MODERNIZING TODAY

N OV E M B E R 2 0 0 0

United States Office of Personnel Management 

Retirement Programs

Volume Two • Issue Three

Ed Flynn, A s s o c i ate Dire c t o r

for Retirement and Insurance 

Modernization effort— A strategic initiative to rethink, reevaluate, and 

ultimately reengineer the various processes 

that support and provide retirement services.

The Internet is a hit. This is a fact

proven by our current technologydriven economy. At least 40 percent

of the Federal retirement system’s

annuitants use the Internet, so it is

easy to see that we need to become

a part of the information highway.

This issue of Modernizing To d a y

shows how the Retirement and

Insurance Service (RIS) has participated in this national trend and 

reinforces why we continue to

increase our presence on the web to

meet the demands of our customers.

On the afternoon of September

30, 1996, the Office of Personnel

Management (OPM) made its

first giant leap into cyberspace by

The Modern i z ation Effo rt — Web-based Serv i c e s

posting the OPM website on the

Internet. Statistics during that first year

show that the total number of times

someone linked to or "hit" a retirement page in a 2-week period was

5,258. A2-week period this summer

brought 66,401 hits to major RIS pages.

These numbers indicate that the need

and use of our web-based services has

grown over time. Al a rge and growing

number of our customers have come to

rely on the web as a way to conduct

business. Employees download pamphlets containing all types of general

retirement information and access data

on health insurance carriers during the

Federal Employees Health Benefits

(FEHB) open season. Retirees c h a n g e

their mailing address or request duplicate tax-filing statements. Human

Resources Specialists obtain the latest

Civil Service Retirement System,

Federal Employees Retirement System,

FEHB and Federal Employees Group

Life Insurance information in Benefits

Administration Letters. Attendees at our

Federal Benefits Conference and Fall

Festival of Training use electronic

commerce to register and pay for 

classes. These are only a few of the

services our web pages provide for our

broad range of customers.

The Internet has allowed OPM

and other Federal agencies to

p r o v i d e services more quickly

and efficiently than ever before.

This powerful tool places a

demand on RIS to remain innovative in meeting the online

needs of our customers. A r t i c l e s

in this issue of M o d e r n i z i n g

To d a y talk about what RIS is

doing to meet the challenges of

doing business on the web.

Another important issue highlighted

in this newsletter is that as we

continue to modernize in today's

hi-tech world, the foundation for

building this new technology

infrastructure is firmly built on a

very old and low-tech idea,

c o n t i nued on page two
"This week I received my personalized booklet outlining the current status of my

pension and re t i rement benefits, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank

you for this excellent pro d u c t ! ”

“I am very impressed with both the personalization and the compact, complete,

plain language format and text. I found the quality and accuracy to be outstand -

ing. You have anticipated and answered most questions in this re s o u rce booklet."

Retiree reaction to our new retirement statement has been overwhelmingly positive. Mr. Remski's comment is one of the many letters of appreciation we

received on this new product of Modernization.

MODERNIZING TO DAY • N OV E M B E R 2 0 0 0

In this issue

● Quotable Quote p. 2

● Human Resources

Data Network p. 3 

● Bill Smith Interview p. 5

● O R PWeb-Based 

Services p. 7 

● Fall Festival of

Tr a i n i n g p. 9

● Faces of 

M o d e r n i z a t i o n p. 10

● Have Questions or

Suggestions? p. 12 

● Late-Breaking News p. 12 

Quotable Quote

From a Federal Retiree on the new per -

sonalized retirement booklet, "Your

Federal Retirement Benefits."

R i c h a rd L. R e m s k i

D a y t o n , O H

PAGE 2

The Modernization Effo rt — Web-based Services 

c o n t i nued from page one

human relationships. All of

these articles speak of the

importance of good working

relationships and partnerships.

