A few hours after this reporter and other news organizations began reporting that a federal agency was looking for a magician to teach leadership skills to employees at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, officials yanked the advertisement and referred the matter to the agency's General Counsel for further review.
"NOAA has removed a solicitation for a speaker at a leadership training for career staff posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, and has referred the solicitation to the General Counsel and NOAA’s Chief of Resource and Operations Management to review the statement of work and the process surrounding the solicitation," said Scott Smullen of NOAA's communications office.
"No speakers have been hired or confirmed for this training session," Smullen added.
The advertisement for a magician immediately reminded many of the recent dustup involving spending at the General Services Administration, where a magician, mind reader and more were part of an over $822,000 conference in Las Vegas.
While this leadership gathering involved only 45 people, the reports of the magician clearly made NOAA jump.
NOAA is the umbrella organization in the Commerce Department that includes the National Weather Service. It has been the subject of Republican budget cutting efforts in the past - and their budget bill just happens to be scheduled for action next week in the U.S. House.
NOAA's 'help wanted' ad on a special federal government web site asked for someone to use "magic tricks, brain teasers, word games, humor, and teambuilding exercises, designed to demonstrate how to stimulate creativity, encourage active participation and practice needed skills and competencies."
The magician would have to be available for "one or more days" of this leadership conference, which is schedule for June 12-14 in Silver Spring, Maryland, where the offices of NOAA are located, just outside of Washington, D.C.
The ad is officially titled, "Conference Speaker on Magic of Change."
Earlier this year, another NOAA ad showed the agency looking for someone to do a similar motivational speech to a group of about 45 people - but instead of a magician, it was someone with mountain climbing experience.
The ad asked for someone who could create and "present a unique model of translating mountaineering tools, techniques and experiences into a method of teaching leadership," and required of the presenter that it be someone who had climbed peaks in the Himalayas.
Here is the ad for the magician which is now under review:
A few hours after this reporter and other news organizations began reporting that a federal agency was looking for a magician to teach leadership skills to employees at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, officials yanked the advertisement and referred the matter to the agency's General Counsel for further review. ...
