s:Em Times NEWS FOR AND ABOUT EPA EMPLOYEES INSIDE: ~ A Moving PIC ~ Leave Year Ends ~ Open Season Begins VOLUME 4 NUMBER 2 NOVEMBER 1986 Join the Club ... Please! Have you ever wanted to attend professional society meetings but never had the time? That barrier has now fallen. EPA's commitment to human resources man- agement and enhancement of employee careers was boosted recently when Ad- ministrator Lee Thomas signed an "all-employee" policy on Participation in Professional Societies and Associations. Development of the policy took nearly two years from drafting by the Office of Human Resources Manage- ment to consideration and refinement by the Agency's Scientific and Technical Careers Advisory Com- mittee and the EPA Human Resources Council. Credit for the original idea goes to the Agency's Women In Science and Engineering group, which gained the early support of Deputy Ad- ministrator Jim Barnes. The policy endorses par- ticipation and active leader- ship roles in professional societies, and support of publications in academic disciplines important to the mission of the Agency. It calls for staff initiative in such matters and spells out the roles of both employees and supervisors. Office heads are directed to set aside sufficient funds for staff attendance at rele- vant professional society conferences. Employees, after consulting with their supervisors, must i Adminislralor Lee Thomas signs policy on participation in professional societies as members of the Scientific and Technical Careers Advisory Committee look on. be allowed reasonable time to prepare for and attend committee meetings. The policy permits staff who are willing to devote personal funds for travel and per diem to be granted excused absence (leave not charged) for participation in national or regional conclaves if mission-related. Supervisors are directed to encourage employees to organize or chair sessions, present papers, and submit articles to poor-reviewed journals. They must generally pay their own membership fees and dues, but EPA may obtain membership in its own name when appropri- ate. Questions may be ad- dressed to OHRM at (FTS) 382-3311. ~ GSA Plans Efficient Conquest of Space The General Services Ad- ministration (GSA) recently unveiled a new space man- agement plan to help feder- al agencies control office sprawl, meet deficit-era budget constraints, and im- prove the quality of the working environment. GSA Administrator Ter- ence C. Golden said his goal is to optimize the use of the space we occupy. He insisted that the workplace should be "an intelligently designed, attractive, effi- cient, and people-oriented environment." He is con- vinced that agencies can comply with the President's mandate to cut space and at the same time provide state- of-the-art settings and tech- nologies to upgrade em- ployee morale and effi- ciency. "In the past," Golden said, "everybody thought the way to save space and money was to crunch peo- ple together." Today. GSA has adopted a much more sophisticated approach. One kev element of the plan is consolidation. Thir- teen cabinet departments in the Washington. DC area are housed in 442 locations. The Department of the Treasury is spread over 5(5 locations, the Department of Defer00 96 and the Depart- ment ot Justice 58. Im- mediate savings from con- solidation include eliminat- ing travel time and shuttle service between offices, and centralizing procurement, personnel, duplicating, and (Continued on buck.) ------- People Around EPA Special Act Awards presented to: Lenora Simms, Kay Pettitt, Linda Pennington, Clifford More, Antoinette Thomas, Dorothy Patten, Rose Harvell, Ann Johnson, Mary Gundlach, Mary Bolten, Richard Frank, Margaret Hawkins, Randall Bond, Ron Cullember, Patricia Savage, Danna Bruce, Morris Altschuler, Nancy Kawtoski, Robert Bridges, Barry Goldfarb, Michael Haley, Alvin Edwards, Darlene Cockfield, Dawn Beall, Maureen Sinicki, Roxanne Settle, Rebecca Parrott, James McCarty, Sharita McLean, Lorraine Inglis. and Paul Shapiro. Research and Development . . . Karen Hoffman, David Kling, Debbie Allen, Lawrence Cullen, Karen McCormack, Lavonne Love, and Janet Peck. Pesticides and Toxic Substances . . . Ray Spears, Office of General Counsel . . . Tonya Minor. Administration and Resources Management . . . Diane Bazzle, Office of the Administrator . . . R.A. Edwards, David Cohen, Christian Rice, John Kasper, Martha Casey, Jill Collins, Dave Ryan, Luke Hester, Prisci 1 la Smith Flattery, Gwen Brown, Denise Owens, and Tanya Meekens, External Affairs. Sustained Superior Performance Awards to: Diane Jones. Office of the Administrator . . Phyllis Anderson. Air and Radiation . . Joeanne Osborne, Howard Toyer. and Laura Cross, Pesticides and Toxic Substances . . . Cathy Parks. Administration and Resources Management ~ Letters . a moans for Agency employees to communicate