Small agency steering committee
March 29, 1999



Attendees:

    Karen Kimball, OGE
    Linda Bradford-Washington, BPE
    Al Officer, USDA
    Dorothea Taylor-Kennedy
    Mary Leary, PTO
    David Grim, AID
    Julia Roig, US Dist. Cts.
    Sandra Canery, FCC
    Dolores H. Crawford, GAO

Other members of the steering committee who were not present at the meeting are Regina Budd (GSA), Queenie Cox (ITC), and Doris Steward (SAMHSA).

The Small Agency Caucus steering committee meeting was on Tuesday, March 29, 1999 at the General Accounting Office, 441 G Street, NW, Room 4051. The meeting began at 9:00 and ended at 11:30. The next two steering committee meetings are scheduled for Wednesday, April 7 at GAO (same room) and April 21, at the USDA Graduate School from 9:30-11:30.

All of the attendees said that GAO was a convenient location for the steering committee meetings, but it was also suggested that we rotate the meeting place to give committee members an opportunity to see other small agencies. GAO's conference room is always available with sufficient notice.

Agenda

We began the meeting with introductions of all attendees and a brief discussion of our expectations. The group spent a lot of time reviewing the minutes of the February 23rd small agency caucus meeting and deciding on where to begin. One of the members suggested that we have some members from the FMCS and EEOC to participate on the steering committee. The feeling was that we could benefit from their experience and knowledge in developing ADR programs. After a lengthy discussion, the steering committee agreed on the following goals and objectives:

    Clearinghouse
    Sharing resources
    Best practices

We felt that most of the tasks that we would pursue during the year would fall under one of these categories. During the February 23rd meeting, the groups developed a list of projects they felt would address their needs in implementing an ADR program. We reviewed the list of projects and decided that we would revisit this list when we were ready to begin the strategic planning.

In addition to addressing the needs of agencies that are in the planning and implementation stage, we will also develop projects for those agencies that are in various stages throughout the design process of their ADR program. We realize that everyone is not starting at square one. We will try to have activities that will benefit all members of the caucus.

We also discussed how and when we report to the members of the caucus. The committee tentatively agreed that we would try to schedule the next caucus meeting on April 27, but that we wanted to wait until our next meeting to finalize this. We decided to provide a brief report of the March 29th committee meeting to the members of the caucus.

Next steps

The following assignments are to be prepared for the next committee meeting.

David - contact FMCS for a representative for the steering committee and check to see if there is an update for the June 30, 1993, ACUS ADR design package.

Dolores - contact EEOC for a representative for the steering committee and minutes from the 3/29 steering committee.

Linda - will scan the ACUS ADR design package

All attendees - bring their agency ADR policy statement and any information on determining a need and implementation of an ADR program.

- Review the ADR design package by ACUS