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COFO MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES

Meeting Date/Time: April 12, 2023, 1:30-2:55pm (EST)

Location: Video/telephone

Agenda: 

1. COFO Annual Conference date

2. MS Teams Heads Up

3. ABA Dispute Resolution Section Annual Spring Conference – May 10-13 in Las Vegas

4. IOA Annual Conference Recap

5. IOA Compensation Survey

6. Ombuds Day 2023 – October 12

7. Voluntary Leave Transfer Initiative reminder

8. Next Ombuds Supporting Ombuds (OSO) meeting 2/22

9. Announcements – Training opportunities, job openings, or really any office and ombudsman 

happenings you'd like to tell the world about

10. General Questions - Space for new and emerging practitioners and programs to ask questions 

and get feedback from the COFO community in a short discussion format

11. Discussion Topic

o Outsourced Ombuds – as a community we’re starting to see increased demand for 

outsourced ombuds services. These are ombuds services provided on contract either for 

an interim period or longer, often with the ombuds’ administrative and data services 

centralized in one place with the contractor. Let’s discuss the pros and cons of 

outsourced ombuds and what it might mean for the ombuds profession more broadly. 

Highlights:

1. COFO Annual Conference 

o In person this year at USPTO, but also hybrid. 

o First call for conference committee volunteers. There will be an email to follow.

o Quality and reputation of conference has become known, so excited to hold it again but 

in person. The conference is free. Requires volunteer power to make it happen at all 

levels and especially because it will be hybrid. 

2. MS Teams Heads Up

o Chat function is considered a permanent record, so be careful internally and check with 

your agency to see what the policy is. 

o Also, there is a phone log that shows who called you and who you called, so worth 

looking into whether agency has the ability to delete that record for you.

3. ABA Dispute Resolution Section Annual Spring Conference – May 10-13 in Las Vegas

o Being held at Caesars Palace in Vegas.
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o If interested in broader conflict resolution work, check out current deals/discounts for 

attending the conference.

4. IOA Annual Conference recap

o Was great to see people in person.

o Quick recap of the government sector meeting on Monday afternoon of the conference.

• Used the human spectrogram concept where one side of the room would 

represent strongly agree and the other would represent strongly disagree, with 

people choosing a side. A variety of ombuds and non-ombuds related questions 

were posed. 

• Many confirmed it was one of the conference highlights!

5. IOA Compensation Survey

o IOA currently running a survey of all ombuds to discover the range of salaries within the 

field, data that will be used to help the profession. Ombuds across the country will be 

able to rely on this data when negotiating salaries upon hire. 

o The average time it takes to complete is 10 minutes.

6. Ombuds Day 2023 – October 12th

o Reminder to put on your calendars.

o It is the day before the COFO Annual Conference.

o Theme was decided on, Ombuds: Diverse in Role, United in Service, and the rest of the 

activities and details will be announced in the coming months. 

7. Voluntary Leave Transfer Initiative reminder

o Connects ombuds who need leave with ombuds from around the federal government 

who have leave to donate. Helps to avoid awkward scenario where ombuds ask for or 

donate leave to others in their agency. 

o Contact COFO if you’ve qualified for leave transfer and would like to get leave from 

other ombuds. 

8. Next Ombuds Supporting Ombuds (OSO) Meeting – 4/26

o Scheduled for 2-3pm. 

o Safe space to discuss personal and professional topics that impact us. 

9. Announcements – Training opportunities, job openings, or really any office and ombudsman 

happenings you'd like to tell the world about

o The USOA Annual Conference will be held Sept. 13-15 in Atlanta, GA at the Westin 

Perimeter hotel. 

• For more information go to: https://www.usombudsman.org/usoaevents/annual-conference/

• This year conference registration is a required first step to reserve a hotel room. 

o CFPB posted an Associate Ombuds position yesterday. Two postings, one open to

federal employees and the other for anyone. It is a remote position equivalent to GS-13 

and the post closes on April 17. Externally facing office. 

o Social Media Committee Meeting next Thursday, April 20 from 2:30-3:30pm ET.

