Public Service Recognition Week - Proud to Serve

Honoring Our Public Servants. 
Connecting Citizens with Their Government.

May 4–10, 2014

Celebrated the first week of May since 1985, Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW) is time set aside to honor the men and women who serve our nation as federal, state, county and local government employees and ensure that our government is the best in the world.

The theme for PSRW 2014 is Proud to Serve. We encourage government employees and leaders alike to take the opportunity to communicate the benefits and value of the work they do. To help spread the word, like us on Facebook and join the conversation on Twitter: #PSRW and #Proud2ServeUSA.

PSRW is organized annually by the Public Employees Roundtable (PER) and its member organizations. PER will kick off PSRW 2014 with its second annual Public Service 5K run/walk in Washington, D.C. Other feature events in Washington include a public town hall meeting with Cabinet secretaries, a Washington Nationals baseball game and a congressional breakfast to announce the finalists of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals.

Throughout the country, mayors, governors, agency leaders, communities and public service organizations participate in PSRW by issuing proclamations; hosting award ceremonies and special tribute events; and delivering messages about the value of public service.

Public servants deserve our thanks throughout the year and we invite you to continue honoring them for the work they do each and every day. Ideas range from sending messages of thanks to holding appreciation events to highlighting employee accomplishments on your website or newsletter. For additional suggestions, please download our How to Celebrate PSRW Guide.

 

Join the Public Service Recognition Week Thunderclap

Join the Partnership for Public Service and the Public Employees Roundtable in giving your support and thanks to our dedicated public servants who give so much to our community and country. Sign up to lend your voice to our Public Service Recognition Week Thunderclap, which will automatically send out a message thanking public servants on Sunday, May 4.

Sign up for the Thunderclap »

Senate Passes Resolution Honoring Public Servants

March 25, 2014

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution introduced by Senator Jon Tester (Montana) honoring federal, state and local government employees, both civilian and military, for their dedication and continued service to the United States.

The cosponsors of Senator Tester’s resolution (S. Res. 397) are Mark Begich (Alaska), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Tom Carper (Delaware), Carl Levin (Michigan), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Mark Warner (Virginia), Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), Benjamin L. Cardin (Maryland), and Tim Kaine (Virginia).

Words of CEO Wisdom

Ackermann PR publishes a great newsletter. I always enjoy the short and to-the-point stories.  In a recent article, it provided Words of CEO Wisdom that I thought was worth sharing.

"In a recent roundtable of Fortune 100 CEO's, the following 'words of wisdom' surfaced and were agreed upon by all participants:

• Hire people who are better and smarter than you.
• Ego is your single greatest enemy.
• Don't mess with the people who are getting the job done.
• Be sure to get feedback on big decisions from everyone.
• Always act like the leader you truly can be.
• What you say isn't as important as what the people you are saying it to think they are hearing.
• You could be wrong - always listen to others.
• Your hardest critics might actually be your best friends.
• Stop if you don't know what you are doing.
• Integrity is always number one."

Our leadership team needs help in all these areas. Tell us when you think we aren't living up to these words of wisdom.

New Legislators are Coming to Town

This week the Naifeh Center for Effective Leadership will host the Newly Elected State Legislators Workshop in cooperation with the Baker Center for Public Policy. More than 50% of the newly elected state senators and representatives of the 108th General Assembly will spend two days in Knoxville.

The main focus of the workshop is "transitioning from campaigning to governing." They will also learn about the economic conditions of the state from Dr. Matt Murray and the state budget process from F&A Commissioner Mark Emkes. Lt. Governor Ramsey and Speaker Harwell will open the session. The president is hosting a dinner to recognize the new delegation and we will be joined by returning legislators, board of trustee members and other special guests.

This is the third biennial session that the Naifeh Center has hosted and we are looking forward to an outstanding two days.

Sharing another Blog post

Mike Smith is a friend and colleague from UNC Chapel Hill's School of Government. His recent blog post is worth sharing.

Mike Smith's Blog

What do you think? We have this book in our Leadership Library. If you are interested in reading it, contact Macel Ely or Tom Kohntopp for a loan.

Lean Forum

November 15th the Naifeh Center hosted a Lean Forum in Nashville. More than 50 individuals participated in this day-long session learning not only the principles of lean government, but also hearing about practical applications of the principles.

One state agency improved a process from 120 days to 6 days. Another improved a nearly year-long process to just a few months. This stuff really works!

My caution is always to make sure we are "leaning" something that we ought be doing. There are times when we could actually STOP doing something all together!

Thanks to CIS' Keith Groves for leading part of the day. Congratulations to Tom Kohntopp and Macel Ely for a successful event.

