Minutes of the Meeting of the

Engineer Professional Advisory Committee

Thursday, June 28, 2001

The Engineer Professional Advisory Committee (EPAC) welcomes your input and participation. Meetings are open to all PHS Engineers and Architects. Those who are not able to attend in person may attend via conference call.

CALL TO ORDER

CAPT Kevin Chadwick, EPAC Chairperson, called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. EDT at the IHS Twinbrook Metro Plaza Executive Conference Room, Rockville, Maryland. The April 26, 2001, meeting minutes were approved. The next meeting will be held Thursday, July 26, 2001, at 1:00 p.m. EDT at the IHS Twinbrook Metro Plaza Building Executive Conference Room in Rockville, Maryland.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Office of the Chief Engineer: RADM Robert Williams reported the following announcements.

A. CPO-PAC Chairs Meeting: The following are highlights from the Chief Professional Officer Professional Advisory Committee Chairs meeting held this morning.

1. Surgeon General David Satcher announced his call to action promoting sexual health and responsible sexual behavior.

2. Chief Professional Officers – Effective July 1, 2001, there are two new CPOs in the following categories: Dental, RADM Dushanka Kleinman; and Pharmacist, RADM Richard Walling.

3. Jr. Officer Ad Hoc Committee – LT Sean Boyd presented the year’s activities for the three subcommittees of recruitment, welcoming and career development to the CPO-PAC. The CPO-PAC made a formal declaration of support for this group with a motion during the meeting.

4. DCP Activities – RADM Michael Davidson had the following announcements.

a. The Recruitment Workshop, July 16 and 17, goals are to give agencies a better understanding of the commissioned corps purpose and how to place and recruit officers within agencies. See DCP report

b. The Associate Recruiter program is being initiated at an agency level and will concentrate on enlisting junior level engineers as associates.

c. The Basic Officer Training Course (BOTC) has been funded to ensure that all new officers will be able to attend a BOTC. This authorization comes with an attendance requirement for this year’s recruits.

5. Commissioned Corps Revitalization – Secretary Tommy Thompson has mandated this effort to review the corps structure and function as a mobile and ready group for health responses. Statements are expected covering uniforms, scholarship program legislation, dual status positions of inactive reserve/civil service and an increased inactive service role. See the Dep’t. of Health and Human Services Website (www.dhhs.gov) for more information on this topic using the following steps: NEWS, TESTIMONY and scroll down to May 9, 2001: “Health and Human Services Readiness to Combat Terrorism”.

6. The EPAC Website (www.usphsengineers.org) link to the USPHS Website (www.usphs.gov) is not active.

B. Promotions

Congratulations to all engineer officers who were promoted this cycle including the EPAC members: CAPT Leroy Mickelsen, CAPT Kenneth Martinez, CDR Michael Coene (exceptional capability), LCDR Nate Tatum and LCDR-elect Hilda Scharen. For those not promoted who are seeking career counseling, please contact CAPT Sven Rodenbeck of the OCE at svr1@cdc.gov or 404.498.0439.

C. COA National Conference See COA report

The following awards were presented during the category day: Engineer Literary Awards to Mr. Farhad Memarzadeh, CAPT Joseph Cocalis, Ms. Terry O. Woods and Ms. Lesley Kerr; the Ike Burgess Young Engineer Award to Mr. Scott Hendrickson and the John Villforth Leadership Award to Ms. Lisa Hayes.

D. SAME National Conference See SAME report

The USPHS was recognized and welcomed as a service organization with a full ceremony. Awards presented at this conference included: Hollis Medals to CAPT Rao Surampalli and CAPT Sven Rodenbeck, the Green Medal to LCDR David Ausdemore and the Cummings Plaque to the Tom’s River Investigation Team, ATSDR. The Nashville Area was well represented during the conference.

