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MEETING MINUTES 

Meeting Date and Time: September 15, 2021, 1:30-3:00 pm (EDT) 

Location: WebEx 

Agenda: 

1. 2021 COFO Annual Conference 

2. COFO Peer Practitioner Network 

3. COFO Mentoring Committee 

4. Leave Transfer Initiative 

5. COFO Website Move to New Host 

6. Next Ombuds Supporting Ombuds (OSO) Meeting on September 29th

7. Federal Ombuds Survey Results 

8. USOA Federal Government Chapter 

9. Ombuds Day, October 14th 

10. Announcements 

11. General Questions 

12. Discussion Topic 

Highlights: 

1. 2021 COFO Annual Conference 

a. Date for conference: October 15, 2021 

b. Conference will be virtual and replaces the monthly meeting for October 

c. Conference agenda will be finalized this week and registration will open next week 

d. Full-day conference 9am – 5pm EDT held on WebEx platform 

2. COFO Peer Practitioner Network 

a. Kickoff meeting was two weeks ago and groups assigned 

b. Five groups with 22 participants were assigned 

c. Groups will self-directed, and first meetings will be held soon 

d. Participation and progress of groups will be assessed in February 2022 

e. Discussions in the group maintain principle of confidentiality 

3. COFO Mentoring Committee 

a. Applications for new cohorts of mentor/mentee will be announced in October 
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b. More information will be given at a special session at COFO Conference 

c. If you are interested in the joining the mentoring committee or have questions 

please contact Virginia Behr virginia.behr@FDA.HHS.GOV, Bill Maher

William.maurer@census.gov, Brenda Doty bdoty@FMC.GOV, Lisa Levine 

lisa.levine@usdoj.gov or Fatimah Mateen fatimah.mateen@hq.dhs.gov 

4. Leave Transfer Initiative 

a. Plan to connect COFO ombuds who are approved for the Voluntary Leave Transfer 

Program at their agency with ombuds from other agencies who have leave to donate

b. Important to help ombuds in small offices considering our professional ombudsman 

standards of practice

c. If you’d like to assist with this new initiative or need leave, please contact Wendy 

Kamenshine, wendy.kamenshine@cfpb.gov

5. COFO Website Move to New Host 

a. COFO will move from the hosted site by the Department of Education to a new host 

b. If your agency is available to host the COFO website on their server, please contact 

Paul Sotoudeh Paul.Sotoudeh@USPTO.GOV

6. Next Ombuds Supporting Ombuds (OSO) Meeting, 09/29/2021 

a. OSO meetings were started at the being of the pandemic to help ombuds support 

each other and discuss current topics of concern 

b. Success of the meetings has led to their continuation and are generally held two 

weeks after the membership meeting

c. Next meeting of Ombuds Supporting Ombuds (OSO) will be 9/29/2021, 2-3 pm EDT 

d. Topic will be a continuation of the previous month topic, reminder will be sent soon 

7. Federal Ombuds Survey Results 

a. Tahirih Varner and team at NPS sent a survey in February of 2021 to the COFO 

membership to determine the workload of Federal Ombuds 

b. Survey was completed with 27 responses 21 from internal and 6 from external 

ombuds 

c. Several observations were made from the data, and a few will be shared today 

d. Each ombuds office that responded generally had multiple ombuds 

e. External teams generally had fewer ombuds with the title of ombuds, however seem 

to have others who performed duties of ombuds 

f. Nationwide ombuds generally serve 2% of their population 

g. External ombuds may not be able to measure percentage of population/visitors 

served 

h. Most ombuds offices have designated subunits that serve a specific population of an 

organization by bureau or geographic designation 
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i. Impact of pandemic seems to show trend of work slowdown during first half of 

pandemic then increasing numbers as the start of this year 

j. Slides will be shared via email to COFO membership 

8. USOA Federal Government Chapter 

a. Federal Government Chapter of USOA will be restarting 

b. Syretta Jarrett is Chapter Chair and Erica Katherine is Co-Chair 

c. USOA will hold the Annual Membership Meeting on Wednesday, 09/22/2021 at 3 – 

4:30 pm EDT via Zoom 

d. With the restart of the USOA Federal Chapter look forward to building community 

with your fellow ombuds on a quarterly basis 

e. Quarterly meetings will include guest speakers, networking opportunities, discussion 

of best practices, and efforts to expand on diversity, equity, and inclusion within the 

ombuds community 

f. Other officers to be elected during the first meeting are secretary, communications 

officer, and training officer 

g. Contact Syretta Jarret, Syreeta.Jarrett@dodiis.mil or Erica Katherine 

Erica.Katherine@fda.hhs.gov for questions or additional information 

h. It was commented that Zoom is difficult for many Federal ombuds to use due to 

restrictions and WebEx is a more Federal friendly format 

9. Ombuds Day, 10/14/2021 

a. Ombuds Day is October 14th, and many events are held by the ABA to commemorate 

the day along with many state proclamations 

b. See ABA website for more details: https://abaombudsday.wordpress.com/aboutombuds-day/

