I have been invited back because every time Jerrel asks me about how things went in San Antonio at the NOVA conferences, why, we get a caller and the subject gets put on hold. To repair that, we’re going to go on for a third time next Thursday, May 18th at the usual Bat time and Bat channel ( 1600 Local Left Coast time). The National Organization of Veterans Advocates (NOVA) continues to grow and reach out to the Veteran population.

VA, in turn, has begun a new “fix-it” program and assigned  an accomplished VA employee (usually a Veteran) in the slot to help VA attorneys and nonattorney practitioners get their Veterans’ claims back on track. There are 57 of them including one at the Appeals Management Center, now called the Appeals Management Office. VA has moved all the Appeals Teams’ coaches there into one setting and can better supervise VACOLS and the appeals picture at all the Regional Offices. I had occasion to encounter this twice now at both the Seattle Office and the Phoenix RO.

The new contact list will have a VA employee with plenipotentiary powers to right wrongs or get answers in short order. It will not, however, be a call-in center to find out when the DRO hearing is going to happen or when the VA 8 is going to be issued certifying any given claim.

VA is changing the way they do business très slowly, but it is changing, nevertheless. When you’re whaleshit, the only place to float to is up. Right?