Get documents about "OnLine_Suggestion_Survey_Responses
Document Sample
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
When policy or deadlines are made, most, if not all of them,
affect the field offices. Please keep in mind the workload that
the field offices have, the lack of staff and other things when
putting on the deadlines. Field offices need time to get it done
along with their other things. Many deadlines come from NHQ
and state offices with very little time for completion. A minimum
of 4 weeks should be considered with each deadline.
Remember the field office is the level in which the real
conservation gets put on the land and each administrative task
Conservation All Levels or deadline you put on the field takes time away from what our
1401 Rules MGMT
Implementation Nationwide mission is, PUTTING CONSERVATION ON THE LAND. With
that being said my suggestion is a minimum of 4 weeks notice
for deadlines to be completed by the field offices.
Allow us to report CP-9's (646)as wetland restoration/creation.
This will help us meet our goals for wetlands.
Conservation National
1486 Rules PROG
Implementation Headquarters
-1-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Please give strong consideration to contracting out the
certification of TSP's. I have discussed this with my State
Conservationist. We are currently spending an average of 10
to 20 hours each week certifying TSP's who have no intention
of ever working in our state. TSP's tend to apply to work in
every state even though they intend to work in say 3 or 4 states
Conservation All Levels
1489 Rules S&T at best. This creates a tremendous mandatory workload for at
Implementation Statewide
least two state office specialists and an administrative person in
every state. We have tried to relay this concern during TSP
teleconferences but no one seems to be giving any credence to
our concerns. You can make this happen. Please don't simply
say that it cannot be done.
NRCS needs to improve it's external communications,
particularly with landowners and contractors. Most of the
Conservation information exchanged is internal to the agency and there is
Planning and All Levels very little communication between NRCS and private parties. I
1581 Partners LPAD
Technical Nationwide feel NRCS does not have a good idea of what landowners need
Consultation or what the real world cost of improvements are. I think that this
hurts our effectiveness and credibility as an agency.
At the state and field office level, I feel that we need to do as
much as we can to align our conservation efforts with the
priorities of our local partners. At our request, the field office
partners do all of their planning for state and local cost-share
programs within Customer Service Toolkit. We can provide our
partners greater incentives to collaborate on our NRCS
Conservation
Conservation Program goals and report Best Management
Planning and All Levels
1586 Partners LPAD Practices they plan and apply if we turn around and provide
Technical Statewide
these local agency leaders and administrative staffs with county
Consultation
and watershed level reports on all the bmps reported. We need
to work harder at capturing and sharing data our partners can
use. We can strengthen our partnerships at the state and local
levels if we look for more ways to collaborate with state and
county agriculture and conservation goals.
-2-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
NRCS is currently working with ORSANCO (Ohio River Valley
Water Sanitation Commission) as they move off of the main
stem of the Ohio River for the 1st time in their 59-year history to
work with partners/states in the interstate tributaries of the Ohio
River Basin. ORSANCO is currently working in the Big Sandy
River Basin (KY, VA & WV) to facilitate an interstate water
quality agreement. This is NEW territory for ORSANCO; the
Big Sandy effort is their pilot project. I believe their interstate
Conservation
commission (8 member states) would benefit greatly from
Planning and National
1455 Planning PROG receiving future NRCS expertise in how to coordinate state,
Technical Headquarters
federal and local governments, NGOs, and volunteers into
Consultation
cohesive river basin coalitions in their other interstate basins.
For example, the Wabash River Basin (IL, IN & OH) has been
identified by ORSANCO as their 2nd priority as they explore
how best to help when coming off of the main stem. However,
ORSANCO staff have told me there is no coalition for them to
work with in the Wabash, like there is in the Big Sandy. NRCS
has the expertise to help them form this kind of coalition, etc.
An RC&D formed the Big Sandy River Basin Coalition, Inc.
Resource Concerns should not be considered in terms of
whether there are too many or too few, but should be based on
NRCS mission and the reality of the kinds of resource concerns
that we are addressing through our current list of conservation
practices. The perceived problem of too many resource
concerns has more to do with the questions of how NRCS is
using them and how they are reported which are separate
questions from whether we have the right number.
Conservation Measurement tools should then be developed as needed by
Planning and All Levels technical expertise within the agency (NTSC's). One of the
1456 Planning S&T
Technical Nationwide drivers in reducing the number of current Resource Concerns
Consultation has proven to be the inability/inexperience of planners to
address some of them, especially the 'new' concerns such as
Air and Energy (summary of Air Concerns are on last page).
The Simple NRCS Air Quality and Atmospheric Change
Planning (SNAP) tool, being developed by the Air Quality and
Atmospheric Change [AQAC] Team, provides field planners
with a tool to ascertain which specific components of the
concerns may exist on a land unit and how they could be
mitigated. It not only provides the planner with a tool, but also
-3-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Modify the AWM program so it can calculate materials needed
for various types of liners. It would also be beneficial if it could
Conservation calculate volume of excavation and earthfill. I think this would
Planning and All Levels be very beneficial in developing timely cost estimates. I could
1468 Planning S&T
Technical Nationwide see this on a laptop that we could take to the field. During the
Consultation I&E process we could give some cost estimates to the
landowner to help him make his planning decisions.
Review what has changed in the conservation planning process
from 10 years ago and decide if some of the steps are really
necessary. When I started 15 years ago it took 10-15 minutes
to plan and report any installed practices, now 2.5 hours just to
get the plan done if you are lucky. What appears to me to take
the longest is the plan map and soils map. Before we became
Conservation so computer dependent maps were just a sticker label on an
Planning and Field Office aerial photo and labeled by hand. Soils were copied out of the
1570 Planning PROG
Technical Level soil survey and pasted to a soils form sheet and a preprinted
Consultation out copy of county soils were placed into the file. This would
speed up time spent in the conservation planning phase. This
is just my opinion of one process. That is why I think the whole
process needs to be looked at because I don't know what
processes are required by legislation or someone just decided.
Connect the existing on-line submission of Farmland Protection
Policy Act Form AD-1006 with Web Soil Survey. The Farmland
Protection Policy Act requires NRCS to provide Land Evaluation
Site Assessment (LESA) - the Agriculture Index - when Federal
Conservation
actions may convert agricultural land to non-agricultural land.
Planning and National
1588 Planning SSRA LESA is often the community first step in local farmland
Technical Headquarters
protection efforts as it helps to identify unique and local
Consultation
important farmland. State-wide important farm and ranch lands
are currently used in the Grassland Reserve and Farm and
Ranch Lands Protection Program.
-4-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
The development of Comprehensive Nutrient Management
Plans (CNMP) is an intensive process requiring working
relationships between NRCS, State Agencies, Local Soil &
Water Conservation Districts (SWCD), Technical Service
Providers (TSP) and the Producer. My suggestion is that
producers and TSP's supply their operational data, field
surveys, documentation, prior planning and certifications to
NRCS for the final development of the CNMP. This would
Conservation improve and cost-benefit of producers and NRCS. First, the
Planning and Field Office financial expenditures of Producers' are reduced for not having
1616 Planning SAT
Technical Level to paying for services for an Operations Permit and a CNMP.
Consultation These two products are comprised of many duplicate contents.
Producers are paying for services acquired through technical
services from consultants (TSP) for surveys, documentations,
certifications required to meet state and local guidelines,
regulations for necessary permits. The same information is
repackaged with conservation planning and nutrient
management planning the second time to develop a CNMP.
Secondly, this would reduce time necessary for review and
certification by local SWCD, state agencies and NRCS. The
Put real one-on-one conservation planning back into the
highest priority of the agency. Make the on-going application of
a conservation plan a prerequisite to program participation.
Conservation
Planning and All Levels
1639 Planning PROG
Technical Nationwide
Consultation
-5-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
In my State, NRCS Field Offices are doing cultural resource
investigations for CRP. I feel that FSA should take control of
this process. NRCS employees do the field investigation; come
back to the office to complete SSC-1 or SSC-2 forms, queries,
and maps; make copies of everything and then give the packet
to FSA. FSA then mails the information, along with a letter, to
the State Historic Preservation Office for approval. I feel that
FSA needs to take responsibility for this part of their program.
Conservation
They need to hire or train employees to specialize in the cultural
Planning and All Levels
1640 Planning PROG resources field. NRCS is completing the cultural resources
Technical Statewide
work for a program that FSA administers. Having FSA be
Consultation
responsible for the cultural resources aspect of their program
would save NRCS time regarding office and field work. The
NRCS would free up approximately 1-2 hours per CRP contract
depending on the size of the offered area. Driving time, field
investigations, and paperwork would be decreased for a
program that FSA administers.
In Protracts, I would like to see something in the application
module that will allow a person to more easily view the eligibility
information for applicants. For example, if I want to know which
applicants are eligible based on the information in SCIMS, I
have to view each application individually and add that
Conservation information to a spreadsheet that I have created. I have 40
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels applications this year alone, and it gets time consuming to look
1405 PROG
Technical Protracts Nationwide at each one. Since Protracts will create a report of the
Consultation applicants in Protracts, it should just need a column added with
this information. Protracts should also automatically update to
reflect the information in SCIMS regarding eligibility, instead of
an employee having to view the participant information, and
then updating the eligibility information.
It would be more efficient when you modify a contract in
Conservation ProTracts that the items that were already completed and paid
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office for would show up either with a line thru them or with the
1408 PROG
Technical Protracts Level amount that was paid (or both) or some way of showing that it
Consultation was completed. Every time I print out a modification I have to
red line out all of the completed practices again.
-6-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Develop an easy to use template/process in ArcGIS that will
produce a location map for the conservation plan or
conservation practice that is being worked on. Since NRCS
requires these location maps, there should be a simple process
to develop the map with the information already entered into
Conservation
ArcGIS. This would save considerable time over having to
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office
1411 PROG create a new layout each time a location map is needed. I
Technical Protracts Level
would recommend the layout contain a small state map
Consultation
showing the NRCD/SWCD location and a larger scale map of
the NRCD/SWCD showing the plan or practice location.
Should be able to check more than one item in #4. This
suggestion fits the first 3 items.
Tool Kit suggestion. Planners enter conservation decisions
made by a producer into tool kit. A producer may decide to not
apply a conservation plan for several year due to budget. Our
management tools capture these practices and provide reports
Conservation that they need to be implemented. Suggestion is to create a
Planning and Toolkit/ State Office on/off switch in tool kit for active plans. This will eliminate NHQ
1414 PROG
Technical Protracts Level or SO staff asking questions on if a practice is going to be
Consultation applied and then the field office can concentrate on the active
plans. Improvements will be time saved by not having these
practices show up in active reports. It will produce a realistic
view of a field office workload.
It would speed up the EQIP process if the map on which you
enter the contract's location used section numbers instead of
Conservation road names.
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels
1417 PROG
Technical Protracts Statewide
Consultation
-7-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Allow NRCS field staff/planners to make the decision with the
client as to how an operation or field are defined. They should
not be forced into the box of FSA Farm, Track and field
numbers which only serve a purpose for commodity payments
Conservation not for conservation and land management. We need to
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels organize our plan files based on the clients operation and plan
1432 PROG
Technical Protracts Nationwide not the FSA CLU layer. It is time consuming to keep our files
Consultation correlated to FSA. Before 1985 NRCS organized and planned
based on watersheds and the client needs. This would make
our case file system simple and reduce the amount of space
needed both in the office and on the Toolkit database.
I believe that the computing system has too many things linked
Conservation together to be efficient. NRCS has never used farm number
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels before, why add that # to our burden of numbers. Being tied to
1449 PROG all the FARM SERVICE AGENCY eligibility is too cumbersome.
Technical Protracts Nationwide
Consultation A simple thing like someone getting married and changing their
name should not cause us the hours & hours of extra work that
it does. We are spending much more time on these contracts
Under Leadership's direction, the field offices are sorting
through arreared contract items in EQIP, WHIP and other
contracts we have with clients nationwide. It is recognized that
2007 is an important year to 'clean-up' contracts that have FA
and TA dollars obligated and 'tied up'. Dollars that will not be
invested into applied conservation should be accounted for and
released for other useful purposes. Field staff are finishing the
process of obligating 2007 contracts and will be continuing the
Conservation
effort to push prior year contract items along to completion.
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels
1454 PROG Practice implementation season is almost here in the Midwest
Technical Protracts Nationwide
and field staff are strategizing and constantly re-prioritizing their
Consultation
contacts with clients who need our assistance with new plans
and completion of older plans. The staff who make ProTracts
what it is today are doing a wonderful job of continuously
adapting ProTracts to meet the needs of users at the various
levels. The changes are amazing. They have made useful
improvements that help the field staff get access to data in
ProTracts that is in a format for use in mail merging. With
some of this background information mentioned above, I would
-8-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Conservation In the contract wizard in Toolkit, enable the user to pick all the
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office fields on a tract to contract practices, instead of having to click
1482 PROG on each and every field number. Where I work, we have farms
Technical Protracts Level
Consultation with many small fields. Developing a contract for a large farm
with 100+ fields takes an excessive amount of time. If we were
Unlink NRCS contracts from FSA eligibility in Protracts slowing
down our ability to obligate funds in timely manner for FO and
farmers. Many FSA offices only open few days week and then
not on a schedule. NRCS having too much duplication trying to
get contracts uploaded. NRCS spending lots of time on minor
EQIP modifications that according to manual does not require
others signatures yet we are mandated to have reviewing
officer signature, on contract were only change of year for
Conservation practice, no money change. Why are we not following manual?
Planning and Toolkit/ State Office Why is each state using different Nutrient mgmt. plans. This
1484 PROG
Technical Protracts Level requires lots of time for employees on cont. education. Many
Consultation times these state plans do not meet NRCS standards in order
to report 590 practice. Why not use NRCS Plans that are on
USDA/ NRCS web pages that are intergraded in our planning
tools and standards. This would saves $ and make it easier to
employees moving into different states. As of today, we don't
have what is needed to write a Cert. Nut. Mgmt plan that meets
standard.
-9-
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Make more efficient use of electronic tools, i.e. Customer
ToolKit Customer Folders. Do away with requirement of having
6-part planning or contract folders. We currently save all related
job sheets, practice standard worksheets, maps, soils data, etc.
electronically in our Customer Folders in ToolKit, yet in my
State we are required to have paper copies in our 6-part client
folders. This seems to be a waste of paper, toner, and folder. I
Conservation believe that we could save a lot of money by reducing the need
Planning and Toolkit/ State Office to print out paper copies of documents that we have saved
1516 PROG
Technical Protracts Level electronically. This would also free up some additional time for
Consultation planners in the Field to get to the field to work with customers
on implementing, educating, and sustaining their resource
management systems. Also suggest that we make
improvements our network system to allow improved data
sharing from Field Offices to Field Support Office and State
Offices. System now seems to be sluggish, and at least in my
State, we struggle with data sharing via electronically.
On the anniversary of my 37th year of proud federal service I
respectfully submit this suggestion. The Arc Mapping process
could be a function of the Progress Reporting System (PRS)
and not that of the Toolkit Planning/Contracting Program.
Conservation planning is an interactive process between the
owner/operator and NRCS staff. Conservation resource
options are discussed, and final decisions made based on
Conservation sound land resource and economic information. The planning
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office process would become much more user friendly and faster if
1518 PROG
Technical Protracts Level the Arc Mapping requirements were part of the PRS. The PRS
Consultation is an administrative in-house process used to gather data for
many management and information purposes. The Arc
Mapping process is totally compatible with the in-house nature
of the Progress Reporting System. By putting the Arc Mapping
process in PRS, NRCS staff could better emphasize customer
service in the final stages of the conservation planning process.
- 10 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
There seems to be a great deal of overlap in using both Toolkit
and Protracts for writing Conservation Plans and Contracts.
Both programs have their glitches and inherent problems. The
problem is most troublesome at the times when we in the field
offices are under time constraints to get contracts approved
before short deadlines. If a minor change needs to be made in
a draft contract, it must be made from the beginning in the
Toolkit Conservation Plan and moved through the Toolkit
Conservation
contract Wizard, then uploaded into Protracts to produce an
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office
1523 PROG almost identical Conservation plan of Operations to the one in
Technical Protracts Level
toolkit, and finally the CPA1202. This can be a very time
Consultation
consuming process and a large waste of paper also, especially
if drafts need more than one change. The changes also need to
happen because of glitches that cause contract mistakes. I
think it would save a tremendous amount of time and frustration
at the field level if we had one well functioning computer
program to use instead of a combination of poorly functioning
ones that interface with each other.
Conservation Planning would be more efficient if: FSA
Common Land Unit GIS files were updated and correct. Toolkit
Conservation was set up to produce the maps needed for Con. Planning
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office without constantly having to re-format the layouts and re-load
1528 PROG 'layer' files that 'disappear' from customer folders whenever
Technical Protracts Level
Consultation they are closed. Toolkit should be built to interact better with
Soil Data Viewer / Soil data Mart. As it is now a planner has to
do one thing in TK, and then go to Soil Data Mart and re-select
the soils of interest all over again to generate Brief Map Unit
- 11 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Why can't someone developed a 2007 CST Troubleshooting
guide for SP3 to support the problems that we are encountering
now with CST and ProTracts?
Conservation
Planning and Toolkit/ National
1529 PROG
Technical Protracts Headquarters
Consultation
Provide state office ProTracts Coordinators with more in-depth
Conservation training and manuals on ProTracts issues such as 'behind the
Planning and Toolkit/ State Office scenes in ProTracts' (i.e. when this action is taken, this is how
1532 PROG
Technical Protracts Level ProTracts reads it and acts) and troubleshooting (i.e. what to do
Consultation or look for if this or that happens or doesn't happen).
I completely agree with the need to clean up EQIP contracts.
However, having short and hard deadlines for reviewing,
revising, and modifying older contracts, while trying to develop
new plans and contracts for 2007 EQIP approved applicants,
Conservation on top of having the installation of the new toolkit version self
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels destruct, all during the same timeframe; was very
1537 PROG
Technical Protracts Nationwide counterproductive and frustrating. There is only so much our
Consultation already overworked field staff can do, and a little coordination
with someone knowledgeable of what's going on in the field
could have easily prevented this, and resulted in a better more
thorough completion of these tasks.
- 12 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Conservation RE: CUSTOMER SERVICE TOOLKIT 1. add a button to allow
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office the creation of an additional folder to the electronic case file
1545 PROG
Technical Protracts Level
Consultation
Add a button to allow the user to export Toolkit case file
Conservation documents to a compact disk drive so that conservation
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office planning data could be provided to clients wanting electronic
1546 PROG
Technical Protracts Level format (this would be much cheaper than a paper based
Consultation Conservation Plan folder)
When we make the tract boundary in toolkits while making a
plan and map, the software I.D's the soils and acres of each.
Conservation WE DO NOT get a soils description. Please improve the
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office software to automatically print those soils found on the farm in
1552 PROG a description table to include in the plan. SIMPLE needs, just
Technical Protracts Level
Consultation overlooked. Thanks
I already submitted this and called it 'soils map description'.
However, it is called BRIEF MAP UNIT DESCRIPTION. In
Conservation
toolkits the software will print out eh soils symbol/name and
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office
1553 PROG acres, but No map unit description. SUGGESTION IS:
Technical Protracts Level
reprogram the software to also print a narrative description. I.E.
Consultation
AltaVista loam, 0-2% slopes - Deep excessively drained ,
nearly level loamy soil....etc. Thanks,
Please get rid of Customer Service Toolkit. It is cumbersome,
rarely works with the initial try, regularly needs to be 'refreshed',
shut down and restarted, looses data and is difficult to maintain
plan map because the map layout is not conserved so that it
Conservation
can be edited without remaking it. So much time is spent doing
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels
1560 PROG the same tasks repeatedly and mostly it is used during the
Technical Protracts Nationwide
busiest time of contracting to develop the plan maps. I have
Consultation
wasted so much time just trying to get simple tools like the
attribute tool to work, or the edit tool; usually the work needs to
be redone to make it correct.
- 13 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
ProTracts - on contract revisions, it would be helpful if CINs
already paid would be so noted. They currently are not, and
you have to hand write on each revision that the item has
already been paid. Back when we used the FOCS software,
previously paid items were noted on revised contracts.
Conservation Therefore it is possible!
