|
Post by gary on Jun 28, 2016 23:51:49 GMT -5
If you test in DC, you will take the WD/LBMT on one day and have your SI the following day. The WD/LBMTs are administered Mon-Thur and the SIs occur Tues-Fri.
The following intel is from a very reliable source:
1. OPM has solicited SSA management for ALJs to be on panels for the SI.
2. OPM needs 8 ALJs a week for 23 weeks. This is the request being made of SSA--other agencies may have also received a like request but that is beyond the source's knowledge.
3. 8 ALJs is enough for 4 panels (2 ALJs + 1 OPM employee each).
4. Volunteers have been told they will be assigned a week between the beginning of September and the end of December.
|
|
|
Post by sophie22 on Jun 29, 2016 6:13:33 GMT -5
Sweet Intel!! Thank you so much Gary for sharing it with us!! Best of luck to you on the next cert, you certainly deserve it!!
|
|
|
Post by aljwishful on Jun 29, 2016 6:33:33 GMT -5
Traditionally, OPM also solicits the Administrative Law section of the ABA to have attorneys participate as panel members. OPM's goal is to have a panel of an OPM employee, an ALJ and a practicing attorney. Unfortunately I am no longer in the ABA but I did receive the solicitation last August and at that time they were looking to have attorney's participate indicating that the SI would be between October to January. So if they are looking to start in September, my guess is OPM is probably looking to get results out by early August.
|
|
|
Post by pubdef on Jun 29, 2016 6:36:51 GMT -5
That's really great intel. It makes me wonder what sort of notice OPM will be able to give people advancing. It also opens the door to speculation about a couple things: how many applied and how many they want on the register.
I was in the first group in 2013 and received about 2 months notice. I would suspect that they want to give at least a month notice to minimize people requesting alternate dates. Even with only a month notice they will have to turn this over in a month? I was guessing 6 weeks. A month would be incredibly quick.
|
|
|
Post by southernfun on Jun 29, 2016 6:38:51 GMT -5
If you test in DC, you will take the WD/LBMT on one day and have your SI the following day. The WD/LBMTs are administered Mon-Thur and the SIs occur Tues-Fri. The following intel is from a very reliable source: 1. OPM has solicited SSA management for ALJs to be on panels for the SI. 2. OPM needs 8 ALJs a week for 23 weeks. This is the request being made of SSA--other agencies may have also received a like request but that is beyond the source's knowledge. 3. 8 ALJs is enough for 4 panels (2 ALJs + 1 OPM employee each). 4. Volunteers have been told they will be assigned a week between the beginning of September and the end of December. Outstanding intel, thank you!
For us vets testing in DC in the middle of July, this timeline puts us about 7 weeks ahead of the 1st of the large cohort.
Question for the knowledge holders...
1st of September until end of December is a long time gap. Do people who test in September get a NOR and become eligible to be placed on a cert before the people who test in December? OR is it, once the entire group is completed testing, THEN that whole group gets a NOR and eligibility to be on a CERT?
If it is the latter, than the 10 pt vets are 5 months ahead of the large group, which is significant for being on any cert that is put together in the first half of 2017.
|
|
|
Post by gary on Jun 29, 2016 6:47:00 GMT -5
OPM will send out NORs for the whole group at about the same time, i.e.,within a day or two if not hours. For example, in 2013 I tested right after Labor Day and received my NOR at the same time as those who tested in December.
