Procurement Management Council Meeting Topics

September 3, 2008

• Introductions

• Top Three Acquisition Topics (see attached) as identified by the Chiefs of Contracting for the various OAs.  After some discussion, the top topics were recruitment/retention and electronic business transformation.  At the next AMC meeting, Joanie Newhart is going to make a presentation to the OA AAs and she will ask what three acquisition topics keep them awake at night.  She will then compare the two lists and share the top topics at the next meeting.

• Making DOT Acquisition More Strategic.  Initial ideas to increase communication among the acquisition professionals at DOT:

• Develop two sharepoint sites:  one for Chiefs of Contracting to share ideas and discuss acquisition issues and one for all acquisition professionals at DoT. 
• Have monthly “Brown Bag with the SPE” lunches that are open to all acquisition professionals at DOT.  These would be informal discussions of acquisition topics of interest, sharing of ideas and networking.
• Have monthly DOT Acquisition Forums open to all.  These would be topics of interest such as a guest speaker from OFPP on their initiatives, Karen Pica from Federal Acquisition Institute on training and certification, etc.  We could also have various speakers from the OAs describe their missions.  The purpose is to broaden the perspective of DOT acquisition professionals.
• Have an annual procurement conference.

·                    Joanie is planning to update the charter and take the PMC into a new direction.  As part of that new direction, she is planning to change the name of the PMC to the Strategic Acquisition Council and have the charter indicate that the council is to be more strategic in nature and less informational.  She is planning for the new sharepoint sites to be informational in nature---that will allow the information to be distributed more quickly and not tie up this valuable meeting.  (See attached draft charter).  She will distribute the draft charter officially after the end of the FY and ask for comments at that time. 

·        Joanie has requested and received funds to procure a subscription to Acquisition Solutions’ Virtual Acquisition Office (VAO) for the entire agency.  We’re going to procure 350 passwords and 4 points of inquiry.  The VAO is a valuable resource for acquisition professionals.  It’s benefits include a comprehensive library of regulations and information, a Contracting Officer’s Toolkit with checklists and samples, a daily e-mail on acquisition topics, periodic special Advisories and Updates, quarterly seminars and forums, and an inquiry service in which they will do 4 hours of research on an unlimited number of topics. 

·        Other topics discussed briefly:

o       Joanie will be advertising for a GS-15 Deputy Director shortly and is looking for a good competition for that position.  It is going to be an exciting time in DOT acquisition this year!

o       There was a robust discussion of how we can retain our acquisition professionals including a discussion of generational differences.  We may need to have a separate working group just for this topic---possibly bringing in HR for brainstorming purposes.  We will discuss at the next meeting.

o       We discussed the importance of working closely with our CIO and CFO colleagues.

o       Many OAs have individuals who do COTR-like tasks, but are called other title, such as Task Manager, etc.  These individuals are not covered by the new COTR certification.  At some point we may want to consider having a separate certification for them.

o       The attendees are interested in getting e-signature as part of One DOT PRISM. 

o       The TAR/TAM update process was discussed (see attachment).

Attendees:

            Joanie Newhart, OST

            Cassandra Wells, OST

            Denise Wright, OST

            David Scali, Volpe

            Laura Birkhimer, PHMSA

            Willie Smith, FHWA

            Deborah Wilson, FAA

            Jim Washington, FAA

            Larry Wyborski, FAA

            Becky Pennington, NHTSA

            Jack Schreibman, MARAD

            Wayne Leong, MARAD

            Charles Nurse, FRA

            James Harper, Jr., FTA