Request to Designate External Reviewers Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 11:09:39 -0400 To: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices" From: Tina Honesty Subject: Request to Designate External Reviewers Cc: "Gail E Mallard, Hydrologist, Reston, VA" , "Gail A Wendt, Chief, Communications Manager, Reston, VA" In Reply Refer To: July 29, 1998 Mail Stop 440 MEMORANDUM To: Senior Staff, Water Resources Division Office Chiefs, Water Resources Division From: Lewis V. Wade /SIGNED/ Acting Assistant Chief Hydrologist for Information Subject: Request to Designate External Reviewers to the Water Resources Division Strategic Directions Document The purpose of this memorandum is to ask you to designate external reviewers of the Water Resources Division (WRD) Strategic Directions document. As you know, the WRD Strategic Directions document was drafted by a leadership team within the WRD. The documents then received extensive review within the U.S. Geological Survey. The document was modified based upon that internal review phase and is now ready for external comment. The document will be ready for release for external review on August 17, 1998. The current plan calls for a significant number of reviewers to be selected by the District Chiefs, Office Chiefs, and Senior Staff. A separate memorandum has gone to the District Chiefs asking for them to designate external reviewers. A copy of that memorandum, with attachments, is attached. The purpose of this memorandum is to ask you to designate individuals and organizations that you think should review the document. Please designate individuals and organizations beyond the individual state or sub-state level that will be designated by the District Chiefs. The criteria for your selecting the individuals who will participate in the external review are: individuals whose opinion you think would be important and influential to WRD, individuals you think would expend the time and effort to offer comments, individuals important to you in the conduct of your business, and individuals who would appreciate the opportunity to comment. Individuals could be users of our technology or peers of various types. At this point, you need not be concerned about whether the complete set of reviewers will meet our requirements in terms of providing the necessary coverages. The Strategic Directions Team will evaluate the set of reviewers provided, and if the team feels the need for selected additions to give us the necessary coverages it will contact individuals to make that happen. In order for the Strategic Directions Team to conduct such an analysis, we need you to provide the names of your external reviewers by COB August 6. Please provide me, by email (lwade), the following information concerning each of the reviewers you designate: the name of the reviewer, the mailing address of the reviewer, the organizational affiliation of the reviewer, and the nature of the relationship between the reviewer and WRD (state whether the organization is Federal, State, local, academic, private sector, or NGO and whether they currently provide us with funding). The attached cover letter that will accompany the Strategic Directions document contains information on timeframes, questions we have for reviewers, etc. It is the strong desire of the Strategic Directions Team to make the document better, based upon comments and reactions we receive from the outside world. Thank you for your assistance in making this happen. Should you have any questions, please contact Gail Mallard (703-648-5214), Lew Wade (703-648-5699), or Gail Wendt (703-648-5604). Attachments ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ATTACHMENT 1 In Reply Refer To: July 29, 1998 Mail Stop 440 MEMORANDUM To: District Chiefs, Water Resources Division From: Lewis V. Wade /SIGNED/ Acting Assistant Chief Hydrologist for Information Subject: Request to Designate External Reviewers to the Water Resources Division Strategic Directions Document The purpose of this memorandum is to ask you to designate external reviewers of the Water Resources Division (WRD) Strategic Directions document. As you know, the WRD Strategic Directions document was drafted by a leadership team within the WRD. The document then received extensive review within the U.S. Geological Survey. The document was modified based upon that internal review phase and is now ready for external comment. The document will be ready for release for external review on August 17, 1998. The current plan calls for a significant number of reviewers to be selected by the District Chiefs, Office Chiefs, and Senior Staff. We would like to ask you to deliver the document to a few external reviewers during a face-to-face meeting, and others will receive the document behind a cover letter from you. In all cases, the review copies would also carry a cover letter from the Chief Hydrologist. A draft of that letter is attached to this memorandum. To give you a sense of numbers, it is anticipated that on average a