SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Every year, thousands of dollars are wasted on travel for airfare, per diem, hotels, taxi fare, etc. for meetings, or training, consultation etc. The majority of the junkets are to resort areas. In this recession, we can not afford to send upper management officials to vacations under the guise of "training". Send the book or DVD. Do a free teleconference on Skype. If you need a vacation, use your own funds and leave,... more »

Eliminate the need of multitude subject/case and file/folders codes, pertaining to the same project or contractor. Instead create one file for projects, contractors, etc, under one subject classification codes, consisting of all records related to project. This would cut spending cost on folders, shipping, and storage space at records centers.

“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. “ Thomas Edison


Every agency and department in the federal government are well familiar with forms. We use them for Annual Leave, Sick Leave, CompTime, OverTime,... more »

Personal Printers are, quite possibly, the single biggest waste of government resources.

It costs $9.44 annually to power one small desktop printer used at a minimal rates. *

In my office alone I count over 100 personal printers, and this is in addition to the two dozen or so massive laser printers (which, themselves cost around $100 apiece annually)

By eliminating all of the personal printers in just this office... more »

Fluorescent lights are relatively economical but what they save per bulb is lost by volume and duration.

The electricity used to power 1 Bulb costs approximately 15$ per year**

In one small part of my office (that houses approximately thirty employees), I count 36 light fixtures. That’s 72 lights --- or an electrical cost of $1,152 annually.

That’s $38.40 per employee annually, JUST for the electricity that powers... more »

All employees should have a preset limit of pages they can print per week. This should be electronically monitored and enforced.

For example, an employee is permitted 100 pages per week. After printing 2 pages, they are prompted that they only have 98 and so on. When they reach 0, they can no longer print. The number resets the following week.

Many universities already use this system to cut back on printing costs.... more »

Staff should receive promotions in-house whenever possible. This would elimate the several thousand dollars spent on moving a promoted person to their next assignment. In-house promotions are common place in many state agencies and have negligible negative impact on their upward advancement. House hunting trips, moving costs, lodging and additional funds needed to move a person across the country are saved. It is... more »

Maxiflex: Under this schedule, an employee is allowed to vary the number of hours worked on any work day and the number of hours in each work week to complete their basic work requirement. Employees may vary their arrival/departure times within the given flexible hours on a daily basis, and may work up to 10 hours without prior supervisory approval. With prior supervisory approval, an employee may work 11½ hours in any... more »

Saving a scanned file in a smaller format uses less space on the database, and in turn decreases the needed amount of database storage and network bandwidth.

Scanned files are automatically saved in a large size. (roughly 1.5 Megs) Furthermore, when the file is opened it has to be "unzoomed" to order to read over it. This is a waste of time and a waste of database and network bandwidth.

If it is mandated that files... more »

Every newspaper in the world uses microfilm as its primary backup --- and you can go to any newspaper and request a copy of a printing from 100 years ago.

The biggest concern about Databases is that they can crash. However, paper takes up huge store rooms, time and resources to create, and as far as organization is hard to keep track of (without an electronic database that is). Even if an agency possesses a hardcopy... more »

Eliminate Private Bathrooms for SES Staff. I don't see the need for special/private bathrooms unless the SES manager has a disability that requires him/her to have special facilities.

For agencies requiring 5 day coverage and who are working 5/8 hr shifts. Split the crew into two crews. Change the shift to a 4/10 hr shift. One crew will work M-Th, the other crew work T-FR. This will increase coverage to 10 hrs a day, for 5 days a week without increasing labor cost. It will reduce fuel consumption and green house gas emissions for crews that travel to remote sites driving government vehicles by... more »

Currently, every armed service and organization within the government hosts their own email services to thier employees. I propose a single enterprise email account system for government employees and it should be web-based for accessibility anywhere in the world.

This would significantly reduce cost by eliminating individual email servers maintained in all services, agencies, and other organizations.

Intelink offers... more »

Turn off all electrical devices at the work stations (office) at the end of your duty schedule. Computers, printers, and lights. Unplug all chargers from outlets, radios, personal heaters, fans, and any other electrical items not government issued used. Even when these items are turned off they still use electricity.

The Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) was created to analyze, track, research, and reduce the effectivness of improved explosive devices (IED) to our soldiers in the field. This entire organization and it's sub-organizations are redundant to the existing intiatives that exist in agencies such as NGA, NSA, DIA, and the armed services which is often proven provide more IED analysis than JIEDDO itself. Let the armed... more »