MIDAS Newsletter

See this for the summer newsletter.  It contains a link over to the Ask Midas page.  There are four questions there: 3 date from last summer, but the last dates from May 2011. The newsletter doesn't tell me much, except that the MIDAS effort is doing a lot of outreach, including a "Change Agent Network".   As an old geezer, I  say: bah, humbug, another bit of consultant jargon.  But I suppose it's worthwhile.

The May answer to what is MIDAS includes this:

"it’s NOT the only FSA modernization initiative. MIDAS is one of 4 modernization initiatives which include BPMS, EDW, and FSA-FMMI; and several on-going projects geared towards modernizing the delivery of FSA programs and services."

The old rule in the Directives Branch was: any new acronym you had to explain the first time. I think I know what FSA-FMMI is--financial management something something. BPMS might be "business process...something or other, but EDW?  MIDAS needs help on their materials, I think. (Rather than just griping, I did submit feedback on the point.)

As I've said before, I don't see how you can justify capital expenditures without cutting personnel, which will mean closing offices.  So I think they're being glib when they say MIDAS isn't about closing county offices. That's bad, you need credibility.