In this issue, one of our partners,

Bill Smith, a representative of the

National Association of Retired

Federal Employees (NARFE),

points out that NARFE and the

O ffice of Personnel Management

(OPM) were initially concerned

with whether or not retirees

would catch on to using the web

in retirement, but he says "We ' r e

finding even the older members

are using computers more—

especially email." Also, NARFE’s

website points out that seven out

of ten new members joining

NARFE now have computers and

are on the NARFE electronic network. So, our initial concerns

were unfounded.

As the Modernization eff o r t

expands, Internet use by everyone

doing business with the retirement

system will increase dramatically.

For an insightful look at our past,

present and future I invite you to

read this issue of M o d e r n i z i n g

To d a y. Featured articles this

month include:

● Information on the new 

Benefits Officers Resource 

Center and the Fall Festival of 

Tr a i n i n g ,

● An interview with Bill Smith 

of NARFE,

● Information on the Federal 

Human Resources Data 

Network (HRDN).

Have questions or comments?

Email the author at 

E D F LY N N @ o p m . g o v.
PAGE 3

Human Resources Data Netwo rk: 

Taking the Byte Out of Pap e r

By John Moseley

Federal Human Resources Data Netwo rk

E x e c u t i ve Program Manager

Record keeping for the Federal

government workforce is in need

of substantial change. A n y o n e

who has transferred between

agencies knows the feeling of

becoming a new Federal employee

all over again. For some poor souls,

this might mean the inadvertent termination of health coverage or life

insurance, or goofed up leave

balances and tax withholdings.

C u r r e n t l y, agencies enter and 

reenter information from paper

source documents as employees

move from agency to agency. T h i s

practice surely leads to an increased

probability of human error.

For agencies and the Office of

Personnel Management (OPM),

information gathering and reporting

can be slow, labor-intensive, and

inaccurate if the information is

not electronically available, current, and easily "extractable."

Creating, extracting, moving, and

piling paper for filing in a folder,

which then must be found, extracted, opened, filled, and placed back

in storage, is obsolete. Finally,

repetitive and redundant keying of

data is very costly and error prone.

So, imagine a world where we

can link a number of diverse,

transactional Human Resources

systems to allow the flow of

information across the lines

between agencies, including an

electronic Official Employee

Record. This is the world of the

Human Resources Data Network

(HRDN). The HRDN Program

may be the first governmentwide

information technology effort to

improve the operations of an

entire community and the workforce that it supports.

Much work has to be done by OPM

and agencies to deliver the HRDN.

First we begin our planning and

reengineering work to confirm

which data should (and should not)

be included in the HRDN. Several

major Human Resources programs,

such as the Retirement Systems

M o d e r n i z a t i o n e ffort (that you've

read much about in M o d e r n i z i n g

To d a y), will use the HRDN for

their data pool. We are working

closely with the Modernization

e ffort to capture the information

the Retirement and Insurance

Service needs for future electronic

retirement transactions. It is indeed

a worthwhile and necessary coordination effort between two fine

strategic initiatives.

c o n t i nued on page fo u r
MODERNIZING TO DAY • N OV E M B E R 2 0 0 0

Human Resources Data Network: 

Taking the Byte Out of Paper

PAGE 4

Governmentwide reporting will significantly improve with the Human

Resources Data Network (HRDN).

For example, the Office of

Personnel Management (OPM)

compiles data for reporting to the

O ffice of Management and

Budget, General A c c o u n t i n g

O ffice, Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission, and

Congress. Currently, the Central

Personnel Data File captures

some of the information. It is fed

by agency data. The other information must be gathered the oldfashioned way—by hand. A s

such, the HRDN Program will reexamine and document OPM’s

data needs to define what information must be collected and stored

e l e c t r o n i c a l l y. This will ensure that

information can be retrieved from

one source measured at a fraction

of the current cost and time.

Now let’s focus on the Off i c i a l

Personnel Folder. Over 65 percent

of information in the paper folder,

for some 1.8 million Federal

employees, is not captured in an

electronic database. If we shift from

the paper mode to the electronic,

we must ask what information m u s t

we capture to support employees

throughout their careers and

beyond. That is the focus of

another upcoming work group.

