Work Stuff

I don't write much about work on this blog, so thought I would share a bit about a couple things that have been going on.

I just got back today from a three day DOL conference in Seattle that was called a Transformational Forum. The full title was, "Driving Transformation: Innovations Fueling Tomorrow's Workforce System. " It was one of two National Transformational Forums, the other one was held in Chicago. But even though this one was on the West Coast, we had teams from the East Coast in Seattle with us, including as far away as the Virgin Islands.

Of course I was part of the Oregon delegation, a group of about 10 people representing different parts of Oregon's Workforce System. Only two of us from the State Employment Department; myself and one of my Regional Managers went, and most of the others from Oregon were from CCWD (Community Colleges and Workforce Development) the other major player in Oregon's Workforce System.

I have to admit that it sounded like a typical DOL extravagant production, complete with Orwellian sounding handlers called "Thought Leaders" The DOL conference I attended this summer in Kansas City was like a Broadway Production complete with theme music (It's a Beautiful Day) for the Secretary of Labor, every time she came on stage. This one was not near as elaborate, and where the Kansas City meeting had over 3000 people in attendance this one in Seattle, probably only had two or three hundred.

And somewhat surprisingly this one was quite productive. Mainly because we had many hours together as a State Team to plan and strategize. Even though we are all from the same state, being from different organizations, we seldom have this kind of opportunity.

We will be continuing this type of thing during the next few months and this meeting will probably be the springboard for some significant changes in Oregon's Workforce system. It coincides with several change initiatives that we already had in progress.

At the end of the conference, as a reward each state team got a toy "Transformer"....your Federal tax dollars at work.

Seattle was very pretty during this time of year with much of the downtown area decorated. I didn't have much time to explore much but we did all go out to dinner one night at an "Asian Fusion" restaurant. I asked WHW, what the term "fusion" meant when part of a restaurant title, and she said that it meant "that it was expensive" ....she was right.

Well I was also going to mention that I had breakfast last week with the Governor, well me and about 40 other people. I've been appointed to a Steering Committee to The Governor's new "Re-Entry Congress", a group of Agency Directors, and others who will be looking at a variety of ways to eliminate multiple bureaucratic barriers put in the way of ex-offenders when leaving the many state prisons. In Oregon, in the last 10 years the prison population has increased by over 90%, yet almost all of the rehabilitative services that prisons used to provide have been eliminated, and the funds put into the construction of new institutions. Nationally the pendulum is now swinging back a bit toward rehabilitation, some of the impetus towards that direction is actually being provided by some conservative Christian groups, that and the realization that we are pumping out thousands and thousands of inmates back on the street every year, usually in much worse condition than when they entered, and often with no resources other than $25, and no address, no skills, and many other barriers. A condition that the system has created, and that many of us with full cognitive abilities, would probably have a hard time being successful in.

Oh, the breakfast was good too.

Well that's enough work stuff for one time....I'll get back to dog news soon.