UNCLASSIFIED 

1 

UNCLASSIFIED

MEETING MINUTES 

Meeting Date/Time: August 14, 2019 1:30pm – 3:00pm (EST) 

Location:  Phone Only 

Agenda:

1. COFO Annual Conference Update 

2. COFO Mentoring Committee Update 

3. Ombuds Day Reminder 

4. Leave Donation 

5. Discussion Topics: 

a. Evaluating your services – How do you evaluate the services you are providing your 

stakeholders? How do you do distribute the evaluation tool (whether a survey or 

another tool), what do you ask, and what kind of responsiveness do you receive? 

b. Standardized language – Do any of you use standardized language or form paragraphs in 

the course of your work? Why or why not? If so, would you be willing to share examples 

of this language? 

c. Your topic here! 

6. Announcements  

Highlights: 

1. COFO Annual Conference Update 

a. Conference date: 18 October 2019 @ USPTO. The conference committee continues to 

meet every other Wednesday @ 3PM EST. Currently the team is discussing potential 

topics and speakers. The next meeting will be August 21. If you are interested in 

participating as a volunteer, please email Paul Sotoudeh: Paul.Sotoudeh@USPTO.gov   

2. COFO Mentoring Committee Update 

a. No further updates at this time. If you have any questions, please contact 

COFOMentoring@nih.gov

3. Ombuds Day Reminder 

a. Ombuds day is coming up in October. Registration information with access to links is 

available on the ABA website. For more information, please contact Ken Skodacek: 

Ken.Skodacek@fda.hhs.gov

b. Ombuds Day is a great opportunity to connect with ombudsman in the federal 

government and network with colleagues to share best practices. This year, the 

committee will host three events, including the first one with Chuck Howard, Executive 
UNCLASSIFIED 

2 

UNCLASSIFIED

Director, IOA, as the key note speaker. Additional events will be held in Chicago, IL and 

Boulder, CO.  

4. Leave Donation 

a. COFO members who are interested in donating or receiving leave donations can reach 

out to the COFO Executive committee to help facilitate such considerations. Leave 

donors will be anonymous to avoid bias and conflict of interest. COFO is extending this 

opportunity to spread awareness, while connecting ombuds in the federal government. 

For more information, please email Paul Sotoudeh: Paul.Sotoudeh@USPTO.gov   

5. Discussion Topics 

a. Evaluating your services – How do you evaluate the services you are providing your 

stakeholders? How do you do distribute the evaluation tool (whether a survey or 

another tool), what do you ask, and what kind of responsiveness do you receive? 

i. Participants engaged in a hearty conversation to share best practices of how to 

obtain feedback on ombuds services from visitors. Participants mentioned 

distributing a post‐visit survey via an auto‐generated email, email, or hard copy. 

Email surveys worked best for visitors who sought consultations either by phone 

or online.  

ii. Participants also shared best practices on software tools used to obtain quality 

data. Qualtrix is a technical software tool that sends surveys via email and 

collects data that is sent to a different department, which redacts any personal 

information prior to sending weekly reports to the ombuds office. Additionally, 

members discussed using Survey Monkey or establishing an ombuds shared 

email account to send surveys. Most ombuds agreed that only 50% of visitors 

responded to the surveys. Surveys are intended to measure the quality of 

service, which extends to collecting data that focuses on the perception of the 

quality of service and actual quality of service. 

b. Standardized language – Do any of you use standardized language or form paragraphs in 

the course of your work? Why or why not? If so, would you be willing to share examples 

of this language? 

i. Participants discussed the importance of quality control to standardize some 

language and/or establish control questions.  

ii. Ombuds discussed the need to us specific types of inquires that require 

standardized language whey duty requires such as referrals, legal notes, or 

citing policy and regulations. External ombuds added the need to use 

standardized or “template” language when interfacing with the public or 

consumers.  

c. Your topic here! 

i. An idea was mentioned to mentor an individual who is not an ombuds for six 

months to a year for non‐soft skills training. The topic will be carried forward to 

next month’s call.  

6. Announcements  

a. Conference: U.S. Ombuds Association Conference will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii 

from 18‐20 September 2019. Registration is now open. Early Bird registration deadline is 

15 August. 
UNCLASSIFIED 

3 

UNCLASSIFIED

b. NIH Event: NIH will be hosting an event that is open to the public on 24 September at 

the NIH Campus. Point of Contact @ NIH is Ms. Sarah Kith for further information. The 

event will welcome Dr. Rita Sharon as the Gadlin Lecturer on narrative medicine. The 

speaking engagement address the doctor‐patient relationship with a focus on listening 

skills to hear the narrative vs engage in problem solving. Paul Sotoudeh will distribute 

the flyer and registration information to COFO members. Interested participants must 

register to attend. 

c. Job Announcements – none 
UNCLASSIFIED 

4 

UNCLASSIFIED

Attendees 

Dial in 

Howard Balick FDA 

Riley Barrar CFPB 

Wanda Battle MEDCOM 

Virginia Behr FDA 

Mollie Berg NGA 

Mary Chavez Rudolph Dept of Interior

Elisa Enriquez LANL 

Angela Fox USDA 

Millisa Gary GSA 

Andrea Gilliam Unwanted LLC 

Sheldon Gnatt NSA 

Laurel Gordon US Marshals 

Gary Hill NGA 

Sarah Kith NIH 

Noreen Kinnavy US Agency for Global Media, VOA, and Office of Cuba 

Broadcasting 

Christa Lemelin NARA OGIS 

Laurie Lenkel FDA 

Lisa Levine DOJ 

Bill Maurer DOE 

Christine Megee DODEA 

Celeste Merrix FLETC 

Rozmyn Miller FMCS 

Martha Wagner Murphy OGIS 

Bina Patel NGIC 

Arielle Patno FDA Ctr for Tobacco Products 

Xaivian Raymond NASA 

Janay Reed DIA 

Kevin Reilly NASA 

Ken Skodacek FDA Ctr for Devices and Radiological Hth 

Alena Semo OGIS/NARA 

Paul Sotoudeh USPTO 

Marcus Stergio OFCCP 

Roberta Valdez FDIC External 

Chris Vermillion TSA 

Guy Weber NGA 

Karen White National Guard Bureau 

Jean Whyte FRB 

Lexi Wolfe TSA 

Deanna Yuille FDA