[PMAGList] PMAG Newsletter, September 2003

[PMAG]

Greetings PMI Program Alumni -

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I hope you have had a great 
summer. We've had a busy spring and summer here and it's time for us 
to update you once again on what's going on in the PMI world.

I met recently with James Wilson, Deputy Director of the PMI program 
to discuss a variety of issues. Here's the skinny:

1. New Executive Orders have gone forward from OPM to OMB (and from 
there to the
President for signature) that would make the following changes to the 
PMI Program:
- The PMI program is renamed the Presidential Management Fellowship 
(PMF) Program
- The current hiring cap of 400 finalists is lifted
- The program is changing to offer sliding scale introductory 
salaries to qualified applicants, meaning new interns can enter as a 
9, and if qualified, move to the 11 and perhaps 13 GS level if they 
are qualified (Experience, advanced degrees, etc.) at the 6 month and 
12 month marks. Details on implementation are unclear.
- A second fellowship program, virtually unrelated to the PMF is 
created: The Senior PMF. This new program offers advanced managerial 
training to GS-13, 14 and 15s, with eligibility for non-competitive 
appointment to the SES following certified completion of the program. 
Initially, the program will recruit from within the civil service, 
but is also targeted to recruit external to the government.

My comments to Dr. Wilson on this were manifold:

A. PMAG was opposed to the name change, based on legacy issues. As 
well, we had found that few alumni had concerns over the name of the 
program. It appeared largely to be an issue for current PMIs.
B. The pay issue, while not large, was welcome - though it would be 
dependent on the willingness of agencies to exercise this flexibility.

This opened the discussion to larger issues - I stipulated that name 
change aside, these were exciting changes to the program. However, 
they did not address what we perceived to be more fundamental, and 
indeed more important, issues facing the program. Namely, that after 
a finalist leaves Shepherdstown, they had virtually no contact with 
OPM. Regarding pay, training and rotations, OPM was silent - leaving 
the interns at the mercy of their agencies for enforcement of program 
guidelines.

Surprisingly, Dr. Wilson agreed - he commented that the existing 
system had no teeth, and that the coming rewrite of the regulations 
would include some enforcement provisions - namely those like the SES 
CDP Program, the PMF programs would have a certification requirement. 
This would mean each agency wanting fellows would need to certify 
with OPM that they were training and rotating them as per program 
guidelines. Agencies which did not would not be allowed to hire in 
subsequent years through these programs.

Needless to say, this represents an exciting possible change in the 
PMI program, and we are encouraged by the attention the program is 
getting from OPM and by their eagerness to interact with PMAG 
regarding these changes. When I briefed the Board of Directors, we 
had a few further concerns, which we've communicated to the PMI 
program office:

1. In removing the hiring cap, what thought was given to maintaining 
the 'selective' nature of the program?
2. Will these changes affect the % of students from a given grad 
school that can apply? Several members commented that they weren't 
sure that this restriction was practical to enforce and that with the 
expansion in the number of PMI finalists its impact on the overall 
quality of the applicant pool would actually be negative (given the 
concentration of highly qualified graduates at some small schools).

We look forward to seeing the final Executive Orders and the draft 
regulations.  We will make them available for comment to the 
membership as soon as they are available.

To further the communication with OPM on the changes, we've formed an 
OPM Comment subcommittee, led by our co-secretary, Mr. Erick Leklem. 
He will be the lead for collecting and corresponding with OPM 
regarding the programmatic changes. The board hopes that by having an 
identified POC for specific issues, we can more effectively gather 
information and communicate with OPM. You may contact him at:  
changes at pmag.org

That being said, there are two other subcommittees we've formed that 
you should be aware of. The first will be our Fall Event Planning 
group, led by our Secretary, Mr. David Radcliffe. He'll be the POC 
regarding our participation in the events OPM is planning surrounding 
the launch of the PMF. As the situation evolves, we'll release 
information via email - in the interim if you have questions or want 
to get involved, you can contact David at:  events at pmag.org

Finally, after our extended discussions concerning PMI Alumni, I am 
leading the Membership Services Subcommittee. We have several goals 
which include a relaunch of the PMAG web page, integrate and launch a 
web accessible version of the PMAG contact database, and to work with 
OPM to manage alumni relations better. Furthering that, we will 
launch 'The Alumni Project' in the fall. PMAG hopes to partner with 
OPM to reach out to the PMI Alumni. A project in this direction would 
further the aims of PMAG, and serve as a stepping off point for OPMs 
longitudinal examination of the fates of PMIs.

We are preparing to relaunch the PMAG website, PMAG.org, and our new 
web goddess, Rebecca Martino, is preparing to revamp the site and 
improve it's services to the alumni a great deal - many thanks to Ms. 
Martino for taking on this task!

Please don't hesitate to contact PMAG for information or with your 
opinion or concerns:
   to volunteer:  volunteers at pmag.org
   comments on the PMIP:   comments at pmag.org
   list serve, data changes & general:  pmag at pmag.org

Respectfully,
Tod Companion
President
Presidential Management Alumni Group
President at PMAG.org
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