Other work groups will examine

such areas as user access and

s e c u r i t y, legal suff i c i e n c y, 

electronic signature requirements,

conversion of paper records, and

public and private sector benchmarks for the HRDN architecture.

And while we are examining what

information must be captured f o r

reports and employee records, we

want to know if we, as a commun i t y, are collecting data that we no

longer need to collect. I believe it

is an exciting vision!

The HRDN Program is structured

to take advantage of the 

experienced human resources and

information technology talent

present in the Federal workforce.

Interagency work groups, supported by contractor employees,

began forming in mid-September

to perform specific HRDN tasks. 

If you are interested in more

information about this exciting

and monumental undertaking,

contact me at (202) 606-1191 o r

email jcmosele@opm.gov.

c o n t i nued from page thre e
M o d e rnizing Today Interv i ews...Bill Smith

PAGE 5

By Agnes Kalland

For many years, Bill was a

R e t i rement and Insurance Policy

S e rvice employee; he held various

p rogram and policy positions in

the former Office of Retire m e n t

and Insurance Policy and the

Office of Retirement Pro g r a m s .

He re t i red from Federal service in

1993 and went to work for the

National Association of Retire d

Federal Employees (NARFE) and

now heads up the Retire m e n t

Benefits Office there. Bill will

fully re t i re in December after a

40-year care e r.

In July 2000, Bill sat down with

Agnes Kalland to talk about

R e t i rement Systems Modernization.

H e re is an excerpt from the inter -

v i e w. To read the full interv i e w, see

" I n t e rview with Bill Smith" when

you visit our Retirement Systems

Modernization website at

w w w. o p m . g o v / re t i re / m o d e r n .

M T. Bill, you have an almost

unique relationship and history

with the retirement program—as

employee, partner, and consumer.

What do you think about the

Retirement Systems Modernization

e ffort so far?

Bill. Speaking both for myself and

for the organization, NARFE,

we're pleased. We've been more

than happy with the kind of

improvements we've seen come

out of this project to date. We ' r e

excited about seeing more

changes too.

M T. I understand that you have

quite a bit of feedback from

NARFE members concerning

improvements from the

Modernization effort. What are

some of them?

Bill. We get a lot of compliments

directed at the Office of Personnel

Management (OPM) . For example OPM's willingness to:

● Give annuitants the ability to 

change tax withholdings, make 

open season changes, and 

change tax withholdings by 

using the toll-free telephone 

number—a toll-free number 

that NARFE has been an advocate of for many years

● Make these same changes 

available via web-based services

Also, members tell us they are

seeing improved timeliness in the

processing of initial claims and

survivor benefits, especially in the

survivor benefit area. In many

cases we hear from people who

say that—because of the expedited

processing—they actually received

their first payment before they

received the application for 

death benefits.

M T. On a slightly different note, I

understand you are having your

own modernization at NARFE.

B i l l. Exactly. We are. We thought

initially that our members would

not be receptive to websites and

email and so forth, because of the

fact that they're older and they're

not used to this. But that has

proven not to be true. Our

younger and newer members used

computers when they were on the

job and they're using them now.

We're finding even the older

members are using computers

more—especially email. A n d ,

we're getting more and more hits

on our website as time goes on.

M T. You’ve said some very 

positive things about retirement

program employees. May I record

a few?

B i l l . Well, please do. Our staff

deals with everybody there at

OPM—from the first line worker

up to the highest-level supervisors. And they've all been quite

helpful and cooperative. It's just

been a great relationship. So

whatever we can do to foster that

in the future we're here to do it. I

will not personally be here after

D e c e m b e r, but I'm sure the staff

will carry on that tradition.

M T. Do you think NARFE 

and the Retirement Systems

Modernization effort have a

common purpose?

Bill. We do indeed. Janice

Lachance uses the term "partners.”

