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Ideas contributed by Community Member

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  One Day Off and rotation starting from the TOP DOWN.

  One Day Off or Furlough for one day starting from the top down to military and civilians. This idea would save the Government and the U.S.A. Nation funds on a yearly basis. The idea is spreading the furlough to all Government and Military but NOT at the SAME TIME. For God sake what is this government Idea on FURLOUGH EVERY ONE AT THE SAME TIME. I am putting this on bullets for simplicity, so the idea can be escalated ...more »

  One Day Off or Furlough for one day starting from the top down to military and civilians.

  This idea would save the Government and the U.S.A. Nation funds on a yearly basis. The idea is spreading the furlough to all Government and Military but NOT at the SAME TIME. For God sake what is this government Idea on FURLOUGH EVERY ONE AT THE SAME TIME. I am putting this on bullets for simplicity, so the idea can be escalated accordingly and steps can be added or removed.

  1- Spread the furlough to Government employees and military to only one DAY (a day off without pay) but distributing the load to different employees at different time frame (not all at the same time.)

  2- Starting from the President down to the Vice-President, Congressman, Senate everybody would received a day off without pay.

  3- On the other hand, the same for all Military branches, starting from the top down, one day off without pay for generals, commanders, officers, and enlisted. Everyone will take it but not at the same time.

  4- PAY Roll has to be set up to accommodate for this day off ensuring the day is not pay accordingly to the proposal. And not like few years ago when EVERYONE was off and EVERYONE still received payment for the days off. A nice free vacation with payment included.

  5- We all need to remember, even if the president does not receive pay for one day, he is still the president with decision to make on HIS DAY OFF. And same thing with every military commander, pretty much they all giving a day off without pay but their executive officer or next in the change of command will be incharged.

  6- There is always a backup plan when 25 or 50% of an outfit organization is off duty, the other 50% takes over and performs the function of the office. As the norm when a supervisor is off the next level supervisor takes charge until current supervisor comes back.

  7- Do this for one year, equally shared to all branches of the government and military. Analyze the cost saving and if it works and does not hurt anyone, make it a proposal and mandate to future years.

  8- This also can be implemented to States Government hierarchy.

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  5 comments for Idea: One Day Off and rotation starting from the TOP DOWN.

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  More Potluck and BBQ with workers and managment to share ideas

  Have the company / or / organization to share free time in an organizational, family or potluck / BBQ day.

  At the potluck having employees, mid-managers and top managers together to open to each other on ideas and innovaton for better solution to the organization.

  1 comment for Idea: More Potluck and BBQ with workers and managment to share ideas

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  12 votes

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Extend the life of the PRINTER – no refreshing in 3 years

  Extend the life of the PRINTER – no refreshing in 3 years is needed. The life spam on printers is actually measured by the amount of printouts the printer do in its life, and not because the printer is 3 years old and it needs to be replaced. YOU CAN ENVEN doubled this timeframe, and save cost for the office, the government and the tax payers. For example high-end and network printers has a life spam of 500,000 printouts, ...more »

  Extend the life of the PRINTER – no refreshing in 3 years is needed.

  The life spam on printers is actually measured by the amount of printouts the printer do in its life, and not because the printer is 3 years old and it needs to be replaced. YOU CAN ENVEN doubled this timeframe, and save cost for the office, the government and the tax payers.

  For example high-end and network printers has a life spam of 500,000 printouts, this is approximately 100,000 per year for a total of 5 years. This is assuming the offices print 8350 pages per months. The printer even could last longer that the specified life spam stated by the manufacture. Parts can be replaced, and if the cost of repair exceed 40% of the cost of the printer, then it would not be economical to repair.

  On another note, on today’s economy saving there is no need to print as mush as in the way we used to 5 or 10 years ago.

  Save energy, do less waste, go paperless and save tax payers money

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Stop printing T-n-A and other doc-file them online.

  Instead of printing any Time and Attendance (TnA) document, some time even 3 sheets time 3 or 4 times (for distribution), adding any SF71 to it.... Do them electronically, store them and process them online. Some organization has and can process them via the mainframe financial institution or online secure services. There is no need to print them out, they all can be processed, verified and certified ELECTRONICALLY; ...more »

  Instead of printing any Time and Attendance (TnA) document, some time even 3 sheets time 3 or 4 times (for distribution), adding any SF71 to it.... Do them electronically, store them and process them online.