District Chief will have two face-to-face meetings with particularly important external entities to deliver the document. It is imagined that the typical District might mail as many as five documents for review. We are asking you to make sure that your review requests include the Water Institute Directors and State Geologists. To assist you in selecting reviewers Table 1 was prepared by the team and is attached to this memo. Table 1 lists the organizational level within WRD that is best thought to interact with the organizational level shown for various outside entities. The criteria for your selecting the individuals who will participate in the external review are: individuals whose opinion you think would be important and influential to WRD, individuals you think would expend the time and effort to offer comments, individuals important to you in the conduct of your business, and individuals who would appreciate the opportunity to comment. Individuals could be users of our technology or peers of various types. At this point, you need not be concerned about whether the complete set of reviewers will meet our requirements in terms of providing the necessary coverages. The Strategic Directions Team will evaluate the set of reviewers provided by the District Chiefs, and if the team feels the need for selected additions to give us the necessary coverages it will contact individuals to make that happen. In order for the Strategic Directions Team to conduct such an analysis, we need you to provide the names of your external reviewers by COB August 6. Please provide me, by email (lwade), the following information concerning each of the reviewers you designate: the name of the reviewer, the mailing address of the reviewer, the organizational affiliation of the reviewer, and the nature of the relationship between the reviewer and WRD (state whether the organization is Federal, State, local, academic, private sector, or NGO and whether they currently provide us with funding). The attached cover letter that will accompany the Strategic Directions document contains information on timeframes, questions we have for reviewers, etc. It is the strong desire of the Strategic Directions Team to make the document better, based upon comments and reactions we receive from the outside world. Thank you for your assistance in making this happen. Should you have any questions, please contact Gail Mallard (703-648-5214), Lew Wade (703-648-5699), or Gail Wendt (703-648-5604). Attachments ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ATTACHMENT 2 TABLE 1 This matrix shows responsibility for various Water Resources Division levels for various outside organizations during external Strat Plan review. ORGANIZATION DISTRICT REGION HEADQUARTERS Environmental Protection -- EPA EPA Agency (EPA) Regions HQ Bureau of Reclamation -- BuRec BuRec (BuRec) Regions HQ National Weather -- NWS Regions/ NWS Service (NWS) encourage HQ contact with River Forecast Centers Corps of Engineers (COE) COE COE District HQ Bureau of Land State Office BLM Management (BLM) HQ Park Service -- HQ Federal Emergency -- FEMA FEMA Mgmt Agency (FEMA) Regions HQ Fish & Wildlife (F&W) -- F&W F&W Regions - HQ Optional Tribes As appropriate Some multi-tribe organizations Institute Directors Individual National Directors Contact State Geologists Individual National State Geologists Contact ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ATTACHMENT 3 To: External Reviewers of the U.S. Geological Survey Strategic Directions Document Enclosed for your review and comment is the document "Strategic Directions for the Water Resources Division, 1998-2008," prepared by the leadership of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Water Resources Division (WRD). The reasons and benefits for such a document are listed in the foreword. This is a work in progress. It began with the leadership of the WRD preparing a document on their thoughts on strategic directions for the WRD. We then widely distributed the document for review and comment within the USGS. Based upon these internal review comments, the document has been modified and is now ready for external review. By this letter, we are asking for your review and comments. We would be particularly interested in your thoughts on the following: 1. Is the direction that WRD is taking into the future clearly stated? 2. If it is clear, do you agree with the direction? If not, why not? Any other comments you have would be greatly appreciated. We would hope to receive your comments within 60 days of the date of this letter. It is our intent to have the modified document made available 120 days from the date of this letter. Please mail your comments to: Robert M. Hirsch, U.S. Geological Survey, 409 National Center, Reston, VA 20192, or e-mail at: hirsch_strategic@usgs.gov. Thank you in advance for your time and effort in reviewing and commenting on this document. Your views are important to us as we plan the future of the water programs of the USGS. Sincerely yours, Enclosure