**MINUTES FROM THE 23 July 03 ABC STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING**

Note to all Steering Committee Members: Members are encouraged to submit
agenda topics for future ABC Steering Committee meetings to Dorothy
Sugiyama

**Announcements:**

One-on-one meetings between OS and Bureaus on realigning Bureau ABC/M
activities to DOI ABC/M Activity Definition Set will be scheduled for
week of 28 July.

The ABC/M Project Plan/Checklist is now posted at
[www.doi.gov/training/abc](http://www.doi.gov/training/abc)[.]{.underline}
Under the pulldown menu, click on "Departmental ABC; ABC Timelines;
Implementation Schedule".

**ABC/M Training**

Bob Veltkamp, DOIU updated the Steering Committee on the status of
development of the ABC/M Training CD and filming (attachment 1). Filming
was on schedule with all filming to be completed by mid-August.
Questions still remained on whether - and to what extent - QuickTime
should be mentioned in ABC/M training. The training deployment plan was
not developed as of 23 July, but would be the focus of the next ABC
Training Subcommittee meeting scheduled for the week of 23 July.

Considering that some Bureaus would be continuing their current practice
of coding time/purchases to their own ABC activities, several bureaus
questioned the value of filming a training module on coding activities
-- nothing should be different. Several bureaus also questioned the
value of producing a training CD if the CD would only contain a 5-minute
presentation from DOI leadership saying "ABC was coming". CD production
under these circumstances would not be cost effective.

The Department's view of training was that the "nothing should be
different" view was incorrect. Bureaus and Departmental offices would be
coding to work activities vice budget activities, and the practice of
having every employee code their time to work activities was not
necessarily a current practice among Bureaus. References to QuickTime
should be downplayed in the CD to avoid confusing employees or
misleading them into believing that they would be training on how to use
QuickTime vice how to code their work and purchases against ABC/M
activities. The CD should contain a generic module for credit card
purchases and contracts. Ms. Sugiyama suggested linking with
Departmental training on credit card usage.

Ms. Hatfield requested that the ABC Training Subcommittee produce a
checklist of topics that training should cover. Also, every employee
should get a letter announcing the Department's intent to implement
ABC/M and directing them on where they could find additional information
on ABC/M implementation.

**Indirect Cost Algorithm**

Chris Richey presented the indirect cost algorithms (attachment 2) that
would be applied to total direct labor costs. Bureau indirect costs
would be spread against bureau direct work activities. Departmental
indirect costs would be spread against departmental direct work
activities and then spread, in turn, to bureaus. Bureaus will not be
held accountable for departmental costs. (Note: indirect costs and
indirect work activities are interchangeable -- attachment 2 indicates
that they are separate items)

Ms. Hatfield mentioned that for FY2004, the indirect cost algorithms
will apply for ABC/M only -- not to how the bureaus recoup reimbursable
costs. For ABC/M indirect costs will be spread outside of FFS/ABACIS by
the ABC/M system CALIBRE Systems is developing. During FY2004, the
Department will work with the bureaus to determine one agreed-upon
methodology for spreading indirect costs within bureau accounting
systems.

**Incorporating ABC/M Data into 2005 Budget**

Dianne Shaughnessy requested Committee input on displaying how ABC data
should be used for the 2005 budget submission to OMB. She presented a
paper outlining how budget and performance information is currently
presented, and some thoughts on budget displays integrating ABC/M data
(attachment 3). Issue presented was whether there should be some
standardization on how ABC/M information would be presented in the
budget, what information should be presented, and whether ABC/M fit well
with the traditional approach to displaying budget and performance
measures. OMB wanted two examples of how ABC/M information was used for
the budget build.

Ms. Temmermand suggested looking at the National Institute of Health's
A-11 data for examples. One bureau questioned whether detailed ABC/M
information should be provided to OMB. ABC/M was a managerial tool for
internal decision-making; the level of exposure of this information
outside of the Department should be limited. Ms. Hatfield mentioned that
the Department should show how the data is used to make changes. There
was no agreement on standard data displays or content.

**ABC/M System Executive Dashboard**

CALIBRE Systems presented an overview of the status of the Executive
Dashboard's design. They queried the MIT Subcommittee on Planning,
Budget and Financial Integration on content/design and presented the
results of that query (attachment 4). Subcommittee members felt that
information on cycle time, value added/non-value added analysis, and
quality were information of greatest value in daily execution of their
jobs. They were soliciting similar input from the ABC Steering
Committee. Over the next couple of months, CALIBRE would be developing
mock-ups of the Executive Dashboard to present to DOI leadership to move
forward with development.

**Activity Definition Refinement Special Steering Committee Meetings**

Ms. Sugiyama distributed copies of a presentation to Lynn Scarlett
(attachment 5) on the ABC/M activity definition scrub process. Ms.
Scarlett was apprised of what the activity definitions were designed to
capture (focus on full-costing whenever possible), the guiding
principles that the Special Steering Committee followed (keep ABC/M
simple and rely on other data collection systems/methodologies where
interface vice integration was appropriate), changes to the strategic
plan (eliminate Recreation Goal 1 -- Improve Access to Recreation), and
remaining issues for resolution (coding litigation, information
technology, and treatment of reimbursable work). Ms. Scarlett approved
eliminating Recreation Goal 1 to obviate the need for an employee to
decide whether s/he was building a trail for enhanced recreation vice
improved access. She also stated that litigation should be collected
separately from the direct activity it supported so that the total cost
of litigation could easily be identified. IT activities would capture
high level costs; bureaus would need a project code to capture
project-related IT costs separately from the direct activity it
supported. Treatment of reimbursable work remained an issue awaiting Sky
Lesher's input.

**ATTENDEE ROSTER**

**ABC STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING**

**23 July 2003**

NAME BUREAU PHONE

Nina Hatfield OS/PMB (202) 208-1829

Dorothy Sugiyama OS/PAM (202) 208-3433

Norma Campbell OS/PPP (202) 208-1818

Bob More OS/OHA (703) 235-3810

Ann DeBlasi OS/OIA (202) 208-6971

Dianne Shaughnessy OS/POB (202) 208-6851

Angela Herring OS/OST (202) 208-4931

Chris Richey NBC (202) 208-4687

Bob Veltkamp NBC/DOIU (202) 208-3441

Ruth Stokes OSM (202) 208-2611

Carol Sampson OSM (202) 208-2560

Betty Buxton BLM (202) 452-5181

Kit Muller BLM (202) 208-5922

Marlene Walker BIA (703) 390-6518

Marty Heinze MMS (202) 208-3880

Barbara Desiderio MMS (202) 208-3973

Michael Brown NPS (202) 208-7029

Louis Mauney BOR (202) 513-0652

Debra Burrell BOR (202) 513-0648

Annie Young BOR (202) 513-0654

Kerry Whitford BOR (303) 445-2949

Efraim Escalante BOR (303) 445-3420

Kathy Marshall BOR (208) 378-5060

Barbara Newman USGS (703) 648-4625

Bernie Bean CALIBRE (703) 797-8801

Donald Legg CALIBRE (703) 797-8817

Lauren Temmermand Grant Thornton (703) 637-2878