10. General Questions - Space for new and emerging practitioners and programs to ask questions 

and get feedback from the COFO community in a short discussion format.

o None

11. Discussion Topic: Outsourced Ombuds – as a community we’re starting to see increased 

demand for outsourced ombuds services. These are ombuds services provided on contract 

either for an interim period or longer, often with the ombuds’ administrative and data services 

centralized in one place with the contractor. Let’s discuss the pros and cons of outsourced 

ombuds and what it might mean for the ombuds profession more broadly.
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o Could be helpful in that the ombuds is truly independent, but on the other hand who is 

paying for the outsourced ombuds, and does that present independence challenges?

o Another challenge is that some agencies prefer to hire from within so that new ombuds 

have familiarity with the culture and operations of the agency, which an outsourced 

ombuds wouldn’t have. 

• Someone mentioned that when they did outsourced ombuds work, they made 

sure to conduct research about the organizations in advance. 

• Someone else mentioned this could be an advantage, with the ombuds not 

having bias given their lack of institutional knowledge. 

o A potential concern for some employees is trusting the outsourced ombuds who formed 

a relationship with the person who gave them a contract. 

o NIH has contract ombuds on the team with permanent internal ombuds and there 

doesn’t seem to be a difference for employees working with the full-time employee and 

the contract ombuds. 

o Outsourcing could make a lot of sense if the contract is managed by the ombuds office, 

but meanwhile a potential issue is independence and the commitment from leadership 

to allow for informal conflict resolution.

o Perhaps a consultant coming into an agency and helping establish a new ombuds office, 

and helping the agency to hire someone, could be a good model.

o Could also be helpful from a DEIA perspective.

o Someone recalls talk about a model within FMCS where there could be federal ombuds 

available to provide services through an MOU, and the agency wouldn’t need to find a 

contractor and go through procurement. The post office provided something similar in 

the past. 

Attendees:

Last First Agency Call-In

Anderson Jeff DOE 1

Baker Jason NIH 1

Berg Mollie NGA 1

Braden Lara DeCA 1

Brown Andrea USPTO 1

Cawthon Shalonda Office of Workers Compensation Programs/DOL 1

Cecil Tina FBI 1

Coffman Cherina NGA 1

Doyle William EES 1

Footman Aaron USPTO 1

Ginn Brad Argonne National Laboratory 1

Gnatt Sheldon NSA 1

Gordon Laurel DOJ/US Marshals Service 1

Healey Angela NSA 1
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Hendrickson Caitlan FEMA 1

Hudson Antoinette DC DGS 1

Jarrett Syreeta DIA 1

Johnson Stella N/A 1

Kamenshine Wendy CFPB 1

Katherine Erica FDA 1

Kinnavy Noreen USAGM 1

Kiraithe-Muchene Irene Henry M. Jackson Foundation 1

Lawrence Steven DHS I&A 1

Levine Lisa DOJ / Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) 1

Manderson Katie VA 1

White Karen Department of State 1

N/A Monica NSA 1

Marcotte Dan FDIC 1

Maurer Bill Census 1

Miller Ellen IOA 1

Miller Sander Dawn Red Cross 1

Morey Chauntanette FBI 1

Patel Bina USPTO 1

Porch Susanne Commerce/National Institute of Standards and Technology 

(NIST) 1

Robinson Belinda FBI 1

Rojas Nick DIA 1

Rowe Mary MIT 1

Sanglier Elizabeth TSA 1

Schauer Greta DHS 1

Smith Tyler NIH 1

Sotoudeh Paul USPTO 1

Stergio Marcus Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs/DOL 1

Vermillion Chris DOE 1

Villafane Jacqueline American Red Cross 1

Weber Guy NGA 1

Wolfe Lexi DOE 1

Yuille Banford Deanna DOD/Defense Human Resources Activity 1

Yurgelun Christine MA Probate and Family Court Department 1
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Total 48