We are one of the groups that

OPM is interested in—since we

represent retirees. Both sides are

to be commended, especially

c o n t i nued on page six
MODERNIZING TO DAY • N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 0

M o d e rnizing To d ay Interviews...Bill Smith

PAGE 6

OPM for providing information to

us and asking for our feedback

and assistance.

M T. Our readers are interested in

how NARFE is structured and

just what a big web of an org a n ization it actually is. Would you

explain its structure?

Bill. Sure. It starts at the 

headquarters here in A l e x a n d r i a ,

VA. We have four elected off i c e r s

here. We have a convention every

two years, where the officers are

elected. Going down to the next

level, we have ten regional field

vice presidents for different areas

of the country. And then from that

level, we go to Federations. T h e r e

are 54 of those. And then it

spreads out into Chapters. T h e r e

are 1,645 Chapters throughout 

the country.

M T. And they feed information

up to headquarters?

Bill. E x a c t l y. And we try to feed it

back down, also. As you know,

we have a magazine, R e t i re m e n t

L i f e, that goes to all 430,000

members, plus others who are not

members but sign up for the 

magazine just to get it. So we

have that way of getting information out to people. We also send

out newsletters to our officers and

chapters throughout the country

to try to keep them up to date on

what's happening. We rely heavily

on information provided by OPM

in doing that.

M T. On a personal note, you're

close to yet again retiring and

you're off to North Carolina. I

doubt you'll just sit back and

relax all the time.

B i l l. No, I plan to be busy. Like

most retirees, I think I'll do a lot

of things. I told someone the

other day that I thought 40 years

was enough. That it was time for

me to fully retire; devote some

time to leisurely activities like

playing golf, going to the beach,

and doing things I like to do. So,

we're looking forward to moving

down to North Carolina and

building a house down there. My

wife Kathie and I plan to just take

it easy the rest of our years and

watch our grandchildren grow.

M T. That's great. Well, did you

have anything you wanted to add?

Bill. Well, again, I just would like

to congratulate OPM on the

things they've done in terms of

improving service to retirees—in

general. And, more specifically,

the kind of cooperation we've had

between NARFE and OPM—

thanks to Janice Lachance and

others on her staff. It's been a treat

for me to work with them.

When I came here to NARFE, I

initially was doing pretty much the

same work that I did at OPM. T h e

fact that we can answer questions

directly and help our members with

their concerns is quite satisfying

and rewarding.

I would recommend to anyone

who's been in the personnel field

that's interested in this kind of

work to get associated with

NARFE at the local level and

help us out. I plan to do some volunteer work for NARFE in the

future when I'm retired too.

M T. It was wonderful, talking with

you, Bill. I so much appreciate

your doing this interview.

Bill. It's my pleasure. Anything I

can do to foster this relationship

between NARFE and OPM is

good for us, it's good for our

members, and it's good for OPM,

I hope.

Have questions or comments?

Email the author at

A m k a l l a n @ o p m . g o v.

Bill, thank you for this inter -

v i e w. Congratulations to you

on your re t i rement. We wish

you and your family the very

b e s t ! —M T

c o n t i nued from page fi v e
Office of Retirement Programs Offers

Efficient Web-Based Serv i c e s

PAGE 7

By Debra Danfo rth and Tom Smith

O p e r ations Support Division

Bag the biggest buzz on the 

business beat these days and the

word is "e-commerce." The government version of this buzz is 

" e - g o v " or electronic government.

Behind this buzzword are people

using technology to improve 

government services and make

them easily available and efficient. 

For the Office of Retirement

Programs (ORP), which serves

over two million annuitants, the

ramifications of providing service

via the World Wide Web are

tremendous. According to our surveys, an estimated 40 percent of

annuitants have Internet access. If

even a fraction of these customers

complete their changes using

web-based services, the potential

impact on providing customer 

support for routine business transactions is significant. For example,

in a recent fiscal year, we received

over 500,000 address change 

notifications from annuitants.

