
5. Information: CAPT Sullenger, Chairperson of the Information Subcommittee,
reported the following.
The Subcommittee had a very productive meeting since the last EPAC meeting. There were three items discussed: the web site, the engineer database, and the photo book. In regard to the web site, LCDR Coene has compiled some interesting statistics about the site. For example, approximately 22 people visit the site every day. The overwhelming number of visitors are from the US, as expected, but there have also been 23 visits from Canada, 21 from the UK, and 14 from France. Overall, people from 20 different countries have visited the site. Interestingly enough, the busiest day so far for the site was on August 3, 2000, when the EPAC meeting was held at the IHS office in Window Rock, Arizona. The Engineer Database is planned to be up and running by the end of October. The database will be a very dynamic tool that hopefully will find many uses. The last item, the Photobook, is progressing. The OCE has ordered a scanner to be used for the project. Each photograph will be scanned at three values of resolution: high, medium and low. All original photographs will eventually be sent to the PHS Historian. The Subcommittee has also discussed how to index each photograph for easy reference and retrieval.
6. Mentoring: Mr. Mitch Williams,
Chairperson of the Mentoring Subcommittee, reported the following.
Since
the last meeting there have been six new applicants to the Mentoring
program. Unfortunately, there is an
uneven number of mentor and protégé applicants, which has made the pairing of
suitable mentors and protégés difficult.
As more people apply, the matching should become easier. The Subcommittee will continue to explore
all avenues to generate interest in this program. One such avenue will be a presentation at the upcoming Engineering Leadership Development Seminar in
March 2001. CDR Mickelsen is taking the
lead for the Subcommittee’s presentation at the Seminar.
7. Recruiting and Retention: See comments under New
Business. No further reports were
given.
8. Rules: The Rules Subcommittee report was deferred until
the next meeting.
ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was
adjourned prematurely due to a fire alarm at the Twinbrook Building at
approximately 3:10 p.m. EDT.
EPAC MEETING PARTICIPATION:
Participants: (Members in bold, with alternates attending matched by number to
the members absent):
CAPT Thomas Bedick (NIH), LCDR Meredith Bond (EPA),
LT Sean Boyd (FDA, ex-officio), CAPT
Kevin Chadwick (IHS), CAPT Terry Christensen (NIH), CAPT Joseph Cocalis (CDC),
LCDR Michael Coene (FDA), LTJG Michael Copeland (EPA), CDR Eric Crump (EPA), CAPT Jose Cuzme (IHS), CDR Jo Ann Griffith (EPA), Ms. Lisa Hayes (ATSDR), Mr. Tony
Iannacchione (CDC), CAPT Cris Kinney (IHS), LCDR Louis Lightner (HRSA), CDR
Kenneth Martinez (CDC), CDR David McDonnell (IHS, ex-officio), CDR Leroy Mickelsen (CDC), CDR Kathy Poneleit (FDA), CAPT Sven
Rodenbeck (ATSDR), LT Hilda Scharen (DCP/PSC, ex-officio), CAPT Gene Sullenger (FDA), CDR Maurice West
(ATSDR), Mr. Mitchell Williams (NIH), RADM Robert Williams (ATSDR,
ex-officio).
Members Absent:
None.
Authorization
I
have recorded the above EPAC meeting minutes:
CDR
David I. McDonnell, P.E. Date
Executive
Secretary, EPAC
I
have read the above minutes which accurately describe this meeting, and on
behalf of the EPAC approve their distribution:
CAPT
E. Crispin Kinney, P.E. Date
Chairperson,
EPAC
I
authorize distribution of these minutes:
RADM
Robert C. Williams, P.E. Date
Chief
Engineer, USPHS