E. OCE Specifics

1. New Phone and Fax Numbers – 404.498.0007 and 404.498.0073 FAX

2. Submit articles to LCDR Tatum for inclusion in the OCE Newsletter.

3. The USPHS Engineer Logo is now adopted. An electronic copy is available through the OCE.

EPAC Chair: CAPT Kevin Chadwick reported the following.

A. Subcommittee Participation

EPAC members are required to be involved with two subcommittees and should be actively encouraging fellow engineer involvement.

B. EPAC Membership List

Some alternate positions are still open. A short alternate form submitted to the EPAC chairperson is the only requirement for designation.

C. COA Conference

I compliment all organizers, participants and attendees for their time and efforts on category day. The event will be held in Atlanta, GA next year.

D. Remote EPAC Meeting

The previously discussed September meeting in Anchorage has been cancelled. A new proposal to meet in Boston, MA in late October or early November is being canvassed. A local FDA unit would be approached for coordination.

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

A. Promotions

The latest promotion results have been sent to the OCE.

B. Officer (On-Line) Applications

1. Applicants and authorized users can check for status and availability at the DCP Website, dcp.psc.gov. The applicant may give authorization by providing their last four digits of their social security number along with a last name.

2. A pre-screening process has been added to eliminate unqualified applicants from submitting a full application to DCP.

3. Applications are up 20% this calendar year compared to last year.

C. Personnel Orders

Call to active duty personnel orders are being processed by a technician group dedicated solely to this order type.

D. Recruitment Conference

1. DCP will be hosting this workshop July 16 and 17 in Washington, D.C. DCP is targeting hiring officials and personnel directly involved in recruitment.

2. The associate recruiter program will be a major topic of discussion. A notice of application with qualifications is forthcoming in the CC Bulletin and/or on the DCP website.

Question

CAPT Chadwick inquired about the process and timetable for an inter-service transfer.

Answer

An applicant can have an active role by continuing to check on the application throughout the process. The reference sheets often hold up the process unknowingly to both the applicant and recruiting service. Forwarding the OF 1662 early can sometimes spur the process. In all cases, make sure the applicant speaks directly to the processing technician who can provide invaluable advice.

Commissioned Officers Association (COA) Liaison: CDR Kathy Poneleit reported the following.

A. Meeting of the Assembly

1. The financial, membership, resolutions, and insurance reports were presented.

2. The new officers and members elected at the meeting are the following:

· Chairperson, RADM Ret. Dick Bertin

· Treasurer, CDR Poneleit

· Inactive Reserve (new category), CAPT Max Kopell

· Retired: RADM Ret. Susan Dahlman and CAPT Ret. Richie Taffet

· Therapist, CAPT Becky Parks

· Veterinarian, CDR Hugh Mainzer

B. COA Membership

The engineer category is at 78% with an overall officer rate of 67.9%.

C. D.C. COA Luncheon

The luncheon is scheduled for Wednesday, July 18, at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Cafeteria B, 11:30-1:30 PM, EDT.

Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Liaison: LT Scharen reported the following.

A. 2001 SAME National Conference

The members were cognizant of what USPHS is about was realized at this meeting.

B. SAME Committees

The new chairpersons are actively seeking committee membership. Contact LT Scharen or visit www.same.org for more information.

C. SAME Symposium - Comprehensive Force Protection

1. Scheduled for November 1 and 2, 2001, in Charleston, SC.

2. CAPT Kevin Tonat will highlight the opening session on threat and vulnerability.

3. New security engineering design and construction guidelines are on the agenda.

This agenda item is part of SAME’s goal to promote the development of practical standards to help and educate awareness in the public and private sector design communities.

Junior Engineer Report: LT Boyd reported the following.

A. CPO-PAC Presentation

The chair and vice-chairperson met with this group today. The committee’s objectives were to consider communication issues and establish the JOHAG as a standing advisory group to the OSG, CPO-PAC and individual PACs. The ad hoc designation was removed since our last meeting.

