Washington D.C. is the CEA (Creative Epicenter of Acronyms)

There's a special skill in the nation's capital that essentially vanishes once you go beyond the Beltway. Washingtonians can use acronyms like no one else in the nation. They are most creative people, in some right.

Some examples:

The Army has an exercise called Manned-Unmanned Systems Integration Capability, or MUSIC.

In 2010, someone dreamed up a mouthful of a title -- Implementing Management for Performance and Related Reforms to Obtain Value in Every Acquisition Act -- in order to create a catchy acronym, the IMPROVE Acquisition Act.

The Air Force has the Commercially Hosted InfraRed Payload (CHIRP) Replenishment (aka CHIRP+)

Here’s another one: UNIversity Co-Operative Research—Navy, or UNICORN.

Now the General Services Administration needs to tap that special Washingtonian skill to rename its Integrations program. It’s the multiple-award contract for professional services and other types of services that may be hard to define. A senior official has approved program’s internal business case this month, so officials are early in the procurement process.

As one of the first to-dos, officials are thinking up a name. In her Integrations Blogger’s Blog, Lisa Maguire, the program manager for Integrations, wrote what she wants the name to have:

• Branding potential.
• A meaningful acronym.
• Three words or less.

She would even consider one-word names that aren’t acronyms.

“We would like the name to ‘capture’ the fine nuance that Integrations is intended to have service-related objectives,” Maguire wrote in November.

In response to Maguire’s post, people have offered several suggestions:

• PRISM, the PRofessional Integrated Services for Management.
• SMAC, Smart Moves for Advancing Communications.
• CAPTURE, Commercial, Architecture Practices and Technologies for Utility and Rapid Evolution.
• Or even CaPTURE, Contract and Purchase Technologies Undergoing Rapid Evolution.

Can't you just feel the creative juices flowing?

Maguire has apparently not settled on a name yet, so do you have any suggestions for Maguire and Integrations?

For those of you who have lived in the creative epicenter of acronyms for years, share the artwork of acronyms that you have seen the government use to name its programs.

We wonder if there's another agency that can top the Defense Department in creativity.

Posted by Matthew Weigelt on Feb 21, 2012 at 2:00 PM