BTW, while the intel is that volunteers are being told they will be assigned a week between the beginning of September and end of December, it is also that OPM will be needing the ALJs for 23 weeks. That would suggest testing into at least February.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2016 6:53:47 GMT -5
How long did testing go the last time? I believe it started in early August (I was in the second or third week of testing).
|
|
|
Post by pubdef on Jun 29, 2016 7:05:28 GMT -5
while the intel is that volunteers are being told they will be assigned a week between the beginning of September and end of December, it is also that OPM will be needing the ALJs for 23 weeks. That would suggest testing into at least February. I'm not a mathematician, but it seemed to be there were 35-40 people testing 4 days a week in 2013. So is that suggesting around 3500 people going on to DC? I can't remember the number in 2013 but this seems higher.
|
|
|
Post by gary on Jun 29, 2016 7:09:24 GMT -5
In 2013 I believe the DC testing started in August and ended early to mid-December. This is potentially a much larger DC testing cohort.
|
|
|
Post by hopefalj on Jun 29, 2016 7:19:13 GMT -5
In 2013 I believe the DC testing started in August and ended early to mid-December. This is potentially a much larger DC testing cohort. I think the December group was made up of stragglers that couldn't do August through the second week of October. I don't think anyone went to DC in November. I also remember OPM having a goal of one ALJ, one attorney, and one OPM employee on each panel. Not sure any of us got that permutation. If all of this is accurate, it would imply that they are keeping the second step hurdle at the "lower" height and allowing far more people the chance to get to DC. I wonder if they're doing smaller groups to allow more efficiency in scoring everything.
|
|
|
Post by bayou on Jun 29, 2016 7:22:02 GMT -5
Is it fair speculation that OPM is trying to move more people along, with the intent to create a bigger register in order to support SSA's plans to increase the hiring numbers over the next few years?
|
|
|
Post by christina on Jun 29, 2016 7:23:03 GMT -5
In 2013 I believe the DC testing started in August and ended early to mid-December. This is potentially a much larger DC testing cohort. I think the December group was made up of stragglers that couldn't do August through the second week of October. I don't think anyone went to DC in November. I also remember OPM having a goal of one ALJ, one attorney, and one OPM employee on each panel. Not sure any of us got that permutation. If all of this is accurate, it would imply that they are keeping the second step hurdle at the "lower" height and allowing far more people the chance to get to DC. I wonder if they're doing smaller groups to allow more efficiency in scoring everything. not following last paragraph? smaller groups would mean less people getting to DC???
|
|
|
Post by Ready-Now! on Jun 29, 2016 7:45:10 GMT -5
OPM may also be factoring in a "just in case" time-frame for lower scoring sub-group. Just a WAG but if so it would be significantly earlier than previously. One just never knows what OPM may be thinking or scheming. Again just a pure WAG.
|
|
|
Post by southernfun on Jun 29, 2016 7:45:51 GMT -5
OPM will send out NORs for the whole group at about the same time, i.e.,within a day or two if not hours. For example, in 2013 I tested right after Labor Day and received my NOR at the same time as those who tested in December. That is huge, wonderful news for 10 point vets testing this Summer. I need to go post this in that thread.
Assume it is 6 months from the group ends testing until receiving a NOR (there is hope the small vet group won't take this long, but being conservative)...
What this means is that 10 point vets testing in DC in July (on a separate track than the large group) could expect a NOR by December. The "1000+ large-group of testers" may not get a NOR until the late Summer of 2017. MEANING, there could be a lot of new 10 pt vets appearing in the top 3 of cities the first half of 2017, competing with the few remaining people (pre-refresh), and competing with ten glorious bonus points. Spring of '17 (assuming there are certs) could be remembered as the Spring of the Vets.
|
|
|
Post by southernfun on Jun 29, 2016 7:57:12 GMT -5
I think the December group was made up of stragglers that couldn't do August through the second week of October. I don't think anyone went to DC in November. I also remember OPM having a goal of one ALJ, one attorney, and one OPM employee on each panel. Not sure any of us got that permutation. If all of this is accurate, it would imply that they are keeping the second step hurdle at the "lower" height and allowing far more people the chance to get to DC. I wonder if they're doing smaller groups to allow more efficiency in scoring everything. not following last paragraph? smaller groups would mean less people getting to DC??? I took it to mean, each week of DC testing will have smaller numbers. So same total number, just more weeks, for smaller groups per week. Somehow that is supposed to be more efficient.
|
|
|
Post by Gaidin on Jun 29, 2016 8:10:42 GMT -5
OPM will send out NORs for the whole group at about the same time, i.e.,within a day or two if not hours. For example, in 2013 I tested right after Labor Day and received my NOR at the same time as those who tested in December. That is huge, wonderful news for 10 point vets testing this Summer. I need to go post this in that thread.
