The Online Newsletter of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations, Inc.

Sneak peek at what's in this issue:

By Rick Warsinskey

The detailed annual meeting minutes prepared by the NCSSMA Secretary, Nancy Smolinski, will be shared through e-mail to the members. This report is intended to give a brief synopsis of the highlights of the meeting.

Regional Commissioner Michael Grochowski

Regional Delegations

The morning began with the welcome breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Jim Gottlieb, President of the Kansas City Management Association, welcomed all delegates and introduced Michael Grochowski, Kansas City Regional Commissioner. Mr. Grochowski noted how SSA has received much positive feedback from the Hill and press for their special service they provided for the survivors of those who lost their lives on September 11. He thanked NCSSMA for their strong representation on issues important to all of management

The Business Meeting began with Steve Korn, current NCSSMA President, asking for the regional presidents to seat their delegations. Steve then introduced these past NCSSMA Past Presidents: Steve Bauer ('84-'86), Bob Duncan ('88-'90) and Don Seatter ('95-97') and past NCSSMA VP and Parliamentarian, Linda Johnson. Mary Chatel, Immediate Past President then reviewed the rules of the meeting.

The minutes of last year's meeting were then approved. The Treasurer, Bev Herbst, reviewed the financial status of NCSSMA. She said membership was up 175 members or 3% from last year. Financially NCSSMA is in good shape even though interest income has dropped.

Steve Korn highlighted the accomplishments of NCSSMA over the past year. He specifically mentioned the staffing survey that was distributed to all members of Congress. He felt the value of this survey far outweighed the $6,000 cost to publish it. Other highlights were the proposal for a new disability specialist position in the field office, meeting with SSA's transition team, increased access to Congress and a growing respect with SSA Executives. Steve said that the most important future issues are:

1. Achieving the necessary staffing and authority to allocate our staffing to fully service the public,

2. Continuing to advocate for upgrades of the relative few position types that were left out thus far,

3. Improved retention and recruitment and,

4. Continuing to work on building our membership.

The meeting then continued with the nomination of officers and proposed 2001 budget. The proposed budget, which was passed, has a projected surplus of $2,229. The audit report was then presented and there was a first reading of 25 proposed resolutions from the 10 regions. In the late morning and early afternoon, the delegates started discussing resolutions.

In mid afternoon, a headquarters presentation was made on the new time and attendance system called QuickTime. Employees will sign in and out on this system and implementation is projected for mid to late 2002.

In the late afternoon there was a presentation on the Employee Q12 Survey by Sue Roecker, Acting Director and Jean Venable, Project Manager of the Strategic Management Staff. This survey done by Gallup is a tool to measure the level of engagement in the workplace. Highly engaged employees are very productive. The results tend to show SSA scores below average in employee engagement.

Acting DCO Jim Kissko

Steve Korn with Collins Award

The first 90 minutes of the meeting continued with extensive discussion of resolutions. This process involves the refinement of resolutions through amendments and editorial changes.

Pete Spencer, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management, then spoke to the delegates. Mr. Spencer spoke very highly of the new incoming Commissioner, Jo Anne Barnhart and Deputy Commissioner, James Lockhart. He emphasized that events starting with September 11 are having considerable impact on activities and financial appropriations of SSA. He covered a number of other issues such as overtime, flexible budgets, scoring the performance of federal agencies, delayering, and anthrax concerns.

Jim Kissko, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Operations, congratulated the field and TSC for doing an outstanding job of meeting and exceeding the performance expectations we have. Mr. Kissko also spoke to the delegates about SSA's great response to meeting the needs of the public. He especially noted our response around the events surrounding 9/11. Mr. Kissko stated Operations is under a lot of pressure. He noted our quality has been suffering, our waiting times are climbing, our telephone response rate is down, and we have a number of hidden workloads that need addressed. There will need to be much more attention given to the enumeration process.

He stated we are 3,000 work years short to move all our workloads. But we are in competition with other agencies that are part of the efforts to address terrorism. Therefore we probably will not receive more staff. We will need to focus on technology to improve our production to close the FTE gap. We will need to accelerate Internet applications including disability on the Internet. Our workloads are going to be more complex and disability oriented. We need improvements in telephone technology. There needs to be continued emphasis on diversity. We need to automate our disability processes more and accelerate our electronic service delivery. We need to move to less overtime and more hiring. There needs to be more flexibility to local budget needs.

