Memorandum

To:                       Family Farm Alliance Members & Interested Parties 

From:                  Dan Keppen, Executive Director

Subject:              Portland “Managing for Excellence” Public Meeting

Date:                   September 6, 2007

The Bureau of Reclamation (“Reclamation”) has scheduled a “Managing for Excellence” (“M4E”) public meeting in Portland (OREGON) on September 25-26. In my view, this may be the most important of all the M4E workshops hosted by Reclamation. The deliverables that will be discussed at this meeting may be only a step or two away from becoming Reclamation policy. The following has been developed to provide more information on the upcoming Portland meeting, which I seriously urge you to consider attending.

Overview

Reclamation’s Managing for Excellence Project will identify and address the specific 21st Century challenges Reclamation must meet to fulfill its mission to manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public. This process provides an important opportunity for Western water users – many of whom are customers that help pay for Reclamation services - to find further ways to improve transparency in Reclamation decision-making, provide improved accountability, and make the organization as efficient as possible.

Family Farm Alliance Involvement

The Family Farm Alliance has spent considerable time and resources in the past two years working with a National Research Council Committee (“Committee”) and Reclamation as the Committee developed Managing Construction and Infrastructure in the 21^st Century – Bureau of Reclamation, which was finalized in 2006. In June 2005, the Alliance completed its own collection of case studies, and presented its final report to the Committee. The Alliance has testified twice in the past two years before Congressional committees on this issue and has engaged in the previous public workshops hosted by Reclamation.

Importance of Portland Meeting

The members of the Family Farm Alliance believe that streamlined federal regulation and decision-making are the keys to sound Western water policy. So far in the M4E process, it appears that Reclamation is seriously trying to address our goal of improving Reclamation’s long-term management and transparency. The upcoming meeting in Portland may provide one of the last opportunities for water and power customers to directly address their concerns with Reclamation leadership.

The focus of the meeting will be an interim report developed by “Team 12”, which is spearheading a process that will enable Reclamation to determine the size and composition of the engineering and technical services staff that it needs in order to carry out its mission.  Team 12 has been moving forward with a review of business practices and how engineering and technical workflow is managed throughout the organization.  Reclamation customers have voiced concerns regarding costs, the cost-effectiveness of Reclamation’s engineering and technical services and level of customer service.  Other aspects of that concern include cost accounting and the transparency of the sources of costs; overall Reclamation service to customers; the customers’ uniform desire for Reclamation to maintain its engineering expertise; and communications and planning. These issues are of critical importance to water customers, and the Portland meeting will provide a forum to interact directly with Reclamation leadership on these matters.

Recent Team 12 Developments

The Team 12 interim report will identify the kind of business practices that will provide improved transparency so that customers can better understand how work load demands, scheduling and needed expertise are determined, and how that work gets contracted out. The interim report will propose changes relative to what is currently done in an effort to improve customer relations, etc. Based on the guidance of the Reclamation Leadership Team, this will be refined and revised and then shared with Reclamation employees and customers in the coming weeks, who will then have an opportunity to comment.

Portland Meeting Details

The Portland public meeting of Managing for Excellence is scheduled for September 25-26. While a meeting agenda and other written materials are not yet available, Reclamation has provided us with a sense of how the agenda will unfold. In addition to focusing on the interim report prepared by Team 12, Deputy Commissioner Larry Todd will also brief stakeholders present in Portland on how the recommendations already completed by 32 other M4E teams will actually be implemented. Also, later in the day on September 26, Reclamation will provide an overview described as “a high level look at financial management at Reclamation”. The three-hour overview will address the following topics:   

•       Principal Legislation

•       Performance Accountability

•       Federal Water Project Development

•       Revenues

•       Funding Sources

•       Budget Process

•       Types of Costs

•       Customer Relations

The meeting is scheduled to be held at:

Holiday Inn Portland Airport

8439 Columbia Blvd.

Portland , Oregon   97220

An informal announcement will be posted in the Federal Register.  Online registration for the Portland Public Workshop is now available at http://www.usbr.gov/excellence/portlandpw.html 

Hotel reservations are available by calling 1-888-465-4329, or at www.holidayinn.com/portland-i205 (Under Check Availability in the lower left, enter dates of stay, enter "BOR" in the Group Code box, then click the Check Availability button.)  To receive a room rate of $98.00, inform the hotel you are attending the Bureau of Reclamation Conference.

The cutoff date is September 10, 2007 .

The Family Farm Alliance will organize planning and briefing teleconferences and meetings for its interested members and other customer organizations prior to, and during, the Portland public meeting.