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office
1566 PROG
Technical Protracts Level
Consultation
In Toolkit plans, when reporting practices as applied, have the
Conservation applied amount default to the planned amount. This is often
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office the same, especially for agronomic practices where you often
1568 PROG
Technical Protracts Level deal with entire fields. If the applied amount is different from
Consultation the planned amount, we could simply type in the correct
amount.
1)Do NOT be afraid to house upper level positions in field
offices where qualified individuals already exist. This keeps
upper level employees more attached to what is really going on
in the field office & with today's technology (ex. net meetings,
conference calls, etc..) this is a doable option; 2)Quit updating
computer programs so frequently, we just get somewhat
efficient in one & an update comes out we're struggling again;
3)Be sure all the tools are going to work before pushing new
Conservation
computer programs out, for instance make sure ArcGIS is
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels
1585 PROG talking to PRS, etc; 4)For some of the common tools that we all
Technical Protracts Statewide
need to use, but may only run the programs a few times a year,
Consultation
have one person run the most common case in scenario(s)
across the state, instead of having us all waste time struggling
to figure out rarely used programs. Ex. AutoCAD templates for
tanks, RUSLE, WEQ, WinPST; 5)When there is a need to
complete a job, trust/allow field office staff to assist or manage
the projects; 6)Trust your employees more that they are
capable of doing their job without having extra, unnecessary
forms. If an employee completely ignores NRCS policy deal
- 14 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Protract has to many redundant processes. When entering
contract information you have to enter tract numbers for each
item. Why can't the farm and tract number be entered once
and the automatically populate the information throughout the
program. If it needs to be changed allow for editing as you
Conservation
enter items. This would save a lot of time. Also if it had a
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office
1645 PROG spreadsheet type interface for entering the item components
Technical Protracts Level
and allow for copy and paste to the next row or column would
Consultation
speed up entry. Another suggestion is to have all screens in
Protracts open in the maximum state. You have to click the
max. button on all screens to enter data. This saves time and
should be a simple fix. Thank you
My suggestion is related to our Planning Tool (Toolkit) I would
like to suggest for consideration: enabling our planning tool
(toolkit) to have an option to include all Best Management
Practices identified on the plan. To explain further; it will be
beneficial if toolkit allows us to include all benchmark, agreed to
and recommended BMP's. I truly believe that we spend a lot of
time assessing Best Management Practices (BMP) for a farm
but we don't include them in the conservation plan unless the
Conservation
farmer agrees to implement them. In FOCS we were able to
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office
1652 PROG include alternatives but toolkit doesn't have that option. This
Technical Protracts Level
information is recorded in the conservation notes but I strongly
Consultation
believe that we should be able to include them in the
Conservation plan that we develop with and for the farmer.
The tool currently limits us on the information that we are able
to include on the conservation plans. With the ability to add
agreed to and recommendations practices I believe we would
be providing our farmers a better service by providing them a
comprehensive conservation plan. I like the idea of enhancing
our planning tool to capture all the work we do for a farmer and
- 15 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Improve ARC Map in toolkit where the picture on the screen
does not have to re-draw every time you try to do anything. I
have the fastest cpu in our office and the re-draw time is 15
Conservation
seconds. The slowest cpu in our office is every 45 seconds. I
Planning and Toolkit/ National
1407 PROG bet on average in building a conservation plan map, the picture
Technical Protracts IT Headquarters
redraws 35 times. For basic mapping purposes, our office has
Consultation
started using Google Earth, that is sad. Google earth would be
very nice with our layers over the top.
Protracts (Program Contracts System) Improvement Needs:
I've noticed that when entering and using Protracts for contract
management, several windows open up each time I click on a
Conservation menu item. Each window has a time limit, and I've noticed that
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels if one window is open for more than 30 minutes, Protracts times-
1427 PROG
Technical Protracts IT Statewide out completely. Is there a way to just have ONE window open
Consultation when entering Protracts, with ONE Session timeout warning?
This would help us keep better track of our work with Protracts
applications, and conservation implementation work.
Protracts (Program Contracts System) Improvement Needs:
I've noticed that when entering and using Protracts for contract
management, several windows open up each time I click on a
Conservation menu item. Each window has a time limit, and I've noticed that
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels if one window is open for more than 30 minutes, Protracts times-
1428 PROG
Technical Protracts IT Statewide out completely. Is there a way to just have ONE window open
Consultation when entering Protracts, with ONE Session timeout warning?
This would help us keep better track of our work with Protracts
applications, and conservation implementation work.
Conservation Protracts, PRS, Toolkit and ICAMS needs to be more
Planning and Toolkit/ National interactive with the ability to double click and right click on
1431 MGMT
Technical Protracts IT Headquarters almost anything. More like Microsoft.
Consultation
- 16 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
My suggestion is that what ever needs to be done to make the
computer systems, i.e. protracts, PRS etc do what they are
designed to do, be done as soon as possible. The time that I
Conservation spend trying and re-trying to get a simple procedure such as
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels approve a payment is wasted. I could really be getting
1443 PROG
Technical Protracts IT Nationwide something done if I wasn't being kicked out of the programs or
Consultation having pages not work. I assume this is a problem of too many
employees accessing the same program at the same time, but
that is the way this agency works.
Entering the Fiscal year is required every time Manage Contract
Applications is used. Entering the Fiscal Year First causes
Protracts to refresh one less time. Protracts does not refresh if
the Fiscal year is entered first but it does if it is entered after the
Conservation Program. Suggestion: Make the Fiscal year the first block, with
Planning and Toolkit/ All Levels a current year default. The Program could be second or third.
1541 PROG
Technical Protracts IT Nationwide This change to a left to right sequence will not only decrease
Consultation individual user wait time, it should noticeably speed up
Protracts under peak use. Since a picture is worth a 1000
words, I can email, a PowerPoint slide with a screen shot to
whomever would like it.
Conservation More time needs to be allowed while working in Protracts. Much
Planning and Toolkit/ Field Office time is wasted having, close out of the work being done and to
1579 MGMT
Technical Protracts IT Level log back into the system. This happens several times a day!!
Consultation
Update eForms to include all forms needed in the FO. For
example, today when searching for NRCS-CPA-13 (status
Electronic National
1421 Admin MGMT review form) on eForms, there were no results. By having easy
Government Headquarters
access to all forms in one location, considerable time would be
saved in the FO.
Implement electronic signatures. For example I 1. fill out a
travel voucher, 2. attach postage to travel voucher, 3. mail
travel voucher to supervisor, 4. supervisor signs travel voucher,
Electronic All Levels
1460 Admin MGMT 5. supervisor attaches postage to travel voucher, 6. supervisor
Government Nationwide
mails travel voucher to State Office. If we could electronically
sign travel vouchers, vacation request slips, etc. and e-mail
them we would save time and money
- 17 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Updated CD's for fillable forms. A significant time savings will
occur if we can get updated Fillable Forms sent to each field
Electronic Field Office
1475 Admin MGMT office. Most forms are outdated on the current fillable form
Government Level
CD's.
Electronic Field Office Electronic signatures for landowners
1505 Admin MGMT
Government Level
Moving faster to become a paperless office. More and more
Electronic All Levels documents can be sent, electronically signed, and returned
1515 Admin MGMT
Government Statewide through email. We would save money, trees, and time.
Where are all the usual forms that we have to fill out for
Electronic All Levels
1539 Admin MGMT everything? like travel authorization, travel voucher,
Government Nationwide
reimbursements, etc., etc. Why no SEARCH function?
I would like to see a faster internet connection in field offices.
Currently, our speed ranges between 200 kb/s to 300 kb/s.
Electronic Field Office
1406 IT MGMT That's too slow for 5 employees that depend on the internet for
Government Level
daily work. This would benefit ALL programs.
A very minor thing which is irritating, could the screen saver
time-out be set higher to reduce the continual logging in
throughout the course of the day. 15 minutes is too short.
Electronic All Levels Previously, I had my computer set to 60 minutes. Can 60
1440 IT MGMT
Government Nationwide minutes be the new default? This would improve the flow of
work since a certain amount of planning/design goes between
the computer and a pad, pencil, calculator and phone. Please
consider this small request. Thank you.
It seems that our web base system has continual problems.
With the workloads we're experiencing it is very disturbing to
be unable to do the job when the system keeps going down. I
have worked for the NRCS for over 30 years now and I thought
with the knowledge I have gained over these years my job
Electronic All Levels
1500 IT MGMT would be less complicated. It seems just the opposite. I
Government Nationwide
consider myself above average when it comes to computers so
I don't think I am the problem. Please hire more capable
people that can handle keeping the systems running without
errors so we can do our jobs in the field.
- 18 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Someone should consider outsourcing the IT functions since
Electronic All Levels our network isn't very good even when it is working.
1511 IT MGMT
Government Nationwide
Please update or replace the servers for our Web-based
applications (ProTracts, Fund Manager, etc.). We waste so
much time when programs time-out or literally just fail because
they cannot find the server or the server is unavailable. I get
Electronic National
1522 IT MGMT really frustrated when I have someone on the phone (or if a DC -
Government Headquarters
they have someone in the office) and the system is down. I get
a lot of complaints from FO staff also - not that there is anything
I can do - they just need to vent also. Productivity will improve
immensely.
Our IT services should be outsourced to private vendors with
capability to expand the network capability during peak work
periods & to provide software upgrades that do not continually
disrupt field office operations. This will improve our capability to
Electronic All Levels produce quality products during normal business hours &
1540 IT MGMT
Government Nationwide reduce the downtime when software upgrades bomb and the
slowness caused by network inefficiencies. Both problems
occur commonly and are increasing in frequency. This level of
performance would not be tolerated in the private work place.
Train the IT staff on what the results are when critical parts of
the computer system go down. Deadlines for field staff are not
often changed even when mission critical parts of our computer
system are down. Delays of two weeks have occurred in
Electronic All Levels
1583 IT MGMT problem solving. All delivery systems would be improved by IT
Government Nationwide
understanding what is needed to complete a job. If a person
does not know what is needed to do the job it becomes harder
to perform the support functions that keep the information
flowing.
Move forward with automated conservation practice decision
Electronic National
1591 IT MGMT support tool and associated conservation storefront access for
Government Headquarters
public.
- 19 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Computer to be surplused should be put in field offices with
counters so customers can use the web-base tools such as the
Electronic Field Office
1606 IT MGMT Web Soil with a field office employee. This would allow the
Government Level
customer to view the tools without having to go back to the
employee's desk.
Most CCE computers when they are set up have the internet
explorer default screen set to go to the USDA home page.
NRCS communication is very dependent on my.nrcs. All NRCS
Electronic National
1615 IT MGMT employees should have their default page set to the my.nrcs
Government Headquarters
page. This will help remind them to check the site each day
and improve our internal communications.
It is very irritating when finishing up in protracts to find that the
My.NRCS site has timed out on you. can you fix it so when you
are on a program within MY.NRCS that the MY.NRCS will not
Electronic All Levels
1412 my.nrcs ITC time out. I loose, probably 15 minutes a day logging back on to
Government Nationwide
the site. also, I would like the setting before timing out to be 5
minutes longer. It would make it nicer for the field.
my.NRCS is becoming expansive and cluttered and in some
cases it is the only source for new notification. It is easy to
miss something such as the release of a new bulletin, a GM
Electronic All Levels
1445 my.nrcs ITC policy change, HR announcement, etc. I am suggesting one
Government Nationwide
location or box that would announce or point you to anything
new. The announcement would stay here for two weeks and
then be deleted.
My suggestion is for those who update, maintain and design the
Electronic National my.NRCS website: I would just like to see a search by subject
1481 my.nrcs ITC
Government Headquarters option to more easily find sought after information.
Automatically send out a notice when there is a change to
my.NRCS and allow employees to pick what type of alerts that
they would like to receive. I belong to a few listserves that allow
me to receive an alert based on my preferences and so I don't
Electronic have my email in box filled up with clutter and only get info that I
1543 my.nrcs ITC NTSC
Government am really interested in. Seems like there are at least once or
twice a week that I go into my.NRCS and do not see anything
new or that I am interested in. my.NRCS is valuable tool, but
can be better. Would be willing to work with someone on idea.
- 20 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Two suggestions: 1-Make the My.NRCS website more
organized. Currently there seems to be too much information. I
often find myself looking and looking through all the buttons,
Electronic All Levels
1576 my.nrcs ITC only to find what I was looking for right in front of me. They
Government Nationwide
seem a little too jumbled up. 2-Put a 'search' button at every
location on the different sites, especially on the 'Field Tools' tab.
This is for the people that are continuously messing around with
My NRCS. Quite messing with web program manuals. You
keep taking them down and moving them. In the field we need
access to these items every day. It really hurts us in the field
Electronic All Levels when we need to look something up in the manuals and either
1593 my.nrcs ITC
Government Nationwide you can't find where they have been moved or they've been
taken down all together. It is unpractical to copy these
materials. We have been told to refer only to the web manuals.
WE NEED THEM EVERY DAY!
Please consider posting National personnel announcements
such as 'John Smith has been selected as the State
Conservationist for New York' on the my.nrcs bulletin board tab
Electronic National
1626 my.nrcs ITC rather than emailing the announcements out to all employees.
Government Headquarters
Keeping up with email is a daily burden, this would be a small
piece of the pie that would be helpful.....
Electronic All Levels Does my.NRCS have a search tool? If so I do not see it and if
1627 my.nrcs ITC
Government Nationwide it doesn't it would be very helpful if it did.
Why can't we select a NRCS calendar per state. It would make
Electronic All Levels more sense for most field people to be able to only select their
1642 my.nrcs ITC
Government Statewide state, and not as important as knowing what's going on across
the country.
- 21 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Have a tab for each state with access available only by
employees from that state. On the state tab would be State
Bulletins, State Transmittals, Technical Notes, State
Amendments to the GM, instructional power point files, and sub
tabs for each division with sub tabs for each discipline and
subject. i.e. Ecological Sciences/Agronomy/RUSLE2. It is my
understanding that because of 580 Compliant states are not
suppose to have Power Point, Excel and Word files on their
Electronic State Office websites. Also I understand the State Website is for external
1653 my.nrcs ITC
Government Level customers not internal customers. So there is a need for states
to have a site where state specific information can be stored
and shared with all state employees. This would not only
improve efficiency due to the availability of information and
consistency of all employees utilizing the same information as
well as reduce the amount of storage space utilized on servers.
A state Webmaster would have to be established to maintain
the tab.
Please put Toolkit into same eAuth as TCAS & Protracts-
Electronic All Levels
1404 Passwords MGMT my.NRCS. I end up logging into eAuth in two places to work
Government Nationwide
with one client.
Standardize password requirements for all web based
applications. For instance, my.NRCS requires a special
character while iCAMS requires two numeric characters. The
current system requires numerous passwords and a high level
Electronic All Levels
1422 Passwords MGMT of assistance to recover forgotten passwords. Better yet, allow
Government Nationwide
one logon to cover newly opened applications, i.e. CST,
iCAMS, my.NRCS. This would reduce employees time in
maintaining multiple passwords and administrative assistance
to reset forgotten passwords.
- 22 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Let's make e-authentication easier. Throughout the day, we
authenticate in several places. If we use Toolkit to check in/out
a customer we authenticate, when we login to my.nrcs we
authenticate, when we do WebTCAS we authenticate. All
these authentications are separate processes. It all becomes
redundant and a time consuming barrier. The problem lies in
the structure of the authentication. It would be preferable to log
in one time in the morning or when you need to access the
Electronic All Levels secure sites and access what you needed from that point on.
1439 Passwords MGMT
Government Nationwide Imagine just having authenticated on my.nrcs, accessing
protracts, clicking the login button there to get into that and then
opening Customer Service Toolkit to check out a file only to
have to authenticate yet one more time. We really need to
simplify the process somehow. I propose authenticating one
time. Whether we have an e-authentification shortcut that we
access or we login to my.nrcs to do it really makes no
difference however I do believe that it could be easier.
ICAMS is a link in My.NRCS. Please let the My.NRCS login be
sufficient for the login to ICAMS. We have enough logins and
passwords to remember. If we have a EAuthentication login for
Electronic All Levels My.NRCS, it should be enough for ICAMS. This is a simple fix
1506 Passwords MGMT that should be easily done and would simplify operations. If this
Government Nationwide
simple fix is not adopted please let me know why. Thanks,
Remove the tab set from the EAuth logging screen. I type in my
username and hit tab to move to the password box. After I start
Electronic All Levels typing my password, the cursor moves back to the user name
1507 Passwords MGMT
Government Nationwide box. If I don't realize it I end up typing my password and it is
displayed. This seems like a security risk.
Electronic All Levels MAGIC - the MAGIC system for IT help should use
1509 Passwords MGMT
Government Nationwide eAuthentication to login.
- 23 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I would like to see all sites linked to under my.NRCS that
require a login to be able to use the eAuth login. For example,
at the Field Office level, we only go into EmpowHR a couple
times a year. Why can't we use the eAuth login similar to the
Electronic All Levels EPP site? It takes about an hour to get the new password after
1521 Passwords MGMT
Government Nationwide you go through the forgot password process and then changing
that password to something you hope you can remember...and
hope that since you only use this site once every 4-6 months
that your password isn't reset because you haven't logged in.
Webmail access address is difficult to remember. Also, within
My.NRCS, it does not seem to matter whether I click on Agwest
or Agcentral, as when I go to either website and login with my
agwest/login id, I am able to login into the system. It is typically
when people are away from their computer that they want to
access remote mail, which probably does not have the address
Electronic All Levels
1565 Passwords MGMT saved in the favorites.....so having an address easy to
Government Nationwide
remember and type out would be helpful. Solution: Have one
login website, which is easy to remember -
www.webmail.usda.gov - Place text on website reminding
users to enter proper agwest/ ageast/, etc in front of their login
name.
Can you put every program we need a password for under one
password. We use eAuth. for a lot of things but still need a
Electronic All Levels separated login and password for TSP, ICAMS, Employee
1580 Passwords MGMT
Government Nationwide Express, to name a few. I know we're not supposed to write
down our passwords but there are so many to keep track of it's
impossible.
The EmPower password timeout is currently set at 60 days. In
many cases we only access the system on a 180 cycle. Change
Electronic All Levels the password timeout to 180 days. Also the login ID is case
1600 Passwords MGMT
Government Statewide sensitive requiring capital letters. This is not a requirement for e-
auth and has caused people to think that their password has
expired.
- 24 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
The eAuthentication Login (WebTCAS and ProTracts) have a
User ID that is not case sensitive. The EmpowHR is the same
User ID but is upper case sensitive. My suggestion is to make
EmpowHR User ID the same as the eAuthentication Login User
Electronic All Levels
1609 Passwords MGMT ID. IT login information would be improved. Less time would
Government Nationwide
be spent requesting a login for EmpowHR because it is used
less often. Field staff would be less frustrated because they
can not remember their login.
Set up ICAMS for e-Authentication logon. Would be easier for
most employees because most only access the program a few
Electronic All Levels times per year. Seems like I have to change my password
1630 Passwords MGMT
Government Nationwide about every time I access it (performance work plan
development, progress review, and end of year progress rating)
We have passwords for the computer for e auth, to get into the
computer, for ICAMS etc. I suggest NRCS have a consistent
Electronic All Levels format for the passwords for example: Each protection
1641 Passwords MGMT mechanism has it's own style some are 9 characters two of
Government Nationwide
which have to be special, some are 12 with 1 character etc. At
least could we have a consistent format for all. What I find is to
many passwords all of which are different, which is good for
Install a search engine for NRCS information. Example
'Technical Service Provider' let the search engine pull
Electronic All Levels
1420 Website LPAD information for us so we don't waste time hunting through the
Government Nationwide
system.
NRCS needs a search window for easier maneuvering through
the website.
Electronic All Levels
1438 Website LPAD
Government Nationwide
It would save a lot of time and money if there was a box in
which we could type in where we want to go instead of trying to
Electronic All Levels
1599 Website LPAD figure out where we have to go and under what etc to find it.
Government Nationwide
The NRCS needs their own search engine.
- 25 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I suggest that we add a HOT Link to the NRCS web site and
participating state web sites to AgriAbility. It will provide
disabled persons access and information that could potentially
benefit their quality of life and self worth through these services.