  Some organization has and can process them via the mainframe financial institution or online secure services.

  There is no need to print them out, they all can be processed, verified and certified ELECTRONICALLY; here is the amount an employee can print every 2 weeks:

  1- One copy for the employee,

  2- Make another copy for the supervisor

  3- And then another for the Admin or budget person to verify the entries.

  4- If there is one error the cycle starts again, and you end up 2 or 3 time the initial amout printed originally.

  ONE PERSON could generate 12 sheets or more just for each pay period (this assuming there is no mistake and the forms need to be printed again).... you can do the numbers, if you have 1000's employees.

  Save more,,,,do less waste... Lets go paperless….

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Federal employees to pay via own Agency TAX Preparation

  To have optional Federal employees to pay via their own Agency / Organizaiton the TAX Preparation fee.(for the tax preparation)

  Having a local online site to have employees to make their incometax.

  INSTEAD of pay any Joe's Tax Preparer, pay directly to the online agency for the tax preparation. Put the money back to the organization.

  Add your comment for Idea: Federal employees to pay via own Agency TAX Preparation

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  14 votes

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Equipment CONSOLIDATION and ReUTILIZATION

  Equipment CONSOLIDATION and Re-UTILIZATION First come first served. Someone’s trash or excess is someone’s treasure (items needed for another office / or site.) We need to start sharing our knowledge of what we have in excess and what we can donate, exchange, or give away; this could be done within the organization we all resides / or working with…. 1- Each department can provide an equipment list of excess, unused ...more »

  Equipment CONSOLIDATION and Re-UTILIZATION First come first served.

  Someone’s trash or excess is someone’s treasure (items needed for another office / or site.)

  We need to start sharing our knowledge of what we have in excess and what we can donate, exchange, or give away; this could be done within the organization we all resides / or working with….

  1- Each department can provide an equipment list of excess, unused or not desire equipment.

  2- This list can be consolidated as a good faith estimate for property disposal - but not to be disposed of as scrap or as unserviceable items to your local supply or DRMO (Demilitarized Reutilization Marketing Office) or via disposition under form SF120, or disposal of to “Area 51.”

  3- Have 2 Goods-Assets Offices (a logistics office or a Central point of distribution):

  a- a Non-Information Technology (IT) or Office Furniture -- Have an office to store or coordinate the excess of furniture equipment - for utilization whiting the Agency; and after 6 or 12 moths the equipment can go on a SF120 for other agencies to take advantage.

  b- An Information Technology Equipment -- Have an Office in charge of reporting all of the excess Information Technology Equipment. There is so many unopened or boxed up electronic equipment, cables, parts, magnetic media, ect out there that it can be realigned.

  Example 1 --- Maybe someone has a piece of switch / router equipment, or let said a Printer or keyboard, for example it could be transferred to someone in needs of printers or networking communication equipment. And this could start within the office Organization. The cost related to this scenario; as stated before someone needs a $25,000 or $65,000 Cisco 4600 Switch with 192 Giga-Ethernet ports and fiber ports. The equipment could be transferred to the office needing the upgrade without the need of spending almost $80,000 on Switches and this kind of sort of equipment.

  Example 2 --- Someone is conducting a program and there is a project of changing cables on the switches and converting this old Cat5 to Cat6 cabling, because the new technology is booming and the office is going to have Voice-over-IP technology. There was an office down the street that has excess of Cat6 cables and connectors sitting in a corner for the last 2 years. The IT Office Reutilization tapped and has the knowledge of this equipment, and then the Cable could be transferred to the NEW Project office for optimizing the network with Voice-over-IP system. The cost scenario here, someone needs 300 patch cables at approximately $15.00 a piece. The total here is $4,500 in just cables (upgrading the infrastructure to CAT6 only.)

  Remember some of this part can last a long time; cables, parts, magnetic media (usually this magnetic storage media is good for 30 or 40 years.)