CIS Advisory Committee

Paul Jennings recently hosted the quarterly meeting of his advisory committee. Two long-serving members, Chris Combs of DCS Electronics in Maryville and Tom Ballard of ORNL, rotated off the council. We appreciate their many years of contributions to CIS and wish them well in the future.

Roy Bell, President of Ace Pump Corporation in Memphis, became chair of the council when Chris Combs rotated off the council. Chris had served as chair for a decade.

Several new members joined the board including Mike Brennan who is the Operations Director of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Knoxville and Kelvin Smalley who is General Manager of Aerojet Ordinance in Jonesborough.

The advisory committee reviewed the draft strategic plan and provided a wealth of information and suggestions for Paul and his staff to consider as they plan for the future. It was a very successful meeting and is a great way to stay connected with our customers.

Local Government Leadership Program

The Naifeh Center for Effective Leadership recently hosted the 2011 Local Government Leadership Program (LGLP). More than 40 local government leaders from across the state spent two days in Knoxville. The real benefit of the program is the networking that occurs, but participants also benefited from outstanding speakers on topics ranging from personal leadership to leading in a political environment.

Immediately following the LGLP event, the center hosted an LGLP Alumni event. We've been conducting LGLP since 1990 and a large number of those leaders remain in office. This annual reunion event gives the participants a chance to renew and reflect, as well as network.

Congratulations to Tom Kohntopp and Macel Ely for these two successful events. And, special thanks to all the consultants who helped recruit participants to the classes.

ASPA Reception

IPS will host a reception for the East TN Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration Friday, October 7 from 4:00 - 6:00 in the lobby.

All MPA students from UT Knoxville are especially invited to attend to learn more about ASPA and the benefits of affiliating with a professional organization. Any first-year student who attends will receive one-year free membership to ASPA from the East TN chapter.

IPS employees in the area are encouraged to attend.

Happy Anniversary IPS!

Today, August 18, IPS celebrates its 40th anniversary. At a special called meeting of the UT Board of Trustees IPS was organized by bringing together a variety of outreach organizations from across the university.

Many things have changed over the last 40 years, but commitment to our customers remains the top priority.

Visit the IPS web site to see a timeline, video and other documentary evidence of our 40 year history.

IPS 40th Anniversary Celebration

Today IPS celebrated its 40th anniversary with a variety of activities.

The morning started with painting "The Rock".



Many customers and stakeholders joined us for a bbq lunch in Circle Park in front of our building. The Grouchtown Grinners provided entertainment. Items were placed in a time capsule to be opened at a future celebration. Dr. Joe Johnson spoke of IPS' beginning. Tom Ballard covered a good bit of our history and President DiPietro made remarks on the importance of our work. The 40th anniversary cake was delicious. Thanks to everyone who attended and especially to those who were not able to attend because customers needed your assistance today. I'm proud of all the work that is accomplished across the state every day.

Special thanks to the planning committee including Susan Robertson, Judy Wilhite, Frances Adams-Obrien, Claire Marsalis, Deidre Phillips, Macel Ely and Erin Ketelle. And, thanks to all their assistants for the day who helped pull off a spectacular event.

Customers Recognized

At the recent Tennessee Municipal League meeting Livingston Mayor Curtis Hayes, a member of the MTAS advisory committee, was name 2011 Mayor of the Year!

Patty McDonald, spouse of Bartlet Mayor Keith McDonald who also serves on the MTAS advisory committee, was named Spouse of the Year!

Jody Balz, Tullahoma, was named City Manager of the Year.

Congratulations to these outstanding individuals and many thanks to them for their continuing support of IPS.

SCUPSO

Chuck Shoopman, Warren Nevad and I recently attended the spring meeting of the Southern Consortium of University-based Public Service Organizations (SCUPSO) in Charlotte, NC. The annual meeting brings together representatives from at least 25 organizations that provide a wide variety of services to customers in their particular state.

It is a great opportunity to learn from others and share our own experiences. Warren gave a presentation on the TREEDC initiative which you have read about in the Exchange. I served on a panel discussing the future of public service organizations like ours.

I always come away with good ideas (I started this blog after learning the director at UNC Chapel Hill had one!). Chuck and I discussed many of these ideas on our trip back across the mountain. We look forward to sharing them with you in the coming months.

NFA Graduation

We recently graduated the 28th Session of the National Forensic Academy. These men and women spent 10 weeks with us learning all the latest crime scene investigation techniques. We had participants from Alaska, Washington, New Mexico and New Hampshire, just to name a few of the states who participated. We continue to receive outstanding feedback about their experience.