Electronic All Levels Additionally; it would assist NRCS with outreach to a farming
1636 Website LPAD
Government Nationwide sector that is often unidentified. I was made aware of the
AgriAbility Program through a recent Joint Employee
Development Meeting held March 2007. I provided information
to a potential client on April 3, 2007
Stop mailing 'Special Emphasis Month', ( i.e. Women's History
Month), which occur 8 times a year, paper copy memos to each
state. The information comes electronically, so there is no
need for paper copies. Most staff members toss the paper
copies as soon as they are received. The time copying,
Ensuring Civil All Levels
1464 Directives CR separating, prepping the packages could be better spent on
Rights Nationwide
another task. The cost of wages, the paper, maintenance on
copiers, envelopes and postage could be saved and used
somewhere else in the agency. Also, further money is spent on
postage to send these copies to field offices.
My suggestion is regarding those 'Subject of the Month' memos
that come out (Native American History, Black History,
Women's History ect.) of National Headquarters, and the 'Make
a poster for the subject of the month' memos that always follow.
It seems to me that it must be very costly (all that postage from
DC>States>Areas>Field Offices) and wasteful (all that paper)
to keep sending out all of those memos every month via hard
Ensuring Civil All Levels
1513 Directives CR copies. Could we not have them scanned and sent out via
Rights Nationwide
email instead? If I am not mistaken moving to a 'paperless
government' is even a part of the Strategic Business Plan.
Things that will be improved if my suggestion is implemented:
Saving of LOTS of money in postage as well as LOTS of
resources in paper stock. It will also make the distribution of
the information more timely.
Would you please publish the Chief's Civil Rights Policy
Ensuring Civil All Levels
1569 Directives CR Statement?
Rights Nationwide
- 26 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Can the memos about Women's History month, Black History
month etc be distributed electronically to save paper? It seems
Ensuring Civil All Levels like we get almost everything electronically now (including our
1622 Directives CR
Rights Nationwide pay stubs), why do we still have to get these memos on paper.
It would save a lot of paper and time for mail clerks to
distribute.
STRATEGIC VISION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL & COOP Of
SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED
GROWERSOFCONSERVATION PLANTS Executive
Summary Observations: Plant science knowledge is the
primary cornerstone to enhancing and improving the
environment while providing vegetative solutions to
conservation problems. Plant materials as a biological entity
and as a science, is an inseparably intertwined component of
successful conservation efforts. NRCS Cultivars Market Share:
Ensuring Civil
1575 Outreach Outreach NTSC Over the years, the NRCS National Plant Materials Program
Rights
has developed over 400 cultivars that enjoy a market value of
almost $100 million annually. One PMC, as one integral part of
that national effort, has produced 11 registered cultivars. Our
cultivars and plant materials originating from other sources are
used in the environmental conservation, restoration,
enhancement, protection, and mitigation industry. The annual
market place for this PMC's cultivars is valued in the $10 million
(+) bracket per year. NRCS Plant Materials Program Delivery
and Participation Inequities: Currently less than 1% of the
commercial growers of this PMC's cultivars are of minority or
Eliminate the special emphasis program. Significant evidence
indicates it actually perpetuates discrimination, damages
workforce morale, and has very limited benefits to a handful of
Special
Ensuring Civil All Levels preferential treatment recipients. A major drain on Agency
1619 Emphasis CR
Rights Nationwide planning, travel, and personnel time and expense would be
Program
saved, and the goal of equal opportunity and agency efficiency
would be better served by a single merit -based recruitment and
advancement program.
- 27 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
SIMPLIFY MAKING EQIP PAYMENTS. TOO MANY FORMS
ARE REQUIRED, TOO MUCH IMPORTANCE PLACED ON
DATE AND SEQUENCE OF DOCUMENTS, TOO MANY
STEPS AND PEOPLE ARE INVOLVED, ETC.
Financial Field Office
1604 Payments PROG
Assistance Level
NRCS at the national and state level MUST reduce the
administrative and contracting burden on the local field offices if
NRCS is to remain a technical agency! Since taking over this
duty from FSA and increased funding on programs such as
EQIP, field offices largely have seen no increase in staff but a
tremendous increase in workload. This results in poor technical
Financial National assistance and limited assistance to producers. Basically we
1617 Payments PROG
Assistance Headquarters are just spending time on the computer paying people and
filling out paperwork. Other agencies and private organizations
are picking up the slack and doing what we used to do, with
less strings attached.
- 28 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I just spoke to someone on my program staff regarding an
application for payment for an EQIP practice. It turns out that
something was missed in the bills that will result in a payment
of $5.60 less than what the producer initially signed off on. My
question to the program staff was, 'Can we call the producer,
explain the change and make a note on the 1245 explaining the
change in amount to be paid; or do we have to create a new
1245, send it to the producer for another signature?' The
Financial State Office
1621 Payments PROG response was that I need to send out another 1245. This led us
Assistance Level
to a discussion on efficiency and how it will cost more in staff
time (preparing the new document and letter) than we will be
saving ($5.60 by catching the mistake). I was wondering if we
could come up with a state or national policy that allow
payments to change (+/- $25?) without having to chase another
signature. I think a phone call and a note on the 1245
(application for payment) of the change should be sufficient.
Need to streamline the programs and payment process. Field
staff is spending entirely too much time making payments,
checking for direct deposit information, getting power of
attorney forms signed, checking bills, checking AGI etc. and not
enough time doing field work, practice implementation and
technical assistance. Should centralize all the payment
information to area's within each state instead of being a field
Financial Area Office
1649 Payments PROG level function.
Assistance Level
- 29 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Delivery of cost-share programs: EQIP, AMA, WHIP. Funding
provided by these programs is important for achieving our
primary objective - conservation. However, the current process
of having annual sign-up's is inefficient and not conducive to
balancing workloads, and does not meet the needs of our
customers. Cost-share assistance for at least some practices
should be made available on a truly continuous basis. If a
customer has a resource problem, and they are interested in
fixing it, we should be able to tell them that we can provide cost-
Financial All Levels
1433 Rules PROG share to treat the resource concern, based on the problem
Assistance Nationwide
meeting a specific threshold of concern. For example, if a
farmer's livestock have access to a stream, and another water
source is not available, we can more than reasonably state that
there is a water quality problem. We should be able to tell the
farmer that if he wants to fix this problem, we can sign him up
for cost-share for fence, watering facility, and if needed, a well.
We should not have to say that we can get cost-share, but we
won't know for 3 or 6 or 9 months if he will get funding. The
current process is inefficient. Conducting rankings for every
1. Simplify application process for programs (one application
procedure for all) 2. Reduce number of programs, simplify
procedures (easier on staff as well as customer) 3. All
programs should be USDA programs (not agency programs)
Allow agencies to perform tasks they are trained to do (Let FSA
Financial All Levels handle farm records, payments, etc) (Let NRCS handle
1496 Rules PROG
Assistance Nationwide conservation planning and application) When each agency
handles all phases of different conservation programs, it
becomes highly inefficient. The amount and quality of
conservation applied to the land suffers tremendously. It also
does little for employee morale.
- 30 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
AC here...someone needs to get control of how we are
responding to DR 2230-001 with regard to EQIP contracts.
Much of what we are getting...TWICE!!!!...are completed
contracts, etc. with a panic, breathless one day turn around
time by to SO. The contracts in question should be SCREENED
thoroughly (ProTracts search) by NHQ or SO PRIOR to being
Financial Area Office sent to AO/FO's and should only be sent ONCE (it appears two
1526 Rules PROG
Assistance Level NHQ divisions are involved in this...maybe they could talk
sometime!). We are responding to redundant requests that in
many cases should not have been sent in the first place. At a
time we FO's are swamped with contracting FY07 programs.
Please do better!!
Suggestion: Reinstate the allowed use of FSA Power of
Attorney (FSA-211) for EQIP programs: In 2005 NRCS
discontinued the acceptance of the FSA CCC-211 which is an
OMB approved USDA Power of Attorney for CCC Programs.
NRCS developed its own POA the NRCS CPA-09. I think it is
great to have a POA to use if there is not already one on file,
but to require producers to go fill out another POA when they
have a completed OMB approved USDA POA for CCC
Programs on file is ridiculous. A specific example from my
Financial Field Office office is that a producer had to locate a Notary and drag them
1530 Rules PROG
Assistance Level down to the nursing home to get a POA from bedridden elderly
relative. Probably the most ironic fact is that FSA does all of
the person eligibility determinations as far as AGI, HEL, etc.
and the person who signature is accepted for all of these
eligibility issues at FSA must go get another POA signed for us
before they can complete their application. Why is the FSA-211
good enough documentation to determine whether or not a
person or entity is eligible for CCC programs but not for EQIP
program itself. IF PRODUCER HAS AN OMB APPROVED
USDA POWER OF ATTORNEY ON FILE LITERALLY 15 '
- 31 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Incorporate pertinent FSA eligibility issues directives into NRCS
directives. It is difficult to read FSA directives for NRCS only
programs because FSA directives are geared towards their
programs involving person determinations and actively
engaged in farming determinations. NRCS policies and
procedures are founded on FSA's directives as they have the
experience in these matters, but variations occur for our
Financial National
1533 Rules PROG programs, and it is very confusing for NRCS employees without
Assistance Headquarters
clear NRCS guidelines.
I think that the deadline for WHIP & EQIP applications should
be moved to sometime in the summer months. The current
problem is we have producers that apply on the application
deadline and that has fallen in November of the last two years.
In our region, by November we have snow on the ground and
usually lots of it. The snow usually hangs around until April or
May. Well in April, the cost estimate and ranking is usually due.
Due to the snow being on the ground, this hasn't allow us to
Financial State Office
1547 Rules PROG take a good look at potential resource of concerns. This is
Assistance Level
when we end up guessing on possible problems and solutions.
If the deadline was moved to a date that allowed us to go out in
the field after the application deadline and properly evaluate the
land then this would save the government time by allowing us to
do one complete site visit rather than hoping we can get out
there sometime in the spring.
- 32 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Too much paperwork in Farm Bill programs: reduce paperwork
by allowing only one page for applicant. The client is
responsible for appendix after is going to be a contract. Let the
person presents deeds or inventory to the USDA-FSA only with
no duplicity. Is BF or LRF let the potential client to determine.
Reduce all that ABC and similar mandatory exercises that
consume time. Do only 5 % of status reviews (annual). Make all
programs one: Protracts, PRS, TCAS, so that field people are
Financial Field Office not overload with papers and reports. Improve toolkit so can be
1557 Rules PROG
Assistance Level more friendly and safe because is very easy to loose data.
NRCS needs to have the authority to determine program
eligibility, AGI, etc. in the computer system and not have to rely
on FSA.
Financial Field Office
1559 Rules PROG
Assistance Level
EQIP Backlog- Simple solution; if an EQIP contract is not
completed within 3 years of contract signing (perhaps 5 would
be more reasonable) then the contract is cancelled; no, ifs,
ands, or excuses. Cancelled automatically and a letter is
computer generated to operation informing them of this. EQIP
participants should be fully prepared, both financially and time
Financial National wise, to commence items in a contract when it is signed.
1605 Rules PROG
Assistance Headquarters Automatic cancellation would put the burden on the landowner,
not on the district conservationist as there are voluntary
programs.
- 33 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Change requirement for DC to send a 'registered letter' to a
'certified letter' and still use the return receipt. The USPS
recommends using the certified letter system over the
registered system and NRCS receives a return receipt with
signed signature card. USPS does not keep the registered
cards out in the lobby; these have to be requested from over
the counter at many Post Offices necessitating an additional
wait while they are filled out. Cost for registered is $7.90 and
compared with certified which is $2.40. Registered mail is used
Financial All Levels for insuring delivery of valuable items. This suggestion should
1629 Rules PROG
Assistance Nationwide streamline the cancellation process for program contracts along
with result in cost savings.
2 suggestions for EQIP Program. 1. Change cost share rate to
a flat 50% cost share rate for all conservation practices. 2.
Change current $450,000.00 limitation to $50,000.00 limitation
per person. By changing cost share rate to a flat 50% rate will
allow NRCS to help more people, and improve quality of
contracts by working with people that are willing to take
Financial All Levels
Rules PROG ownership, thus reducing problems with contracts. When
Assistance Nationwide
people receive high percent cost share rates it provides little
incentive to motivate people to take initiative to do a good job,
whereas people that are willing to pay half of cost out of their
own pocket are motivated people that truly want to work with
NRCS and do serious conservation.
Make statements of work (SOW) for TSP's into actual check
Financial State Office
1448 TSP S&T lists with check boxes. Have everything mentioned on the SOW
Assistance Level
that they need to provide to NRCS and do not reference other
- 34 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I suggest that personnel be increased to parallel the increase in
program administration. This will allow personnel to be
involved with more in-the-field planning and provide better
technical assistance to the tax payers we serve. When
program dollars are increased and personnel are decreased, or
remain the same, the proportional amount of time spent
Financial All Levels administering programs versus General Conservation
1587 Budget FMD
Performance Nationwide Technical Assistance increases. Therefore, the overall quality
of technical assistance decreases. It is a sad realization that
we have to turn away customers in need of technical assistance
in order to complete program requirements. My suggestions
cannot be measured in $/person, but can be measured by the
depreciative value of our technical assistance.
If nationwide budget conditions will require some states to detail
staff, here is an alternative cost-saving approach. Instead of
paying travel and lodging to reallocate technical assistance,
Financial All Levels why not just transfer funds to pay salaries from states in the
1596 Budget FMD
Performance Nationwide black to states in the red. Work efficiency is also reduced in
travel time and time spent learning to perform new duties.
Estimated cost of travel for one month for one person would be
at least $2000.
Often it is suggested that government should function more like
a business so it is more efficient. I don't necessarily buy into
Financial All Levels this argument, but I do believe we should be as efficient as
1598 Budget FMD practical. The currently policy of funding salaries with TA funds
Performance Nationwide
that are connected to specific programs is not an efficient nor
logical process. This concept makes the false assumption that
the amount of work required to achieve goals is directly related
Stop Direct Charge system. Give each state a budget and let
Financial National them manage it within the state.
1650 Budget FMD
Performance Headquarters
- 35 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Each deputy area and the Regional Assistant Chiefs' Office
make individual plans for program meetings, regional meetings,
National Leadership Team meetings, etc. Each meeting
planner contacts hotels, makes separate calculations of
meeting costs and works independently to set up meetings.
The job should be assigned to one person. We are duplicating
work for every meeting we plan, and we have considerably less
bargaining power for meeting space, food and beverage with
hotels. We even visit the same hotels and talk to the same
National sales and event managers. This is particularly apparent when
1418 Human Capital Admin MGMT
Headquarters we hold meetings in Washington, D.C. and draw from the same
pool of hotels. In addition, if we worked with the same
contracting specialist each time we would then be able to work
faster and set up boiler plate purchase orders. The last NLT
meeting took two weeks to get a purchase order once the IAS
request was received by Contracting. Each detail was
highlighted. If we did this regularly it could become hassle-free.
Lastly, letting each office plan their own meetings assumes
each office has someone with the skills to plan a meeting. That
is not necessarily so. It requires a great attention to detail for
I believe that all employees of USDA-NRCS should have metal
badges, with the USDA crest, the agency NRCS, along with a
assigned badge number. I believe this looks professional,
All Levels
1419 Human Capital Admin MGMT official, and show authority. Other agency have the as an
Nationwide
official I.D. why can we. The old Green I.D. card is out dated.
And, I believe this will give employees a since of pride the make
NRCS a career.
I suggest that married couples not be allowed to work in the
same area, especially in situations where one of the individuals
All Levels could be placed in a position as the acting supervisor of the
1646 Human Capital Admin MGMT
Nationwide other when the regular supervisor is away. This creates a
negative perception in the work place and I thought was not
allowed.
Internal help- Improve ICAMS- it is very unfriendly. Can't print
All Levels performance review with comments from previous year. It's
1648 Human Capital iCAMS MGMT
Nationwide slow and hard to use. It's not designed well and not intuitive for
the user.
- 36 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Re-organize the leave donor program. Instead of individuals
donating leave to another specific individual, implement a
system of an automatic sweep of use or lose leave after the last
pay period. The leave would then go into a bank that people
All Levels requesting leave may either borrow from or just keep
1425 Human Capital Leave MGMT
Nationwide depending on the circumstance. What will this improve? Time
to fill out forms, eliminate all the leave donor emails from our
clustered in boxes, alleviate the rush of donating leave during
the end of the year, make leave available during the entire year.
I would like to suggest that Credit Leave accrual be allowed
without prior approval. So many of the times at the end of the
day, it would be cost efficient and expedious to work 30 min to
1 hr over to finish the project or case file that you have started,
rather than stopping and picking up the following day. And in
our state, we have been told if the credit approval has not been
pre-approved, you must stop at the end of your regular work
All Levels
1441 Human Capital Leave MGMT day. Many times I have called the field offices needing
Nationwide
information to complete payment processing, but they had to
leave....it was at the end of their work day, and they had not got
pre-approval to work extra time. Farm Bill Payment Processing
would be greatly benefited, as well as, direct assistance to the
landowner in the field by allowing credit approval without prior
approval, and on an as needed basis.
Reinstate earning credit leave without prior approval on a case
by case basis. Many times employees are working on a project
and could complete a job by working an extra hour or 2. Time
is wasted by trying to find a supervisor, who is many times
All Levels
1442 Human Capital Leave MGMT unavailable, to approve the extra time or stopping in the middle
Nationwide
of the project and returning to it at a later time. If an employee
is in the field, extra travel time is required and that time is
wasted. It seems there is an attitude of distrust and micro
management is the norm.
- 37 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
My suggestion is to go back to the Flex Leave System as it was
originally intended. Originally Flex Leave was a direct result of
Workforce 2000. (NRCS spent a HUGE amount of money for
the Workforce 2000 effort!) Flex Leave was intended to create
a family friendly environment in order to attract a better quality
employee. I was a part of Workforce 2000 and sat on one of
the committees that designed and recommended Flex Leave.
It was recognized that we could not compete with private sector
wages, but we could make this an agency that was family
All Levels
1474 Human Capital Leave MGMT friendlier to its employees. I am a 30 year NRCS veteran and a
Nationwide
female with 3 children. I was NEVER able to build annual or
sick leave until Flex Leave came along and I could work longer
days and use the time to stay home with sick babies. Even so,
I still only have half the sick leave that my male counterparts
have because of caring for my children. However, without the
formally liberal Flex Leave policy, I would have neither, annual
or sick leave accrued. In our office comprised of six full time
employees, some of us routinely worked 8 hours, some 9
hours, some 10 hours. Some employees, came early and left
I suggest that Flex Time be returned to its original purpose,
which was to make our agency a better place to work.
Recently, it has changed where an employee can only work
more than 8 hours if the workload warrants it. We always have
work that can be done-We are never 'caught' up and yet we
Field Office can't work more than 8 hours unless we have a huge deadline.
1498 Human Capital Leave MGMT
Level If it takes working longer hours to meet a deadline and this is
advantageous to the government then shouldn't that be
'overtime'. Flex Time should be for the employee. I believe this
will make happier employees who will work harder to provide a
better service to our customers.
- 38 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
When I hired on with this agency, one of the advantages that I
was told about was being able to work up to 2 hours more per
day. As a recent mother this is the only way I can accrue any
leave as it is often necessary to take baby to doctor. I am
Field Office disappointed in this change and cannot see how the agency
1514 Human Capital Leave MGMT
Level now say the only way I can work more than an 8 hour day is if I
cannot get my work done in 8 hours-that seems like over time
to me. To answer the above-services will be improved because
your people are happier!
I believe that we need to go back to Flex Time like it was
intended. Right now we have to have the workload to justify it,
where before, as long as your supervisor approved it you could
work 8, 9, or 10 hours. If it is only approved for the busier times
of the year, then doesn't it stand to reason that we will all be off
during the 'off' season. Before, we all spread our time off
throughout the year. I think the way it was provided for better
service to our producers because we are typically open longer
hours. Staff is more contented and therefore more productive.
Field Office
1531 Human Capital Leave MGMT Besides, I read in the General Manual and I do not see anything
Level
in there about flex time being approved according to workload.