to othei employees whatever messages ol criticism, praise opinion, or explanation they so desire Brevity and constructive suggestions are encouraged, obscenity ?nd rudonuss are disallowed Letters will he published a.) alluus nnd may be edited for clarity and conciseness No attempt is irnult; by the editor to confirm any data presented by correspondents and the opinions expressed should not be taken to represent Agency positions, unless signed by the head of the appropriate oflice All letters must be signed and accompanied by submitter's ollice location and telephone number Dear Editor. Recently, my son Kevin, a freshman at the University of Georgia, was the recipient of S1,000 provided by the EPA Scholarship Fund. My daughter Tina and son Joseph have also received scholarships in the past. I would like to thank the Board of Trustees for allowing my children an opportunity to continue their education. Being a single parent for 19 years, the scholarships were a blessing. I especially want to thank Charlotte Englert and the stall in the Office of the Administrator for the courteous manner in which they handled their jobs. Betty ]o Gaston Region 4 The El'A Times is published monthly to provide news and mini mil- lion for and about l-ll'A employees Headers ,111: encouraged to submit news of themselves and ol lellow employees, letlois ol opinion, ques- tions, communis, and .suggestions to the Kdilor, Tin: i'.l'A Times, Oilici of Public Affairs (A -107) Telephone Inlonii.ilion selected for publication will be edited as necessaiy in keeping with space available features Kdiloi Don llionkema Departments llditor iVIanlyn Kogeis Open Season for federal health benefits programs at headquarters is November 10 through December 5, 1980. . Health Fair is planned on November 20 outside the WIC entrance. The Headquarters Personnel Office requests employees who wish to make a change lo submit their form (SF-2809) as early as possible. For further information contact Juelee Street on 382-3276. EPA's Public Information Center (PIC) is now located at Waterside Mall, SE. Garage Level PIC is operated under contract to the Information Services Branch ol the Information Management and Service Division /OIRM. PIC distributes publications in response to requests via correspondence, telephone calls, and walk-in visitors. PIC is open Irom 8:00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m , Monday through Friday. For information requests PIC can be reached locally at (202) 646-6410: FTS at 673-5926: toll free at 800-828-4445. Asbestos removal contracts have been awarded for Waterside Mall, Corvallis. Ada. Athens, and Edison. The removal work will be scheduled soon and take place in early FY-1987. Contracts tor asbestos removal at Grosse lie and Narragansett will also be set in early FY-1987. Morgan Kinghorn has been appointed Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Administration and Resources Management. He succeeds Seymour Greenstone. To avoid delays in receipt ol 1986 W-2 Forms, employees should verify the address that appears on the bi-weekly Payroll Statement of Earnings. If the address is incomplete or incorrect, please submit a new W-4 Form lo the Environmental Protection Agency. Headquarters Accounting Operations Branch (PM-226), by December 1. 1986. Headquarters employees can get the W-4 Forms in the Customer Assistance Office. Room 3407. Waterside Mall. Field employees should contact their Servicing Personnel Office, n Leave Year Ends Employees are reminded that the 1986 Leave Year ends January 3, 1987 and that non-SES personnel are permitted to carry over a maximum of 240 hours of annual leave Irom the previous year. Any unused annual leave in excess of this carry-over limit will be forfeited. Agency supervisors should review their employees' leave plans for the remainder of this year to avoid annual leave forfeiture Federal regulations allow restoration of forfeited annual leave only in cases due to administrative error, illness, or unforeseen public business. The regulations further stipulate that restoration will only be considered if the leave was formally scheduled and approved in writing before the start of the third biweekly pay period prior to the end of the leave year. The last date for approval of potentially restorable leave for this year would be Saturday, November 23, 1986. For more detailed information about leave ask your servicing Personnel Ollice. ------- One of Us Our thanks to Rowena Michaels of Region 7 for submitting the material for this story. Jirofile: T om Holloway—Region 7 He is a glass-blower, a pilot, a scuba diver, a church deacon, and an expert on the Gas Chromatograph Matrix Isolation Fourier Transformer Infrared Spectrometer. In our book, such diversity of skills and interests earns Dr. Thomas Holloway the title of "modern-day Renaissance man." A chemist and