SPONSOR: Ms. Delia Johnson, Council Vice-Chair, hosted the meeting held at the US Information Agency building.

 President Luther Santiful (Director, Department of the Army, EEO Agency) opened the meeting at 9:10 a.m.

 The following representatives from GTF Systems were introduced: Matthew Fiedman (Research & Development); Allison Buck (Legal Counsel); Edward Williams (Sales); and Stephan Thieringer (CEO and Co-Founder of GTF Systems -- responsible for Business Development & Operations).

 Mr. Thieringer briefed the Council on the Online Training Employee Certification System (OTEC), which allows agencies to administer and track mandatory training requirements through interactive media via the Internet on a 24-hour basis. Currently, there are two training modules that are offered: one for sexual harassment and the other for discrimination. A Council member indicated that on-line training is the wave of the future, considering the reduced staffs and budgets in the federal sector.

 The sexual harassment and discrimination modules are approximately 45-minutes long, and include Federal laws, court cases, and state laws. Each module has a supervisory and an employee’s version depending on the password used. Each training module has a question/answer part and provides examples to illustrate concepts like qui- pro-quo sexual harassment, gender stereotyping, and harassment by non-employees.

 Agency administrators have access to other OTEC features. For example, they can generate reports that show the number and names of employees and/or supervisors taking the training courses, the dates when they took the courses, the race and national breakdown of participants, etc. Each employee has to provide certain information before gaining access to OTEC, and this information is then used to generate the previous reports. The system allows for removal of employees once they leave the agency.

 OTEC has other potential applications. It can be used to conduct surveys of employees and supervisors, thus, providing substantial savings in mailing, processing costs, and response time. It can also be adapted to automate certain functions of the EEO process at the informal and formal stages, like the distribution of certain forms.

 To summarize, OTEC offers the following benefits to employees: 1) 24-hour access from anywhere in the world; 2) interactive environment; 3) no travel to training location; 4) self paced; and, 5) ease of use. For employers, OTEC provides: 1) dynamic system to accommodate unlimited number of employees; 2) integration of agency logo to personalize the training; 3) secure data storage and daily backups; 4) no hardware of software to purchase; 5) real time data recording of training taken by each employee; 6) custom reporting feature; 7) integration of agency policy, such as harassment policy, etc.

 The minimum requirements to run OTEC are: 1) Internet access; 2) 28K modem or greater; and, 3) 4.0 Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator 4.0 browsers.

 When Mr. Ponce (Council’s Vice-Chair) asked Mr. Thieringer about the cost for OTEC, he replied that the costs involved would be addressed on an individual basis, depending on the volume and level of customization needed. The company is looking for long term business relationships. However, Mr. Thieringer indicated that the basic annual fee for OTEC is $10.25 per employee. This price only applies to the sexual harassment and discrimination modules that are currently available, and allows agencies to incorporate their own policy statements (like the dress code policy) into the training modules. Additional modules, like the upcoming ones for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), will be priced separately. Moreover, GTF offers additional on-site training to agency administrators during the initial introduction of the system. This training will be billed based upon travel and actual time on agency premises. The estimated time of training per administrator will vary between 3 to 5 hours, and will allow up to two attendees per session. The price for this training is billed at $125 per hour.

A Council member was concerned about whether the company had the manpower and resources available to address a large-scale training program. Mr. Thieringer replied that this would not be an issue, as the company would be able to provide for a large volume of services. Technical support is currently available from 8-6 pm, EST, Monday through Friday.

 Ms. Gause briefed members on the XIV Federal Dispute Resolution (FDR) Conference, which was held on August 22-26, 1999, in San Antonio, Texas. She stated that next year’s Federal Dispute Resolution Conference will be held in Anaheim, CA, on August 20-24, 2000. Mr. Westbrooks, from the Department of the Interior, stated that a focus group had met with Mr. Jerry Shaw, Chairman of FDR Conference, while at San Antonio, Texas, to discuss the various workshops and presenters, and to ascertain whether another track should be offered. He stated that topics such as diversity should be included, in addition to presentations on the 29 CFR 1614 regulations, which are of little use to participants from local and state governments. Finally, Mr. Westbrooks asked for the formation of a planning group now to start working on next year’s pre-conference.

Some Council members expressed concern over the lack of specific guidance on the MD-110 requirements. A team is meeting on September 22, 1999 to review the draft MD 110. Additional information on this issue will be provided when available.

Comment was made that the Federal Executive Institute for leadership training continually has the same speakers with few people of color participating as presenters. Recommendation was made that a letter addressing this be submitted to the Federal Executive Institute.