If DC's, AC's, etc are miss interpreting this latest bulletin
360.7.4 then someone should straighten this out (Even this
bulletin says nothing about flex leave approval being based on
workload). I understand the need to have approval to work
longer hours under certain situations-like one man field offices,
but as long as the supervisor sees that it is not a problem then
why the fuss? Also, does the DC have to request permission
from the AC for his Staff?? This agency just doesn't seem as
PUT FLEX LEAVE BACK LIKE IT WAS. IF MY SUPERVISOR
DOES NOT CARE IF I WORK AN 8,9,OR10 HOUR DAY WHY
All Levels
1538 Human Capital Leave MGMT DOES ANYONE ELSE? AND IF THE WORKLOAD
Nationwide
DETERMINES IF I WORK MORE THAN A 40 HOUR WEEK
ISN'T THAT CALLED OVERTIME???
- 39 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I would like to see the 'Leave Donations' upgraded so 'Sick
Leave' can be donated along with 'Annual Leave'. There are a
great many of us that save our sick leave so it becomes
another insurance policy for us in case of an emergency.
When it comes to our leaving, or retirement, we loose those
hours (FERS). I don't mind at all not being paid for the hours,
All Levels
1634 Human Capital Leave MGMT but I would like to see them donated to help someone else that
Nationwide
is in need. It only seems fair. We earn our 'Sick Leave' just like
our Annual Leave. Why can't we spend it as we see fit if
someone else can use it. Why not let those that need
donations for health/family or other reasons, apply for this type
of donation just as they do for annual leave donations.
I suggest that every Field Office Service Center get a weather
band radio. This will make a better planning for severe weather
conditions warning. As conservation planners we are not
looking at the weather reports all the time with deadlines and
talking to individuals coming into the office. I know that looking
Field Office
1469 Human Capital Safety MGMT out the window is a good thing, but there are things that could
Level
be coming into the area quickly. Also the field office will be able
to contact the person(s) in the field to let them know of the
warning or watch that has been issued. This would hinder any
loss of life, vehicle and equipment to the federal government.
To use the EmpowHR identification number on forms in lieu of
Social Security Nos., or to use only the last 4 digits of the SSN.
I feel NRCS at the highest level should be proactive in
All Levels
1508 Human Capital Security MGMT protecting its employees from identity theft in the workplace and
Nationwide
resulting personal loss. I previously submitted a similar
suggestion in October 2003 and in January 2004 was informed
it could not be adopted.
- 40 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Don't hire, retain, promote personnel on the basis of race &/or
gender. Policies have been in place for a while that have put
people in positions that aren't the most qualified. It is a
detriment to our agency and agricultural customers when the
people we have providing service don't understand or have a
All Levels
1399 Human Capital Staffing MGMT background in agriculture. Achieving a diverse workforce is a
Statewide
liability when our customer base is not diverse. Hiring practices
should be based solely on merit, experience, &/or qualifications.
This would provide a better quality service, retain competent
employees, and create better overall moral.
There needs to be more employees per field office. It is very
unpractical to have one person in an office, and have other
personnel travel to those offices to assist. There is not enough
time to complete tasks in one office, much less, to involve one
Field Office to two more offices in the Resource team. Each year, our goals
1403 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Level are increased in our already heavy workload, this adds lots of
stress to employees, professionally and personally. I know that
this won't decrease costs upfront, but I believe work will be
done more efficiently, and in a more timely manner.
Hire qualified field staff to deliver programs, no point increasing
farm bill program FA dollars if there is no one to implement the
programs. TSP does not work in all areas, here in West it does
Field Office
1410 Human Capital Staffing MGMT not work. CD employees have their own programs and can not
Level
implement our programs, some CD's do not follow NRCS
planning procedures or practice standards.
Allow field staff currently eligible for full retirement benefits to
retire and come back on a part time basis. Provide same per
hour pay as currently earned without benefits and with no
Field Office
1437 Human Capital Staffing MGMT impact on retirement pay. This would allow for a smoother
Level
transition of the baby boomers out of the Service while bringing
replacements up to speed. This would also minimize the
impacts of loss institutional memory.
Provide enough staff and training in the field
Field Office
1444 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Level
- 41 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Create an online exit interview system for use by separating
employees. Currently, the states that do use exit interviews
must ask the employees to complete a paper exit interview
form which must be sent to the employee through the mail and
returned through the mail to be analyzed. Some states do not
use exit interviews because of the time required to transmit the
form, collect the form, compile the data from the form and
correlate responses provided by those employees who choose
All Levels
1452 Human Capital Staffing MGMT to complete the form. This is very labor intensive and there is
Nationwide
no consistent way to gather the data and compare it with other
states or organizations to put the results in context and to track
responses over time. The Department of Army, among other
Federal agencies, has an excellent online exit interview process
to use as a model.
https://cpolwapp.belvoir.army.mil/public/exitSurvey/surveyForm.
jsp
I believe that the NRCS needs to hire more qualified individuals.
I have been trying to get on as a permanent employee for two
years now. During that time I have worked off and on as a
temporary WAE and District employee. We have an individual
All Levels in our office that was hired based on who she is and not what
1462 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Nationwide her qualifications are. The agency would save money by hiring
me permanent and letting her go. The agency would also get
more done if I was on full time. This is only one case and I am
sure there are many more just like it.
Monetary Retention. As our workforce is in the midst of a
potential 75% loss due to retirements over the next few years,
offer monetary incentives to those who agree to stay, and the
state deems worthy of keeping on. 1, 2, 3, or 4 year incentives.
National $5,000/yr. Will allow us to catch up on the backlog of
1463 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Headquarters conservation practices still on the books. Will allow us to keep
contact with our farmers/ranchers; without relying on as much
outside help...tsp's, districts, etc. This will also allow more time
to train newer employees, increasing our efficiency for the
future.
- 42 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
My suggestion is that being ABLE to supervise should actually
be a PREREQUISITE for being named a supervisor!!! There
should be some sort of check, or enforcement, that supervisors
are actually any good at that part of the job. There is no
accountability in this state as to whether supervisors provide
OJT for their employees. I have been in this state for 10 years
and had 4 immediate supervisors. The 3rd - 5 years in - was
All Levels
1465 Human Capital Staffing MGMT the first person who ever shared any of their own knowledge
Statewide
with me. The first two made me learn everything on my own. I
see people from other field offices who had better supervisors,
and those people actually were taught something, rather than
having to re-invent the wheel like I did. Complaints to higher-
ups have done nothing except to inspire me to job hunt.
I have been with NRCS for 20 years; since 1981 with a break in
service. Most of this time the personnel in FO's have served
their customers in a way that each NRCS person knew all the
programs and this has provided great service to our clients.
With the tremendous increase in programs and their
complexity(toolkit, ArcView, Protracts, CRP, WRP, EWRP,
ECP; it may be time that people in the FO's or among a group
Field Office
1470 Human Capital Staffing MGMT of FO's will have to specialize to specific programs. FSA has
Level
done this for many years. For example; a soil cons could
specialize in WRP for four offices; payments in protracts could
be made by one person for four offices; etc. NRCS would save
money by not having to train every person in ever program.
You would have to analyze workload for several counties to
determine how to share specialists.
- 43 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I think that outsourcing/competitive sourcing analysis should
focus those aspects of running the agency which the private
sector is farther ahead on, while the agency should continue to
specialize in the fields for which we are the developers and
technical specialists. These areas in which we have historically
been specialists include (but are not limited to: soil science, soil
survey, soil engineering for conservation purposes,
conservation engineering, developing plant materials for
conservation, conservation planning. One of the chief areas we
All Levels
1483 Human Capital Staffing MGMT are not specialists in Information Technology - this is the sort of
Nationwide
thing that should be competitively outsourced. The rapid
advancements in information technology have always out-
paced the agency, whereas the private sector in the source of
the advancements. All aspects of IT, from the software
development to the setup and maintenance of the equipment
may well be more efficiently done by the private sector.
Basically, we should stick to what we have always been good
at.
My suggestion would be to hire more SCTs and SCs in My
State. Every year, goals are increased and expectations are
State Office
1485 Human Capital Staffing MGMT higher, yet we do not have the staff to go out and do the
Level
outreach necessary to reach out to more customers to reach
these goals. yet, we kee
Please have the Chief review the National Staffing Plan for all
Soils MO offices. The current effort to hire GS-13 Assistant
Regional Soil Scientists cannot in any way be justified. The
current GS-14 MO leaders supervise on average 6 people. Our
current State Soil Scientist is in agreement that there are
All Levels
1487 Human Capital Staffing MGMT serious issues in this area. Additionally, there is not a need to
Nationwide
create all of the field project leader locations at a GS-12 salary.
This eliminates any desire for field soil scientists to move to
state office level positions. The entire CO-2 budget and
operations procedures is in need of immediate high level
scrutiny.
- 44 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
My suggestion would be to consider some of your current soil
conservation technicians (those who are educationally qualified)
to move into some soil conservation positions. I know it is
possible for this to happen however, as a GS-7 soil con tech,
we cannot move into a soil conservation position starting at a
GS-9. My recommendation would be to lower some starting SC
positions to GS-7-9/11. Then someone in the 458 series would
be eligible to move into the 457 series. A side note...in our area,
I know 2 of us are interested in advancing into this job series
All Levels
1490 Human Capital Staffing MGMT but are disadvantaged because of the agency requirements. I
Nationwide
was told I needed 3 additional credits to become eligible, I
decided to take those credits. Now I sit here unable to move
into the SC(457) series unless there is an opening with a GS-7
starting level. As we all know, there are not too many of those
around. We technicians are already pretrained and some of us
have years of experience. Those two factors alone should
make for better more efficient employees from the date of
employment. I ask this on behalf of all us technicians who
entered into this agency trying to get our foot in the door and
Admin assistance for the field Hire multi-office administrative
assistants (maybe use tsp dollars if there is a way) to hire out
the admin (application documentation, eligibility requirements,
payment processing etc.) these positions can probably be lower
gs levels. We got a lot more done when FSA did these things.
Have all field staff do conservation planning and practice
implementation. If they can do the job they are trained and
hired for they can get conservation on the ground. About
NRCS being the one to get conservation off the ground - I keep
Plant
hearing 'can we find someone to do that conservation planning
1499 Human Capital Staffing MGMT Materials
and implementation for us?' 'That will free you up to do other
Center
things' - those other things are all the paperwork! I understand
there is some paperwork with contracting. It is backward to ask
the people trained to plan and apply conservation on the land to
become administrators and farm out the conservation work to
others. This should give field staff time to work with clients to
develop sound conservation planning and have time to get
tasks like cultural resource and T&E reviews and NEPA
requirements in place. They will have time to contact clients
and keep the contracts on schedule, get designs completed
- 45 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I have worked for NRCS/SCS for more than 30 years. One of
the biggest problems I have noticed is how NRCS, in resent
years, has promoted individuals to higher positions in our
agency. I remember a time when a person was promoted for
their ability to do the job. In the past few years, it seems the
only criteria for a promotion are what your education level is
and what race, gender, or ethnicity you are. The fact that you
are, or ever will be, capable of doing the job seems to be of little
concern. Don't get me wrong, I am not apposed to ANYONE
All Levels getting a promotion, as long as THEY have the ability to do the
1512 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Nationwide job. I remember a time when you could call (ANYONE) at the
Area or State Office level and quickly get the answer you
needed. Now, sometimes we wait months to get an answer. If
we had people in these positions with good FIELD experience,
we could get a quicker and more accurate reply. Having a
collage degree does NOT automatically mean you know what
you are doing. It simply means you have attended some
collage, took the required courses for the position and you have
a diploma to showing you did so. More emphasis needs to be
put on experience. I'm not saying that people with degrees are
My suggestion is to not shuffle employees to between offices as
frequently. This would help FO staff more efficiently assist
producers. The constant shuffle of staff makes it hard for the
producers to communicate their concerns or get action. This
would also help alleviate the strain on the budget. Every time an
employee gets moved by the agency the tax payers pay for it
State Office
1525 Human Capital Staffing MGMT and our budget gets tighter. This includes paying for the move
Level
and the days they get paid to look for new housing and the
actual move. The number of quality employees retained by the
agency could also be greatly increased. A number of good soil
conservationists have resigned because the agency was
unwilling to even try to accommodate their family needs.
- 46 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Hire more soil conservation technicians and engineers for
NRCS and do away with the TSP system of doing business.
This program has had unimaginable issues to resolve taking
valuable time away from normal field office business following
Field Office up behind TSPs in order to perform quality reviews. At one
1534 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Level time, nearly every field office had a technician or one across a
county line. Nobody does better work than we do and we are
here for follow up. TSPs finish a job and move on to other
things. Rarely do their projects meet all our technical
requirements. Thank you.
Implement 4 - 10 hour day work schedule for MLRA Soil Survey
Offices (during field season). MLRA Offices cover large areas,
thus travel distances are greater. A 9-hour day is not long
enough anymore. Predicted savings below are based on fuel
Field Office
1542 Human Capital Staffing MGMT savings and hours saved by having one day off per week from
Level
April through October; traveling 200 miles per day; with a fuel
cost based on $2.75/gal.; and soils truck rated at 16 m.p.g.
The amounts shown in 3A. and 3B. are per person per field
season (Apr-Oct).
To improve salary payment- as I am a SCEP student, I work on
detail during the summers and in the state office during the
school year. When I went to the state office I apparently still got
locality pay for where I worked during the summer. After talking
with other employees, I discovered my situation is not
uncommon. This continued for 5 months, and now my salary
gets docked to pay back the locality pay. Why should I have to
pay for someone else's mistake? Am I expected to figure out
how much I am being over-paid and hold on to that money until
All Levels
1544 Human Capital Staffing MGMT the mistake is corrected? My suggestion is to dock the pay of
Nationwide
people who are responsible for the implementation of salary- at
the state or field office level. This may seem a little unfair, but it
would stop salary overpayment very quickly. Although NRCS
gets the salary overpayment back, if it didn't overpay to begin
with, it would have more money available for other things-
efficiency would be improved. The most important reason for
correcting salary payment is employee morale. After all, the
whole reason we work is to get paid; if employees got the
correct salary every payday, morale would be greatly improved.
- 47 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Some administrative/secretarial assistance should be
National contracted out at state and national levels. Doing so should
1590 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Headquarters improve responsiveness of admin staff, which can be very
unproductive.
Provide merit promotion opportunities for Soil Conservation
Technicians to achieve GS-8 as Level 3 planners and GS-9 as
Level 4 planners. Justification: According to the new Human
Capital Strategic Plan 0458 technicians are one of the ten
original MCO's identified as necessary for agency success.
Many are performing planning duties identical to 0457 Soil
Cons. For example, our team contains a DC, Resource Con,
two GS-9 Soil Cons, and three Soil Con Techs including two
GS-8's and a GS-7. The level 4 certified planners are the DC,
Field Office Resource Con and one GS-8 technician. The two Soil Cons
1601 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Level and remaining two technicians are Level 3 certified. A GS-8
technician can literally sign off the Soil Cons plans. Workload
and staffing required our newest technician to receive his Level
3 planners certification as a GS-5 without learning how to
survey, receiving basic engineering training, basic NRCS
courses or other 'traditional' technician OJT. No distinction is
made between team members for complexity and assigned
number of plans, requirements of the job, or individual assigned
goals. The differences include: 1) pay, 2) promotional potential
and 3) 'professional' status. As a GS-8 technician I will be
We need more planners in the field. We (DC's) do not have
enough time with office administration and contracting to get to
the field and do quality planning, technical assistance, contract
follow-up, and construction check outs. Producer would like
more technical assistance, at a recent meeting of local work
Field Office
1602 Human Capital Staffing MGMT group. Producers wanted someone either a combination
Level
agronomist / soil scientist to come out on their farm and help
explain what is happening on their land as they are moving into
Precision Ag Farming. This is just one example. We do not
have the man power, time or expertise to help them.
- 48 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Develop distributed management strategy for 'headquarters-
type' positions to attract qualified individuals not interested in
living in Washington DC. The high cost of living and highly
urbanized environment in WDC is not attractive to many
otherwise qualified individuals, particularly within NRCS (an
organization which attracts non-urban individuals). If the
National
1610 Human Capital Staffing MGMT Agency is truly intent upon building upon its 'human capital' and
Headquarters
maintaining 'institutional memory,' non-traditional means of
attracting qualified individuals to jobs with national
responsibilities need to be considered. Such strategies might
include locating such positions at technology centers, a (new)
'satellite' NHQ in a less expensive location or other sites, or
other locales.
I would like to see the public affairs specialist from states
geographically aligned to work as a workgroup. We did this
back when the regional offices were in place. This helps
address similar issues with a consistent message across state
State Office boundaries (e.g. corn back in production to meet ethanol
1612 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Level needs). It could also relieve the budget factor when printing is
necessary. Since no one public affairs specialist has all the
talents needed to accomplish goals expected, this work group
sharing offers talents available by other staffs.
My suggestion is to create a nationwide pool of employees to
All Levels be available when an acting detail is available. This pool would
1623 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Nationwide be comprised of those employees who desire advancement to
the next level and would greatly benefit from experience doing
Soil Conservationists and Technicians should not be used as
Contracting Officers and Realty Specialists. By dumping these
Field Office duties on the Field Office Staff, NRCS is significantly reducing
1632 Human Capital Staffing MGMT
Level the ability to get conservation on the land. Contracting and
Realty Staff should work directly with the Landowners to
complete their contract responsibilities.
- 49 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Clustering states together is a real hard thing for most
employees working in it. To be effective, the leadership of all
states involved must really work to make things fair and
supportive of the staffs. From my experience I have seen at
least one state 'taking' and the others forced to work more for
that state. The 1 or 2 employees in that state have been
allowed to underperform for several years. The extra hours
All Levels
1638 Human Capital Staffing MGMT performed by the other two states also take some financial
Statewide
advantages from those states, as they must pay the extra hours
to their employees. After working a while in the cluster, I
started looking to move to other agencies; but, since I will soon
be retirement age, I decided to go that route. On the surface it
looks cost effective; but, not all employees will tell you why they
are leaving. Replacements are more costly.
Forced Mediocrity. That is my term for our current situation.
Currently we lack proper staffing levels to provide adequate
service to our customers. Budget constraints are to blame for
this and also for the lack of adequate training for newer
employees. (I count myself in this category, since I have only
been with the NRCS for just less than two years). I don't blame
our State Office; they are doing the best they can given our
fiscal constraints. I have read through the new Human Capital
Strategic Plan and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it
National
1651 Human Capital Staffing MGMT seems like National Headquarters is aware of the following
Headquarters
realities in the field: There is a major backlog in practices
requiring engineering design, less conservation has been
implemented since NRCS assumed FSA contract management
and payment responsibilities (without hiring additional staff to
handle the increased workload), numerous employees will be
retiring very soon and new employees need to be well trained. I
think that both the Human Capital Strategic Plan and the recent
Human Capital Survey do not fully reflect the fact that morale is
low at the Field Office level. (However, this does come to light
Renew training and awareness emphasis on NPPH and 9 steps
All Levels of planning.
1397 Human Capital Training PROG
Nationwide
- 50 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Place field training/seminars in Aglearn for training
All Levels accountability. This would consolidate information enhancing
1472 Human Capital Training MGMT
Nationwide interpretation for employees and their supervisors..
Transfer all data from I*CAMS to Aglearn by the end of
All Levels
1473 Human Capital Training MGMT FY2007. The current separation of records is annoying and
Nationwide
time-consuming.
Employee Development Suggestion - Employee proficiency
models are a requirement of GM 360-410.21,
UNFORTUNATELY, each state must individually develop their
own state specific models. Developing a model takes a lot of
time. Never mind a model for each functional area. In my
All Levels discussions with other states, proficiency models are either not
1503 Human Capital Training MGMT
Nationwide utilized because they are cumbersome and not user friendly or
alternative state specific training tools are used in lieu of
proficiency models. Are model even still necessary.
Recommendation - NEDC develop a nationwide proficiency
model for each functional area or eliminate the requirement
completely.
I recently received a PDA. I don't know how to use it, nor was
trained how to use it. I did not request a PDA. The IT specialist
All Levels
1520 Human Capital Training MGMT who synchronized it did not know how to use it. How helpful is
Nationwide
it to give someone something that they don't need or want and
then not show them how to use it?