10. Announcements 

a. none 

11. General Questions 

a. Does anyone have a privacy statement either on your internal or external webpage 

or on your outgoing emails? If you do have one, what does it say? 

i. One ombuds asked if anyone was told they do not need a privacy act 

statement? 

ii. This is not the statement that is Agency-wide but a statement specific to 

ombuds work 

iii. Wendy Kamenshine stated please contact her if you want to discuss offline 

iv. Wendy’s office was told they were required to have one by law 

v. Follow-up question was asked if the requirement was stated as specific to 

ombuds work or to certain functions 

vi. The requirement was stated that if anyone collected information within a 

government agency a privacy act statement was needed 
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vii. It was noted that sensitive information like names, phone numbers, and 

location groupings that may identify a specific person may not be 

maintained; however if data collection is maintained relating to it then it 

could be considered data under the privacy act regulation 

viii. More information would be needed to make further determinations and 

Wendy would bring more information to the group as determined 

12. Discussion Topic: Have you noticed a change in your visitors since the pandemic 

began? Some of our offices have reported (among other things) increased anger, a 

greater sense of entitlement, or a lot more anxiety. Let’s discuss, compare notes, and 

talk about strategies for serving these visitors 

a. Reports of increased anger, anxieties, and a greater sense of entitlement coming 

forth specifically during the pandemic 

b. One ombuds noted the types of requests have changed and the approach of 

management towards employee needs have changed, meaning management 

seemed more sensitive to needs of visitor 

c. Telework needs specifically were more thoughtfully considered by many 

management groups 

d. One external ombuds stated their office noticed angrier visitors that have more 

politically driven topics that not do not pertain to their process concerns 

e. Internal visitors seem to need more coaching for an issue to help with increased 

anxieties 

f. External ombuds are often the office of last resort and thus sometimes have more 

build up to their concerns 

g. The idea of entitlement may seem different from the traditional meaning of the 

word as many have been doing their work remotely, and now they expect some 

flexibility 

h. The level of distress for visitors is different and they are sometimes relaying 

information in a way that is not coherent and with a different level of urgency 

i. Due to time constraints this topic was shorten and will be discussed more next 

month 

Attendance 09/15/2021 

Last First Call-In

Bedlivy Dawn 1

Berg Mollie 1

Bookstein Monique 1

Brown Amy 1

Brown Andrea 1
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Last First Call-In

Cameron Bob 1

Carmouche Colette 1

Davenport Dayes Nicky 1

Dean Karen 1

DeBerry Marcella 1

Fleming Tasha 1

Foisy Paul-Dominick 1

Footman Aaron 1

Garmon Felisa 1

Gordon Laurel 1

Harley Jasmine 1

Hartman Jessie 1

Hurley Nathan 1

Jarrett Syreeta 1

Johnson Dawn 1

Kamenshine Wendy 1

Katherine Erica 1

Kinnavy Noreen 1

Kith Sarah 1

Lawrence Steve 1

Lenkel Laurie 1

Levine Lisa 1

Lewis Mark D. 1

Lloyd Brenda 1

Malone Marcus 1

Maurer Bill 1

Mazur Cynthia (Cindy) 1

McGuire Carrie 1

McNeil Tracey 1

Michael David 1

Milner Heather 1

Morey Chauncenette 1

Patel Bina 1

Patno Arielle 1
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Last First Call-In

Piziali Jamie 1

Porch Susanne 1

Rojas Nick 1

Roth Lewis 1

Rowe Mary 1

Semo Alina 1

Smith Julie 1

Sotoudeh Paul 1

Stergio Marcus 1

Thomson Ronnie 1

Varner Tahirih 1

Vermillion Chris 1

Villafane Jacqueline 1

Wolfe Lexi 1

Zrubek Tom 1

Total 54