B. EPAC Communications

The full committee and all four subcommittees have been sharing contact information with the Mentoring and Recruitment & Retention Subcommittees.

Job Vacancies: Known vacancies are now posted or linked on the PHS Engineers website (www.usphsengineers.org). The weekly OCE statements from LCDR Tatum via e-mail are another resource. See Recruiting and Retention Subcommittee Report for recent improvements to the vacancy database.

OLD BUSINESS - NONE

NEW BUSINESS – Future A/E Leadership Development Seminar, Ms. Hayes

The Career Development Subcommittee has discussed this possibility and we have a few items that we would like to bring forward to the EPAC for consideration, if the EPAC decides to sponsor another seminar.

One, we need to identify someone to "champion" the next seminar. This person would have responsibilities similar to the ones that the chair of the career development subcommittee had for the March seminar. The career development subcommittee members do not have a person to recommend as champion, so if the EPAC agrees with this approach, perhaps someone on EPAC would like to volunteer or has a suggestion for someone who might be willing to take this task on.

Second, the subcommittee would like to recommend that an ad hoc EPAC subcommittee do the planning for the next seminar. If a standing subcommittee undertook this duty their other obligations may be neglected with the intensive seminar planning. The “champion” that we select could chair this subcommittee.

In addition, other categories have expressed an interest in being involved in a future leadership seminar. The career development subcommittee preferred to keep the seminar to engineers and architects, but if we choose not to have a joint seminar, then we as a category must shoulder the entire planning and financial burden for the seminar.

NOTE: The preference to limit the seminar to A/E was not shared by all members.

By the way, the career development subcommittee has put together an after-action report which summarizes the planning for the seminar including a timeline, lessons learned, and participant evaluation excerpts which should be very helpful to the next group of seminar planners. This report will be distributed electronically to all EPAC members.

After several minutes of discussion of these items, a motion was made and carried to establish an ad hoc subcommittee to plan the next seminar. In addition, LCDR Tatum and CDR Coene will develop a survey to be sent to all PHS Engineers and Architects in the OCE weekly e-mail to determine interest in attending a 2002 Leadership Development Seminar. After the results of this survey, the ad hoc subcommittee can begin to make plans for the next Leadership Development Seminar.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

1. Awards: CDR West reported the following.

There was no meeting last month.

A. Award Review

All current awards, and specifically the new awards, will be completely reviewed encompassing the timing, call for nominations, nomination process, evaluation criteria, etc. for possible improvements. Suggestions are solicited.

B. Award Winners

I will be working with LCDR Tatum to post the winner’s name and photographs on the EPAC website.

A possible committee initiative would be to revise the awards guidance.

2. Building Design & Construction: CAPT Martinez reported the following.

The subcommittee met on June 12. Mr. Pete Schubert had a “green building construction” presentation focusing on indoor air quality touching on materials with low volatilization, chamber testing, ventilation and sampling technique.

A. Healthy Building Initiative

1. CAPT Bill Brodt is encouraging a coalition of interested individuals including university deans and state health officers to present to the Surgeon General on this symposium forming its agenda and the OSG participation.

2. The conference agenda will be revised from its current statement of facilities design/engineering including health care facilities, schools and similar buildings with public health concerns to one driven by the health problems, asthma, infectious diseases, etc. associated with inadequate buildings.

3. The conference organization is tentatively set for a day of individual subtopic presentations followed by a panel discussion. The second day would include a summary of the subtopics to the general group. The final product would include recommendations from the meeting.

4. The EPAC is currently the organizer and hosts, but NIH and NIOSH have become the lead participants owing to the conference mission change and as the funding agencies.

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

A. COA Conference

1. 2001 - The category day program at COA went very well. It was not as well attended as last year's in Scottsdale, but the presentations were excellent. The subcommittee thanks all those involved in program planning, presenters and moderator.