I suggest training on the regulations and policy specifically
regarding wetland conservation rules. It seems that too often
issues are dealt with on a case-by-case basis which wastes
hundreds of hours of allocated time and money in repeating the
All Levels same scenarios and Q&A sessions over and over. If a quality
1524 Human Capital Training PROG
Nationwide training were provided at the different levels handling wetland
issues, NRCS could achieve better consistency between
individual 'understandings' in the rules and improved efficiency
and quality of work in addressing such issues.
- 51 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
All planners using prescribed burn in their plans have been
required to take training. The first portion is on the computer.
With 95 servers in my State, we have been making CD copies
of this training course to send out the field personnel. This is
time consuming for those cutting the CD's and frustrating for
those in the field trying to utilize the CD's in the middle of a
planning crunch. There should be an automated method to
National
1561 Human Capital Training MGMT provide this training. We attempted placing the training on the
Headquarters
intranet site so employees could access and take it online. We
have been told we cannot place training material on the FTTP
site. We have been told programs cannot be placed on the
FTTP site. I would like to use this same process in the future to
provide basic computer and advanced GIS training. Why can
the intranet not be used for this purpose?
Add standard proficiency subjects and levels, both formal and
informal, for one's job series (0457 for example) to the
EmpowerHR system. This would save each supervisor and
All Levels employee nationwide much time in identifying training needs.
1567 Human Capital Training MGMT
Nationwide The subjects and levels of course need to be edited by a
supervisor for specific jobs, but making a standard template or
list of subjects available in Empower would add consistency
throughout the agency.
I suggest that the 'Soil Quality - Assessment and Applications
for Field Staff' training course become a prerequisite for the
'Conservation Planning', 'Introduction to Water Quality',
'Nutrient and Pest Management Considerations in Conservation
Planning', and perhaps several other National Employee
Development Center courses that relate to resource
All Levels
1592 Human Capital Training MGMT assessment and conservation planning. The Soil Quality
Nationwide
course lays a foundation for students to understand how the
soil functions, which affects water, air, plant, and animal quality
and function. This will better equip conservation planners to be
able to identify solutions to resource problems when working
with private land owners and operators.
Make the Project Management training compulsory for each
and everyone involved in technology development, evaluation
1594 Human Capital Training MGMT NTSC
and transfer.
- 52 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I would like to suggest that we be provided contracting training
State Office by our state office. We are responsible for working with
1595 Human Capital Training MGMT
Level landowners and explaining contracts to the best of our abilities,
however, we have not been adequately trained.
The use of Toolkit and ArcGIS has become a key component of
the NRCS conservation planning process. It is extremely
important to become adequately familiar and proficient with
these tools as they continue to integrate into our everyday
planning procedures. A good rule of thumb is this: The
producer or a current/future NRCS employee should be able to
look at the maps and planning support documents generated
from Toolkit/ArcGIS and easily tell where the property is
located, what soil types are there and related information,
Field Office resources currently on the ground, and any planned practices
1597 Human Capital Training PROG
Level scheduled. Taking the time to become skilled in these two
components of our planning process will ensure higher quality
products and less time wasted in trying to remember how to
perform basic functions. Therefore, a fundamental level of
proficiency and knowledge of these programs is crucial for
anyone with planning responsibilities. Anyone with Level I and
II planning responsibilities should, at a minimum, be able to do
the following: Create a new customer file in Toolkit, or check
out and create/modify a plan in an existing customer file.
Create a Consplan (Planned Land Units) layer, including
I would like to see the return of a Leadership Development
Program for NRCS employees, preferably a national program.
1628 Human Capital Training MGMT NTSC The Midwest Region was successful several years ago in
providing this opportunity for its employees. Today, several
states are developing their own program. The benefit of a
regional or national program is the broad experience and
- 53 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
I believe NRCS Boot Camp should be eliminated from the
national required training course and changed to a 2-week state
administered course (or a required number of hours per topic,
which could be administered in a number of separate trainings).
For example if we had 3 days of scheduled Agronomy training
at Boot Camp, it would be required to have, at minimum, 24
hours of Agronomy training. Due to the differences between
state planning, it would be more beneficial to new employees to
use their own state's planning forms, which would reduce the
All Levels confusion from using another state's form. This would also
1647 Human Capital Training MGMT
Nationwide reduce the training costs immensely. It would eliminate flying to
distant training sites and flying trainers in from across the
country for a half-hour presentation. Each state would be able
to use their own, respected trainers. Also, while at Boot Camp,
we were paid per diem for the weekends. By holding it in each
state, all employees could travel home on the weekends.
Overall, I do not know how much this would save because it is
affected by many things, but it would be a lot. I truly believe
these figures probably have been estimated at a higher level. I
truly believe this would help the new employees get back to
There is currently considerable amount of overlap or
redundancy between 4 internal NRCS work/personnel
evaluation processes. The office appraisal process every 5
years, annual quality assurance and spot check process, and
planner re-certifification process every 3 years, employee
annual performance evaluations. All have common elements
Improving Internal State Office
1457 SPA about the 9 steps of planning. They could be streamlined so
Management Level
that planner re-certification was a part of quality assurance
process. The planning and ecological science parts of the office
appraisals already are covered in the quality assurance process
and planner re-certification process, and could be taken out of
the office appraisal.
- 54 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Currently, there is a very awkward and cumbersome report
required of State Administrative Officers that deals with
updating the staffing plan. SAO's have to update this Excel
spreadsheet every 2 months. NHQ has to download the
spreadsheet for each state and they send it on to the USDA for
Improving Internal National
1415 Admin MGMT whatever reason. So right now I have to maintain my own more
Management Headquarters
useful staffing plan and then a separate plan to be submitted to
NHQ. This is duplication. The suggestion would be to have
one national or USDA computer system that could be used for
staffing. Maybe EmpowHR could do something like this?
To revise the whole performance appraisal process, using Ed
Deming's advice that fear should be driven out of the
organization to get top performance. Besides improved
performance from the reduction of fear, lost time trying to
access EMPOWR, lost time working with employees (which I
have 13 direct charges), and lost time developing the PAWs. I
Improving Internal All Levels figure my time alone on this task is one month and my team
1434 Admin MGMT
Management Nationwide has performed extremely well with the pass/fail system
(however, I am proposing no performance appraisal system).
Instead, rely on other measures for evaluating how teams and
employees are performing which are more meaningful, such as
what the balanced scorecard seems to be moving toward. My
team works better this way.
I suggest that NRCS or USDA develop a job
analysis/competency library. At the current time, each State
and the supervisors within the state, must develop a job
analysis for each vacant position at the time of recruitment. HR
Improving Internal All Levels Specialists will sometimes call from state to state to try to locate
1450 Admin MGMT
Management Nationwide a job analysis to assist the supervisor. Much unproductive time
is taken making such contacts, often with little to show for the
effort. A central job analysis library would make available
samples which could be tailored to the job being filled.
- 55 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Develop an online job description library. Currently, job
descriptions must be developed from scratch or borrowed from
within the State, or contact is made with other states to attempt
to locate a similar position description. A central job description
Improving Internal All Levels
1451 Admin MGMT library with a search capability would reduce the amount of time
Management Nationwide
and improve the quality of job descriptions. The Department of
Army, among other Federal agencies, has an excellent online
library which could be used as a model.
I work as a State Office Assistant. Our office receives hard
copies of NRCS Civil Rights Memos, NRCS National Food
Security Act Manual Circulars, and USDA News to disseminate
to our employees throughout our state. The cost of this is .63
cents minimum and possibly more depending on the size of the
document, plus labor, plus the cost of the large manilla
envelope to our approximately 92 field offices costs
approximately $90 per memo. That is our state alone. $90
times 50 states is approximately $4500 per memo. We receive
Improving Internal All Levels memos from the civil rights division almost monthly sometimes
1494 Admin MGMT
Management Nationwide more than once a month. For instance in November 2006, we
received two black history month memos. If nationally two
memos a month that would potentially cost $9000. If you
multiply that by 12 months, that costs approximately $108,000.
I suggested at our state level and we have incorporated it here,
that I scan those documents and then I send them out
electronically. This is already being done nationally for national
bulletins, I suggest we incorporate electronically sending all
memos and the like. This would be a significant cost savings
for each state and nationally as well.
- 56 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
There needs to be better communication from NHQ-
Management Services Division out to the state MSD staffs.
Right now each Region is holding their own teleconferences
that relate to MSD and this is being duplicated for each Region.
Plus, critical information is being sent out to one Region that the
others don't get until we receive their minutes, which sometime
is one or two weeks later. With VERY little communication
Improving Internal National
1497 Admin MGMT from NHQ, I feel that many MSD staff in the states feel like they
Management Headquarters
have to make things up as they go along without proper
guidance. We need to have monthly MSD teleconferences with
a nationwide audience to address the multitude of MSD issues
from IAS, property, procurement, leasing, correspondence,
directives, etc. This will facilitate communication and the
sharing of ideas and efficiencies between states and NHQ.
I would like to see more specific instructions come from NHQ to
states when we have new tasks assigned. For instance we are
currently trying very hard to insure that the agency has very few
if any improper payments. The states and field level have put
together their own detailed instructions to insure the processes
Improving Internal National
1400 General MGMT are done correctly. However, this is a duplication of efforts
Management Headquarters
across all the states that could be centralized by NHQ. Thus
when the directive reaches the states, the instructions could be
tweaked to fit their circumstances and rolled out. Often times,
either the state or area level have to do this if it gets done at all.
Reduce overhead costs by not providing accommodation to
conservation districts, especially CD's with budgets greater than
ours. saving costs at any level can only have positive effects in
Improving Internal All Levels a time when we are nearly broke. Maybe then with that savings
1409 General MGMT
Management Nationwide NRCS can afford to hire field employees to deliver conservation
to the people. my estimate in savings in number 3 is the
savings alone at our office. that is the rent NRCS pays to
accommodate a large CD office.
Install motion sensitive light switches in all Agency offices.
These devices sense motion and activate the light switch and,
Improving Internal All Levels after a set period of time of sensing no motion, turn the lights
1424 General MGMT
Management Nationwide off. These devices should be installed first in areas of low
activity such as break rooms and computer training rooms.
- 57 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
More use should be made of live net meetings. These can
replace face to face conferences, meetings and trainings. New
procedures at all levels could be done with net meetings. e.g.
electronic directives system. Many of the states' office
assistants and secretaries are frustrated with lack of training
and learning curve with this new system. If you go to each
state's intranet, you will see most of them are doing their own
thing. There is no consistency re: format. Some are using old,
Improving Internal National some new, and some are making it up as they go. A couple net
1446 General MGMT
Management Headquarters meetings to show each state how to format their directives and
use the new system would/will be very beneficial. It would also
allow for the exchanging of ideas and problem solving between
the states. Net meetings could/should also be used agency
wide for similar issues. Depending on the length of
training/conferences - (2-4 days of training, travel, per diem,
time out of the office - condensed to 3-4 net mtgs lasting 1 hour
each) savings in both time and money would be great.
All printers should default to 'economy printing'. This would
Improving Internal All Levels conserve toner. Too many printing jobs are used for our own
1447 General MGMT
Management Nationwide use and do not need to be done with high quality.
- 58 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Suggest the development of an online customer feedback form
which would be made available to customers of NRCS, in all
technical and administrative areas, to rate the quality of service
received by a unit or individual that provided the service. The
Department of Army, among other agencies, has such a
system that could be used as a model.
http://ice.disa.mil/index.cfm?fa=card&service_provider_id=1012
50&site_id=592&service_category_id=1
Improving Internal All Levels
1453 General SPA
Management Nationwide
Not a suggestion, rather a reality check. A Modern Day Parable
The Old NRCS and the Modern NRCS decided to have a canoe
race on the Colorado river. Both teams practiced long and hard
to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big
day, the Old NRCS won by a mile. The Modern NRCS, very
discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason
for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior
management was formed to investigate and recommend
Improving Internal All Levels appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Old NRCS had 8
1458 General OOC people rowing and 1 person steering, while the Modern NRCS
Management Nationwide
team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. Feeling a
deeper study was in order, Modern NRCS management hired a
consulting company and paid them a large amount of money
for a second opinion. They advised, in the National Rowing
Plan, that too many people were steering the boat, while not
enough people were rowing. Not sure of how to utilize that
information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Old
NRCS, the rowing team's management structure was totally
reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering
- 59 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Our agency motto is 'Helping People Help the Land', yet we
have no recycling policy for our employees? I don't know if
recycling products will save the agency a dime. I do know that
its kind of silly for us to attempt to work with others to conserve
our natural resources when we don't look after our own house.
As a field office employee, I see reams of paper going into the
trash. From post it notes to remind ourselves to call a
Improving Internal All Levels
1471 General MGMT landowner back to outdated material from the General Manual.
Management Nationwide
Like I mentioned, I don't have the economic background to
judge whether or not this change would help the agency
financially, I do think that having the moral high ground in this
case would help us significantly. By the way, I think this should
be a national policy for all Federal employees/workers at
Federal buildings rather than just limited to the NRCS.
Some of our offices house Conservation District partners. Both
agencies use the color printer too much. It seems to me that
since the one partner does not pay for the color ink and toners,
they are not careful of what they are printing. I have brought it
up at staff meetings and it seems like it is falling on deaf ears. I
Improving Internal Field Office
1488 General MGMT have seen many sheets of paper getting printed on the color
Management Level
printer simply because it had a blue email address on it. It
should of been printed on the cheaper black and white printer.
Our partners must be accountable and be brought on board
with us that we need to conserve ALL of our resources.
Become even more web based and allow certain management
functions to be brought up to modern standards. For example,
today I am filling out a travel voucher form. To accomplish this I
need to gather my receipts, print out the form, fill in the form,
mail to the Area Office who completes the form and sends it on
Improving Internal All Levels for payment. Why can I not simply log into a site on My.nrcs,
1491 General MGMT
Management Nationwide log into a central site that asks me questions which I answer
with yes or no and amounts, scan my receipts into a digital file
and move on??? No paper generated and the only way I can do
it is to be logged into a secure site anyway. Savings in paper
and time.
- 60 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Correspondence from customers and congressionals that
address specific issues tied to the state or field office (wetland
appeals, for example) might be better handled if they were
routed through the RAC to the State Conservationists for the
first draft response. STC's and their staffs almost always know
the history and background of the issue being brought to the
attention of HQ and can quickly provide the framework for the
response. By allowing them to craft the response, they would
have more ownership and buy-in. Customers would also begin
Improving Internal National
1550 General LPAD to realize that we trust our field people and that they need to
Management Headquarters
work with our staffs to resolve problems at the local level first
and not jump to the top levels right at the start. Also, if the STC
response is not accepted by the correspondent, then there is
another, higher level of resolution through further
correspondence to the Director, Deputy Chief, etc. This would
save a lot of time spent by HQ staff trying to research each
issue - freeing them to do more leading and less reacting. It
would also reduce the likelihood that incorrect or misleading
responses would be given, and would empower employees at a
My suggestion is to develop a rapid assessment system that
would help inform decision making at the National level. In
some cases, there is little information available to guide
decision-making and in other cases data calls may burden an
excess number of NRCS offices. To enhance decision making
Improving Internal Field Office on policy matters and reduce the burden of data calls, a sample
1556 General SPA (maybe 150) of NRCS field offices (and state offices perhaps)
Management Level
would be designated as the data collection points of the rapid
assessment system. The District Conservationists selected to
be part of the rapid assessment network would have this task
identified as one of their critical work items. When issues or
questions arise that cannot be supported by existing databases,
a notice would be sent to the rapid assessment network field
- 61 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
My suggestion is for all offices to buy HP Cartridges for HP
printers - not the re-manufactured ones that we are forced to
buy. Buying new HP cartridges will eliminate the printers
being down, because of cartridges blowing up in the printer
thus causing loss of productivity, paper, and printers. Plus, I
believe it may be a safety issue with toner being exposed to
humans. Buying new will extend the life of the printer, which is
costly to replace. The HP printer warranty states very clearly
that using re-manufactured cartridges will void the warranty. HP
Improving Internal All Levels
1584 General MGMT will not honor the warranty for the printer if re-manufactured
Management Nationwide
cartridges are used. I believe that State Conservationist
should decide whether to purchase new cartridges of re-
manufactured ones not anyone else, she is responsible for her
budget. I believe we have a responsibility to the taxpayers of
this country. I can't imagine how much money is wasted on
these re-manf cartridges, and the printers that are destroyed by
using them. We have had brand new re-manf cartridges blow
up in only one day. I hope that you seriously implement my
suggestion, I have heard so many people say 'oh we are forced
Start using the FedEx online shipping process. The FedEx
charges are suppose to be less if their online system is used.
Improving Internal All Levels Once the database of names and addresses is developed,
1603 General MGMT
Management Statewide preparing for shipment will decrease significantly, and of course
consistency will improve compared to the hand-prepared air bill
system now used.
REQUIRE staff to print on both sides of paper which should be
Improving Internal All Levels recycled.
1607 General MGMT
Management Nationwide
I would like to suggest that State offices mandate (to all offices)
less frequent use of e-mail for non-essential communications.
Such as when I in my State receive a promotion notice about
someone in another State. Not that these things are not
Improving Internal All Levels
1618 General MGMT important, but they could instead be posted on the on-line
Management Nationwide
bulletin board. We are inundated with e-mails every day and
with staff shortages and increased EQIP workload, time spent
deleting unnecessary email detracts from other duties.
- 62 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
In order improve gas mileage, to make it easier for individuals
to maintain their vehicles (particularly those that are not
automobile savvy) and to help insure that vehicle maintenance
takes place I suggest a system of email messages be put into
place reminding people of routine maintenance items for their
vehicles. Here is how I envision such a system might work.
Based on the routine maintenance items outlined in the owner's
manual a schedule would be created. This would be linked to
the odometer entry we all have to enter when we purchase gas
Improving Internal All Levels using the fleet card. When you purchase gas and enter an
1620 General MGMT
Management Nationwide odometer reading of say 30,000 miles a central database would
automatically send you an email message reminding you that
you need to have the spark plugs replaced in your vehicle. At
45,000 miles you would receive a message telling you that the
tires need to be rotated and inspected, etc. For vehicles whose
past maintenance records don't strictly follow the schedule
outlined in the owner's manual, the message might include
additional information such as: The coolant system should be
serviced every 30,000 miles or if you are experiencing the
following conditions.
Consider using video technology for national and regional
leadership meetings. The Forest Service is investing in such
Improving Internal National
1643 General MGMT technology and we might benefit from taking a look at what they
Management Headquarters
are doing. For State Offices and above. Reduced meeting
costs
Why do we spend so much time and money developing
software in-house when most of it is already commercially
available (and works better most of the time)? Some of these
programs and software packages are taking years (even
Improving Internal All Levels decades in some cases) to develop. Most of the commercially
1492 IT MGMT
Management Nationwide available programs have technical support also, which most of
our in-house programs do not. It just seems to me that this
time being used and the money being spent to develop this
software can be put to better use.
- 63 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Some NRCS employees need fast internet/server speed to do
their job in an efficient manner. A MAGIC TICKET Doesn't
seem do anything, and every time it is fixed or patched things
move slower. Many don't care because they have only email or
Improving Internal All Levels
1551 IT MGMT they download the information and then upload it later. IT
Management Nationwide
doesn't seem to mind that production is slow because it's not
their job. When IT was removed and given power, NRCS
production/efficiency has dropped.
upgrades to protracts and toolkit should be targeted to August
through November to improve agency efficiency and time
Improving Internal All Levels management. No upgrades or changes to computer programs
1479 IT Updates PROG
Management Nationwide should occur from January through May during height of
program sign-ups and mandated national program deadlines to
obligate money.
Upgrades to conservation planners computer equipment and
software (deployment of new computers, new printers, Toolkit
Improving Internal National SP3 upgrade) should not take place during heavy planning
1527 IT Updates PROG
Management Headquarters periods. When the upgrades do not go as planned it affects
field and state office employee's in many ways. Goals cannot
be met, physical health can be effected due to stress these
COORDINATE software improvements with peak signup,
planning, times. The new toolkit update caused much
frustration, lost data, and slowed down work accomplishments
because it was implemented when we were trying to use toolkit
every day for EQIP applications. This easily could have been
scheduled a month or two later, if decision makers considered
Improving Internal All Levels the impact on field people.
1535 IT Updates PROG
Management Nationwide
It seems that there needs to be coordination between major
software/hardware upgrades/installations and field operations.
