The time of year has arrived during which inclement weather is more likely to impact your ability to operate normally. The following information outlines the sources of communications that you may rely upon to assist you in related preparations.
The Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) will notify HR leaders by email and coordinate updates through additional communication sources as follows:
- DOAS help desk (404-656-2705)
- 1-800-Georgia help desk
- www.doas.ga.gov and www.team.georgia.gov websites
- DOAS’ Facebook and Twitter
- ABC-WSB-TV Channel 2-Metro Atlanta only
- WSB Radio 95.5 FM and 750 AM-Metro Atlanta
- Peach State Radio—Outside Metro Atlanta
Agencies subject to State Personnel Board rules will find procedures for managing absences and compensation on the DOAS website.
Please coordinate with your internal business units to establish or update the list of employees or work groups that you deem essential to operations during inclement weather or other emergency situations.
Take a minute to review the state’s Inclement Weather Policy, including where to find out about state office closures. You might also want to review the State’s recent advisory on absences due to emergency closures.
You can also prepare for severe weather with planning and safety tips from http://www.ready.ga.gov/.
Approximately 50 communications and leadership personnel representing nearly 40 state agencies gathered at the Georgia Department of Administrative Service’s office in Atlanta on Nov. 7, 2013 to discuss how state government communicators are leveraging innovative digital media to support their agency’s strategic priorities. The topics varied, but all focused on tapping digital media to make state government more responsive and approachable.
Cross-agency coordination like this is imperative for much of the work communicators do. This is especially true for digital initiatives, where cooperation between agencies’ respective social media presences allows communicators to amplify messages, grow audiences, and ultimately better communicate with customers.
“What I hope was obvious to the event attendees, is that our peers throughout state government are doing smart, edgy and innovative things with digital media,” said Seth Stuck, Manager of Online Communications for the Georgia Department of Administrative Services and the organizer of the event. “There’s value in seeing and hearing what other state agencies are doing really well, and then considering how their ‘lessons learned’ might apply to our own agencies.”
Below are the presentations from Georgia’s second #TeamGaSocial Summit:
• Optimizing Email: Leveraging targeted, measured email to ensure key audiences are receiving, seeing, opening, and acting on important calls to action
• Ready Georgia Mobile App: How to build and market a mobile app around a strategic need
• Geotagging: How geo-specific apps and social platforms like Foursquare can support strategic initiatives
• Interactive Multimedia Campaigns (Presentation not available): Launching a social media campaign driven by customer-submitted content
• Adaptive Web Design for Responsive Government: Designing websites for mobile users to make state government more accessible
If you “do social media” for your state agency, we invite you to join our Facebook group by requesting access here.
Governor Nathan Deal recently announced the appointments of Gretchen Corbin, Braxton Cotton, Jacqueline Bunn, Blake Ashbee, Clyde Reese and Keith Horton to state agency and department leadership positions.
Deal appointed Gretchen Corbin as commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, effective August 1, 2013. In her new role, Corbin will lead statewide development programs that help the state’s local communities realize their growth. Prior to this appointment, she served as deputy commissioner for global commerce and director of international operations at the Department of Economic Development.
Deal named Braxton Cotton as the executive director of the newly created Governor’s Office of Transition, Support and Re-entry. In this role, Cotton will lead key legislative criminal justice reform initiatives to reduce the recidivism rate of offenders and the financial burden currently placed on the state. Prior to this appointment, Cotton served as executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, in the Georgia State Patrol and as a deputy sheriff and detective in the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department.
Jacqueline Bunn succeeds Cotton as executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, where she will lead statewide efforts to find solutions and build consensus on issues impacting the criminal justice system. Bunn most recently served as the deputy director of legal services for the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
Deal appointed Blake Ashbee as the executive director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development, where Ashbee previously served as general counsel. As executive director, Ashbee will oversee workforce investment activities and the state’s “Go Build Georgia” skilled trade initiative. Prior to his tenure at Workforce Development, Ashbee served as Governor Deal’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer.
Clyde Reese moves into the position of Commissioner of the Department of Community Health, where he will oversee the state Medicaid Program, State Health Benefit Plan, health information technology and healthcare facility regulation. Upon DCH Board approval, Reese will return to DCH – where he previously served in the same capacity as agency head in 2010. Reese has also served as the commissioner of the Department of Human Services since January 2011.
Keith Horton succeeds Reese as commissioner of the Department of Human Services, where he will oversee the provision of aging, child welfare and child support, and public assistance programs and services throughout Georgia. Prior to this appointment, Horton served as deputy director of the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency and held several former leadership positions at DHS. Horton is a retired Lieutenant Colonel after serving 20 years in the U.S. Army.
