August 15, 2001
June Pride Article in People Land and Water
The current edition of People Land and Water, June/July 2001 (Volume 8;No. 4) has an article about the Departmental Gay and Lesbian Pride Celebration. Unfortunately the editor rewrote the article's original title -- "Gays and Lesbian Employees Celebrate Pride and Diversity at Interior" - and inserted "Celebrating Pride, Diversity at Interior," thus downplaying the GLBT aspect of the article.
Federal GLOBE Sixth Annual Training Congress, November 8, 2001, Held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Richard Nolan e-mailed information on the Sixth annual training course offered by Fed GLOBE. Members are encouraged to attend this course, which can be covered by federal training funds. Members are also encouraged to inform their Equal Opportunity Officers and inform them of this training opportunity. For more information go to:
http://www.fedglobe.org/meetings/2001confflyer.htm
AIDS Walk DC
Planning for Interior GLOBE members' participation in the Saturday, October 10, 2001 walk is underway. We have a team code to count the contributions; it's INT. Thanks again to Bob Veltkamp who has put a Post Office Box address on the Interior GLOBE website. For additional information on the P.O. Box and the variety of ways one can participate in AIDS Walk DC, please go to the website. The address is:
http://members.aol.com/interiorglobe/aidswalk-2001.html
Ethics Discussion about Employee Organizations
Art Bennett of the Departmental Ethics Office discussed the ethics related to fundraising and Interior GLOBE or any employee organization. The primary advice was that we are not permitted to fundraise for an outside organization on government time or property or ask subordinates to contribute funds. This is due to the Federal Standards of Conduct for all employees. GLOBE members can, however, fundraise for GLOBE-related activities such as the newsletter on their own time. Bennett suggested that we develop a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department similar to what the Interior Department Recreation Association has in order to specify what we are able to do as a recognized employee organization with regard to fundraising. He also encouraged Interior GLOBE to write any questions down and submit them to him or the Ethics Office to request a determination on any issue about which the membership would like clarification.
As for the use of the federal e-mail system for transmission of political information, Bennett stated that we can receive political information from the Human Rights Campaign or any other lobbying organization on our federal e-mail addresses, but we are not permitted to circulate that material using the federal e-mail system. What could be done is to send the information to a home PC and then e-mail the membership from that PC. It was also discussed that we could send e-mails out to the membership referencing information on a non-federal website that might be of interest to our members.
Art Bennett offered an excellent article in the Washington Service Bureau Federal Ethics Report of March of 2001 by Ira S. Kaye of the Federal Trade Commission. The article provided advice to unmarried employees with significant others. It was stated that the provisions of the ethics law apply differently to married employees than they do to employees who are in relationships akin to marriage, such as a domestic partnership. Art is going to research if the article is on the web and will get back to Maria. If not, it might be possible to reprint the article in the Fall Newsletter.
Fall Newsletter
Maria announced that she has one article already for the fall edition of the newsletter. Stephen mentioned a recently discovered article about gays and lesbians in historic preservation and the interpretation of the historic sites. He will contact the author and ask her for permission to reprint the article. Articles or ideas should be sent to Maria Wiseman as soon as possible.
The fall edition of the newsletter is targeted for publication on October 15. Members will be e-mailed the site of the fall edition on the Interior GLOBE website.
Revised: 08/28/01
Robert_J_Veltkamp@nbc.gov