GDVS changing offices on March 1

Effective March 1, hours of operation at Georgia Department of Veterans Service offices will change.

The work of filing benefits claims is a time-consuming process involving direct interaction with veterans. However, the job does not end when the veteran departs the office, as follow-on administrative work remains for the service officers involved. As most GDVS offices operate without administrative support, these tasks fall directly on the service officers themselves.

In order to better serve veterans and keep up with ever-growing administrative time demands, GDVS offices will open to the public one hour later each day. Service officers will use the hour to work uninterrupted to complete their administrative tasks.

George Canavaggio, GDVS Assistant Commissioner for Field Operations & Appeals, proposed the change to the Veterans Service Board during its January meeting.

Canavaggio explained: “The primary responsibility of our service officers is to assist veterans. While this mostly includes face-to-face interaction, there is also a great deal of paperwork involved in the filing of any claim for benefits. This has increased with new VA procedures requiring timeconsuming scanning and faxing of certain documents. Additionally, maintaining VA certification requires uninterrupted time be spent completing necessary training. For too long, our personnel have been sacrificing personal time to meet these objectives. In order to better serve all veterans and their families, we need to allow our service officers appropriate time during the work day to complete these time-sensitive tasks.”

The VSB approved the change. Effective Tuesday, March 1, the new hours at most GDVS offices will be 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. However, office hours vary at some facilities, specifically those co-located within VA buildings. Individual office hours are posted at the offices and listed at veterans.ga.gov/fieldoffices.