UNCLASSIFIED

1

UNCLASSIFIED

COFO MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES

Meeting Date/Time: December 13, 2023, 1:30-2:58pm (EST)

Location: Video/telephone

Agenda: 

1. Proposed COFO Charter and Executive Committee Charter – it’s voting time!

2. Upcoming Executive Committee Elections

3. Committee Updates: Mentoring, Peer Practitioner, Social Media

4. Voluntary Leave Transfer Initiative reminder

5. Next Ombuds Supporting Ombuds (OSO) meeting 12/27

6. Announcements – Training opportunities, job openings, or really any office and ombuds 

happenings you'd like to tell the world about

7. 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

8. Discussion Topic

o Let’s talk about surfacing issues confidentially, without identifying the individuals or 

organizations who raised the concern. Whether you’re internally or externally facing, 

what are some best practices for doing so? What pitfalls do you have to be cognizant 

of?

Highlights:

1. Proposed COFO Charter and Executive Committee Charter

o Thank you to everyone who provided comments on the two charters and contributed to 

past membership meeting discussions about the charters.

o Kudos also to the Charter and Governance Workgroup and the Executive Committee for 

their work to create and edit those documents.

o Next step is a vote on the charters, which will be happening soon. The EC is currently 

updating the voting member slate, more to come soon.

2. Upcoming Executive Committee Elections

o The nomination process has begun. Federal ombuds are welcome to nominate 

themselves, and anyone can nominate another federal ombuds who they believe is 

qualified to be on the next EC. 

o This is a two-year commitment and there is one Chair position, two Vice Chair positions, 

two Secretary positions, and two Coordinator positions.

o Nominations must be received by Wednesday, January 10, 2024, and a vote will be held 

once a final slate of nominees has been put together.

o Send an email to the Elections Committee to submit a nomination. 
UNCLASSIFIED

2

UNCLASSIFIED

3. Committee Updates

o Peer Practitioner Network

• Last month we announced that we were seeking more ombuds interested in 

participating, and fortunately we’ve heard from a few more. 

• We were able to create a few groups for internally facing ombuds but haven’t 

yet been able to create groups of externally facing ombuds. If you are external 

facing and would like to join a peer practitioner group, please let us know.

• This is different than the list of externally facing ombuds that SBA is currently 

putting together. 

o Social Media Committee

• Thank you to all of the SMC members who have been supporting the SMC and 

making the LinkedIn group a community that shares information.

• We have updated the criteria for joining the LinkedIn group. No longer 

necessary to be a voting member or a federal ombuds, people can just simply be 

interested in ombuds work and agree to the code of conduct statement.

• We have our next quarterly meeting on January 18 at 2:30pm. We encourage 

people to join us in discussing how we can expand and continue bringing great 

content to the COFO LinkedIn group. 

4. 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. 

5. Next Ombuds Supporting Ombuds (OSO) Meeting – 12/27

o Scheduled for 2-3pm. 

o This is a safe space to discuss personal and professional topics that impact us. 

o There isn’t a discussion topic yet for this month, but the meeting will be held despite the 

holidays and all are encouraged to join if around and interested.

6. Announcements - Training opportunities, job openings, or really any office and ombuds 

happenings you'd like to tell the world about

o USOA federal chapter will be meeting on December 19 and will include updates and 

announcements about USOA, groups people can participate in, and a monthly 

discussion topic that this month will be related to burnout.

o FEMA is hiring an Associate Ombuds. Current ombuds is accepting applications directly, 

there is no USA Jobs post. It is a two-year position that may be extended. 

o The US Marshal Service ombuds office will be hosting a practice circle later today about 

whether ombuds should be involved with DEIA. Right after today’s COFO call.

7. 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 How many of us provide written reports about our work to management and/or our

supervisors? Any kind of written reports that include inquiry data, graphs and charts, or 

other information you might normally report verbally to senior officials. 

• Someone shared that they only do it annually but could see people in larger 

organizations and larger constituencies doing something more regularly, but 

also this person only includes IOA reporting categories.

• Someone added that IOA reporting categories seem more aligned with other 

types of non-federal ombuds, and this person therefore uses a different set of 
UNCLASSIFIED

3

UNCLASSIFIED

reporting categories. They will also update, add, and/or subtract categories 

based on the inquiries that they received for that year. 

• An external ombuds added that it might also depend on whether an ombuds is 

internal or external, because their office for instance produces only an annual 

report. Two benefits:

▪ Holds the ombuds office accountable and shows the external 

stakeholder community that the ombuds has actually acted on their 

concerns or issues presented.

▪ Can also serve as a helpful resource for the ombuds office itself to look 

back and reference that report.

• Someone else mentioned that they meet regularly with senior leadership to 

verbally share statistics and information, but not written reports. They are an 

internal and that might be part of the reason. Internals who produce reports 

produce primarily pure statistics, not examples of cases for instance. 

• Someone else shared that many internal ombuds don’t like the word itself and 

feel like if they are “reporting” they are breaking the SOP. They might instead 

suggest that the necessary piece is regularly talking to leadership about the 

concerns that come up in their area of the organization.

▪ Perhaps not using the word report but using the word communications 

is the best way to address that concern from those internal ombuds. 