Improving Internal All Levels
1536 IT Updates PROG It is difficult to be in the middle of EQIP cost estimates, designs,
Management Nationwide
and rankings and then have software upgrades that oftentimes
wipe out your files.
- 64 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Please do not allow any computer upgrades during the
contracting season (2nd quarter). If the upgrade is not
completely bug free and the system fails, we can not complete
contracts or make payments in a timely manner. This is very
Improving Internal All Levels poor customer service.
1554 IT Updates PROG
Management Nationwide
More efficient operation for the field office by not being delayed
by updates to Customer Service Toolkit. It became a major
problem during EQIP processing to have to deal with this
untimely update when the field offices are in the middle of EQIP
planning and ranking. More consideration should be given to
the present workload of field offices prior to seeking to
accomplish major updates as we have had recently to toolkit.
Improving Internal National
1571 IT Updates PROG
Management Headquarters
Due to earning & leave statements no longer being mailed, why
can't we arrange to email these statements out automatically. It
was suggested everyone go to NFC website and print it out
Improving Internal National themselves. It appears this is going to take additional time away
1413 NFC MGMT
Management Headquarters from other more productive activities for everyone to do this!
We would save an enormous amount of time by automatically
emailing statements out.
- 65 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
The information on our EPP site needs to be kept current
especially the personal benefits section. Current information is
necessary for employees to conduct long and short term
planning for their employment. Above all we need high quality
field people to provide technical assistance to cooperators on
program and non program natural resource concerns.
Improving Internal All Levels
1502 NFC MGMT
Management Statewide
Publish the USDA News on the web and notify all employees of
the latest edition by email. This will require someone in
Headquarters to notify USDA that this change should be
implemented at the Department level. Assume that it cost 50
cents per employee every two months and that the USDA has
100,000 employees. Bottom line is that the Department spends
$300,000 a year on just sending the publication to employees.
Improving Internal All Levels Publishing on the web would require less than one full-time-
1504 OOC LPAD
Management Nationwide employee (FTE) at say the GS-9 level or about $50,000 a year.
There is also the time spent distributing the publication at the
numerous offices in the country. Assume 5 minutes per
recipient per issue is spent by each mail clerk which comes out,
for the 100,000 recipients at six times per year, to about 24 FTE
at the GS-4 level or another $500,000 a year just for the mail
clerks.
- 66 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
The RC&D system should be terminated so that resources can
be diverted to our original mission of natural resource
conservation. The RC&D system is on the fringes if not off the
original purpose of conserving our natural resources. Now it is
devoted to mostly rural development, for which there is another
USDA agency that has that mission. There are numerous city,
county, and state government and private entities devoted to
rural development that can take up the efforts of the RC&D
system. When we are proposing cutting NRCS field offices that
Improving Internal All Levels deliver programs to age producers, we should consolidate our
1562 OOC OOC
Management Nationwide efforts back to our core mission, much as corporations and
other government entities restructure in tight times. We can no
longer afford to be everything to everyone.
Give payments and program administration back to FSA. Put
field office personnel back in the field, making technical
assistance and education paramount. Pushing papers,
ensuring that every spec and standard is hard copied in a file is
Improving Internal All Levels
1578 OOC OOC ridiculous. How many trees are we going to cut down to save a
Management Nationwide
ton of soil? If you want retention of qualified, experienced
personnel you need to put them back in the position they hired
on for; helping landowners and not justifying some bodies job in
Washington to Congress.
Streamline conservation delivery by merging NRCS and FSA
Improving Internal All Levels into one agency. Farm bill programs would be delivered faster.
1644 OOC OOC
Management Nationwide Payment process would be more efficient. Real one stop
service center would be realized.
- 67 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
VoiceCom: VoiceCom is probably an excellent system for
anyone at the Area (Zone) Office or higher, but as a field DC, I
see little value. The few messages I have received (last
voicemail message was December 18th - 67 total messages
Improving Internal Field Office
1416 Phones MGMT received in CY2006), are usually covered by email these days,
Management Level
thus voicemail for field staff seems an unnecessary budgetary
waste. It is probably an excellent system for any administrative
staff member, who also travels alot, but of little value at the field
office level.
I suggest NRCS contract one NRCS cell phone carrier for
nationwide cell phone use. A key feature of the contract
package would be unlimited minutes (for incoming and
Improving Internal All Levels outgoing calls) for cell phones purchased from the nationwide
1429 Phones MGMT
Management Nationwide carrier. For example, this would allow our field office
employees to better connect with one another when carrying
out official duties (such as surveying) without incurring the
agency additional costs.
Currently all field offices in my State have a Voice Com mail
box. The system has become outdated because of the use of
E-Mail, Pads and Cell Phones. Use of the Voice Com system
Improving Internal Field Office has become so infrequent that most DCs find it difficult to
1435 Phones MGMT
Management Level monitor the system on a daily basis. It is my understanding that
Voice Mail system costs about $14 per box. If discontinued at
the field office level and area level the savings would be
approximately $5000 per month.
Use a broadband cell phone company such as Vonage, their
cell phone rates are half what the normal services are. Or go to
Improving Internal All Levels
1466 Phones MGMT Nextel and use the walkie talkie function which could save a ton
Management Nationwide
of money on calls between agency cell phones.
The idea herein submitted is the creation of an (800) toll free
directory for the state. (i.e. groups or agencies that we work
with that may have toll free numbers) I have discovered that
there are instances where some groups and agencies we work
Improving Internal State Office
1495 Phones MGMT with have phone numbers that are toll free. We may be able to
Management Level
call them toll free and save money on our phone bill. The
savings may not be much at first, but over time I think it could
have a beneficial financial impact on our behalf.
- 68 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
This suggestion was originally sent 2/12/2003 to my State
Office and has NEVER been addressed through any means!
Only certain employees throughout the nation have access to
voice-com and with the mass usage of e-mail in this day I no
longer see that the USDA OR NRCS need to pay the expense
of keeping this service up. It has not been used in my State in
well over a year and to pay the enormous amount we pay for it
Improving Internal All Levels seems a huge Waste. The national level may still need it but
1548 Phones MGMT
Management Nationwide below that it should be done away with! I could use the money
saved on much needed supplies to keep the local FO's
efficient, with out having to beg, borrow and steal from SWCD's
and other Agencies.
With limited exception provide employees cell phones to
conduct business. Do away with hard line and the voicemail
Improving Internal All Levels
1573 Phones MGMT system and use cell phone service. Currently we have
Management Nationwide
employees that have land line and voice mail and cell phone
with voice mail. This needs to be addressed.
My suggestion is to do away with the voice mail system. I am in
the field office and I check the voice mail every day and I can
go months without receiving a voice mail. The voice mail I do
Improving Internal All Levels
1577 Phones MGMT receive could be sent by email. My point also is email can be
Management Nationwide
saved if need be, but voice mail can only be saved for a short
time. Therefore by doing away with voice mail the NRCS could
save some money.
- 69 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Establish and transmit policy restricting the use and or
presence of personal cell phones by employees during working
hours on GSA leased or controlled properties. Zig Zigler,
Brian Tracy and Stephen Covey have clearly defined that
interruptions decrease employee productivity for periods of time
greater than the actual interruption itself. Excessive physical
visitations can be easily monitored, addressed and controlled.
Cell phones provide a venue by which external persons
unrelated to the employees mission or task at hand, have
Improving Internal All Levels
1611 Phones MGMT instant access at any point in time to slow, hinder or completely
Management Nationwide
stop an employee from performing their tasks. As previous
management of Giant Food, I required all employees to leave
their cell phones in their car while at work. If they had
extenuating circumstances they could bring the phone in and
leave it at the office, activated and waiting for a call. I am
convinced in this modern day age of multi-tasking and having
many external interests distracting us from our job at hand,
personal cell phone use by government employees during work
hours, is collectively on a national basis, costing the American
PRS: Currently data input at the field office level through
Toolkit, ProTracts or PRS is captured and applied towards
goals/performance measures. This progress can be viewed in
two nice reports: 6.3 and 6.4. What we need now is a very
clean report that lets us (field office staff) know where these
numbers came from; i.e. which plan, practice, field, land use
and acres. Currently we spend hours looking through reports
and having to glean out the numbers, add them up and hope
this number matches one of them in reports 6.3 and 6.4. The
Improving Internal Field Office
1436 PRS SPA computer already knows who and what it took to generate the
Management Level
progress, why can't we at the local level work the numbers
backwards to the source? With this information we can quickly
see what has been reported and what has not. We can begin
to detect errors in data entry if plans/practices are consistently
being left out of progress reports. For instance I should be
able to choose a report for Performance Summary 0.10 -
Conservation plans written and the computer should tell me
which plans were included. Please help us save time, money
and reduce frustration at the local level! We all want to do a
- 70 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Progress reporting is a burden to field offices and state offices
alike. Now that Protracts is up and running, progress should be
mined directly from Protracts without interruption to the field
Improving Internal National
1608 PRS SPA and or state office levels. This will allow for far more accurate
Management Headquarters
progress reports and give precious time back to the field and
state office to devote to providing sound technical assistance.
Suggested PRS reports or formats: Have more reports where it
combines and displays all performance measures by all
programs- the emphasis is on reporting by program not the
grand total of a measure. It is helpful and saves time to be able
to pull a single report and all programs and performance
measures are displayed at once like 6.13 which is only for
county measures. (i.e. this does not exist for state measures,
goals,etc) An option needs to be added to pull reports by
Service Center. In our state it would be very beneficial since
Improving Internal All Levels
1631 PRS SPA almost all Service Centers cover more than one county plus
Management Nationwide
they have cities that are also listed separately in PRS. This
report format would automatically lump or subtotal all the
jurisdictions within a Service Center which would be helpful and
save time. A few of the reports now can be divided by NRCS
Administrative Area. I suggest almost all reports being set up
to do this. Those reports that you can pull by administrative
area only give a one line total for the area. It would be
beneficial to managers if it would segregate Service Centers
(preferred) or counties that lie within that Area and list each one
Quit spending so much money on building leases, consolidate
Improving Internal Field Office offices. Use the saved money for equipment & wages.
1478 Real Property MGMT
Management Level
Combine offices. What building owners make off us in rent is
obscene. Saved money could be used for salaries/equipment
Improving Internal Field Office
1637 Real Property MGMT we need to get the job done. The landowners shouldn't
Management Level
complain, because we should always go to them, and not make
them drive to an office any way.
- 71 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Develop a 5 year plan to implement a leased space plan for all
field offices nation wide. This would result in NRCS only paying
rent for National Office, State Offices, Area Offices, and
technology centers. The Cooperative Extension Service has
done this and county government found space for them.
Partners would need time to prepare. We would still pay for all
utilities. Cost savings could easily be estimated but would vary
by state. It is very hard to close one office at a time. Local
communities always feel singled out and write and call their
Improving Internal All Levels
1654 Real Property MGMT congressional representatives. I believe it would be easier to
Management Nationwide
stop paying rent in all locations than a few at a time. If county
governments have enough time they can find space. If a
county can not find space we could have some field staff
working out of their homes. We would many barriers with this
option and it should not be discussed until we are very near the
5 year mark. With PRS, Toolkit, Protracts and other tools we
can track field office staff progress better than ever before in
the long history of this agency. Provisions need to be made to
offset the rent savings with additional staff. We can hold them
When working with directives amendments it would be helpful
to have the amend number and date located at the bottom of
Improving Internal All Levels
1480 Records MGMT each page. When we have questions we would have
Management Nationwide
something to refer to letting us know if we were looking at the
most current amendment. Thanks.
- 72 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
The Official communication system of the Agency, the e-
directives system, does not provide a very good method for
informing everyone about new policies, guidance, etc. that has
been released. In order to find out about any guidance issued
through the e-directives system, each employee must go into
the system and review the information on a very frequent basis.
Or, each office must have an individual designated to review
the information and keep everyone else in the office up-to-date
on the most recent postings. The Agency also has an Informal
Improving Internal National
1501 Records MGMT communications system -- e-mails from one employee to
Management Headquarters
another, or from one employee to a group of employees. This
Informal system is the system used by most employees,
especially those at the field office level. Everyone is familiar
with the e-mail system and is use to communicating through
that method. Prior to our web-based communication, bulletins
and other documents were hard-copied to the appropriate
offices. Even though this method was slow and expensive, at
least field offices eventually saw the information since it had to
be filed. Web-based and e-mail communications is a much
The Records Guide included in the online General Manual is an
image pdf file. The 168 page document issued in January 1999
is not searchable. The link is
http://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/media/pdf/GM_120_408.pdf
Improving Internal National As we ask field staff to service an increasing workload we
1510 Records MGMT
Management Headquarters hobble their ability to manage the growing amount of records
that must be maintained. A searchable Records Guide would
facilitate file management at all levels of NRCS. I strongly
recommend that the current version be kept online until a
searchable version is posted in its place.
- 73 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Thanks for the forum to submit suggestions. I am an area
engineer and have a suggestion regarding deliverables from
the National Design, Construction and Soil Mechanics Center
that operates the two Soil Mechanics Labs. In my State, we
send several sets of samples per year to the SML in Lincoln,
NE for many different tests -- some of which are extensive and
some which are simple. We are always VERY pleased with the
professional results and advice from these centers, and rely on
their unique expertise to accomplish complex engineering
Improving Internal
1519 Records MGMT NTSC projects. We have soil mechanics centers that are second to
Management
none! It is however sometimes difficult to determine if: -- the
samples we shipped to them have arrived safely -- when the
testing on our samples is scheduled to begin -- how long the
testing period will be (especially on complex testing such as
triaxial shear tests), and -- what anticipated date we will receive
the results. This unknown timeframe, based on the SML
workload and scheduling, makes it difficult to estimate and
schedule design completion dates for medium to large scale
projects at times. My suggestion is that the SMLs institute
Emphasize a 'down to business' Records Management (RM)
program NRCS-nationwide. Although the GM 120 Part 408
exists, NRCS Records Management program is not in a state.
Records play a vital role in managing and operating agency's
activities. Records serve as the memory of the organization,
past events and basis for future actions. Paper records will
continue to exist even if we convert paper documents to
Improving Internal All Levels microform, optical and video disks and compact disk-ready
1564 Records MGMT
Management Nationwide memory. Recommend revising the GM to be written 'directive
in nature--adding specific objectives providing policy and
guidelines on managing NRCS records and information to
include guaranteeing that the NRCS official record copy can be
identified regardless of media, achieving cost reductions in
office space, equipment and supplies, and removing of non-
current records timely and systematically from NRCS facilities
to reduce storage expenses and reduce the burden responding
- 74 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
To gain an additional funding source especially with shrinking
budgets I propose imposing a cost to developers or consultants
for soil survey and/or for costs associated with copying aerial
photographs. Any soil information online such as wesoilsurvey
would remain free but additional services or CD's would have a
Improving Internal All Levels charge. Many consultants require access to aerial photographs
1635 Rules MGMT
Management Nationwide and such. We do not charge for the additional time or
photocopies. These consultants are charging high prices and
paying nothing. Cities, counties and some state governments
charge a fee for this additional time and resources. Some
Federal agencies charge fees for resources and maps.
Please make sure this suggestion box doesn't refresh and lose
all the information before I submit it. Last time I spent time
Improving Internal National
1426 SCSI SPA typing in several paragraphs of information and when I tried to
Management Headquarters
decide what to do on the third question (person versus office)
the system erased all my work.
Keep this suggestion system open indefinitely. Why shut it
down in April? If it works good for a short period of time, why
would it not work at least as well on a continuing basis? What
sense does it make to convey an impression that good ideas
need to be stored up for the next initiative--rather than being
shared immediately?
Improving Internal All Levels
1555 SCSI SPA
Management Nationwide
- 75 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
My suggestion is that there be a permanent on-line suggestion
site at myNRCS.com. As stated above, the last suggestions
survey was in 2003. I think we are missing out on a lot of good
suggestions because there is not an ongoing site for employees
to submit ideas.
Improving Internal National
1558 SCSI SPA
Management Headquarters
- 76 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Allow more space in this block. I tried to submit a proposal with
economic analyses and benefits listed and the character space
was too limiting. 1500 characters is too short to submit and idea
with real support data.
Improving Internal All Levels
1574 SCSI SPA
Management Nationwide
Provide Feedback on Employee suggestions. Presently, an
employee submits a suggestion through this media and has no
idea on the status of the suggestion. I suggest that the
employee be notified (By way of email would be fine.) of each
Improving Internal National
1625 SCSI SPA step in the suggestion processing. Otherwise it's kind of like
Management Headquarters
talking to yourself.
- 77 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
For all Field Offices that are closed (consolidated), allow the
staffs from those offices to work from their homes to continue
to service (in a remote) way customers in the county without a
local office. Those employees could then go in to the office in
the consolidated service centers 1-2 times a week to conduct
the needed business.
Improving Internal Field Office
1423 Structure MGMT
Management Level
The current plan being proposed in my State to close offices
does not go far enough on the basis of the managers
suppositions. That supposition is that it's OK for farmers and
ranchers to drive to NRCS for service and that NRCS will be as
Improving Internal State Office effective in combined counties as we are under the current
1477 Structure MGMT
Management Level single county system. So, if we are willing to make some
customers drive 30-35 miles to a service center, let's make that
uniform across the state. Then we could realize real savings in
this effort. We could triple our impact to the budget. Plus I think
Please cease all NRCS/FSA people in the field to provide re-
we could actually have more and any other Service Centers
organization & closing plans. We have worked so hard bringing
the two agencies together over the last 15 years. The Services
we currently provide for our producers are so greatly
appreciated and we have created the one stop ideal situation.
The added time, distance, additional expense for these tax
Improving Internal All Levels payers and the economical loss for the small communities will
1582 Structure MGMT be devastating. Not being able to take the extra time to
Management Nationwide
continue working one on one with the producers due to
additional travel and time constraints cannot be measured in
dollars and cents! (Priceless) Thank You! $=gas, tires, oil
changes, vehicles for added travel
- 78 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Have a code on our timesheets to record time spent on Civil
Rights work. This will ensure that employee's actually do CR
activities that is required in our PAWs.
Improving Internal All Levels
1430 TCAS SPA
Management Nationwide
WebTCAS needs to be simplified. Why does some need to
know what part of EQIP we are working in such as contract
mgt. or conservation implementation. This goes on and on. If
we are working in EQIP it is EQIP, if CSP it is CSP. WebTCAS
Improving Internal All Levels
1493 TCAS SPA should not take more time than doing our other jobs, but it does
Management Nationwide
because of all the choices. To me it looks like some one in
NHQ wants to justify their job. Us in the field just want to do
ours without all this bureaucratic stuff.
- 79 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Timekeeping for special TDY tours of duty, i.e. Afghanistan,
New Orleans etc. WebTCAS does not seem to capture
differential pay nor interface well as it is now. My suggestion
would be to have a separate team of individuals who learn how
to enter timesheets for these special detailees do them for the
length of their tours. That way the team would already be
trained and a new timekeeper would not have to come up to
Improving Internal National
1613 TCAS SPA speed each time. If that can't be done, there should be real
Management Headquarters
guidance to the timekeepers with employees detailed to these
areas; and a contact given who has this special knowledge with
the system the timekeeper must use. As it is now, a nightmare
begins for a timekeeper when an employee goes on these
special tours. It is also a nightmare for an employee on these
tours when his time is not accurately processed.
Clearly defined rules and steps for processing timesheets in
WEBTCAS for employees assigned to international detail
and/or special details such as New Orleans, Iraq, Afghanistan
tours of duty. This will enable the timekeeper to rest assured
they are preparing the timesheet correctly. There appears to
Improving Internal National
1614 TCAS SPA be no one source to go to for this information to allow the
Management Headquarters
timekeepers to be preparing and submitting the correct data in
WEBTCAS. The improvements will be in not having to prepare
corrected timesheets, and the employee on the tour of duty can
count on their paycheck being accurate. Thank you!
Allow employees to purchase airline tickets based on the
cheapest fare available instead of requiring the fully
Improving Internal All Levels exchangeable, fully refundable fare. If changes needed to be
1467 Travel MGMT
Management Statewide made, a $50 change fee could be supported. we currently
spend $100 to $800 more, per ticket by choosing the
government fare.
Eliminate required use of FedTravel. Very cumbersome and
expensive for the services rendered.
