by George Ray

This post was originally published on April 2, 2013 at 9:58 am at federalbenefitsadvocates.com

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at Ft. Meade In Maryland to employees of the Defense Media Activity (DMA) agency. They're the folks who provide 'a broad range of high quality multimedia products and services to inform, educate, and entertain Department of Defense audiences around the world' -- including Stars & Stripes magazine. They even make sure that American Idol and first run movies like Spielberg's 'Lincoln' get overseas to entertain our troops.

In addition to the regular employee benefits briefings we offer, I was asked to talk about the potential effects of Sequestration and furloughs on the agency and it workers. This is something that's on the mind of most Federal employees currently, but the Department of Defense is expected to see over $45 billion dollars cut from its budget this fiscal year. we developed a one-hour briefing that focuses on the effect of furloughs on employee benefits and pay.

Because this organization also has employees at locations in Pennsylvania and California, they set up the session to be broadcast live from one of their studios. I've done remote broadcasts before but it's usually just a webcam in a conference room. This was with TV cameras with teleprompters on them, professional lighting, countdown clocks, a director, a producer . . . and a studio audience. I must admit that it was a bit intimidating.

The session went smoothly, and I did take one question from a viewer at one of the other locations. Because the agency also has employees in Germany, South Korea, and Japan, the recording will be broadcast on a regular schedule over the next few weeks so that those employees overseas who could not view the session due to the time change (It was 4 am the next day in Japan.) will be able to watch it.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.