Friday, July 30: Day 6

Policy Development I
  Family Assistance Plan

Instructor:  Roger Porter

Key Reminder: 

• Bosses Don't Like Surprises! 
• Funny line from the day.  Roger Porter talking about working in the White House in the Fellow program.  He was assigned the task of taking notes.  As he was leaving the meeting, someone said, "I cannot wait to get the notes from this meeting and see what we decided!" 
• Thinking Strategically. Our founding fathers we big strategic thinkers.  Washington used the word posterity 9 times in one document.  Jefferson talked about the thousandth generation.  Question:  How will the US compete with China in the future when there culture takes such a strategic view of any problem and politicians are not elected?

Organizational Design III
  Space Shuttle Challenger

Instructor:  Steve Kelman...his blog www.fcw.com/blogs/thelectern

• We live in a very internationally influenced world.  Steve, our instructor went around the room to talk about the world wide influence that impacted the US space program.  I found this fascinating.  I would have only looked to USSR, Europe and US...but the influences are not that limiting.

Political Management II
  Fraud Abuse and Waste at Health, Education and Welfare Department

Instructor:  Phil Heymann

Key Take Aways:

•  What makes good newspaper articles?  Simple answer stories that take won Waste, Fraud, Abuse, Corruption, and Overreaching.  Take any newspaper and look at the headlines on the first page...and there will always be at least a couple of articles having to do with these topics.  For example, the Sac Bee from Sunday, August 1 had the following 2 articles on page 1....California Prisoners' Rights Often Trampled...Sacramento police officer under investigation for falsified DUI reports, DA says...Will Schwarzenegger's high-stakes gamble on furloughs work?.  If you want to try this out, here is a link to the front page of the NY Times.  Click here.
• What makes those articles that we talk about your years to come?  Why are we still talking about the $800 toilet seat?  Water boarding? Failed DMV efforts?  Short answer, each government agency has a vulnerability area (an underlying belief that the story "plays" to).  For example, the military one of our country largest expenditures, we worry that they are wasting taxpayer's money.   FBI: Violation of  People's Rights (note story above Sacramento police officer under investigation for falsified DUI reports, DA say); DOJ:  Partisionship: CIA Unaccountability...since the agency gets to break the law; IRS: Unfair Audit Selection and DMV: Inefficiency.