team leader in the Region 7 laboratory, Tom Holloway's favorite topic of conversation these days is the Chromatograph/Spectrometer "gadget," a beautiful piece of high-tech hardware that identifies chemical compounds. Holloway beams when he talks about the gadget. "There are only ten of them in the world, and we're the only regional laboratory in EPA that has one," he boasts. "Each molecule has a certain number of atoms in a particular arrangement, and the chromatograph allows the chemist to locate specific atoms and isomers in the sample," Holloway says. He and his team have been busy fine-tuning the instrument so that readouts can be interpreted quickly and accurately. They plan to tell the world scientific community of their findings in two upcoming conferences hosted by the American Chemical Society. Holloway oversees a staff of 10 scientists and engineers who comprise the Water and Analytical Support Team in the regional laboratory's Environmental Monitoring and Compliance Branch. The team is responsible for inspecting wastewater treatment plants, surveying water quality through fish and sediment sampling, evaluating historical water data collected by EPA and the • es, identifying trends, locating potential hot-spots, and liting state-run environmental programs. A native of Texas. Holloway has been with EPA for six years. Before that, he taught chemistry at William Jewell College in Missouri. He delighted in the intimacy of a small campus and provoking the curiosity of young people, yet also got a lot of kicks from long and lonely hours exploring solutions to complex questions of molecular behavior. But Holloway is also the "hands-on" type who revels in the real world. While at the college, he became interested in the art and technique of glass blowing and taught it as well. "I started the course so we could make our own lab equipment, but found it fun and continued it as a hobby." he said. Holloway received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry and Physics and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Rice University in Houston. He won a research fellowship to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he studied theoretical chemistry with the aid of advanced computers. He and his wife, Elaine, reside in Gladstone. Missouri. He is an accomplished pilot, with eight years of flying under his belt, and is working hard on his instrument rating, breaking away from his laboratory bench whenever possible for training and practice. He also enjoys scuba diving and is a deacon in the First Calvary Baptist Church in the Westport neighborhood of Kansas City, MO. We can only hope Tom Holloway doesn't spread himself too thin. On the other hand, a true Renaissance man probably needs a lot of stimuli to maintain his creativity. ~ V 4* Cfor.u/o 'b Cir:n:i:ati Lw*dl'is V J "I* 'iSdutl: •£* 2 Hi Notes from the Field J By Priscilla Flattery ^ ? Priscilla Smith Flattery is the Regional Coordinator in the -i; Office of Public Affairs. All employees are encouraged to con- 's tribute to this column by submitting ideas, information, and "5 comments to her. Telephone: 382-4387. Mail code: A-307. ^ ^ Some people in Region 2 have been doing a lot of 1 running around recently- Jim Marshall, the Acting 'A Director of the Regional Superfund program, and Alex Posner, a hydrogeologist in the Superfund office, both completed the New York Marathon as official participants. Dan Sullivan, the Deputy Director of the Environmental Services Division, , | completed the race as an unofficial runner. Taylor 'i Adams of Headquarters' Public Affairs also finished ... the race . . . Three Las Vegas laboratory employees have been included in the 1986-87 edition of the ¦? Latin Chamber of Commerce Who's Who of Hispanics ^ in the State of Nevada. Among those listed are Nelda Kaufman, EEO Specialist, Office of Civic Rights; Arthur Sandoval, Director, Office of Personnel: and X Tani Trujillo, Secretary, Environmental Monitoring : and Support Laboratory . . . Congratulations to Dr. . Rao Y. Surampalli of Region 7's Water Management ' Division, awarded the Philip F. Morgan Award of Merit by the Water Pollution Control Federation -r during its annual conference held October 8 in Los ... Angeles. The award is presented annually to the i j individual who displays meritorious service, effort, 1 and industry in the sewage treatment field ... ; Long-time Region 2 employee Richard Caspe has •i* been named Director of the Water Management ~ ^ Division. J -i- - fU.'luJL- -I- . ItMtUw: . linyeK# '!