  The question is: How many of you have some of them, knowingly that someone could benefit from it.

  see other ideas here:

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Control-AC---Heating-and-1-hour-turn-off-for-SAVING-ENERGY-/123166-13060

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Eliminate-Government-Vehicle-for-permanent-Domicile-to-Duty/122824-13060

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Wind-turbine-and-Solar-Panels/122931-13060

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  Add your comment for Idea: Equipment CONSOLIDATION and ReUTILIZATION

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  14 votes

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Controlling of AC /Heating-turn off AC and cut off 1 hour daily

  I am bringing this idea because I have seen government electric bills running too high- exceeding the $15,000 per month average for a 30,000 to 40,000 sq. ft. building. The current setting for government office air conditioning (AC) is set too low. Some offices have the AC too low in summer and too high in winter. Employees have to wear jackets in the summer at the offices and remove their sweater or dress coat in winter ...more »

  I am bringing this idea because I have seen government electric bills running too high- exceeding the $15,000 per month average for a 30,000 to 40,000 sq. ft. building.

  The current setting for government office air conditioning (AC) is set too low. Some offices have the AC too low in summer and too high in winter. Employees have to wear jackets in the summer at the offices and remove their sweater or dress coat in winter because the heat setting is too high.

  Even today, in these days, the civilian and local business offices have controlled their HVAC to appropriate temperature without affecting operation.

  Here is how to save energy and government funds by controlling the AC / Heating (HVAC) temperature and cutting off one hour of AC/Heating a day. When the operation of the office is not a 24/7 operation, the HVAC could even be turned off for 3 to 4 hours at night and /or Saturday, Sunday and holidays. The energy consumption would drop, thus savings in the energy bill would be reflected dramatically. This technique has been tested by some public energy services in different cities across the nation.

  My recommendation is to have this tested at different government offices at different zoning areas and analyze the trend and production when controlling the AC and heating to different moderate temperatures. Below is a check list with some but not limited key points:

  1—Set AC to 79 -81 degrees in summer or very warm temperatures.

  2 – Set heat to 69-70 degrees in winter or very cool temperatures.

  3 – Provide 1 hour per day to turn off the HVAC for major consumption areas. Some energy companies offer these services in exchange for a new remote control thermostat. Why not bring this to the government buildings?

  4 – Turn off HVAC system for 3 to 4 hours at night for offices that are not 24/7 and 16 hours for Saturday, Sunday and holidays on offices that are not 24/7/365.

  5 – Power buildings to high temperature cooling system and to low temperature heating system when building is not occupied.

  6 - Ensure computers and LAN rooms (requiring a colder environment) operate on a dedicated AC unit system. These areas may be excluded for the 1 hour power-off – energy saving program.

  See other ideas.

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Wind-turbine-and-Solar-Panels/122931-13060

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Eliminate-Government-Vehicle-for-permanent-Domicile-to-Duty/122824-13060

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Equipment-CONSOLIDATION-and-ReUTILIZATION/123337-13060

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  4 comments for Idea: Controlling of AC /Heating-turn off AC and cut off 1 hour daily

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

  Voting is Disabled

  84 votes

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Wind Turbine and Solar Panels - Green Energy for Feds Buildings

  Wind turbine and solar power plant for Government offices owns by Government agencies and / or GSA and contracted out to Government agencies. This can also be applied to Military and other general buildings. The implementation of Solar Panels and or Wind Turbine could be of benefits to the organization, the installation would be an example of future enterprise or local business to the area, military, and other federal ...more »

  Wind turbine and solar power plant for Government offices owns by Government agencies and / or GSA and contracted out to Government agencies. This can also be applied to Military and other general buildings.

  The implementation of Solar Panels and or Wind Turbine could be of benefits to the organization, the installation would be an example of future enterprise or local business to the area, military, and other federal buildings.

  The Gov office could set the example by assign a pilot program especially to a NEW CONTRUCTION offices and or business. This pilot can be set and studies can be used to compare conventional usage of energy versus new Wind Turbine and / or Solar Panel.

  I have seemed the Corp of Engineer along with the local agency organization conducting and planning 2 or 3 years ago having the implementation of outdated R22 refrigerant (this Freon is being banded by the EPA effective 2008) versus Eco-Friendly R410a.

