Quick recap. Sometime over the winter holidays of 2013, the Forest Service took down its handy/dandy employee search directory, making it available only to Forest Service employees, not the general public. Its removal went unexplained and unacknowledged until this blog pointed out its absence.
Ten days later, the “old” directory has not been restored, nor has it been replaced. So my New Year’s resolution is to memorialize the directory’s absence on a weekly basis with as much sarcasm and cynicism as I can muster each Monday morning.
Is this childish of me? Indeed, yes. Is it constructive? Not likely. Will it cause the Forest Service bureaucracy to sit up, take notice and better serve the public? I doubt it. So why bother? Because I’ve run out of any good ideas for making the Forest Service anything but the worst place to work in government.
A national office source told me last week that the directory is temporarily down while a replacement is being developed. No word yet on an estimated completion date. I’ll ask again….
Why doesn’t the Forest Service restore its “old” directory until the new one is available?
Would Amazon.com disable its website while working on a new, improved version? Would anyone?
Andy- which of the public affairs folks have gotten back to you, and what were their responses, if so?
Sharon: On 1/3/13, a Region 6 public affairs gal and I talked and corresponded. Her last email message ended with “I hope we’re able to find an answer for you soon.” I’ve heard nothing from anyone since.
That reminds me of one of my favorite Region 2 adages, to wit, “Hope is not a strategy.”
Wonderful R-2 adage! Never heard it before (a child of R-8).
I hear they’re now calling it “TidwellCare”
the employee search engine is up and running: http://www.fs.fed.us/contactus/employee_search.shtml
New and improved modestly with a “search-by-office” feature added. Would be nice to search by job position, too, i.e., find out who the wildlife biologists are on the xyz national forest.
Today I sent the following note into the FS ether:
Web folks,
Thanks for restoring the employee directory to your website.
Here’s a thought for your suggestion box.
Add a “Title” field to the search form.
That way, if someone wants to contact a “fisheries biologist” on the XYZ national forest, the form will return appropriate employee matches.
Constructively yours,
Andy
Great suggestion, Andy. I’d also like to be able to search by forest or even district, instead of region.