The circuit
- By Dan Caterinicchia, Dan Caterinicchia
- Apr 30, 2001
Moving Made Easy?
Transferring from one military base to another? Retiring from years
of federal service and heading for warmer weather? Changing jobs to be closer
to family and friends?
If you're moving, you can go to your local post office and fill out
the dreaded change-of-address form, which can take a while to process and
may result in mail delays. You can also print out forms from the U.S. Postal
Service Web site, but you still have to drop them off at a post office or
mail them in.
But help is on the way. This summer, USPS is launching a three-state
pilot to test the public's interest and willingness to complete the Mover's
Guide online.
Imagitas, a Boston-based government solutions firm, has partnered with
USPS and hopes to accomplish three goals for the agency: increase customer
satisfaction; decrease costs while increasing profit; and integrate online
and off-line services for universal access, said John Kelley, vice president
of postal initiatives at Imagitas.
The new venture should help USPS make money through advertising because
the Mover's Guide includes information and special deals from companies
offering rental trucks and services that help users disconnect utilities,
Kelley said.
If the pilot goes well, the Postal Service looks to roll it out nationwide
by the end of year.
Dough That Won't Rise
We hear appointing a deputy director for management at the Office of
Management and Budget is not far from the minds of the top echelon at the
White House. Folks there have talked to a half-dozen potential nominees,
and we even hear that one of the top candidates pulled out after hearing
the salary. What did he think — that it was a private- sector job? Just
for the record, the DDM's job pays in the low six figures, just like other
top political appointments.
Squirrelly Presentation
There's nothing like a little multimedia to enhance a speech and connect
with your audience. But the Defense Department's Bob Downes walked a fine
line this month during a keynote address at the E-Learning Conference and
Expo in Washington, D.C.
Downes, executive secretary of DOD's Advanced Distributed Learning program,
stressed the need for ADL — which pursues standards for online training
course material to enable customized, accessible education for its personnel — to work closely with industry partners and training professionals, many
of whom were on hand for his talk.
To drive home his point, he played the "Running of the Squirrels" ad
from Electronic Data Systems Corp., an ADL partner, which debuted during
this year's Super Bowl. It's a take on the famous running of the bulls in
Pamplona, Spain, and shows participants scurrying away from rampaging squirrels
and testifying to the difficulty of it.
"That is our new concept of operations," Downes said. "We need to run
with the squirrels. You folks are the squirrels. We need to run with you."
The audience laughed and seemed to appreciate the gesture, but we're
wondering whether comparing your audience to a bunch of rodents is a good
idea. n
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