The bottom-line is that we want to

provide our customers premium

customer service. As you have

read in previous bulletins, the

retirement system is undergoing a

long-term, strategic initiative

called the Modernization effort to

do just that. During the meantime,

there are modernization products

that we can develop and offer to

our customers now—some of

those products are the web-based

services mentioned. 

With web-based services, the

opportunity exists to make routine

service more readily available,

increasing customer satisfaction,

and creating an efficient, paperless

process. With this vision, we 

c r e a t e d Services Online.

W h at is Services Online?

Services Online is a secure, 

web-based, self-service benefits

center modeled after the

Employee Express website. A s

some of you may know,

Employee Express is a self-service

system for Federal employees—it

was created and is maintained

with technical support from the

Employment Service staff at the

Macon Technology Support

C e n t e r. Employee Express allows

Federal employees to change their

address or T S P allotments, among

other things. In modeling the

Services Online website after

Employee Express, we believed

there would be a "seamless trans i t i o n" for retiring employees who

are familiar with this system.

Retirees can access Services

Online from the Federal

Retirement Program's website at

w w w.opm.gov/retire and select

" Tools" from the menu at the

top of the page. Although the

Services Online selection is only

available to retirees, the website

has a variety of other information

available to non-retirees.

Using Services Online annuitants

c a n :

● Change a mailing address,

● Establish, change, or stop an 

allotment to an org a n i z a t i o n ,

● Start the direct deposit of a 

c o n t i nued on page eight
O ffice of Retirement Pro g rams Offers 

E fficient Web-Based Serv i c e s

MODERNIZING TO DAY • N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 0 PAGE 8

payment or change the account

or financial institution to which

it is sent,

● Start, change, or stop Federal 

and State income tax withholdi n g s ,

● B u y, change, or stop savings 

b o n d s ,

● Request duplicate tax-filing 

statements (1099R),

● Change Personal Identification 

Numbers (PIN) for accessing 

our automated systems.

W h at A re the Results?

Customer satisfaction is high with

approximately 9,500 account

changes made through the website.

Survey results show 96 percent of

our customers report that they like

making their own payment

changes. These transactions 

represent improved service 

delivery with reduced processing

cycle times. It also means the staff

resources can be redirected to less

routine requests and changes.

Our customers say it best themselves with comments such as, "I

wish more agencies would take

notice of your lead in off e r i n g

these services over the Internet."

Or "...everything went real slick,

it was great," and "Your online

services feature is great! It is

quick and easy to use."

With the recent addition of the

address change and direct deposit

functions, we believe access rates

will continue to increase.

W h at Is Nex t ?

Though customer satisfaction is

currently high; expectations continue to grow. People want access

to more benefits information

through the website. They are

interested in finding the amount

of their next payment, confirming

their deductions, checking their life

insurance coverage values, and

verifying the amount of elected

survivor benefits.

Services Online is a tool that will

help us continue to serve our 

customer needs in a manner that

is consistent with the vision of

service that is available, accessible,

and eff i c i e n t .

Have questions or comments?

Email the authors at

Dgdanfor@opm.gov and

Tw s m i t h 2 @ o p m . g o v

N o

4 %

Pe rcentage of Users Who Liked 

Processing Their Own A c t i o n s

Ye s

9 6 %

c o n t i nued from page seven
PAGE 9

THE FALL FESTIVAL OF T R A I N I N G

By Irene Meader

B e n e fits Offi c e rs Resource Center

Are you an experienced agency

retirement counselor who wants

to hone your knowledge of the

Federal benefits programs? Do

you have basic knowledge that

you want to improve? Do you

want to be sure your knowledge is

up-to-date? If you answered yes

to any of these questions, the

Retirement and Insurance

S e r v i c e ’s fourth annual Fall

Festival of Training may off e r

what you are looking for.

