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December 22, 2004 Special Holiday Season Edition In this issue:
The E-Gov Spotlight — Chief Information Officer — USDA Scott Charbo Chief Information Officer "From food stamps to forestry, USDA is reengineering business processes and systems to modernize our delivery of programs and services to customers." Scott Charbo Since his appointment as CIO on Aug. 20, 2002, by Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman, Charbo’s responsibilities have included overall management of USDA's information resources and IT assets, overseeing more than 4,000 IT professionals and $1.7 billion in physical assets. "Secretary Veneman made technology a key legacy issue of her administration at USDA," Charbo said. "A great example is USDA.gov and MYUSDA.gov. These sites are not organized by our agencies but rather by the services, products, and information that customers expect from USDA." "I manage the IT activities of USDA across the agencies that make up USDA," he said. "I set the vision of the enterprise for IT (E-Gov, telecomm, and security) based on the business that we need to deliver, form policy, and develop the IT budget for USDA." Previously, Charbo served at the USDA Farm Service Agency, where he was director of the Office of Business and Program Integration. He was responsible for planning, developing, and administering the agency's programs and policies and provided direction in the areas of economic and policy analysis, appeals and litigation, strategic management and corporate operations, outreach programs and strategic planning, and leadership in the agency's citizen-centered egovernment initiatives. Charbo also served as a county agriculture extension agent after graduate school, and as president of mPower3, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ConAgra Foods Company. Both positions provided valuable experience that he has brought to his current post. “I had to manage people and technology development products,” he said, speaking of mPower3. "Our business was clearly identifying needs of a customer and providing products to meet these needs and pricing. I have tried to use these skills in developing the vision for IT at USDA.” Looking ahead, Charbo notes his top priority and key challenge is to help USDA manage change. “We need to better communicate the expectations of these new IT systems we are so proudly developing. Stakeholders need to know the WIFMs (what’s in it for me),” he said. USDA recently released MYUSDA.gov, an electronic loan deficiency product (eLDP), and a USDA electronic statement report. Charbo is also at work on a new correspondence management system and a new civil rights complaint tracking system. USDA is also partnering with USA Services, using the GSA-managed egovernment initiative to handle misdirected email. “We have gone as far as developing a small application that uses Outlook to brand this service in our Outlook browser,” Charbo said. “We are doing some final development and will make this feature available across USDA.” Charbo holds an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Tampa and a master’s degree in plant science from the University of Nevada-Reno. Contract Takes Federal Government into New Era of Citizen Service
Environment Created for Intergovernmental Service Approach Federal Multilingual Websites the Focus of New Committee FirstGov en Español in GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Communications and the Internal Revenue Service’s Multilingual Initiative Strategy Office recently sponsored the first meeting of the Federal Multilingual Websites Committee. About 50 people, representing a wide range of federal agencies, participated in the meeting. The half-day seminar consisted of best practices and vendor presentations, as well as an open forum discussion. The goal of this committee is to promote and improve egovernment services to multilingual customers. Members of the committee currently manage or are planning to develop federal government websites in languages other than English. Quarterly meetings and electronic communications will allow committee members to share ideas, challenges, lessons learned, and best practices in developing and managing multilingual government websites. For further information, please contact Leilani Martínez, 202-208-5858, or leilani.martinez@gsa.gov. OCSC’s Office of Intergovernmental Solutions Presents Innovative Funding Approaches
OCSC’s Office of Intergovernmental Solutions (OIS) has published the 15th edition of its semiannual newsletter with an edition that focuses on the challenges of Innovative Funding. Over the past several years, funding projects that are not earmarked for appropriated funds has become a special challenge for governments. The newsletter reviews innovative ways governments acquire the necessary resources to fulfill their missions and meet the growing needs of their customers. These strategies range in scope from the Innovation Fund Model and the Invest to Save Budget, to fee-for-service. These examples, and more, are from federal, state, local, and international governments, as well as industry, nonprofits, and academia. Manage the winter season better this year by reviewing the tips on FirstGov.gov, such as combating winter weight gain, reducing home energy costs, and more. www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/Winter.shtml. Happy Holidays! And Keep Those New Year’s Resolutions! Happy holidays to you and yours from all of us at FirstGov BUZZ! We hope that you have enjoyed keeping up to date with the happenings at FirstGov.gov over the past year and will tell others about this newsletter and our award-winning portal. Make your holidays brighter by visiting FirstGov.gov and reviewing its list of informative holiday ideas, such as sending online greetings to our troops, holidays at the White House, holiday shopping tips, and more. www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/Happy_Holidays.shtml And click on www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml to get more ideas and resolve to actually keep those New Year’s resolutions!
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