Strategic Acquisition Council Meeting Notes

October 24, 2008

• Kickoff by Linda Washington, Assistant Secretary for Administration.  This is a new day for DOT acquisition.  We look forward to making acquisition more strategic at the Department.

• Congratulations go to Wayne Leong of MARAD and Carmencita Jones of OST who were recently selected as the Chiefs of their Contracting Officers.

• Three Pronged Approach for Making Acquisition More Strategic at DOT.  (See powerpoint chart)

• Draft Strategic Acquisition Council charter discussed.  Some comments received---additional comments requested by Joanie by Oct 31.

• Top Acquisition Topics (see attached) as identified by the Chiefs of Contracting and Heads of Contracting Activities for the various OAs.  Top area by far is acquisition workforce.  We collectively decided to have an Acquisition Workforce Working Group to develop a plan for the Department.  Joanie will be sending out an e-mail requesting members for the working group.  She would also like a chair.  Joanie plans to participate but prefers to have a COCO be the chair. 

• Joanie is in the process of selecting a Deputy GS-15.  She asked for another volunteer to participate on the interview panel. 

• Everyone should be receiving passwords for their staff members for the Acquisition Solutions subscription.  We will be holding training sessions as part of the first DOT Acquisition Forum series.  Look for notices for training beginning in November. 

Attendees:

            Joanie Newhart, OST

            Denise Wright, OST

            David Scali, Volpe

            Willie Smith, FHWA

            Becky Pennington, NHTSA

            Jack Schreibman, MARAD

            James Harper, Jr., FTA

      Carmencita Jones, FTA

Brenda Perez, PHMSA

Tom Scott, PHMSA

Monica Summitt, PHMSA