  Additionally:

  Military building can benefit from this in the long run instead of warhead expenses; by diverting some of the tomahawk and other missiles strategy cost to this Solar and Wind Turbine energy. It’ll pay back.

  See other ideas.

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Control-AC---Heating-and-1-hour-turn-off-for-SAVING-ENERGY-/123166-13060

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Eliminate-Government-Vehicle-for-permanent-Domicile-to-Duty/122824-13060

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Equipment-CONSOLIDATION-and-ReUTILIZATION/123337-13060

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  6 comments for Idea: Wind Turbine and Solar Panels - Green Energy for Feds Buildings

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

  Voting is Disabled

  49 votes

  This idea is active.
  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Eliminate Government Vehicle for permanent Domicile-to-Duty

  Eliminate Government Vehicle for permanent Domicile-to-Duty (D2D) to Supervisor or high top management (Directors, Deputies, Chiefs, Supervisory-in-charges, or other in position that can be justified via the ranking and privilege hierarchy) 6 or 8 years ago all GS13-GS15 and some Senior Level Management in the SES executive position used to ride its own POV back and forth to work. Now every Supervisor Agent, Director, ...more »

  Eliminate Government Vehicle for permanent Domicile-to-Duty (D2D) to Supervisor or high top management (Directors, Deputies, Chiefs, Supervisory-in-charges, or other in position that can be justified via the ranking and privilege hierarchy)

  6 or 8 years ago all GS13-GS15 and some Senior Level Management in the SES executive position used to ride its own POV back and forth to work. Now every Supervisor Agent, Director, or Deputy in Charge in all Customs and Patrol Offices use Unmark Government unit (or GOV Vehicle) to go home and work everyday.

  The cost per week is roughly (25 gallon tank x $3.00 = 75.00  assuming the gas would be or stay at 3 bucks, so this is a full tank of gas. Now, 75.00 x 52 weeks is = $3,900.00 for a year in GAS ONLY)

  This expense along with the service and maintenance can run or add to about $6,000.00 (just adding the maintenance cost of $2,100, which is an average per year)

  This would be an approximation expense of a single -user driving a Government vehicle to Domicile-to-Duty. THIS IS NOT taking in consideration the ACTUAL COST of the UNIT (how much a unit would cost $35,000 plain vanilla without any add-ons?), some of these units are 4-wheeled Trucks or suburban, typically a 15-20 miles per gallon vehicles, or new 4 doors V6 Sedans.

  Now if you add all of the Domicile-to-Duty USERS for each Area. Let said 100 (just to round it up on a comfort zone), I would recommend for the agency to do an assessment / survey and to determine how many D2D users are in the office). This is 100 x $6,000 = $600,000 and this is not taking in consideration the Actual Cost of the vehicle, WOULD the vehicle needed for the mission or for D2D?

  Now this figure could be as much as double if the personnel using the GOV Vehicles for longer trips or maybe an hour one way driving home back and forth (it could be as twice or as 3 time this cost.) The estimation would be a saving of 1.2 to 1.8 Million of dollar per year on ONLY 100 users driving Gov back and forth as domicile-to-duty.

  Remember all Top Management, Directors, Deputies and Station-in-Charges officers can delegate their duties, there is always someone, especially at the 24/7/365 sites that are working and can conduct business for the office and can use the duty vehicle at the time if needed for official business.

  Remember they all making the extra 25% increase payment and other incentive. We need to do a research or agency survey and find out who has a vehicle to take home, start cutting back and you’d see how much the Gov can save (At least a million per year)

  With all due respect this Top Management / Directors should set the example to other on energy saving and cost effective reduction to the organization outfit, the Department of Homeland Security and the US Government programs.

  See other ideas.

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Control-AC---Heating-and-1-hour-turn-off-for-SAVING-ENERGY-/123166-13060

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Wind-turbine-and-Solar-Panels/122931-13060

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Equipment-CONSOLIDATION-and-ReUTILIZATION/123337-13060

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  4 comments for Idea: Eliminate Government Vehicle for permanent Domicile-to-Duty

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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