Just saw this. Having been a contractor at Sandia (Advanced Concepts Group), and Guest Scientist and Affiliate at CNLS at LANL, as well as a Bechtel contractor on the "big dig" in Boston, so knowing all three from the inside, I can report without reservation that LANL was doomed the minute Bechtel walked in the door. My impression at Sandia was that LockMart is a traditional but responsible manager and lets the employees do their work without much interference (the interference comes from the idiots at D.O.E.). During four years at LANL under the old contract my feeling every day going to work was one of privilege to be able to explore the resources of what felt very much like a small graduate campus.
On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 11:19 AM, Parks, Raymond <rcpa...@sandia.gov> wrote: > When I heard that the Bechtel/UC team won the contract, I told folks that > LANS would combine all the innovation and vision of Bechtel with the > administrative expertise of UC. > > Ray Parks > Consilient Heuristician/IDART Program Manager > V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084 > NIPR: rcpa...@sandia.gov > SIPR: rcpar...@sandia.doe.sgov.gov (send NIPR reminder) > JWICS: dopa...@doe.ic.gov (send NIPR reminder) > > > > On Nov 19, 2013, at 11:09 AM, Steve Smith wrote: > > On 11/19/13 10:57 AM, Parks, Raymond wrote: > > Naah, we're just an hour and a half closer to the airport. We still have > folks tell us they can't work with us because we don't sit side by side > with them back East. > > > Yes, and a different culture in many ways... I always respected the > differences even though sometimes it *was* very hard to "compete" with > Sandia on certain types of projects. > > When LockMart was bidding on the LANL contract, I thought it would be a > bad idea to have both under the same contractor, though I'm sure it would > have made it easier to sit "side by side" back East. Little did I know what > letting Bechtel in the door would do to LANL. I questioned corporate > stewardship of something as important as Nuclear R&D but at least LockMart > *has* a technical agenda to buffer the economic (and therefore political) > agendas. Bechtel is proud of being completely void of any agenda except > money (and therefore everything that goes with it). UC had it's problems > but I think they were genuinely interested in the lab mission(s).. I got a > much better flavor of that when I spent a year at LBL (while Pete Nanos was > swabbing the decks at LANL with cowboys and buttheads). > > I'm proud to be out in the cold scraping up my work rather than living > inside the warm belly of the machine (beast?), but I still respect many of > the people and much of the work that comes out of said machine/beast. > > Carry on! > - Steve > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff
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