70 



Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 2000 



History, and a new contract, and contractor, to provide food 

 services at the southside facilities. 



During FY 2000 the Procurement and Training Branch 

 added three new contracting and procurement courses and 

 one workshop to the procurement-related training curricu- 

 lum offered to the Smithsonian units. These new courses 

 covered information regarding purchase cards, advanced sim- 

 plified acquisition, and training for managers who supervise 

 designated Contracting Officer Technical Representatives. 

 The Office of Contracting was able to accommodate 1,091 

 participants at the training courses offered during FY 2000, 

 and every chair available was occupied. This count was up 

 from 425 participants accommodated at training courses 

 sponsored by the Office of Contracting during FY 1999. The 

 Procurement and Training Branch staff also conducted on- 

 site informational sessions and training to a number of 

 Smithsonian units, including staff at the Cooper-Hewitt, 

 National Design Museum and the National Museum of the 

 American Indian in New York. To further improve the effi- 

 ciency of small purchases by the units, the Systems Branch 

 implemented a Smithsonian-wide Purchase Card Program. 

 This program allows units to purchase commercially avail- 

 able goods and services valued up to $2,500 with the 

 purchase card in lieu of issuing and tracking a purchase or- 

 der. During FY 2000 approximately 150 purchase cards 

 were issued to staff at various Smithsonian units. 



The Travel Services Branch continued to provide travel 

 arrangements and carrier-ticketing services to Smithsonian 

 employees. During FY 2000 the number of transactions 

 completed was 10,824, including necessary refunds for travel 

 arranged but not completed. Services coordinating the 

 Smithsonian's employee travel charge card program were also 

 continued in FY 2000 by the Travel Services Branch. As of 

 September 30, 2000, approximately 3,100 employees that 

 travel on official Smithsonian business have received a travel 

 charge card. 



The Property and Inventory Management staff continued 

 its support to the Smithsonian units. Approximarely 2,200 

 items of accountable property were tagged and recorded by 

 the staff. Other services provided include the delivery of 

 more than 5,200 items to the Smithsonian units that in- 

 volved 2,250 trips by the central warehouse staff 



The Office of Contracting staff is committed to working 

 cooperatively wirh all of our clients and to provide quality, 

 timely and innovative services to assist in furthering the 

 mission of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Office of Equal Employment and 

 Minority Affairs 



Era L Marshall, Director 



The mission of the Office of Equal Employment and Minor- 

 ity Affairs (OEEMA) is to ensure compliance with EEO 

 laws, rules, and regulations, and to promote diversity in all 

 aspects of employment and business relationships at the 

 Smithsonian. 



Fiscal Year 2000 was enhanced by the advent of Lawrence 

 M. Small, the new and dynamic Secretary, who set the stage 

 for Smithsonian operations with secretarial goals, reorganiza- 

 tions, and realignments. Prominent among his reorganization 

 efforts was the establishment of the Office of Diversity Initia- 

 tives, which reports directly to the Secretary, and the realign- 

 ment of OEEMA within the Office of Diversity. While 

 OEEMA has always been an integral part of the management 

 team, this new positioning of the office is a reflection of in- 

 creased concern for its mission by Secretary Small. This 

 initiative further demonstrated leadership's attention to mat- 

 ters concerning human capital, as well as the Smithsonian's 

 compliance with equal employment opportunity regulations. 



Managerial Excellence 



The Office of Equal Employment and Minority Affairs has a 

 long-standing history of managerial excellence in its office 

 operations and during FY 2000 continued to maintain the 

 highest standards in its policies, programs, publications, and 

 activities. 



Management excellence was achieved through the formula- 

 tion of goals and the development of effective programmatic 

 strategies for achieving them. Annual in-process reviews and 

 revisions of OEEMA's Strategic Plan were augmented with 

 information provided in the Secretary's Employee Perspective 

 Survey results. Serving as a road map for all administra- 

 tive and programmatic operarions, the Strategic Plan 

 contained specific measurable and customer-responsive 

 objectives with effective evaluative methods in place for deter- 

 mining successes. For example, evaluation forms for the EEO 

 training, Roundtables, and Town Meetings continued to be 

 used as assessment tools. Results of initiatives, such as the de- 

 velopment of the Applicant Survey Form used in tandem with 

 the Office of Human Resources, also served as assessment in- 

 struments. As a result of that much needed initiative, a 100 

 percent increase in response rate to Background Survey Analy- 

 ses was reported. This initiative measures, in part, the impact 

 of the Smithsonian's recruitment and outreach efforts vis-a-vis 

 underrepresented populations of employees. 



Compliance and Risk Management 



As the office responsible for assessing and directing the 

 Smithsonian's EEO efforts to avoid and eliminate risk to its 

 mission through unfavorable EEO-related matters, OEEMA 

 continued to certify risk management by ensuring compli- 

 ance, as mandated by federal laws/regulations. To this end, 

 the following annual reports were developed and published 

 in compliance with federal regulatory and Smithsonian 

 guidelines: 



• A nnual Affirmative Employment Plan and Accomplishment Re- 

 port for Minorities/Women: a report submitted to the Equal 

 Employment Opportunity Commission that updated the 

 Smithsonian plan to enhance employment opportunity for 

 women and minorities. The accomplishment report 

 showed achievements of the previous year and included a 

 work-force analysis. 