The Fall Festival of Tr a i n i n g

o ffers agencies an array of one

and two-day workshops to help

benefits counselors increase their

knowledge of the Federal benefits

programs and improve their counseling skills. The workshops 

provide an intensive, high-energ y

learning experience on selected

topics. This year, they include

Retirement Coverage Issues,

Counseling Employees in Crisis,

Military and Civilian Deposits

under CSRS and FERS, Social

Security Overview, Part-time

Computations, All About FEHB,

All About FEGLI, Reemployed

Annuitants, and Wo r k e r s '

Compensation Issues.

As you can see by these titles, the

Festival reflects a partnership with

other benefits paying agencies. I n

addition, several workshops focus

on the interrelationships among

the programs that OPM, the

Social Security A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ,

the Thrift Retirement Investment

Board, and the Office of Wo r k e r s '

Compensation Program administer.

As anyone who works in the

benefits area can attest, pinning

down how these interrelationships work is one of the most

challenging, but crucial, parts of

your job in order to answer

employee questions accurately. 

You may wonder what the Fall

Festival has to do with the

Modernization effort. For starters,

events like the Festival are prime

vehicles for attendees to learn

about the effort's progress and

even pick up copies of the

Modernizing To d a y bulletin. A l s o ,

just as the Festival works to bring

agency counselors retirement program information, so too will the

Modernization effort develop, and

deliver in a variety of formats,

retirement-related topicsfor agencies to use while counseling t h e i r

employees. This year’s Festival

takes place from November 28

though December 1 at the Omni

Richmond Hotel in Richmond,

Vi rginia. For details, go to

w w w.opm.gov/benefits. 

If you can't make the Fall

Festival, you can make plans to

attend next year’s 2001 Federal

Benefits Conference which will

be held in June. Classes for the

conference typically fill up very

q u i c k l y, so you need to register as

soon as the event is announced.

Watch for the announcement of

the 2001 Conference—it will be

posted early in 2001 on the same

site mentioned earlier. The preconference classes presented in

conjunction with the conference

include many of the same topics

covered at the Fall Festival. T h e

2001 conference will take place

in Norfolk, Vi rginia. 

The Retirement and Insurance

Services Benefits Off i c e r s

Resource Center sponsors these

events. (You may be more familiar

with the Center’s old name—

Agency Service’s Division. We

changed our name to better reflect

what we do.) We provide direct

assistance to agency headquarters

level benefits officers, and develop

tools such as the CSRS and FERS

Handbook for Personnel and

Payroll Offices. We also make a

growing range of resources for

employee use available to agencies—ranging from the venerable

Retirement Facts pamphlets to the

Benefits Center CD-ROM to a

just-completed video for new

employees on the benefits package.

If you haven’t looked at our website lately, please check it out at

w w w.opm.gov/benefits. We are

redesigning it to provide more

information for both employees

and benefits officers. 

Have questions or comments?

Email the author at

E i m e a d e r @ o p m . g o v.
Faces of Modern i z at i o n

MODERNIZING TO DAY • N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 0 PAGE10

c o n t i nued on page eleven

These are just a few of the faces of

Modernization. The Modernization

e ffort involves many activities

and requires the Modernization

Team to—

● Look at work processes, 

● Collect data, validate data, analyze results, 

F rom left to right, here are R u t h

G a r d n e r and Karen Quanderf ro m

O P M ’s Financial Management

Branch in Washington, D.C. They

s e rved as subject matter expert s

in a validation session on data

needs and re q u i rements. Their

insight and expertise helped the

Modernization team understand

overpayments. With Ruth and

K a ren's help, the team was able

to validate that the data collected

was accurate and make critical

c h a n g e s .

Vic Karcherstrikes a pose in his

OPM home office of Boyers, PA .

Vic formerly worked at OPM in

Washington. Vic participates as a

subject matter expert in many

a reas of the Modernization effort .

He recently worked with A m e r i c a n

Management Systems, one of our

Modernization contractors, and

the Office of Retirement Pro g r a m s

in developing a Knowledge

Management Strategy.

