A Departing President of Their Own

Near the entrance to the Council for Excellence in Government, these words appear on the wall:

Leadership

Innovation

Participation

Results

Trust

That's how the center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, has defined excellence in government for 25 years. But another word is likely to dominate today's meeting of the council's board of trustees:

Transition.

Patricia McGinnis, the council's president and chief executive, is announcing that she plans to leave her positions this year, after 14 years as the group's leader.

The transition at the council will come in a year when the nation selects a new president, setting off a transition in the leadership of the government, and at a time when the federal workforce is undergoing a generational transition as baby boomers retire and agencies try to recruit from the millennial generation.

As in past years, the government's transitions will be a topic for discussion and study by the council. The group provided orientation and leadership programs for presidential appointees at the start of the Clinton and Bush administrations, and it has sponsored surveys on how to renew people's interest in public service and in working for the government.

"I decided that this was a good time for new leadership at the council," McGinnis said. "It is time for some new ideas as well."