PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL ON YEAR 2000 CONVERSION
Public Meeting Minutes
June 11, 1998
John Koskinen, Assistant to the President and President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion (Council) Chair,
opened the meeting at 1:30 p.m. in the Truman Room of the White House Conference Center, 726 Jackson Place,
Washington, DC.
The Chair observed that the Year 2000 challenge is receiving wider media attention, which is very positive. It is
hoped that additional follow-up reports on government progress areas will be included.
The Chair provided an update on Congressional activities related to the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem, noting pending
legislation. He said that the Justice Department's Antitrust Division will likely respond soon to a request by the
securities industry about information sharing related to Y2K. In addition, telecommunications industry representatives
are working together to develop an agreement about how to share information. The National Governors Association
(NGA) will convene a meeting of State Y2K Coordinators in late-July and has invited the Council to make a
presentation.
The Chair announced that new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements have been developed to
help Tier One and Tier Two agencies focus on implementing their Y2K plans and meeting established milestones.
Agencies will be required to provide monthly benchmarks and plans for meeting them to OMB. In addition, OMB is
providing clarification and guidance about how to write agency contingency plans.
The Chair led a discussion about how software and hardware availability could impact agency Y2K testing
schedules. He also noted the importance of assessing the burden of new regulatory and legislative requirements on
agencies that are striving to meet Y2K conversion deadlines. Meeting attendees shared information about their
independent verification and validation (IV&V) experiences, to date.
The Chair provided an overview of plans to implement a unified, national Y2K campaign. A roll-out event will be
held later this summer. Council members discussed the need to develop additional materials describing the Council
and its Y2K activities. It was noted that GSA is developing a Y2K brochure and information about the Council is
available on the Web at y2k.gov. The Council's Web site will be promoted at the roll-out event.
Sector Action Plans are due by June 18, 1998. The Chair emphasized the importance of these plans, noting that they
will serve as the basis for coordination and the framework for defining, sector by sector, the Council's industry
activities.
A discussion followed about the recent activities of the Council's Working Groups. The Energy Working Group has
been divided into Electric Power and Oil & Gas. The following umbrella organizations have been identified: the North
American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) for electric power, the American Petroleum Institute (API) for oil, the
Natural Gas Council (NGC) for gas, and the Gas Industry Standards Board (GISB) for energy accounting and
financial applications. Several Working Groups have initiated information collection efforts. Plans include using public
and private forums to facilitate the exchange of information among key industry players. The Emergency Management
Working Group has met and agreed to conduct periodic assessments to evaluate the need for Y2K response
planning. The Workforce Issues Working Group has initiated efforts to help those seeking Y2K assistance by
promoting use of the Internet for posting and searching of positions and resumes.
y2k.gov |
