Nerves and News

By Amy Morris

We did it! The first Daily Debrief is under our belt and Producer Patrick (Spence) and I, along with the rest of the WFED News team, couldn’t be happier.
Now, if we can keep this up for another 15 years or so, we just might have something!

We learned a lot in two hours. Our first guest was Tom Mills. He’s the Assistant Archivist in charge of Regional Archives for the National Archives.
You might recall last week a former intern at the Archives pleaded guilty to swiping some valuable documents, then trying to sell them on eBay.
Tom Mills was able to talk with us about security at the National Archives. He even pointed us in the right direction for more information, which you can find here.
Mr. Mills tells us that their own security procedures have already gone through an internal review, and we hope to talk with him more about that in coming weeks.

We also talked with Patricia Gallagher, the Executive Director of the National Capital Planning Commission. Did you know that 25 million people visit the National Mall each year? Now, architects, city planners, developers and many other experts are working on how the nation’s capitol is going to look five, ten, even fifteen years from now. They’d like to expand some of the attractions beyond the National Mall, especially because tourism is expected to increase. They’d also like to provide security that’s attractive, efficient and affordable.
Their plans and timeline can be found here: http://www.ncpc.gov/planning.html
Ms. Gallagher tells FederalNewsRadio that they’re hoping to have those plans finalized shortly and will be able to give us an update this summer. We’ll keep you in the loop!

One of the things we do here on FederalNewsRadio is make sure you know about all our other programs throughout the day. We talked with one of the newest members of our news team, Jeff Seldin, about his role as the “Ask The…” host. You’ve heard of those “Ask The” shows, right? “Ask the CIO,” “Ask the CISO,” “Ask the CAO,” and Agency of the Month. Jeff coordinates the guests, lands the interviews and finds out what issues are most likely to impact you, whether you’re with DoD, the IRS, or any other agency. He’s covering them all, and gave us a sneak preview. Here’s a hint: The Agency of the Month for April is the Department of Defense. You can find all the programs by going to our home page and looking along the left-hand column. All the archived audio is there, too!

One of the jewels in the FederalNewsRadio crown is The Federal Drive with Mike Causey and Jane Norris. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Mike and Jane are rock stars when it comes to federal news. You’ve probably heard their show and gone back to listen to their archived audio, too. Well, each day we hope to preview what’s happening on the next Federal Drive by talking with reporter Austin O’Neill. We send her out for news, she comes back with stories for the morning. Now she can give you a sneak preview of what might be impacting your day tomorrow. How’s that for a crystal ball?

On a personal note, I did notice something evolving within the show, even on this, our very first broadcast. The title of the program is “The Daily Debrief.” However, while on the air, I kept calling it “Your Daily Debrief.” Yanno why? Because it really is yours. I didn’t intend to do it, but it does seem to make sense. This show is about you, for you, and will hopefully grow with feedback from you. This is your Daily Debrief. And while I doubt our programming/production/sales/web folks are likely to officially change the name, I’ll probably keep calling it that. (That’ll be our little secret. Shhh.)

I also managed to lose what was left of my Southern accent when that little red “on air” light came on. Somewhere out there perhaps someone can explain that to me.

Our first day was nerve-racking, but tons of fun, and I anticipate Thursday will be just as exciting. I hope you’ll joins us as we talk with Steve O’Keefe of the Telework Exchange, Peter Aiken about Data Management Practices, and we hope to learn a little something about federal procurement at the Pentagon.

All that and more coming up on your Daily Debrief!

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