2. 2002 - In a couple of months, the subcommittee will begin the planning for the next category day program. Next year's COA conference is April 21-25 so we will have less time for planning than usual. If you have any ideas about themes or speakers for next year’s program, please let me know. The OCE has discussed the possibility of an afternoon field visit during category day since the meeting is in Atlanta.

B. Engineer Welcome Program

The welcome program is still going strong. We are currently preparing letters for RADM Williams' signature to all civil service engineers hired in the 1st and 2nd quarters. We had not been able to get the names of the new commissioned officer engineers for a while, but thanks to CDR Ganaway we have now received those names current through the end of April and will be sending letters to those new engineer officers as well. CAPT Chadwick will send welcome packages to these new engineers shortly after the letters from the Chief Engineer are sent. Once the welcome packages are sent, the career development subcommittee will divide up the names and make calls to the new engineers to let them know about EPAC and see if they have any questions that we can answer for them.

The subcommittee’s current top priority is reviewing the engineer handbook for possible revisions. This will be the lead topic at our next conference call on Thursday, July 12 at 3:00 EDT. Call information is the same as last month.

4. Emergency Preparedness: CAPT Jose Cuzme, for CAPT Rodenbeck, reported the following.

The Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee met on May 3 and June 7. We are continuing to make progress in developing the learning modules for Commissioned Corps Readiness Force (CCRF) Engineers. We should have most of them ready by summer’s end.

The subcommittee would like to remind all engineers interested in being a part of the CCRF that time is short. The deadline to complete all of the new requirements to be a member of the CCRF is January 1, 2002. Completion of several of the new requirements does take a significant amount of time and effort. Below is a list of the new requirements for engineers. Detailed information concerning these requirements is posted on the CCRF web page (http://oep.osophs.dhhs.gov/ccrf).

The Core CCRF Online Web-Based Training
Current Basic CPR for Healthcare Providers (AHA standard)
Up-To-Date Immunizations
CCRF Physical Fitness Evaluation (annually)
Medical Physical Examination (every 2 years)
Meet Height/Weight Standards (annually)

The Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee will meet on August 2, 2001, from 3:00 to 4:30 PM EDT via conference call. Please contact CAPT Rodenbeck if you would like to join the conference call.

5. Information: CAPT Gene Sullenger reported the following.

The subcommittee met on Wednesday, June 20.

A. Engineer Database on the Web

CDR Coene and I have taken LCDR Tatum’s working database and added several new tables and data entry forms to allow us to update records easily and to allow for the automatic creation of EPAC and subcommittee rosters. These new features are currently running and will be put into production soon.

B. Webpage Activity

CDR Coene has provided the latest 2001 statistics in the attachment.

C. Engineer Newsletter

Articles and/or columns must be submitted in a timely and consistent manner. Instituting some standard columns is suggested. Specifically, each subcommittee would have an area and would be required to submit something. A submission could be something as simple as a discussion of topics discussed on conference calls or articles specific to the subcommittee.

Some suggestion for standard columns in each newsletter that addressed specific issues such as (1) retirement issues, (2) investment/banking issues, (3) news from DCP (uniform issues) and (4) a gaming column that contained such items as mathematical puzzles or cryptograms.

The goal of the newsletter is to provide a variety of issues with the hopes of increasing readership and possibly increasing EPAC involvement. It needs to be noted that all articles and columns, except a DCP submission, could be geared toward both Commissioned Corps and Civil Servants.

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

The subcommittee met on June 19. Applications are continuing to be received.

A. Mentoring Handbook

The subcommittee is still considering revisions. Please direct any comments to Mr. William Blair or myself.

B. Mentoring Team Advisers

Advisors are needed for this critical program element. Ideal qualifications would include previous team members, but no experience is necessary. The current adviser pool members are serving on two or three teams stretching their commitment. Contact any subcommittee member if you are interested.

The next meeting of the Mentoring Subcommittee is scheduled for Tuesday, July 10, at 11:00 am ET.

