Looking ahead as we enter the 21^st century, VA recognizes more clearly than ever that high quality, seamless service to the Nation’s veterans is dependent upon VA operating as a unified organization. It is equally clear that this vision of One VA depends on dedicated VA employees across the Department, committed to working in a cooperative manner with veterans service organizations (VSOs), State Departments of Veterans Affairs, Congress, General Accounting Office and Office of Management and Budget. To accelerate the emergence of a true One VA culture, four major regional conferences were held in 1999 and attended by over 2,000 internal and external stakeholders.

These events, aimed at long-term transformation, took place in Phoenix, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. The theme was and continues to be One VA - One Mission, One Vision, One Voice. The purpose was to link learning opportunities with the Department’s strategic direction and improve interaction and communication at the local, regional, and national levels. Participants included senior VA leadership, middle managers, first-line employees, union officials, and other veteran and government stakeholders as identified above. Each of these participants was selected as an ambassador to educate others on the compelling need for becoming more veteran-focused in providing world class customer service.

In each of the conferences, every participant was asked to take on the role of an investigative reporter. Working as a team, they discovered and reported on the Department’s progress already being made toward becoming One VA. They accomplished this through fact-finding assignments, such as conducting veteran and employee interviews prior to the beginning of the conferences and at the conferences through videos that provided insight into the voice of the veteran; mock news events with the Under Secretaries of Health, Benefits, and Memorial Affairs; and exhibits displaying successful One VA stories at local facilities. Participants also were involved in field reporting when speakers from other public and private organizations shared their inspirational stories on coping with problems similar to those experienced by VA.

The conferences resulted in three significant outcomes:

• Increased awareness and understanding of the overarching vision, mission, goals and values of the Department and the objectives of the three Administrations;
• Identification and prioritization of national One VA initiatives; and
• Formulation of state and local partnerships across Administrations.

These partnerships culminated in local and state action plans for providing seamless service to veterans and their families. Most of the 50 states, two territories, and Central Office have created One VA Councils to oversee collaborative initiatives and improve communication within their geographic areas. In addition, local and state news articles were written summarizing actions for implementing One VA. These articles are being published in field facility and VSO newsletters, the national publication of VAnguard, and a soon to be operational One VA web site to further communicate conference results and opportunities for others to participate in One VA initiatives.

The national One VA initiatives were voted on by participants and received commitment by VA senior leadership. For example, VA will:

• Develop and implement a plan that will result in an integrated information system architecture necessary to support front-line employee access to needed information across VA and an accurate, consistent, reliable integrated information system covering all veterans.
• Develop a One VA orientation package that will be made available to all new VA employees as well as current employees as a refresher course.
• Develop a One VA Learning Map focused on enhancing veterans’ knowledge about their own potential entitlement to the benefits and services provided by VA, and make it available to VA field facilities, national and local VSOs, State Departments of Veterans Affairs, military discharge centers, and others as required.
• Develop an information guide that will aid VA employees in helping veterans reach the right source for information they are seeking. The guide will be available over VA’s Intranet and will be able to provide printed directions for veterans to the nearest VA facilities that provide the services required as well as a named point-of-contact for the services.

The campaign to institutionalize One VA continues. A national One VA Board, chaired by the Deputy Secretary, is being created to work with local and state levels to identify, review, communicate, and support best practices. To further indoctrinate One VA, a rating element to implement seamless service will be incorporated into the Annual Performance Plans of all VA network directors, area office and facility directors, and Central Office senior leadership. This campaign is a celebration of VA’s history and an exploration of future opportunities with veterans and advocates for veterans.