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Oct 4, 2001
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an online newsletter for and by NOAA employees
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As NOAA’s acting director of legislative affairs for six months, Marlene Kaplan helped develop a healthy rapport with Capitol Hill, enabling NOAA to achieve several key legislative goals. “Marlene is the consummate NOAA professional and I enthusiastically recommend her as Employee of the Month,” said Mary Beth Nethercutt, NOAA’s newly appointed head of legislative affairs. Mary Beth said she had “the privilege of working shoulder-to-shoulder with Marlene over the past several months. Marlene quietly and effectively charted and navigated NOAA’s legislative course for communicating with Congressional members and their staff on critical issues,” she said. Marlene has worked to advance NOAA’s mission throughout her entire 18-year career. She was loaned to Congress by the National Ocean Service 12 years ago. Two years later she returned to NOAA to work in legislative affairs. Within five years, she was named to her present position of deputy director. As deputy director of legislative affairs, Marlene monitors all congressional issues facing NOAA. Beyond ensuring that NOAA stays on top of these issues, she manages a broad range of office operations, including the budget, personnel and operating plans. Marlene most relishes the time she shares with her children, Jared, 2, and Julia, 3 ½. 
Randie Powell, manager of subscription services at Information Manufacturing 
Corporation in Rocket Center, West Virginia, is October’s award-winning
Team Member. After first designing and implementing a new database,
Randie established a customer-oriented subscription services center in Rocket
Center that serves NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville,
North Carolina. NCDC is part of NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite,
Data, and Information Service. With her special blend of technical and people skills, Randie successfully consolidated and streamlined the services that had been performed by NCDC’s many offices. The outcome is a high-tech subscription services center that serves customers efficiently, effectively and quickly. The aim is to improve access to data that comes in many forms -- coastal charts annotated in 19th-century script; 40-year-old satellite imagery; Doppler radar images; and even handwritten notes from cooperative observers. Under the Climate Database Modernization Program, the subscription database has 20,000 customer records and 60,000 subscription orders. With her staff, Randie undertook a massive address clean-up that cut mailing costs. To reduce bulk mail costs, she creatively explored the use of filler pages containing information on NCDC services. Already $800 has been saved in two months for just two publications. Substantial savings are expected. In her 16 months at International Manufacturing Corporation, Randie also played a vital role in establishing a toll-free number dedicated solely to subscription services customers. Because Randie trained two employees, the center is now open 12 hours per day, increasing access to West Coast customers. She is currently streamlining payment processing. Randie served in the Air Force. She met her husband, Daniel, in the Netherlands when both were stationed there. Their daughter, Myrna, is an audiologist. 
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