60 



Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 1999 



designs for SIPSS replacement in the National Museum of 

 Natural History, Central Control, and the Museum Support 

 Center. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is un- 

 der design for that facility's first technical security system. 

 With continued funding through fiscal year 2002, OPS is on 

 schedule for complete SIPSS replacement within calendar 

 year 2002. 



Digital imaging possibilities continue to expand, as the 

 Office of Imaging, Printing, and Photographic Services 

 (OIPPS) began offering color prints made from digital image 

 files and produced on photographic-quality digital printers. 

 For the first time, OIPPS used all-digital imaging tech- 

 niques to document remote fieldwork. National Museum of 

 Natural History researchers recorded images with a high- 

 quality digital camera and processed them on the spot in a 

 laptop computer. 



The Office of Equal Employment and Minority Affairs 

 enhanced its capacity to track the effectiveness of the Smith- 

 sonian's staff recruitment efforts. This office also launched a 

 Web site that gives small and disadvantaged businesses con- 

 venient access to information about doing business with the 

 Smithsonian (www.si.edu/oeema/sdbu.htm). 



For the Office of Physical Plant, the ground-breaking cer- 

 emony for the National Museum of the American Indian's 

 Mall museum signaled the start of a major construction proj- 

 ect. Design of the National Air and Space Museum's Dulles 

 Center was completed, and the replacement of the museum's 

 skylights and windows continued. At the National Museum 

 of Natural History, the new 80,000-square-foot Discovery 

 Center opened to the public, and restoration of the mu- 

 seum's Rotunda was in progress. The Folger Rose Garden, 

 offering year-round interest with roses, annuals, perennials, 

 and woody plants, opened as a permanent addition to the 

 Smithsonian landscape. 



Office of Equal Employment and 

 Minority Affairs 



Era L. Marshall 



Fiscal year 1999 for the Office of Equal Employment and 

 Minority Affairs (OEEMA) was marked by continued em- 

 phasis on, and improvement in, advocating, facilitating, 

 overseeing, monitoring, and reporting on all aspects of equal 

 opportunity in the Smithsonian Institution's employment 

 and business initiatives and relationships. 



OEEMA made solid progress in reducing the backlog of 

 EEO counseling cases to improve services to customers in- 

 volved in the informal and formal aspects of the EEO 

 complaint process. Mid-point (February) into the second 

 quarter of FY 1999, the office had completed all of its pend- 

 ing EEO counseling cases, an achievement in line with a 

 goal expressed a few years ago in the Five-Year Strategic 

 Plan. Although an EEO office will always have new cases to 

 process, we are convinced that our simplification of intake 

 procedures, increased reliance on networking with such SI 



partners as the Ombudsman, the Employee Assistance Pro- 

 gram, and Labor Employee Relations, advocacy and use of 

 mediation to produce settlements, and a continued use of 

 internal staff to produce succinct and helpful Reports of In- 

 vestigation have all contributed to our ability to resolve 

 workplace disputes. 



The mandatory "diversity action plans" required of units 

 with 25 or more employees, which provide information used 

 in OEEMA's annual "Accomplishment Report for Diversity 

 Action Plans," detail unit initiatives in equal employment 

 and provide OEEMA with one of the Institutional standards 

 used in monitoring and evaluating the professional perform- 

 ance of SI Directors. 



A major emphasis in FY 1999 was to refine, improve, and 

 monitor our applicant flow database to ensure affirmative 

 employment/diversity recruitment and hiring and to analyze 

 Institutional trends by means of weekly, quarterly, and an- 

 nual "applicant flow analysis reports." We have collaborated 

 closely with OHR to produce a new "applicant survey form," 

 which has already resulted in increased use by job applicants. 



OEEMA further promoted diversity/affirmative employ- 

 ment goals of the Smithsonian by sharpening and expanding 

 its Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) database to 

 gain a better understanding of the units and employees who 

 need to take the training. We continue to make significant 

 inroads in providing training for all SI employees in this 

 very significant area that often provides the basis for filing 

 EEO complaints. 



OEEMA launched a SDBU Web site on Si's Internet 

 Web page to make SDBU information easily accessible to 

 small and disadvantaged businesses (SDBs) via the Internet 

 Web page. The site includes information on doing business 

 with the Smithsonian, the annual forecast of upcoming con- 

 tracting opportunities, a link of SDBs to register their 

 information electronically in the SDB database of vendors, 

 copies of SI notices posted in the Commerce Business Daily, and 

 other information. 



OEEMA hosted the second in its series of focused small- 

 business procurement fairs in November 1998. The fair 

 focused on industrial supply vendors, and more than 70 SI 

 staff members from various units met and networked with 

 nine exhibitors. We have also initiated the planning process 

 for the next fair, which will feature small exhibit supply ven- 

 dors. SDBU also reports the Smithsonian's yearly contracting 

 achievements relating to small, disadvantaged, and women- 

 owned businesses in the "Contacting Achievement Report" 

 to the Small Business Administration. 



Through its SDBU Program OEEMA continues to part- 

 ner with OPP, which generates approximately 70 percent 

 of the Smithsonian's total contractual expenditures. Over the 

 last fiscal year OEEMA organized numerous site visits to 

 construction projects completed by these firms, and these 

 efforts contributed to the awarding of three new 8(a) open- 

 term contracrs. We also coordinated training and education 

 efforts with OCon, to include participation in OCon's "infor- 

 mational briefings" to SI staff with delegated procurement 

 authority. OEEMA also worked with OCon to train SI staff 

 who took part in OHR's "training for new supervisors" on 



