A day as a TBL Intern

Corrina Sutter - Student Trainee (Tribal Liaison) Washington State University Typical Day Location: Ross Complex and Headquarters Wednesday, April 9, 2003 First of all, I would like to mention that every day is anything but typical. Each day is exciting and unique here at the Transmission Business Line (TBL)! 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.: Staff Meeting. The Vice President of Political Strategy & Public Affairs conducts this meeting. The VP usually first briefs the staff on what is going on in and talks about the political implications to our business line. During this time, the staff talks in a round table format sharing updates about projects and other concerns they may have. 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Diversity/Harassment Presentation. Our entire staff received a special presentation regarding the BPA diversity and harassment policy. The presenters were from the corporate office in Portland. The mini-training was very good and I feel that I am more aware of the policy and its importance. 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Tribal Matrix Update This meeting is a weekly meeting that we just started holding. Attendees include the Tribal AE, executive office secretary, and myself. We have an assignment from the VP to record and track all Tribal issues for TBL. This meeting has been scheduled so that we can touch base and make sure that each of us is aware of the issues and are tracking the follow-up items from internal and external meetings. 11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.: Training Coordination Conference Call I made a phone call to the corporate Tribal Training person and also to the Cultural Resources Program Manger at one of the tribes in our service territory. We met together last summer and thought it would be a good idea to have a Tribal/BPA joint training. The purpose of the conference call was to start finalizing our agenda and presenters. The training should occur in summer 2003. 11:30 p.m. - 12:00 p.m.: Training Coordination Conference Call follow-up activities During the conference call I was asked to write a letter to the Cultural Resource Program Manager from an area tribe to extend an invitation to present at the joint training. I had the letter reviewed by our corporate Tribal Training Lead and also the TBL Tribal Account Executive before I sent it out. 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.: Prepare for the Tribal Infrastructure Meeting I am responsible for sending out the agendas for these bi-weekly meetings as well as recording and tracking the follow-up items. I met with the Tribal Account Executive to finalize the agenda. We also talked about the follow-up items that we had from the previous meeting and made sure that we had our assignments done before the meeting today. 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.: Travel to Headquarters in Portland, Oregon. 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.: Tribal Infrastructure Meeting This meeting includes the Political Strategy/Public Affairs VP, Environmental Project Leads, National Environment Protection Act manager, Power Business Line (PBL) Tribal Account Executive, TBL Tribal Account Executive, and myself. During this meeting we receive updates about each of the TBL infrastructure projects. In addition, we form strategies how we want to address issues and discussed desired outcomes. 2:00 p.m. - 2:55 p.m.: Make rounds to different workgroups Usually when I travel to Headquarters I like to go around to the different workgroups that I coordinate with to get updates on projects and touch base with them. 3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.: Phone Call to TBL Education Coordinator I am also working with the TBL Education Coordinator. I have been assigned to this project to scope out the possibility of a summer program for students. We talked about the pros and cons of a new program, and also our target group. In addition we talked about making sure that the program would fit the TBL needs and would be in harmony with larger agency goals. 3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.: Phone Call and Follow-up I received an unexpected call from a TBL Realty Specialist. The realty specialist requested documents from a meeting held earlier in the week. I had not sent out the final version since I was still awaiting input from several Realty Specialists. I explained the situation and agreed to send a draft. 4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.: Email I can receive anywhere from 20 to 30 emails a day! I usually try and go through my emails in the morning and before I go home each day. Today was a staff meeting, which was followed by more meetings! As a result, I was unable to go through my emails. Many of the emails are FYI issues that I need to track the progress of and input into the matrix. Other emails are requests from contacts within the agency. BPA employees communicate by email more than any other medium. It is very important that we keep up with our emails and be prompt in our responses. While checking my email, I keep an ongoing "to do" list. This list is very long! 4:30 - 5:00: TBL Website I was asked by a co-worker to provide content to the new student website ASAP. I was not able to finish my email checking due to this unexpected request. I am also working on a new Tribal web page for the TBL website.