Tag Archives: GSA

New GSA Offering Could Avert the Next Conference Scandal

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Originally posted by Joseph Marks on NextGov

The General Services Administration is considering building a menu of contractors offering services that can help agencies avoid the sort of conference spending scandals that rocked GSA itself in 2012, according to solicitation documents posted Tuesday.

Contractors listed on the menu would help centralize agencies' conference and meeting spending in unified databases, ensure competitive pricing for conference-related purchases, minimize the risk of cancellation fees from hotels and food vendors and archive important information to pass along to GSA and government watchdogs, the request for information said.

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A Message from AIAA’s Executive Director

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Originally posted by AIAA

Dear Colleague,

As we start 2013, there is little doubt that the full impact of 2012 events has yet to play out. In 2012 we witnessed a "perfect storm" of the fallout from a scandal within a federal agency - the General Services Administration (GSA) - and the failure of Congress and the White House to achieve meaningful budgetary progress. This combination has left our Institute facing an atmosphere of tightening government travel rules and shrinking agency budgets - both of which threaten the long-term viability of AIAA.

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DoD moves meetings online, but IT systems can’t keep pace

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Originally posted by Jared Serbu on Federal News Radio

As budget cuts take their toll on in-person conferences within the Defense Department, more meetings are shifting online, specifically to DoD's in-house Web conferencing service, Defense Connect Online.

The system has seen so much traffic recently that usage is starting to outstrip the system's capacity. And DCO may be about to see even more users. The Defense Information Systems Agency and the contractor that runs DCO have just released an app that lets defense employees host or log into meetings from their iPhones and iPads.

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Agencies Justify Conference Tabs Above $100,000

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Originally posted by Charles S. Clark on Government Executive

 

Agencies have submitted summaries of conference spending in fiscal 2012 to the Office of Management and Budget that include justifications for training events that exceeded $100,000. The reports are required by a May 2012 memo from Acting Budget Director Jeffrey Zients.

Expanding on a 2011 OMB directive and executive order from President Obama promoting efficient spending, the latest Zients memo requires reductions in travel and conferences in the wake of the spring 2012 scandal involving extravagant spending at a General Services Administration training conference. It prohibits conferences costing more than $500,000 and requires agencies to report on events costing more than $100,000. Reports from all agencies were due Jan. 31.

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GSA Offers Online Training in Conference Etiquette

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Originally posted by Brittany Ballenstedt on GovExec

This year has not brought the most positive of headlines for the General Services Administration, particularly after revelations agency officials spent excessively at an over-the-top Las Vegas training conference that featured a mind reader, bicycle giveaways and extravagant receptions.

But now the agency is using that "mistake" as a catalyst for an effort to train other employees on conference etiquette, a topic that will serve as one of the first courses of its new virtual training program set to launch in January, Lauren Concklin, a marketing analyst with GSA, said Thursday during a webinar sponsored by GovLoop.

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