Improving Internal All Levels
1572 Travel MGMT
Management Nationwide
- 80 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
As a Soil Scientist I recently spent approximately 1 month
manually converting units of English measurement into units of
Metric measurement. I then entered these metric units into the
Natural Resource
All Levels NASIS database. What I don't understand is why I have to
1459 Inventory and General SSRA
Nationwide manually convert English units of measurement into units of
Assessment
Metric measurement. Why can't I enter units of English
measurement and have the computer convert them to units of
Metric measurement. This would save time and money and
Problem NRCS Hydrologic Unit Classification VS USGS
National Hydrographic Dataset At one time, NRCS was the
primary agency for determining watersheds boundaries and
defining they with Hydrologic Unit Classification codes (HUC).
However, the USGS in their National Hydrographic Dataset
(NHD) has taken our basic HUC 8 codes and changed their
name to NHDReachCode and restructuring the code and
watershed boundaries without giving credit to or consulting with
NRCS. The NHD web site give no mention of the NRCS, nor
Natural Resource
National does it recognize our role in providing the National Hydrologic
1476 Inventory and General SSRA
Headquarters Unit Classification System (See http://nhd.usgs.gov/index.html
Assessment
). Now the USGS claims their NHD is the official government
source of watershed and codes (HUC aka. NHDReachCode)
The NRCS Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) is the original
Federal source of watershed information and codes (See
http://www.ncgc.nrcs.usda.gov/products/datasets/watershed/ ).
Here we proclaim leadership in determining watershed
boundaries and the definition of HUCs. By essentially taking
over responsibility for determining watershed boundaries and
codes, the USGS NHD has usurped our responsibility and
Utilize the agriculture index historically utilized by universities
and researchers, the Land Evaluation Site Assessment (LESA)
index, in conjunction with the National Resources Inventory
Natural Resource
National (NRI) to gain additional value and understanding about
1589 Inventory and General SSRA
Headquarters farmland protection efforts and trends. With current tools,
Assessment
NRCS could historically calculate the index and incorporate it
into NRI data gathering methodology.
- 81 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
While using the RUSLE2 software to estimate erosion rates, I
find that in order to change dates for an operation I must scroll
through all months to get to the year I want. Yesterday while
working with a farmer I was modifying the operations in a
standard system by adding additional years of a crop, in this
case I was adding years of a row crop in a hay rotation. While
doing this it inserted inappropriate years so I had to change the
years for each line. I estimate it took a minute or so for each
Natural Resource line. It would help to be able to select a date by first selecting a
All Levels
1549 Inventory and RUSLE2 S&T year then a month and then the day.
Nationwide
Assessment
Find a new acceptable tool for erosion prediction that will assist
farmers and NRCS with compliance. RUSLE2 is great for
taking a particular system and finding a value to determine how
well that system works. example: For CSP, this producer is
Natural Resource
All Levels growing cont. corn, disking once, field cultivating once, and
1633 Inventory and RUSLE2 S&T
Nationwide planting. RUSLE2 will tell us he has a SCI of 'X', STIR of 'Y' and
Assessment
erosion rate of 'Z'. Great. (even though the residue levels
stated are not close to what he is actually getting) What it does
not work for is knowing that a farmer needs to meet 5 tons
erosion rate, and he wants to know what system will work to
I recently saw a documentary on public television entitled 'The
Greatest Good' that was a fantastic review of the history of the
USDA-Forest Service. It was approximately 2 hours in length.
Natural Resource I think a similar documentary on SCS/NRCS would be a great
National way to showcase the history and accomplishments of the
1461 Technology General LPAD
Headquarters agency and would be a great way to increase public awareness
Transfer
and the professionalism within our agency. The documentary
would have to be professionally created and filmed. Need to
concentrate on the soil, water, air, plants and human aspects.
Highlight the value of soil survey, plant materials, and
- 82 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
In the eFOTG, at least in my State, each practice has a folder
with a couple of documents such as the Practice Standard, and
a job sheet. If these sheets are not in PDF format, it is nearly
impossible to print a copy of the documents in each folder. I
suggest that all documents posted in the eFOTG be posted in a
standard format (Adobe PDF) for ease of customer use (both
internal and external.) Microsoft Office Documents cannot be
printed from an enclosed pane within a web browser.
Natural Resource
All Levels
1517 Technology General S&T
Nationwide
Transfer
Webb Soil Survey. The Webb Soil Survey is not user friendly
Natural Resource
National and much could be done to make it better. For a long time, if
1563 Technology General SSRA
Headquarters you used a search engine to find the web soil survey, it was not
Transfer
easy to find.
- 83 -
Suggestion Strategic Plan Sub Responsible Target
Detail
Number Category Category Deputy Area Office
Develop Conservation Practice Standard (CPS) Specifications,
and O&M Plans at the National Level. Each state is required to
develop these documents thereby increasing the workload by at
least 50 times. Section IV of the FOTG originally included
specifications along with the national standard. Each state
would then attach a state supplement to the national
specification. The same could be done today with the
specifications and O&M plan. Currently, each state amends the
National CPS to meet their state's needs. We could do the
Natural Resource same to the National Specifications & O&M Plan. There are
National
1624 Technology General S&T
Headquarters some states who are ahead of the curve and have already
Transfer posted the CPS support documents to the e-FOTG so that
information could be used as the basis for the national
versions. I can spend a lot of time searching other states e-
FOTG for a specification that I can edit to meet my states
requirements. If they were posted as a national version I would
automatically know where to locate the boiler plate. The
money and times savings shown below are savings per CPS
specification.
With so much talk about renewable energy and bio-fuels, why
not make it policy that all NRCS fleet vehicles, or all
All Levels government vehicles for that matter be flex-fuel vehicles? They
1398 General MGMT
Nationwide are similarly priced as conventional fuel vehicles, but the bio-
fuels are cheaper and cleaner. It will also support some of the
initiatives in the new farm bill proposals.
- 84 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
The Farm Service Agency's Conservation Reserve Program
practice CP-9 Shallow Water Areas for Wildlife was designed
to develop or restore shallow water areas to an average depth
of 6 to 18 inches for wildlife. The shallow water area must
provide a source of water for wildlife for the majority of the
year, except in the West where precipitation is less than 25
inches annually. The Natural Resources Conservation
Service's practice 646 Shallow Water Development and
Management was designed to provide habitat for wildlife that
requires shallow water for at least a part of their life cycle.
Currently, practice 646 does not apply to wetland restoration,
enhancement, construction or creation. This issue will be
referred to the Deputy Chief for Science and Technology for
review and consideration for an update during the conservation
practice standards review process.
- 85 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 86 -
Response
This suggestion (establishing a liaison position) will not be
considered due to funding constraints. As already mentioned
in the suggestion, the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes
activities are models that currently exist that show the value of
a coordinated federal/state/local coalition to address resource
concerns. Suggestion was also forwarded to State
Conservationists for their consideration.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 87 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
The suggestion has merit. A National effort has been initiated
to streamline and re-engineer the Conservation Planning,
Conservation Implementation, and Financial Assistance
business processes. Contact Lane Price, Initiative Leader, for
details. Suggestion was also forwarded to State
Conservationists for their consideration.
The Community and Rural Assistance team will work with the
Soil Survey Division to investigate the possibility of linking the
existing on-line submission of the FPPA with the Web Soil
Survey.
- 88 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Current budget restraints limit staff increases. However, NHQ
is aware of the concern. Therefore, NHQ is forming a national
team to look at redesigning how people, data, and technology
can support conservation planning, application, and financial
assistance in the future. We will seek a team membership that
is comprised of: district conservationists/range
conservationists; assistant state conservationists (programs.,
operations, technology/SRC); State/Area technical staff (i.e.,
agronomist, eng., GIS, soils, etc.); State Conservationists;
National & State Program Mgrs.; reps from NHQ Divisions (i.e.,
Conservation Planning & Tech Asst Div, Financial Asst
Programs Div, etc.)
- 89 -
Response
Current policy requires NRCS field offices to complete the CPA-
052 and forward to FSA. FSA is the administrative agency and
has the lead for complying with provisions of NEPA, NHPA,
ESA, and other applicable laws for the CRP. Suggestion was
also forwarded to State Conservationists for their
consideration.
There is a report in the fund manager that displays who is not
eligible by application status. ProTracts doesn't get the
eligibility from SCIMs, but from FSA web services and
translated into NRCS business rules from the Fund Manager.
The agency could consider adding an "eligible" report.
Generally states want to know who is NOT eligible to contact
the applicant. In the future, Customer Relationship
Management will allow users to query for 'applicants who are
(or are not) eligible.' If not eligible, it will explain why not.
ProTracts already allows this filter. The new NRCS-CPA-
1155/1156 forms print in the header when an item is
completed. In the future, CRM will allow you to filter out
completed practices/contract items.
- 90 -
Response
No recommended action. It is anticipated that in FY 2008, this
concept will be implemented within the web-based GIS, integral
to Customer Relationship Management. Suggestion was also
forwarded to State Conservationists for their consideration.
Action is already being taken on this suggestion. The next
version of Toolkit Service Pack 4 (SP-4) should include the
on/off switch.
It is up to the discretion of the State Conservationist as to how
location will be documented on location maps. It would not be
appropriate to apply the use of section numbers nationwide
because not all areas of the US are legally described in terms
of Section, Township, and Range. The legal description could
be written as a caption on the property map. Suggestion was
also forwarded to State Conservationists for their
consideration.
- 91 -
Response
No action will be taken on this suggestion at the National Level.
The planner has the option to organize plan fields based on the
client's operation and plan. There is no NRCS planning policy
that dictates using FSA's format. Also, 600.30 of the National
Planning Procedures Handbook offers as guidance "However,
the plan content should be tailored to the client‟s needs."
Toolkit does not require planners to match FSA tract/field
numbers. In addition, neither ProTracts nor the contracting
policy requires planning on this basis. Suggestion was also
forwarded to State Conservationists for their consideration.
As a part of the Lean Six Sigma Grants Process (LSGP) and
streamlining of field office business operations, we will look at
ways of streamlining the updating of the SCIMS database.
More specific problem points in existing applications need to be
defined, and solutions prioritized, before we begin working on
solutions.
Form NRCS-CPA-13 will have an interface link attached to
Protracts that will allow forms to be filled in just like the other
forms in Protracts soon. This will be completed in FY 2008.
We have already fully scoped a Contract Review process with
West Texas Telecommunication Project (WTTP) and have the
business requirements done to support contracting policy, and
need ITC resources to deploy. This will include the integrated
CPA-13 according to policy. In the future, this will be looked
at as an option for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) -
pre-populating the CPA-13 with client/practice information. The
CRM team would be interested in seeing the example that is
described in the suggestion. Suggestion was also forwarded to
State Conservationists for their consideration.
- 92 -
Response
vi-No action to be taken on this suggestion at this time. In the
future, CRM will provide a new interface for selecting practices
from a plan(s) and converting them to contract items. The user
will be able to select multiple practices, from multiple land units,
at one time to create the contract.
No action will be taken on these comments at the National
Level. There are no plans at this time for NRCS to assume the
current responsibilities that FSA has for maintaining participant
eligibility. NRCS does utilize an eligibility web service that FSA
provides and this does improve the service response from the
technology side. It would not be in NRCS' best interest from the
field office workload burden perspective to assume the
responsibility of having to acquire and enter the eligibility
information into our systems. On the matter concerning
nutrient management plans, that is a concern that should be
discussed with the appropriate level supervisor. The EPA
recognizes that NRCS defined comprehensive nutrient
management plans (CNMP) satisfy EPA nutrient management
plan requirements. However, it is possible an EPA nutrient
management plan will not meet NRCS CNMP requirements.
That may be the reason for state variability of nutrient
management plans. If the comment is suggesting that CNMPs
are not following policy and meeting standards, an employee
should bring the issue to the attention of the first line
supervisor. The first line supervisor needs an opportunity to
- 93 -
Response
Current budget restraints limit staff increases. However, NHQ
is aware of the concern. Therefore, NHQ is forming a national
team to look at redesigning how people, data, and technology
can support conservation planning, application, and financial
assistance in the future. We will seek a team membership that
is comprised of: district conservationists/range
conservationists; assistant state conservationists (prgms,
operations, technology/SRC); State/Area technical staff (i.e.,
agronomist, eng., GIS, soils, etc.); State Conservationists;
National & State Program Mgrs.; reps from NHQ Divisions (i.e.,
Conservation Planning & Tech Asst Div, Finan Asst Prgms Div,
etc.). Suggestion was also forwarded to State Conservationists
for their consideration.
No action will be taken at present on this suggestion. In the
future, Customer Relationship Management will become the
new planning tool, including digitizing of field boundaries, and
plan map generation. It is much more appropriate to digitize
planning elements in the planning tools than in the
performance reporting application.
- 94 -
Response
vi-No action will be taken at present on this suggestion. In the
future, CRM will further integrate the planning and contracting
functions so users can do both from a single interface. Users
will be able to modify/create plans in CRM, then convert
practices to contract items. Policy states that we should not be
using the Toolkit contract wizard for development of the
contract support documents for any program that is
administered in ProTracts. This step is only to be used for
programs not in ProTracts (CRP, WRP, GRP, etc). Therefore,
the issue of duplicate work and waste of paper is a non-issue if
following policy. It is true that contract items cannot be added
to an application in Protracts without uploading it from Toolkit.
That is required so the item will be properly attached to the
database for progress reporting. This allows reporting the
completion of the item once in either ProTracts or Toolkit and
linked to the other tool and automatically reported when
applied. If an item were to be allowed to be added to an
application in Protracts without the upload process, it would
never back-feed into Toolkit when applied and the user would
This is a good suggestion about Toolkit interacting better with
Soil Data Viewer / Soil data Mart. It will be forwarded to the
Programs' Business Tools team. We will ask the Business
Tools team to consider this suggestion in future Toolkit
upgrades. Not sure what is happening with the layer files. If
they are disappearing they need to report the problem to the
Toolkit help desk. As far as FSA CLU layers, NRCS has no
control over how well FSA updates the files. However, this
issue has not been identified as a widespread problem. In the
- 95 -
Response
This suggestion has been transmitted to the Toolkit Support
Team at ITC, Fort Collins, Colorado.
Considerable efforts have been made and will continue to be
made to provide comprehensive training on the practical use of
all Programs business tools. All training is provided live
through Net Conferences, but is also recorded and posted on
the My.NRCS website for future playback.
Within broad national guidelines, workload management is left
to the State Conservationists as well as the deadlines for
review. Cleanup and de-obligation, if necessary, are
established at the State level. There are times when deadlines
and workload are not within the Agency's control. For example,
when the Agency is directed by Congress or the Administration
to address specific issues (such as the authenticity of contract
obligations).
- 96 -
Response
No action will be taken at this time. In FY 2008, the Agency will
move away from individual customer files on the local servers
toward a centralized data repository using Share Point.
No action will be taken on this suggestion. Users can already
do this - check out folders, copy files from customer file folder
in Windows Explorer, paste to CD RAW drive, write to disc.
There is limited benefit in customizing this at this point as
NRCS will be moving away from local file servers for storing
customer files.
This requirement needs to be further defined and prioritized for
the next version of Toolkit Service Pack 4 (SP-4) or Customer
Relationship Management.
This requirement needs to be further defined and prioritized for
the next version of Toolkit Service Pack 4 (SP-4) or Customer
Relationship Management.
The Customer Service Toolkit is an integral part of the
Agency's conservation planning and it can be improved.
There is an effort to implement a Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) application in the near future. Plans are
underway to replace Toolkit with CRM (future phases).
- 97 -
Response
No action will be taken at this time. In FY 2008, Customer
Relationship Management will allow you to filter out paid
contract items.
This suggestion has merit. It needs to be further defined and
prioritized for Toolkit Service Pack 4 (SP-4) or Customer
Relations Management.
Comments will be directed to the NRCS CIO, Jack Carlson.
- 98 -
Response
No action will be taken at this time. In the future, as ProTracts
is enhanced and improved, as a part of the Lean Six Sigma
Grants Process (LSGP), interface and operational issues, such
as this, will be considered and evaluated.
Toolkit allows users to develop 'Alternative Plans' - it just
doesn't label them as such. Alternative plans can be created in
Toolkit, including RMS plans. Will ask the Toolkit Business
Advisory Group to evaluate the idea of mixing apples and
oranges (BMPs with agreed-to items) in a single plan.
However, we already get complaints that the practice schedule
is too cluttered. If we start adding 'possible' items, with those
the producer has agreed to implement, it will become even
more cluttered. Re: Suggestion 3- This suggestion has merit.
It will be evaluated after the 2008 Customer Relationship
Management implementation. Suggestion was also forwarded
to State Conservationists for their consideration.
- 99 -
Response
Recommend that no additional resources be expended on
customizing ArcGIS at this point. In the future, CRM will use
Virtual Earth (at least in Phase I). We are moving toward web
applications for digitizing so we should not be spending
resources to continue customizing ArcGIS at this point.
Time-out is purposely implemented and enforced for security
purposes and to manage system load. Efforts have been done
by ITC to optimize the amount of time before time-out, while
enforcing security and system load. As far as a window and
pop-up operations, where possible, within the future CRM and
Lean Six Sigma Grants Process (LSGP) effort.
Time-out is purposely implemented and enforced for security
purposes and to manage system load. Efforts have been done
by ITC to optimize the amount of time before time-out, while
enforcing security and system load. As far as a window and
pop-up operations, the graphic user interface will be evaluated
and enhanced, where possible, within the future CRM and
Lean Six Sigma Grants Process (LSGP) effort.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 100 -
Response
System and network performance is continually monitored and
managed for optimal efficiency. ITS and ITC are aware of
issues and move to resolve these promptly. No specific
performance issues have been identified since last winter.
This suggestion has been logged and will be completed by the
Programs Business Tools Team in FY 2008.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 101 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 102 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 103 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 104 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 105 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 106 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 107 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 108 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
NRCS is aware of improvements needed to its Google Search
engine. It is believed that the metadata and tagging of content
in the new Content Management System when the website
migration is completed will improve the search function greatly.
NRCS is aware of improvements needed to its Google Search
engine. It is believed that the metadata and tagging of content
in the new Content Management System when the website
migration is completed will improve the search function greatly.
NRCS is aware of improvements needed to its Google Search
engine. It is believed that the metadata and tagging of content
in the new Content Management System when the website
migration is completed will improve the search function greatly.
- 109 -
Response
We will add links to AgrAbility at: Information for … Farmers
and Ranchers
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/partners/for_farmers.html;
Communities:
http//www.nrcs.usda.gov/partners/for_communities.html AND
Programs (with "USDA Program" following):
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/ (Site url is
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/ag_systems/in_focus/workforc
e_if_agrability.html)
We support this suggestion.
We support this suggestion.
The Chief's Civil Rights Policy Statement is available at:
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/civilrights/pdf/CR_policy.pdf
- 110 -
Response
We support this suggestion.
To increase participation by minority or socially disadvantaged
growers a pilot would be a good approach to draw these
groups into the market. I suggest they grow seed that is in high
demand to insure success.
We need to do a better job explaining the purpose of the
Special Emphasis Programs
- 111 -
Response
In FY 2008 NRCS will begin to use a payment
schedule process for all cost-share programs. With this
approach, payment rates for each practice will be posted in the
payment schedule. The calculations to determine participant
compensation will be done in the background. Field
employees will not need to collect receipts or calculate
payments. This should greatly simplify the process for making
payments in all financial assistance programs including EQIP.
Suggestion was also forwarded to State Conservationists for
their consideration.
The Agency's software program (Protracts) for managing CSP,
EQIP, AMA, and WHIP is constantly undergoing upgrades to
reduce the amount of time needed to manage program
contracts and make program payments. NRCS will also be
implementing in fiscal year 2008 a payment schedule process.
By implementing payment schedules for CSP, WHIP, EQIP,
and AMA, conservation program contracting and contract
administration will be simplified and streamlined. The payment
schedule process should increase staff time available for
conservation planning, technical consultation and conservation
implementation. Also, a number of states have implemented
various administrative processes, tools, and staffing changes
to handle contracting workload.
