Federal Knowledge Community Membership Information
Who We Are
The FKMC is a vibrant volunteer organization of over 300 members from more than 40 U.S. government agencies. Members are federal employees, contractors who presently work in direct support of members, and employees of selected nonprofit and NGO groups.
FKMC objectives include building a common understanding of the scope and meaning of knowledge management within the federal government as well as developing and replicating methods of sharing, learning and growing knowledge throughout all levels of the federal government.
FKMC members engage in an active community of practice on apan.org, the DOD’s premier unclassified information sharing and collaboration enterprise.
The FKMC was founded in 2010 by a group of practitioners from the Department of Defense (DOD), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Secret Service (USSS).
Purpose and Vision
The Federal Knowledge Management Community (FKMC) is a major resource for knowledge managers from across the United States Government to foster and leverage the knowledge and experience possessed by federal employees.
Mission
The FKMC brings knowledge managers together to discuss, collaborate and support the people, process, culture, and technology needed to advance knowledge management endeavors throughout the federal government.
The community continues to grow and mature, with members benefiting from the rich diversity the group brings. FKMC works continuously to bring best and emerging knowledge practices to benefit practitioners and leaders of the federal workplace and looks forward to engaging with new members.
The FKMC is managed by an interagency steering committee, and each member leads or co-leads a working group to provide leadership and support for FKMC activities. The working groups are successfully working several initiatives in the following functions:
- Communications and Outreach: Develop and maintain standards and processes for communication, and conduct outreach to organizations and agencies
- Community Management: Maintain membership list and records, welcome new members, and support community engagement between meetings
- Governance: Recommend structures to support long-term sustainability of community
- Meetings and Programs: Identify and select relevant meeting content, establish dates and times for meetings, and coordinate with speakers to ensure that community programming is delivered effectively
- Platform: Monitor and respond to evolving community technology requirements, make recommendations, and implement solutions
For more information, or if you are interested in joining one of these working groups and being a part of an exciting future for the FKMC, please contact the current working group chair for the group you’d like to join.
Benefits of Being a Member
By joining FKMC, current and prospective KM practitioners in the federal government have the opportunity to learn from one another, showcase their KM practices, discover other best and emerging practices, derive more value from existing KM tools, and take advantage of this professional development opportunity at minimal cost to taxpayers.
The Federal KM Community has a diverse membership base with a great deal of variation in KM member roles and needs. Some members are knowledge management advocates, but are not in a formal KM role in their agency. Others have been tasked by their management to implement a KM program and are unsure where to start. Some individuals have been in a KM leadership role for years at their agency, have a lot of lessons learned to share, and are actively interested in sharing their wisdom with those in need. Still others are seeking to learn from some of the academics and experts that speak at member meetings.
As in any community of practice, people get different things out of membership. In a recent member survey, the community was asked the following two questions about being an FKMC member. Here’s what they said:
Why did you join the FKMC?
- I’m standing up a KM practice.
- To learn or hear from other government agencies in the area of KM.
- To network with others in KM.
- To help me prepare a KM policy for my command.
- Mentor KM novices and mid-level KM practitioners.
How have you or your organization benefited from being involved in the FKMC?
- Learning about what other agencies are doing and challenges they are experiencing.
- Discussing similarities and exploring what we could do more, better, or differently.
- I get ideas about different ways to approach KM to find little wins or low-hanging fruit.
- The camaraderie and willingness to share has been amazing.
- Hearing about how others are approaching and applying KM is very beneficial to my role as the Program Manager for the Army KM Proponent.
- Lessons learned and good practices.
- Learning that we are not the only organization that struggles with KM.
How to Join
To join the FKMC or if you have any questions about membership or benefits, please contact Glenora Keeve or Ecaterina Marshall, co-chairs of the Communications and Outreach working group. FKMC membership is open to Federal government employees, Federal contractors, state and local government employees, and academic partners. Federal contractor personnel may join the FKMC if they meet the following criteria: 1) provide support for a federal government employee member’s KM organization, and 2) are sponsored by that member with any necessary approvals through their agency or contract.
Members join the FKMC by requesting membership and providing an official government or academic email address for communications.
Once membership has been requested and approved, you will receive a welcome notice by email. Membership at the online community of practice site, www.apan.org is recommended, so that individuals can participate in sharing content, responding to community postings, and member and FKMC Board announcements.
Members receive email notifications of upcoming meetings. In meetings, FKMC members share knowledge, experience and information; showcase KM practices; learn from guest speakers and technology demonstrations; and pose questions and challenges for group problem-solving.
NASA provides the information on this page as a participating agency in the FKMC. Questions about NASA’s participation in the Federal Knowledge Management Community can be directed to our General Contact page.