USDANEWS VOLUME 55 NO. 6 - JULY 1996

This is the story of some thoughtless comments--which were followed by some thoughtful intervention by a USDA employee--which resulted in a win-win for a whole city.

Activities at the federal building in Lincoln, Neb. were temporarily disrupted on April 16 when someone left a package on a tree planter in front of the building. Thinking that it might be a bomb threat, an occupant of the building--which houses approximately 250 employees of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Rural Development mission area, as well as employees of the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Social Security Administration, and an Armed Forces Recruiting Center--called local police officials. The potential threat turned out to be a package containing two video movie cassettes from a local rental store.

In reporting that development, however, two disc jockeys for radio station KTGL-FM in Lincoln began to make light of the situation, with such comments as "I wonder if film critics Siskel and Ebert reviewed those movies" and additional bantering comments of a similar nature.

But to Pat McGrane, it was no laughing matter.

McGrane, an NRCS public affairs specialist based in that federal building, had heard those remarks while getting ready for work that morning. He knew that his federal colleagues were more than a little sensitive about such incidents--especially since the event occurred three days before the April 19 National Day of Remembrance which commemorated the deaths of 168 people in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on that date one year ago.

So he decided it would be a good time to put his governmental public affairs skills into practice. "I called the two radio personalities on the phone," he recounted, "and politely but firmly provided them with this added perspective about employee sensitivity, which they apparently hadn't considered."

"Humor is a great thing," he also told them, "but it might not have been appropriate in this particular situation."

McGrane noted that the disc jockeys responded positively to his comments, and apologized for their lapse in sensitivity. But they then went one step further and organized a "Federal Employee Appreciation Day," sponsored by the radio station, for April 19.

"They got special permission from local authorities in Lincoln to park their remote broadcast vehicle in front of our federal building, and broadcast live from that spot," McGrane explained.

Then, during the 'morning drive time' on that date, they read special announcements which reflected an appreciation of federal employees, handed out free bagels and coffee to those entering the federal building, mentioned local restaurants which were offering discounts to federal employees during that day, and read a proclamation from Lincoln Mayor Mike Johanns which recognized the value of federal employees in general and Lincoln's governmental employees in particular. Local television stations also covered the event as a news story.

McGrane said that, to his knowledge, none of these events had previously been planned, and the activities were all a spinoff of the radio station's responsiveness to his remarks.

"I was pleased to see the supportive spirit toward all us feds," McGrane affirmed. "What could have been left as yet another negative joke instead turned into a positive, community-wide, recognition event." ¤

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