We want to highlight that there

are people behind each task, each

accomplishment, and each work

session. We will continue to have

more Faces of Modernization in

upcoming issues. See if you recognize these folks!

● Survey and listen to our 

customers, 

● Make recommendations, report

to oversight committees,

● Design/purchase technology, 

and much more. 
PAGE11

Faces of Modern i z a t i o n

c o n t i nued from page ten

Janet Bassis known for her lovely

smile, besides being the superv i s o r

for the Retirement Information

Office in Boyers, PA. Janet fre -

quently comes to D.C. for

Modernization activities. She

brings expertise and her concern

for call center operations as well

as employee access to tools and

training. She recently part i c i p a t -

ed in a work group with IBM,

another one of the Modernization

contractors, to lay down the initial

technology foundation for OPM's

modernized Call Centers.

Agencies are involved too! In the

second ro w, we see two of our

agency stakeholders—S y r e n a

We s t, Department of Defense

(left), and Eleanor Ratcliff,

D e p a rtment of A g r i c u l t u re .

S y rena and Eleanor, like our

other agency re p re s e n t a t i v e s ,

p rovide expertise, insight, guid -

ance, and support for the

Modernization effort. Having a

Modernization team that re p re -

sents all the re t i rement pro g r a m

perspectives is key to our suc -

cess. Also picture d —N a n c y

R e n i c k f rom OPM’s Retire m e n t

Operations Center, and in the

b a c k g round— Michael Mondy

(left) and Mike Isman f ro m

American Management Systems.
H a v

?

e Questions

or Suggestions?

We'd like to hear what you

think! There are several ways

to get more information about

the Modernization effort, or

provide feedback. 

Contact BSRD

Retirement and Insurance

Services Business Systems

Reengineering Division (BSRD)

supports the Retirement Systems

Modernization (RSM) effort and

manages the communication

process. To find out more about

the Modernization effort, please

email us at: a s k r s m @ o p m . g o v

or write us at U.S. Office of

Personnel Management, Business

Systems Reengineering Division,

1900 E St. NW Room 3H28,

Washington, DC 20415-3400;

or fax us at (202) 606-0548.

Look us up on the

Wo rld Wide We b

If you have Internet access, you

can visit the Retirement Systems

Modernization website at:

w w w. o p m . g o v / re t i re/modern. 

Past Modernizing To d a y b u l l e t i n s

and notes from the focus group

sessions can be found on the

w e b s i t e .

L at e - B reaking New s

OPM and select agencies have

begun work on the Data

Exchange Gateway pilot—more

about this exciting pilot in our

next issue. Also, Deborah

Danforth and Tom Smith

received OPM Director's Aw a r d s

for their work leading the

Services Online effort. T h e i r

article about this web-based

service appears in this issue. 

M o d e rn i z ation Commu n i c ations 

Committee Members

From the A g e n cy A d v i s o ry Committee

Eleanor Ratcliff 

D e p a rtment of A g r i c u l t u re

Syrena West 

D e p a rtment of Defense

From OPM

Chris Brown

Management Information Branch

Marty Ehrlich 

Business Systems Reengineering Division

Phil Gardner

R e t i rement Claims Division

Lesley Gordon 

Disability and Reconsideration and Appeals Division

Delberta Grossman 

R e t i rement Operations Center

Agnes Kalland

Insurance Planning and Evaluation Division

Pat Lancaster

Disability and Reconsideration and Appeals Division

John Landers, Chair

Associate Dire c t o r’s Office

David Lewis

Insurance Contracts Division III

Vivian Mackey

Office of Communications

Joe Parker 

Office of Retirement Pro g r a m s

Sandy Ringler 

R e t i rement Operations Center

Mary Sugar

Benefits Officers Resource Center

Diane Tyler 

Business Systems Reengineering Division

Bernadine Wa l k e r

P i t t s b u rgh Te l e s e rvice Center

Special thanks to Ruth Ann Kier for her photography.

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