- 112 -
Response
Pen and ink changes or modifications to payments recorded in
ProTracts and documented on CCC-1245 are not allowed by
policy. Certainly any proposed changes to what will be earned
by the participant should be discussed with the client. There is
no legal provision to adjust the payment for anything different
than the appropriate amount. A new corrected CCC-1245
would be the appropriate action to take. It is worth noting that it
will take less staff time to make the correct payment now rather
than making a recovery of overpayment later. Suggestion was
also forwarded to State Conservationists for their
consideration.
NRCS services its clients at the Field level, and working with a
contract participant to process a payment application is a field
level responsibility, e.g., the initial step in the payment
application process is the participant certifying practice
implementation at the field level. In FY 2008 NRCS will begin to
use a payment schedule process for all cost-share programs.
With this approach, payment rates for each practice will be
posted in the payment schedule. The calculations to determine
participant compensation will be done in the background. Field
employees will not need to collect receipts or calculate
payments. This should greatly simplify the process for making
payments in all financial assistance programs including EQIP.
Suggestion was also forwarded to State Conservationists for
their consideration.
- 113 -
Response
WHIP applications usually exceed the amount of funds
available in States; consequently, funding is provided
competitively to applicants. Priority setting by the State
Technical Committee and the State Conservationist, use of a
application screening process, use of the application evaluation
and ranking tool, and funding of applications is necessary to be
able to explain to unfunded applicants that the process used
was fair. A report from ProTracts is available to provide to
applicants that explains why they were or were not funded. As
far as an annual sign-up is concerned that is controlled at a
state level, within broad National guidelines. Funding and
Ranking of applications for AMA. Funding - We take our cue
from Congress and OMB on when we get funding in a fiscal
year for a given program. The funding is annual in nature and
we do not have the ability to carry it over from one fiscal year to
the next fiscal year. If we had this option, then funding may
very well be available to any prospective applicant throughout
the year. Once the Agency receives the funding, we have a
specific agency deadline on having the funds obligated to
The Secretary's proposal for the 2007 Farm Bill includes
combining a number of conservation programs. It also
proposes streamlining and simplifying conservation programs
for program participants. Programs will be using the same
forms for all programs to simplify the contracting process.
Easements programs will be developing a common provision
handbook for easements. NRCS has experience with
processing payments and records through previous long term
contracting programs. ProTracts and the easements database
will help facilitate these tasks.
- 114 -
Response
It is assumed that this comment is referring to the open
obligation review being led by FMD. If so, ProTracts is being
used to reduce the workload for the field. By focusing the
review on contracts that contain practices which have not been
implemented on schedule rather than reviewing every program
contract. For additional input, this comment will be redirected
to the Financial Management Division (FMD).
NHQ continues to strive toward better and more integrated
communications between staffs. Considerable efforts are
underway to work more closely and in sync between business
areas, in the case of "Reviews of Un-liquidated Obligations,
DR2230-001," improved communications between Programs
and FMD.
Many States, STCs, Program Managers, clients and FSA have
made this same suggestion. It would be worth pursuing a joint
effort by FSA and NRCS to establish a single Power of
Attorney form that would be acceptable and useable by both
agencies. Note that the FSA-211 does not include some
important features NRCS needs for program and contract
management and vice versa, the NRCS-CPA-09 does not
include provisions that are needed by FSA. This option will be
explored. It would be good business for both agencies to be
using the same form instead of requiring clients to obtain two
separate POAs for application.
- 115 -
Response
FSA rules, policies, and procedures differ significantly from
NRCS's. NRCS staff has not been provided much formal or
informal training regarding FSA information that impacts NRCS
programs. However, NRCS policies are "not founded" on FSA
policies. Each agency has separate and distinct policies and
procedures which guide responsibilities for each agency.
NRCS is still responsible for making sure program applicants
fulfill and meet eligibility requirements. To this end, NRCS
needs to understand FSA policy and procedures enough to be
able to help clients complete the application process. NRCS
should offer training specifically to better understand the FSA
policies which affect NRCS program eligibility. Suggestion was
also forwarded to State Conservationists for their
consideration.
This practice (a deadline) is used by some States already.
State Conservationists have within their authority to do this
practice as suggested. Through continuous sign-up, States
should be able to make contacts with applicants at any time.
There isn't a national deadline regarding rating. There are
obligation deadlines that states must meet. The National office
does not require a specific application signup deadline. States
have the authority to set there own application signup
deadlines. Many States have already adjusted their signup
deadlines to allow the field to work more efficiently on
applications when the weather and workloads are most
favorable. This would also have the added benefit of getting
ahead of the curve in amount of time available for completion
of conservation plans required for support of program
applications and contracts (Better planning = better contracts).
Suggestion was also forwarded to State Conservationists for
their consideration.
- 116 -
Response
ABC or similar workload analysis estimates are necessary to
collect information needed by the Agency to quantify our
technical assistance needs and costs, and for managers within
the Agency to plan and allocate resources. Efforts will be made
to collect the data in ways that minimize burden to the field but
that will still yield meaningful results. As for combining
ProTracts, PRS, and TCAS this task would be impossible. If
ever the mainframe goes down for one system that would
mean that all systems would not be accessible. With ProTracts
being a contracting system, PRS a reporting system, and
TCAS a timekeeping system, combining three different
functionalities would not be feasible. The Secretary has
recommended consolidating some existing conservation
programs in the 2007 Farm Bill. An easements database is
being developed to record all easement programs. This
database will be similar to ProTracts and will have links to the
other financial management systems.
There are no plans at this time for NRCS to assume current
responsibilities that FSA has for maintaining eligibility. NRCS
does utilize an eligibility web service that FSA provides and this
does improve the service response from the technology side. It
would not be in NRCS' best interest from the field office
workload burden perspective to assume the responsibility of
having to acquire and enter the eligibility information into our
systems.
EQIP contracts are legally binding documents and they cannot
simply be cancelled after a certain time period. Proper review
and appeal rights need to be provided before a contract can be
terminated. A better way of handling this situation is what
many States are currently doing. They are providing training to
field office staff on contract management, following up with
contract participants on a regular basis and terminating
contracts when appropriate and recovering costs and liquidated
damages. This has sent out a signal to contract participants
that if they do not follow their contracts there will be
repercussions. Additionally, field office staff needs to educate
contract participants on the legal issues of conservation
program contracts.
- 117 -
Response
There has never been a requirement to send a registered letter
with regard to either program decisions or final technical
determinations, either by regulation or agency policy. The
requirement has been, and is as follows, at 7 CFR 614.6(b),
"NRCS notifies participants of the agency's preliminary and
final technical determinations and program decisions through
decision notices. By certified mail, return receipt requested,
NRCS will send to the participant a decision notice within 10
working days of rendering a technical determination or program
decision. In lieu of certified mail, NRCS may hand deliver
notices to participants with written acknowledgment of delivery
by the participant....." This regulation has been in effect since
May 16, 2006. Policy documents available on the directives
web site have no reference that would mandate sending any
technical determination or program decision by registered mail.
Registered mail is only used when the content of the package
is of monetary or other significant value and is kept in a safe
when transported. Therefore, a notice of a determination or
decision would fit that definition. As NRCS deploys the
nationwide appeals, mediation and equitable relief training in
Many States already cost share at the 50 percent rate. States
have the authority to set cost share rates within Statutory
requirements. The payment limitation amount is set by Statute.
NRCS does not have the authority to reduce payment limitation
but NRCS may cap payments on conservation practices such
as waste storage facilities due to high cost. Many States
already employ practice caps to assist additional producers.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
- 118 -
Response
Current budget restraints limit staff increases. However, NHQ
is aware of the concern. Therefore, NHQ is forming a national
team to look at redesigning how people, data, and technology
can support conservation planning, application, and financial
assistance in the future. We will seek a team membership that
is comprised of: district conservationists/range
conservationists; assistant state conservationists (prgms,
operations, technology/SRC); State/Area technical staff (i.e.,
agronomist, eng., GIS, soils, etc.); State Conservationists;
National & State Program Mgrs.; reps from NHQ Divisions (i.e.,
Conservation Planning & Tech Asst Div, Finan Asst Prgms Div,
etc.). Suggestion was also forwarded to State Conservationists
for their consideration.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 119 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 120 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 121 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 122 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 123 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 124 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 125 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 126 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 127 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 128 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 129 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 130 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 131 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 132 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 133 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 134 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Wetland policy training will be provided utilizing net meetings or
AgLearn after the 2007 Farm Bill is passed and we know
whether there will be changes affecting the wetland provisions.
Suggestion was also forwarded to State Conservationists for
their consideration.
- 135 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 136 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
This suggestion will be sent to States for consideration and
implementation. This suggestion appears to have identified a
potential training issue. Coordination of training will continue to
occur between ITC and Programs.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 137 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
The quality assurance process is an important part of internal
Agency controls. The process may be handled slightly
differently depending on the State. Reducing workload by
eliminating redundant processes is a good business practice.
Actions: The suggestion was forwarded to State
Conservationists for consideration
- 138 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 139 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
a2-Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State. This
suggestion was also submitted under the NRCS Employee
Suggestion Program. LPAD reviewed this and agreed it should
be forwarded to USDA for consideration (this is beyond NRCS
authority to implement). USDA has approved and will be
implementing this suggestion.
- 140 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 141 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 142 -
Response
One identified finding from the Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS) National Headquarters (NHQ) of
the Future Initiative Report indicated that NHQ needed to
improve its customer service to internal customers. In an effort
to address this finding, Leadership established the NHQ
Customer Service Standards Design Team (NHQ CSS Team).
The NHQ CSS Team was charged to design customer service
standards for NHQ employees that will ensure an efficient and
effective business environment within NHQ while improving the
quality of customer service provided by NHQ employees. The
following were the objectives of the NHQ Customer Service
Standards Design Team: Develop a comprehensive strategy
for establishing customer service standards that align with the
Agency‟s Strategic Plan and the Balanced Score Card.; Create
customer service standards that are defined, specific, and
measurable for NHQ and employees; Develop a
comprehensive implementation plan and products that will
enable institutionalization of customer service standards at
NHQ. The Team developed the NRCS NHQ Customer Service
Plan. The plan includes the implementation of a customer
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 143 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 144 -
Response
It is National Headquarter's sstandard operating procedure for
the assigned subject matter expert to contact the State
Conservationist for preparation of the draft response prior to
submission to the Conservation Correspondence Brance.
Except for very sensitive issues or complaints against a State
Conservationist, involvement of the RACs should not be
required.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 145 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 146 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 147 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Comments will be directed to the NRCS CIO, Jack Carlson.
Comments will be directed to the NRCS CIO, Jack Carlson.
Comments will be directed to the NRCS CIO, Jack Carlson.
Comments will be directed to the NRCS CIO, Jack Carlson.
- 148 -
Response
Comments will be directed to the NRCS CIO, Jack Carlson.
Comments will be directed to the NRCS CIO, Jack Carlson.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 149 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
This suggestion was also submitted under the NRCS
Employee Suggeston Program. LPAD reviewed this and
agreed it should be forwarded to USDA for cnsideration (this is
beyond NRCS authority to implement). USDA has approved
and will be implementing this suggestion.
- 150 -
Response
The RC&D program is not devoted to mostly rural
development. The program was established over 42 years ago
to provide a connection between conservation and community
development. The RC&D program is charged, through its
authorizing statute, to assist community leaders in the
implementation of projects that improve land conservation, land
management, water management (which includes water quality
and quantity), and also undertake projects that improve
community development. In the arena of natural resources,
the combined efforts of the 375 designated RC&D areas
nationwide in Fiscal Year 2006 resulted in the improvement of
an estimated 14 million acres of wildlife habitat, 815,000 acres
of lakes and other water bodies, and 6,225 miles of streams.
RC&D Councils assisted over 2,700 animal agricultural
operations with water quality projects; assisted with the
construction or rehabilitation of 54 flood control structures; and
preserved or protected over 6.4 million acres of agricultural
land. In addition, the thirty-four RC&D Councils in 20 States
implemented energy projects involving renewable energy and
energy conservation. Projects addressed producing biofuels
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 151 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 152 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 153 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
If the purpose of the “gleaning numbers, adding them up and
hoping” the number matches existing reports, then currently,
the information described can be obtained via a query of the
performance data using data viewer and data checker.
Although not a standard report, the tool is extremely useful for
isolating potential data errors and comparing expected versus
actual performance data. The PRS Worklist performs the same
function. Actions: Deputy Chief for Strategic Planning and
Accountability will provide refresher training on the data viewer
and data checker tools to help employees get better output.
- 154 -
Response
Correct. The feature for mining progress directly from
ProTracts [and Toolkit] has been proposed to the Field Office
Business Tools Coordinating Council. Actions Director
OMOD will check on status of suggestion.
Displaying program-specific performance in one report that
combines state and county performance measures makes
sense. Also, report options for service center and sub-state
administrative boundaries are available for states that have
previously defined that GIS layer. Actions: Development of
the EDAAR reporting strategy is underway. This effort will
improve the access and functionality of reports for performance
and other accountability data.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 155 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 156 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 157 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 158 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Thank you for the information. Web site was checked for
functionality. Actions: No additional action planned.
The USDA and NRCS have a formal, permanent Employee
Suggestion Program (ESP). Information can be found at
www.usda.gov/da/employ/websuggestionbrochure.htm. NRCS
policy on the suggestion program is contained in 360-GM, Part
414, Section 414.13. A recent National Bulletin, 360-7-5 was
issued February 9, 2007 to remind employees and managers
of the Employee Suggestion Program. This formal process
provides an opportunity for individuals to submit suggestions
and receive responses in a timely manner. Suggestions that
improve efficiency and save money can result in recognition,
including monetary recognition, for the employee. The on-line
suggestion system on my.nrcs is designed as an informal
method of gathering suggestions from a large number of
employees, typically about a specific issue. In this last session
no specific issue was identified. Future use of the system may
identify specific issues for which suggestions are solicited. A
drawback to a permanent on-line system is the time involved in
sorting the comments, identifying the appropriate individual(s)
to review the comment, and determining if the suggestion has
merit for implementation. For the system to function properly,
- 159 -
Response
The USDA and NRCS have a formal, permanent Employee
Suggestion Program (ESP). Information can be found at
www.usda.gov/da/employ/websuggestionbrochure.htm. The
NRCS policy on the suggestion program is contained in 360-
GM, Part 414, Section 414.13. A recent National Bulletin, 360-
7-5 was issued February 9, 2007 to remind employees and
managers of the Employee Suggestion Program. This formal
process provides an opportunity for individuals to submit
suggestions and receive response in a timely manner.
Suggestions that improve efficiency and save money can result
in recognition, including monetary recognition, for the
employee. The on-line suggestion system on my.nrcs is
designed as an informal method of gathering suggestions from
a large number of employees, typically about a specific issue.
In this last session no specific issue was identified. Future use
of the system may identify specific issues for which
suggestions are solicited. A drawback to a permanent on-line
system is the time involved in sorting the comments, identifying
the appropriate individual(s) to review the comment, and
determining if the suggestion has merit for implementation. For
the system to function properly, a response should be provided
to the individual. These steps have been established in the
formal suggestion program. Actions: The Deputy Chief for
- 160 -
Response
The USDA and NRCS have a formal, permanent Employee
Suggestion Program (ESP). Information can be found at
www.usda.gov/da/employ/websuggestionbrochure.htm. The
NRCS policy on the suggestion program is contained in 360-
GM, Part 414, Section 414.13. A recent National Bulletin, 360-
7-5 was issued February 9, 2007 to remind employees and
managers of the Employee Suggestion Program. This formal
process provides an opportunity for individuals to submit
suggestions, including supporting data, and receive response
in a timely manner. Also, suggestions that improve efficiency
and save money can result in recognition, including monetary
recognition, for the employee submitting the suggestion. The
on-line system does have space limitations. Contact
information was requested so that additional supporting data, if
needed, could be obtained. Actions: No additional action
planned.
Suggestions were distributed to two groups for review,
comment, and action as appropriate. Deputy Chiefs received
all of the suggestions pertaining to their Deputy Area.
Responses were requested and will be posted to my.nrcs. In
addition, some submitters were contacted for additional
information about their suggestion. State Conservationists
received suggestions for possible State implementation. For
these suggestions, a response will also be posted to my.nrcs,
crafted by the assigned Deputy Area, but each State
Conservationist will decide how, or if, to implement the
- 161 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
- 162 -
Response
Civil rights activities are an integral part of almost every activity
currently outlined in our time and cost accounting system. A
civil rights accounting code would not ensure that the civil rights
work gets done, but would require that employees attempt to
separate and subset the portion or program delivery,
technology transfer, and/or management that would be
attributed to civil rights activities.
The time and cost accounting system (WebTCAS) was
designed to help answer questions that internal managers,
OMB, Congress and others have about how NRCS employees
spend their time related to the tax dollars we receive.
Reporting by program only would be a simpler option.
Actions: The Deputy Chief for Strategic Planning and
Accountability will develop a proposal to evaluate the costs and
benefits of reporting by program only.
- 163 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 164 -
Response
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
- 165 -
Response
It should be very rare that a user needs to change a date for an
operation in RUSLE2. At the state or area levels, management
files should already be built for the field staff to use with no
requirement to change dates. Also, the dates used in the pre-
built management files are long term average dates from
National Agricultural Statistics Service that reflect 50% of the
producers having completed that operation. Users are trained
not to change those dates unless something is very out-of-the-
ordinary. In reviewing many of the Crop Management Zones
throughout the United States, many zones have very few pre-
built crop management systems and rotations. This really
increases the workload for the field office staff. There is also a
feature within RUSLE2 that will automatically adjust dates to fit,
or by day, days, etc. Action: Training needs to be provided to
state, area, and field office RUSLE2 users to better use the
features in the RUSLE2 software to save time and improve
efficiency. In addition, personnel at the state and/or area level
should build management systems for the field office personnel
to use. This will save a lot of time and frustration at the field
RUSLE2 is an accurate tool to predict average annual soil loss,
especially on cropland. Response: The Agricultural Research
Service has always stated that RUSLE2 is not a tool to
accurately predict surface cover. This information has always
been stressed during RUSLE2 training, but not everyone
realizes it. The other part of the problem is using the correct
operation within RUSLE2 for Ridge Planting. If the residue
amounts are off as much as the individual reports then a
different operation file needs to be built to represent what is
happening. Each operation type in the RUSLE2 database has
LPAD will take this suggeston under consideration.
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Response
1. eFOTG relies on the internet browser on the user‟s
computer. Most people use Internet Explorer, many use
Netscape, Firefox, Safari, Opera and other browsers. Each
browser has configuration settings available that set how
documents are handled. eFOTG has a „Preferences‟ menu
item. Clicking on Preferences, each user can set whether they
want their eFOTG documents displayed “In the Same Window”
or “In a New Window”. If eFOTG documents are displayed in
the „Same Window‟, it is nearly impossible to print documents
that are not PDF format. When a user saves this setting, the
browser will remember it for all future sessions, until changed
by the user. If Preference is set to display “In a New Window”,
then all documents including PDF, and Microsoft Office
documents are opened in their default application. In this case,
a Microsoft Word document will be opened and displayed in
Microsoft Word. Users can easily print or save on their hard
drive. This is discussed under Printing files in the on-line
eFOTG Help. This option will either open a new browser
window, or create a new frame in some browsers. Some users
Suggestion is under evaluation and a response will be posted
at a later date.
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Response
Nationally, conservation practice standard specifications are
being discouraged. There are very few practices left in the
National Handbook of Conservation Practices that has an
associated national construction specification. The reason is
that a “practice” specification needs to cover/address all facets
or activities involved in installing that practice (e.g., excavation,
earth fill, pipes, concrete, seeding, etc.). This generally leads
to a very large specification, with extreme generalities, leaving
most of the site specific information to be added by the
designer. Instead, the agency has embraced the approach that
uses activity based specifications that provide the depth
needed to describe what needs to be done and at the same
time provide options to deal with the decisions made to make
the design site specific. For example, for a grassed waterway
you would probably have separate specifications that address:
Clearing and Grubbing, Excavation, Earth fill, and Seeding and
Mulching. The advantage of this approach is that when a
conservation practice standard is updated, the specifications
do not need to be updated unless a new activity is defined.
Also, if a new activity or way of constructing is identified (say a
new way of earth compaction) you do not need to change every
Suggestion is under evaluation at the national level and a
response will be posted at a later date. This suggestion was
also sent to State Conservationists for review and
consideration for implementation within their State.
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