Assume it is 6 months from the group ends testing until receiving a NOR (there is hope the small vet group won't take this long, but being conservative)...
What this means is that 10 point vets testing in DC in July (on a separate track than the large group) could expect a NOR by December. The "1000+ large-group of testers" may not get a NOR until the late Summer of 2017. MEANING, there could be a lot of new 10 pt vets appearing in the top 3 of cities the first half of 2017, competing with the few remaining people (pre-refresh), and competing with ten glorious bonus points. Spring of '17 (assuming there are certs) could be remembered as the Spring of the Vets.
I think a "lot" may be overly enthusiastic in relative terms. I'm not saying there won't be a group that this applies to but I will be surprised if we're talking about more than a couple dozen. I just think the universe of 10pt vets who meet the requirements and who are not already on the register is not a huge universe.
|
|
|
Post by hopefalj on Jun 29, 2016 8:39:50 GMT -5
not following last paragraph? smaller groups would mean less people getting to DC??? I took it to mean, each week of DC testing will have smaller numbers. So same total number, just more weeks, for smaller groups per week. Somehow that is supposed to be more efficient. Yes, and I don't know that it would be necessarily be more efficient. It may allow for better grading, though, by allowing a steady stream of exams to grade rather than staring at a massive pile day after day. I believe the original schedule in 2013 was 9-11 weeks long. This is an enormous departure from that. The most likely explanation is that they're planning on cutting far fewer folks at this stage in the process and having a much larger group in DC this fall/winter.
|
|
|
Post by funkyodar on Jun 29, 2016 8:54:25 GMT -5
If these numbers are accurate, or even close, I think its a clear indication that OPM's response to SSA's complaint in the congressional hearing that the register just doesn't have enough names on it to meet SSA's hiring goals has been taken seriously. This suggests the response to that complaint is to expand the register drastically. I suppose that's good news for those wanting to get on the register.
But remember, all getting on the register gets you is a sense of accomplishment...not even a t-shirt.
The bigger issue is the single city cert process and if OPM continues to mandate that system then SSA's purported problem of "not getting enough names" on the certs to choose from is still going to be a problem. It doesn't matter id the register has 300 names or 3000. If all SSA ever sees is the same top 250 names, and they have deemed those 250 not desireable (not saying that have folks, so hold fire) then the ultimate size of the register doesn't matter.
|
|
|
Post by gary on Jun 29, 2016 9:28:21 GMT -5
Is it fair speculation that OPM is trying to move more people along, with the intent to create a bigger register in order to support SSA's plans to increase the hiring numbers over the next few years? I would say it's completely fair. Keep in mind the timing of this refresh was Congressionally mandated in legislation that gives SSA control over the timing of future register refreshes.
|
|
|
Post by gary on Jun 29, 2016 9:32:12 GMT -5
I think the December group was made up of stragglers that couldn't do August through the second week of October. I don't think anyone went to DC in November. I also remember OPM having a goal of one ALJ, one attorney, and one OPM employee on each panel. Not sure any of us got that permutation. If all of this is accurate, it would imply that they are keeping the second step hurdle at the "lower" height and allowing far more people the chance to get to DC. I wonder if they're doing smaller groups to allow more efficiency in scoring everything. not following last paragraph? smaller groups would mean less people getting to DC??? I took hope to be suggesting they will test less people per day, not less people getting to DC. I'm not sure I agree that they will be testing smaller sized groups.
|
|