Attendees of the GovTravels Symposium gained new perspective from a panel of government and military leaders who provided a focused look at the impacts of the CO-VID-19 pandemic on government passenger travel programs. Moderated by Philip Benjamin, Deputy Director, DTMO, panel members included William Mansell, Jr., SES, Director, DTMO; Tim Burke, SES, Executive Director, Office of Travel, Employee Relocation and Transportation, Federal Acquisition Service, GSA and the Government-Wide Category Manager for Travel; and Rick Marsh, SES, Director, Defense Personal Property Program, USTRANSCOM. "The Joint Travel Regulation was not necessarily prepared, did not cover all of the particular requirements that arose during the global pandemic," said Mansell describing one way the pandemic affected military travelers. Despite the challenges faced, he noted that the mission continued to be accomplished. He attributed this to the resiliency of DTMO, as well as the resiliency of its industry partners. Burke shared that like DTMO, the programs, procurements and solutions of GSA continued to work through the pandemic, even as the agency experienced challenges and a major decrease in transactions. He credited this durability with the fact that these items were built-in both design and strategy-around commercial best practices. He added that the lessons learned from the pandemic would provide a foundation for handling future crises. For USTRANSCOM, COVID-19 highlighted the importance of communication, said Marsh. This included routine dialogue with DOD stakeholders which increased in frequency and depth during the pandemic. The pandemic also reframed personal property moves from a transactional to a people-centered mission.
展开▼