• Someone else shared that, for an external writing an annual report, it can be 

helpful to do the “hats exercise” and read it once through from the perspective 

of several different stakeholders to make sure the report should be published as 

is, and if not edit accordingly before publishing.

8. Discussion Topic: Let’s talk about surfacing issues confidentially, without identifying the 

individuals or organizations who raised the concern. Whether you’re internally or externally 

facing, what are some best practices for doing so? What pitfalls do you have to be cognizant of?

o Someone shared that there is a working paper and guidance on generic cautions that 

they will make sure gets distributed to the group.

o An external shared that considerations are different for externals. For instance, if there 

is a workplace conflict that many people are discussing with the internal ombuds, it is 

likely related to a particular group the inquirers belong to. However, many of the people 

contacting an external ombuds might not be aware that others are experiencing the 

same issue.

o What someone else does when surfacing something, they connect with the people who 

have been vocal about it to let them know they are surfacing it so that they can express 

concerns, add to what they’ve already said, or more generally and at the very least just 

be aware it is being surfaced. 

o Someone mentioned that one concern with surfacing issues is that not all of the people 

who have contributed statements or thoughts about them would agree on what the 

issues actually are.

• An external mentioned they don’t have the ability to know or check in with 

people about whether they agree on what the issues are, if they want 

something surfaced, and/or if they agree with how something is presented.

o Another person’s concern is what does or doesn’t constitute a critical mass, and 

particularly in a smaller agency or in an ombuds office with a smaller constituency, 

because a critical mass might not ever be reached. Or, what is the correct thing to do 
UNCLASSIFIED

4

UNCLASSIFIED

when people you are talking to are really concerned about the story being leaked and 

the potential repercussions. 

• Someone shared that they believe, in some circumstances, one is enough 

because they can see that there are signs there of something being pervasive. 

Other times though, five or six people might share something similar but it still 

isn’t appropriate to share upward. 

• Also need to keep in mind that no matter how frustrating, if someone doesn’t 

want it shared you don’t share it. 

o An external mentioned that they focus on risk as opposed to how many people have 

raised something. Less about number and more about risk. 

• Someone agreed because they think most important is how risky it is that 

someone is revealed, or how the organization is perceived, if it becomes known 

outside the agency that something was raised with leadership.

• Someone else shared that it might not impact the public immediately but the 

organization is concerned that even if raised without identifiers, the nature of 

the details might give too much away, which is particularly harmful if those

people are involved with regulatory or legal action. So, it is also about timing. 

o Something else to consider is that there is an element of human nature that people 

(namely leadership) sometimes try to figure out the person or people that initially 

surfaced something instead of focusing on what the underlying issues are, or what their 

responses to them should be. 

• Someone responded that they typically call out leaders who do that, but 

necessary in order to call them out is a strong relationship and understanding 

about the ombuds role as well as why the ombuds is surfacing something.

Attendees:

Last First Agency Call-In

Anderson Jeff DOE 1

Bedrossian Leona ATF 1

Behr Virginia FDA 1

Berg Mollie DOD/NGA 1

Bookstein Monique Prince William County Public Schools 1

Braden Lara Defense Commissary Agency 1

Brown Andrea USPTO 1

Caetano Fernando NIH 1

Coffman Cherina DOD/NGA 1

Davis Ashley University of Washington 1

DeBerry Marcella NSA 1

Delaney James CVM’s ombuds detailee 1

Enriquez Elisa NIH 1

Gordon Laurel US Marshals Service 1
UNCLASSIFIED

5

UNCLASSIFIED

Harley Jasmine National Credit Union Administration 1

Harshbarger Blayne USDA

Hartman Jessie OGIS 1

Hawkins Toni NIH 1

Hebron Eric DOJ 1

Hopkins Emilee NGA 1

Jackson Anthony Forest Service 1

Kamenshine Wendy CFPB 1

Katherine Erica FDA 1

Kinnavy Noreen USAGM 1

Lawrence Steven DHS I&A 1

Lenkel Laurie FDA 1

Levine Lisa DOJ/EOIR 1

Lopez Johnson Jennifer US Forest Service 1

Maurer Bill Census 1

Megee Christine DOD 1

Merrix Celeste FLETC 1

Miller Carla DOJ/ATF 1

Miller Ellen IOA 1

Milner Heather CFPB 1

Patel Bina USPTO 1

Patno Arielle FDA/Center for Tobacco Products 1

Porch Susanne Commerce/National Institute of Standards and Technology 

(NIST) 1

Robinson Belinda FBI 1

Rowe Mary MIT 1

Skodacek Ken FDA 1

Smith Julie Census Bureau 1

Smith Tyler NIH 1

Sotoudeh Paul USPTO 1

Stergio Marcus Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs/DOL 1

Vermillion Chris Census 1

Villafane Jacqueline Outsourced Ombuds – Organizational Psychologist 1

Voloshin Victor NIH 1

Walker Olivia DOD/Army Medical Readiness Assistance Program 1
UNCLASSIFIED

6

UNCLASSIFIED

Weber Guy DOD/NGA 1

White Karen National Guard Bureau 1

Wolfe Lexi DOE 1

Younger-Banks Tiffany SBA 1

Yuille Banford Deanna DOD/Defense Human Resources Activity 1

Ziolkowski Olivia FDA/Center for Biologics and Research 1

Total 54