Mark Gwyn, Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, was the graduation speaker. Chief Owen of the Knoxville Police Department also attended the ceremony. It was his last graduation before his retirement and he had one person in the class. Dr. Bill Bass presented the outstanding student award.

LEIC continues to provide a high-quality, cost-effective program.

Budget Update

Who would think about celebrating a budget cut? Well, when you are expecting more and you get less, that's cause for celebrating! Early last fall some people were predicting as much as a 25% reduction in state funding. The out-going governor asked state agencies to plan for 1- 3% reductions. Of course, this is in addition to all the other cuts we've already taken. In the end, the reduction for the three IPS line items is only about 1%, so yes we have reason to celebrate!

In addition to the cut in funding, we received an increase to fund the rising costs of retirement and health insurance. On top of that we received salary and benefits dollars equivalent to 1.6% of our state-funded positions.

All in all, this is a much better budget picture than we were expecting, at least on the state side. Now we're hoping our federal funding picture turns out as rosy!

More details to come as we work toward completing our proposed budgets during the month of May. The Board of Trustees will officially approve the budget in June.

Bingham Fund

Monday, March 7 we celebrated a milestone with the Tennessee Municipal League and the cities we serve.

During a fund raising campaign some years ago we set up an endowment account to fund special projects and activities for cities across the state. Many cities as well as individuals contributed to this campaign. Herb Bingham was the long-time director of TML and it was fitting to name the fund for him.

Recently the endowment reached $1,000,000! That's fantastic. We appreciate all the individuals, organizations and cities who made this possible and we look forward to serving them for many years to come.

UT Hill Day

Wednesday March 9 was UT Day on the Hill. Susan Robertson set up our display and staffed the booth. Our legislative intern, David Samples, also assisted.
Maggie McLean, Executive Director of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, represented IPS stakeholders and visited with UT Board of Trustees member Andrea Loughery.

The president's staff visited with Speaker Harwell and the chairs of the house and senate education committees and then attended the Senate Education Committee meeting. While IPS is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the UT Health Science Center is celebrating 100 years and UT Chattanooga is celebrating 125 years. There's a lot of celebrating going on!

Board of Trustees to Meet

February 24-25 the UT Board of Trustees will conduct its quarterly meeting. A variety of committee meetings will occur prior to the full board meeting.

The Research, Outreach and Economic Development committee meets at 10:30 on February 24. IPS has 30 minutes on the agenda to showcase our 40 year anniversary. Part of the program will include remarks by Mayor Curtis Hayes of Livingston and La-Z-Boy Tennessee Vice President of Operations Darrel Edwards.

Having our customers tell our story will help the trustees understand the broad impact we have across the state.

Joint Advisory Committtee Meeting

Each IPS agency has an advisory committee that meets on a regular basis. Never in our history have we had a joint meeting of all the committees. On February 21 all four committees will come together in Nashville!



The half-day program will include remarks from new UT President Joe DiPietro and presentations on the major program areas in IPS.

We hope this forum will provide an opportunity for committee members to gain a deeper understanding of all agencies of IPS and how our services interconnect and complement each other.

After the session, members will have an opportunity to visit their local legislators while they are in town, a rare opportunity for some of these members.

We look forward to a successful event.

CMFO Graduation

MTAS recently graduated its first class from the Certified Municipal Finance Officers program. This two-year program came about when legislation was passed requiring cities to have at least one certified finance officer.

The first graduating class included 97 participants from 86 different cities. The largest city represented was Memphis (population 700,000) and the smallest city represented was Wartburg (population 890).

This program is possible because of our strong partnership with the State Comptroller's Office. Comptroller Justin Wilson made remarks and helped present the certificates. Director of Municipal Audit, Dennis Dycus, served as master of ceremony and MTAS Finance Consultant Dick Phebus made remarks.

Congratulations to the entire MTAS for this important milestone.

New Projects

Exciting things are happening all across IPS. We have been working with the Department of Economic and Community Development for several weeks on a grant that will fund training for city and county officials from under-served communities in Tennessee. A team from MTAS and CTAS is planning the project. In addition, several participants from these same communities will receive a scholarship to participate in the 40-hour Basic Economic Development course next spring. Beth Phillips coordinates this project.

And, CIS has been asked to participate in UT's new solar initiative. We are working out the details of this project, but it will affect companies who are willing to install solar panels and improve their organizations in a variety of ways. This is a great opportunity for CIS to expand its customer base. Chuck Shoopman and Paul Jennings are working with the UT Research Foundation on the deliverables.

Congratulations on these new opportunities!