The National Academy of Public Administration

November 5, 2001 MEMORANDUM FOR SEE DISTRIBUTION SUBJECT:
Lessons Learned from September 11, 2001 Tragedy

In the aftermath of the September 11,2001, terrorist incident, I want to share with you three lessons learned on taking care of Department of the Army civilians. I also want to highlight actions that you can take to anticipate and minimize these consequences in the future. Our capability to promptly notify civilian employee emergency contacts was severely hampered by outdated or nonexistent data. Therefore, my office is developing a web-based emergency contact data bank to incorporate emergency notification information necessary to better serve our employees, their families and the Casualty Assistance Centers in the event of a crisis situation. All U.S. employees will be asked to complete their emergency contact information on-line, and review and update it at least annually.

Until the web-based system is developed, supervisors, if they have not done so already, need to ask their employees to provide emergency points of contact for use in case the employee is harmed or confronts some other crisis at work. The information requested should include the name of a primary emergency contact, an alternate, their relationship to the employee, their address, and home, work, cell or other alternate phone numbers. This is personal information and must be safeguarded consistent with the Privacy Act and Army regulations. As a practical tip for employees, if the primary emergency contact listed is not an immediate relative, it is important for employees to inform emergency contacts in advance about how to locate next of kin and/or dependents.

Employee accountability is paramount. Accounting for all employees throughout Army took too long. Managers and supervisors must be able to verify the whereabouts of their employees, keep them informed in the event of an emergency, and recall employees to work as appropriate.

Local procedures must be put in place to ensure that employees know how to reach their supervisors, someone else in their chain of command, or their operations center, and that they do so promptly in the event of an emergency. Supervisors must maintain a roster of their employees to include home phone numbers or other effective means of contacting employees. Personal information must be protected and not shared with others without a need to know unless each employee on the list requests or consents to such distribution. Employees can be required to provide this information so long as it's collected for official use. It is critical that employees keep Designation of Beneficiary forms current when their personal circumstances change. Managers should stress to all their civilian employees the importance of keeping their Designation of Beneficiary forms up to date. All beneficiary forms for retirement (CSRS & FERS lump sum payments), life insurance, and unpaid compensation can be accessed electronically at the Office of Personnel Management's website at http://www.opm.gov/forms, and at http://www.tsp.gov for Thrift Savings. Each form includes detailed instructions for its completion.

Beneficiary forms must be signed, dated and witnessed by two individuals who are not designated beneficiaries. As a reminder, if an employee does not have a Designation of Beneficiary on file, payment will be made in accordance with the legal "Order of Precedence." The applicable Order of Precedence is listed on each Designation of Beneficiary form. A list of the Designation of Beneficiary forms and the methods for processing them are as follows:

Form #	Name of Form	Dissemination of Forms
SF 2808	CSRS-Designation of Beneficiary	Send original and copy to the Office of Personnel Management. Copy will be returned to employee after certification
SF 3102	FERS-Designation of Beneficiary	Send original and copy to servicing CPOC. Copy will be returned to employee after certification
SF 2823	Designation of Beneficiary - Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance Program	Send original and copy to servicing CPOC. Copy will be returned to employee after certification
SF 1152	Designation of Beneficiary - Unpaid Compensation of Deceased Civilian Employee	Send original and copy to CPOC. Copy will be returned to the employee after certification
TSP-3	TSP - Designation of Beneficiary	Employees should make a copy for their own records and send the original to the Thrift Savings Plan Service Office

NAF employees should contact their servicing NAF personnel office to ensure all beneficiary forms for retirement, 401(k) savings plan, life insurance and unpaid compensation are completed and witnessed as appropriate. It is imperative that leadership at all levels within your organization act upon this information. Should any new crisis occur, we will have the capability to quickly account for all our employees' whereabouts and pass on instructions, reach their designated emergency contact and, if necessary, process their civilian benefits according to their current wishes. Your efforts now will greatly assist the Department of the Army in accomplishing these goals.

Where any changes impact on bargaining unit members' conditions of employment, you are reminded to meet all statutory and contractual labor obligations in their implementation.