* - Vtif/Knt - Vsn-Umv, -J- ------- PianS (Conlmued from fronl.) mail services. Parts of Jus- tice, Internal Revenue, De- fense, and the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are candi- dates for consolidation this year. A second goal is to move from costly leased space into government-owned property where equity accrues and savings result because investor profits and real-estate taxes are elimi- nated. For every square foot of owned space the savings will approximate one dol- lar. Since 1964 the ratio nationwide of government- leased space has more than doubled. Today, 49 per cent of the total federal popula- tion is housed in leased quarters. A third objective is to use modular or systems furni- ture to get better service from less space, while pro- viding the worker with far better visual and acoustical privacy and cutting fatigue. Systems furniture can save 40 square feet per person on average, and pays for it- self in three and one-half years. Systematic use of such scientifically designed furniture in only 10 percent of GSA's real estate in- ventory would cut 5,500,000 square feet and save $200,000,000 over the next five years. And how will all this space-waste be cut? By bet- ter space utilization in new- ly leased or acquired build- ings and modernization of existing space, reductions in conventional space for each employee, de- commissioning warehouse space, and selling off prop- erty no longer needed by the government. Golden said "We expect to average one employee per 135 square feet of space in older buildings and much better than that in new ones." That 135 in- cludes common space around work stations and some conference rooms and corridors, but excludes au- ditoria, labs, restrooms, reception areas, lobbies, and electromechanical sup- port space. The efficiency potential of the scientific space- management approach is staggering when one con- siders that GSA provides office space for 890,000 federal employees in more than 2.200 government- owned and 4,600 leased buildings. (This includes the Pentagon but excludes all other military.) The agency's annual ex- penditures for real estate management activities such as acquisition of sites and buildings, construction, leasing, repairs, alterations, maintenance, and protec- tion run to about $2.5 bil- lion. For additional benefits to the taxpayer, GSA is de- legating buildings- management authority to agencies who are sole occu- pants in government-owned or leased buildings nation- wide. The goal is to let agencies set their own priorities. With some ex- ceptions, GSA will phase out its operational functions and focus on policy matters. ~ Products & Events Training The Headquarters Education Center and the EPA Institute will be sponsoring several training programs in the coming months on a variety of topics. Although specific announcements have or will be issued, call the Institute (475-8047) or the headquarters Employee Development and Training Office (382-2997) if you have any additional questions. Specific opportunities scheduled so far include: Introduction to Expert Systems (Employee Development and Training Office)—This program will cover the principles and applications of expert computer programs that can serve as a substitute for a human expert. The program will begin on January 28 and conclude in mid-March. The cost is $495 per person, including the cost of the software package. Project Officer Training for Grants and Cooperative Agreements (EPA Institute)—A 14-hour program designed by the Grants Administration Division to provide a better understanding of the grant assistance process. Scheduled for November 4-5 in the North Conference Center near the WIC. Contract Administration Training for Supervisors and Managers (EPA Institute)—A one-day course on the contract administration process and the critical roles of EPA project officers. Several programs are scheduled. Contract Administration Training for Project Officers (EPA Institute)—A three-day program providing EPA project officers, work assignment managers, and delivery order officers with a better understanding of the contract administration process. Several programs are scheduled ~ EPA's Air and Energy Engineering Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park, and the Electric Power Research Institute are cosponsoring the 1987 Joint Symposium on Stationary Combustion NOx Control. The Symposium will be held in New Orleans on March 23-26, 1987. For more information, contact Jack Greene, MD-49, EPA, AEERL, Research Triangle Park. NC 27711. Telephone: (FTS) 629-2903. The Agency has recently produced the following publications which are available from the Public information Center (800) 828-4445. ® Hazardous Waste Ground Water Task Force, leaflet. (OPA-86-006). ® Ozone, Smog, and You, leaflet for general public (OPA-86-007). ~ Hotlines, Anyone? The Office of Public Affairs is compiling a list of hotlines operated by or for the Agency. The completed list will be printed in an upcoming issue o The EPA Journal. If you operate an EPA hotline, please call or write the editor of the Journal. John Heritage. Telephone (FTS) 382-4393. Mail code (A-107). Thank you. ------- |