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Retirees' Help Desk:
New Retiree Program Coordinator's Office
Telephone and “HOTLINE"
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- Retirees' Help Desk
The National Retiree Council Help Desk is off and running thanks in large part to the efforts of Bob Warakomsky, Norm Lemley, and Dave DuPont. The help desk has been organized and is currently staffed by members of the National Capital Area (NCA) Retiree Council and other DC Area retiree volunteers at the behest of the National Council.
Although space and resources in the Headquarters Building in Washington, DC, have been provided, the help desk is currently operating as a “passive” service.
Queries are received in non-real time via voice mail and email. A volunteer watch stander from the National Capital Area accesses the voice mail and email periodically throughout the day, and provides acknowledgement within 24 hours. The watch stander then identifies the correct response or the appropriate individuals or web site for the requestor to call or access, and notifies him/her via telephone or email.
If by telephone, the watch stander will actually talk to the requestor; voice mail responses to questions are not acceptable.
If response is via email, a return receipt will be used in order to ensure that the requestor has received the email.
There are not enough volunteer watch standers to be physically present at this time in the HQ office space to provide an
“active,” or real-time response to queries. The concept of physically manning the help desk space in HQ is still to be determined, as it will depend on the number of NCA volunteers who can devote the time and the volume of queries received.
However, volunteer watch standers from outside the Washington, DC, area are encouraged and welcomed. They will be able to perform the help desk functions in the “passive” mode and provide valuable assistance in performing this service for the National Retiree Council.
The help desk handles calls and/or email requests. The queries have included items such as benefits (medical and other) available for retired persons, how to locate a lost pay record, and how to get the Global War on Terrorism medal.
A watch stander “watch rotation” list has been established. Work is currently on-going to develop a SOP for the help desk. A number of Frequently Asked Questions have been developed and will be categorized and made accessible to watch standers.
The website for the National Capital Area Council has been developed. Among the features of the site will be a section highlighting the help desk that includes FAQs
and links to sites that contain information of interest to all retirees.
All USCG “retirees” are encouraged to contact the Retiree Program Coordinator's Office by telephone, 202-475-5381, or by e-mail,
nrhdesk@gmail.com if they have questions or problems that are not otherwise being addressed or resolved. The Retiree Program Coordinator's Office Help Desk team makes every effort to provide an answer or to aid in getting the person with the right answer in contact with the “retiree” with a concern or question.
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