Goddard News - Top Feature

The Goddard News is published weekly by the Office of Public Affairs

Educational and Essential: IFMP Expo II

Next Thursday, January 16, Goddard will host the second annual IFM Expo II. This Center-wide event will offer employees the opportunity to learn more about NASA's new IFM system, who it affects, and what benefits it will deliver to users. System demonstrations, guest speakers and interactive question and answer sessions will provide stakeholders with valuable insight on NASA's future financial environment and how change will be managed throughout the implementation. Please mark your calendars to attend this educational forum!

The Expo II, promises to be a valuable educational experience essential to all employees who want to understand how IFMP will affect them in their daily work. The goal of the Expo II is to ensure that every employee has the opportunity to learn about IFMP and to contribute to the success of our new business system.

The expo will take place in the Building 1 Training Facility. In this three-room trade show, activities will consist of software demonstrations, an open forum for chatting with IFMP subject matter experts and project team members, and a work/playshop by Donna Strickland, an organizational consultant and humorist, who brings current medical knowledge to bear on managing change and stress through humor and laughter in the work environment.

The software demonstration room will feature representatives from the Resume Management (NASA STARS), Position Description Management, Travel Management, Core Financial, and Budget Formulation IFMP modules. Additionally, representatives from Technology Based Learning (Code 114) and IT Integration (Code 295) will also provide helpful information for our employees. The expo will also offer hands-on tutorials for implemented modules, demonstrations on the upcoming Core Financial module, screenshots from the upcoming Budget Formulation module, giveaways, and refreshments.

The panel discussion will be staffed with IFMP subject matter experts who are eager to dialogue with center employees interested in understanding more about what IFM changes will mean to Goddard. Answers to questions asked during each of the three open panel discussions will be used to enhance the IFM approach at Goddard and will be posted to the IFM web site.

The "playshop" by Donna Strickland will involve participants in discovering their own personal stress-response styles, how to read others' styles, and the importance of developing "humor intelligence." Understanding the body's natural stress defense system, as well as other techniques to deal effectively with transition periods related change, are important tools to manage challenges inevitable during large organizational initiatives.

The last IFMP Expo in May 2002 was well attended by over 600 people and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. With the upcoming implementations of the Core Financial and Budget Formulation modules in June and August, respectively, the IFM Program will affect an even wider range of employees as it continues to expand its scope to touch almost everyone at Goddard. The IFMP will offer a sign language interpreter for the expo. To learn more about the program and how it benefits you, visit the IFMP Goddard-specific website: http://ifmpinfo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ or contact Chris Koenemann at 61953 or koeneman@ifmp.nasa.gov