7. Recruiting and Retention: LCDR Scott Helgeson reported the following.

The subcommittee met on Tuesday, May 1 with seven (7) members attending. CDR John Riegel (IHS) and LT Steve Martin (NIOSH) are new members of the subcommittee.

A. DCP Engineer Vacancy Website

The site listed job series from several non-engineer job series. The subcommittee recommended not listing Series 0601, General Health Science on the website to DCP.

B. Recruiting and Retention Mission Statement - To stabilize the decline, then increase the number and diversity of engineers in the USPHS.

The current number of Corps Engineers is 423. The breakdown by agency: IHS – 250, CDC – 39, FDA – 41, NIH – 9, EPA – 49 and NPS - 7. Since 1993, the overall strength has declined by 149 officers (26%). The EPA engineer officers have declined by 73 officers (60%). Also, the NIH, CDC and FDA have all declined more than 33%. See the distribution history attachment for a full description.

C. DCP Recruitment Conference

LCDR Helgeson and LCDR Carol Rogers will attend the conference July 16 and 17.

D. Update on Recruitment & Retention Initiatives

1. Career Opportunities Booklet (#1) – The Civil Service engineer numbers are needed from the PSC. The hardcopy will be reviewed during the July 3 meeting and submitted to the full EPAC following subcommittee approval.

2. An OCE newsletter article (#2) was submitted for the last newsletter. Another article will be forwarded to the OCE for the next newsletter.

3. Long Term Training (LTT) Opportunities (#5) - Statistics were received from DCP on LTT contracts executed by the agency since 1984. Discussions are ongoing with the Career Development Subcommittee to develop an ad hoc committee reviewing this important issue.

4. Recruitment Kit (#6) - Hardcopy material under development or updated should be placed on the engineer’s webpage. We suggest a profession page dedicated to recruitment information within our existing page be developed in coordination with the information subcommittee.

5. Recruitment Visits (#8) - LCDR Kardous and CDR Reigel attended job fairs in the past 2 months. We plan on focusing and promoting the attendance of USPHS engineers at job fairs this Fall 2001 and Spring 2002. A website calendar will be used to promote these fairs and coordinate USPHS personnel attendance.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 3 from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. PST.

8. Rules: CDR Coene reported the following.

A. EPAC Self-Nominations

1. The deadline is June 30. There are four vacancies: IHS, HRSA and two (2) At-Large.

2. For those EPAC members whose terms are expiring but are interested in continuing, they must submit this desire in writing.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 2:52 p.m. EST.

EPAC MEETING PARTICIPATION:

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

LT Sean Boyd (FDA, ex-officio), CAPT Kevin Chadwick (IHS), CDR Michael Coene (FDA), CAPT Jose Cuzme (IHS), LCDR Patrick Craney (IHS, ex-officio), CDR Marylouise Ganaway (DCP, ex-officio), Ms. Lisa Hayes (ATSDR), LCDR Scott Helgeson (IHS), Mr. Kyung Kim (NIH), Mr. Brian Kong (NIH), LT Jennifer Martin (CDC), CAPT Kenneth Martinez (CDC), CAPT Ronald L. Mickelsen (CDC), CDR Kathy Poneleit (FDA), LT Hilda Scharen (OEP, ex-officio), CAPT Gene Sullenger (FDA), LCDR Nathan Tatum (ATSDR, ex-officio), CDR Maurice West (ATSDR), Mr. F. Mitchell Williams (NIH), RADM Robert Williams (ATSDR, ex-officio).

Members Absent:

Mr. Michael Adjodha (FDA), LCDR Meredith Bond (EPA), CDR Jo Ann Griffith (EPA, ex-officio), CAPT Crispin Kinney (IHS, ex-officio), 1. CDR Louis Lightner (HRSA), LCDR Denman Ondelacy (IHS), CAPT Sven Rodenbeck (ATSDR), Mr. Matthew Vietmeier (CDC).

GUESTS:

1. LCDR Mick Cote, HRSA