New types of LMR committees will be permitted under a recent MOU. There should be more LMR flexibility. A new proposal is coming out for extended 800 Number hours with the use of OCO to support it. Operations is still working on ways to move the ASC's into the 2210 series without affecting the grade. Lead ASC's are still being looked at.

Roger McDonnell, Acting Associate Commissioner of OPSOS, spoke to the delegates about our success in advance hiring. Because we brought so many on last year there will be little hiring in early FY 02. The budget for overtime in the President's budget is one-third of FY 01. Other objects will be very tight. We need to do 200,000 more redeterminations this year. The targets for disability times are being raised. The target for SSI aged cases will be raised to 70%. There is no special target for special disability cases or Rib/Wib cases.

Questions were raised about involving INS more in SS-5's, increased waiting times, what workloads not to do with a shortage of resources, expanded 800 hours and more and better guard service.

At the close of Jim Kissko and Roger McDonnell’s remarks Mr. Kissko joined with Steve Korn in presenting to Mary Jane Shanes, District Manager, Plainview, Texas, NCSSMA's Community Service Award for her tremendous contribution to her community.

The afternoon began with more discussion continued on the resolutions. In mid afternoon, the candidate's gave the candidates an opportunity to present their views. The three presidential candidates, Tony Pezza, Eric Riedl and John Rynne then fielded questions from the delegates. Topics ranged from resource shortages to leadership and vision.

In late afternoon, Sara Garland, NCSSMA's Legislative Representative, spoke to everyone regarding the influence of the staffing survey on the Hill, the need to continue grass roots, NCSSMA's legislative agenda, a survey of the public regarding their views on SSA service and the Freedom to Manage bill.

John Hale, retired manager of Fort Dodge, Iowa, discussed his efforts to work with Senator Tom Harkin in Iowa to increase SSA's field staffing and the need to be personally engaged with the top levels of SSA on this issue and the need to try to get to know the staff of your local Congressman or Congresswoman.

Sara Garland then fielded questions from the delegates on whether NCSSMA should be involved in program policy issues on the Hill.

In the evening, Steve Korn was awarded NCSSMA's highest award, the Joseph P. Collins award at the banquet for the delegates. Steve was recognized for his many years of service on the Executive Committee and his outstanding leadership as the President of NCSSMA.

Elected NCSSMA Officers 

The day began with continuing discussion and voting on resolutions. Resolutions passed at the annual meeting established the priorities and specific direction for NCSSMA for the coming year. A copy of the resolutions passed by the delegates can be found at our web site www.ncssma.org.

In the mid morning, Steve Bauer, Executive Director of the Federal Employees Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA), spoke to the delegates. A video was shown regarding the events surrounding September 11. Steve told about the 66 Federal employees lost from the attacks of September 11 and the assistance provided by FEEA. He said $1.3 million has been raised to assist families of those lost. FEEA wants to provide scholarships for the surviving children. He mentioned how a father's last words on a cell phone on the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania were "let's roll". Steve said, "let's roll" to build this scholarship fund.

Discussions of resolutions continued. At 11:00 a.m. the balloting for the elected officers began. While ballots were counted, consideration of resolutions continued.

At 11:20 a.m., the results of the election of officers were announced:

President: Tony Pezza, District Manager, Hackensack, New Jersey

Vice President: Ginny Lighthizer, District Manager, Detroit East MI

Secretary: Nancy Smolinski, District Manager, Fairfax, Virginia

Treasurer: Greg Heineman, District Manager, Norfolk, Nebraska

TSC Representative: Rudy Macias, TSC Manager, Phoenix, Arizona

Already looking ahead to next year, the Denver Region stated the 2002 annual meeting will be at the Embassy Suites in Denver from October 7-October 9. The Dallas Region stated the likely location for the 2003 annual meeting would be the Dallas-Ft. Worth area or Albuquerque.

Tony Pezza, new NCSSMA President, announced his new Executive Officer will be Ron Buffaloe, outgoing President of ARMA. He then highlighted his priorities. He stated we will work closely with the new incoming Commissioner. He had three key words for his agenda: resources, authorities and flexibility.

KC Host Committee

Final Notes

A summary of the annual meeting would not be complete without recognizing the special efforts of the Kansas City Region Management Association and its host committee who made all the logistical arrangements for the meeting in St. Louis. Hats off to the KCMA!!!!

Phil Walton, FrontLine Editor
Four SeaGate, Suite 1000
Toledo, OH 43604

Phone: 419-259-7300
Fax:      419-259-2056
Email:  frontline@ncssma.org