More on the Customer Service Assessment

Unlike many surveys and questionnaires where the results are never reported back, the results of this year's Customer Service Assessment will be delivered to Garrison Commanders in November 2009. After supported Commanders and organizational leaders are briefed, results will then be disseminated to the installation community. For additional information, please contact your Garrison Plans, Analysis and Integration Office.

Customer Service Assessment Seeks Feedback on Installation Services, Programs

Army leaders, Soldiers, Family members, retirees, Veterans, Army Civilians and contractors who live, work or play on an IMCOM installation have an opportunity to give feedback on the services and programs they receive, thanks to a new online survey.

The 2009 Customer Service Assessment, an IMCOM Customer Management Services initiative, is a major element of the Installation Management Command’s annual Armywide program for collecting customer feedback. This feedback provides data to help evaluate and improve programs and services and adds value for Soldiers and their Families.

The 2009 CSA survey, found at www.myarmyvoice.org, will be available from August 24 to September 18. This year’s survey is being expanded to include the 39 IMCOM installations with Customer Service officers that were surveyed in 2008, as well as voluntary participation from 35 additional installations.

Participants will be asked to state their demographic information, which will then prompt the survey tool to ask only questions relevant to them. The survey should take 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Participants will rate the performance of the services and programs on their installation on a scale of 1(very poor) to 5 (excellent). Additionally, they will rate the importance of these services and programs. Leaders will be asked to rank their installations’ top five most important services and programs in each Standard Garrison Organization. Participants can provide personal feedback about specific installation services and programs.

“The 2009 survey gives a voice to the people who are served by our IMCOM garrisons,” said Keith Joseph, CMS project manager. “The information we gain will give each installation, region offices and IMCOM Headquarters valuable customer information that can help improve services and programs. We encourage everyone on the installations surveyed to tell us what they think about the services and programs they receive.”

The results of the CSA survey are expected to be completed by the IMCOM’s Garrison Commanders’ Conference in early November 2009.

Take the survey at www.myarmyvoice.org

American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 Expanded Homeowner’s Assistance Program

ARRA expanded the HAP to assist service members and DoD civilian employee homeowners who are required to relocate during the home mortgage crisis.

The DoD and Office of Management and Budget guidance for the ARRA expansion of HAP is being finalized and will soon be published in the Federal Register. Applications are being accepted while program guidance is in development.

Once rule-making is complete, the guidance will be available on the HAP Web site and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will then be authorized to process expanded program applications. HAP program information, as well as details about applying for benefits and the application process is available on the HAP Web site: http://hap.usace.army.mil

Celebrating Women’s Equality Day, August 26, 2009

Throughout the history of the U.S. Army, women have answered their country’s call to serve.

Today on Women’s Equality Day, our nation honors the dedication and determination of those who helped secure women’s suffrage. It is also fitting to recognize the work many have done throughout the years to ensure women’s equality.

The role of women in the Army has evolved over time. Today’s female Soldiers and Army Civilians stand on the shoulders of their predecessors. They continue to break barriers wherever their service takes them – both in peace and in war. They have made indispensable and undeniable contributions to the Army and the nation.

During this – the Year of the Noncommissioned Officer – we pay special tribute to our female Soldiers who wear the rank of Corporal through Sergeant Major. They exemplify the courage and can-do attitude that makes this Army the best in the world. Today, we encourage all Solders, Civilians and Family members to thank and honor the women of our Army – past and present – for their selfless service and sacrifice. More:

http://www.army.mil/women/?ref=home-spot0-title
http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/08/13/25911-proving-themselves-as-equals-womens-equality-day-prompts-posts-female-leaders-to-share-stories-of-obstacles-triumph

Military spouses approved to skip "competitive process" for fed jobs

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management published final regulations Aug. 12 to establish a “non-competitive hiring authority” for certain military spouses to federal positions. OPM states that the intended effect of this rule “is to facilitate the entry of military spouses into the federal civil service as part of an effort to recruit and retain skilled and experienced members of the armed forces and to recognize and honor the service of members injured, disabled, or killed in connection with their service.” More: http://www.imcom.army.mil/hq

Crisis Assistance Programs

The Army's Suicide Prevention Task Force has implemented a number of improvements to the Army's health promotion, risk reduction and suicide prevention programs in recent weeks. These improvements include the completion of major revisions to Army health promotion policy, and augmenting behavioral health staffs at many installations to allow greater access to counseling services for Soldiers and Families.

Soldiers and Families in need of crisis assistance should contact Military OneSource or the Defense Center of Excellence (DCOE) for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Outreach Center. Trained consultants are available from both organizations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

The Military OneSource toll-free number for those residing in the continental U.S. is 1-800-342-9647, their Web site address is www.militaryoncesource.com. Overseas personnel should refer to the Military OneSource Web site for dialing instructions for their specific location.

The DCOE Outreach Center can be contacted at 1-866-966-1020, via electronic mail at Resources@DCoEOutreach.org and at www.dcoe.health.mil.

The Army's most current suicide prevention information is located at www.armyg1.army.mil.

IMCOM’s 2009 Lean Six Sigma Excellence Awards Program Winners Announced

IMCOM is all about operating installations and meeting the needs of Soldiers and Families as efficiently as possible. One of the Command's best tools for getting the most bang for every buck is Lean Six Sigma, a proven process that's helped major corporations improve their performance.

IMCOM selected one organization and four project teams as winners of the 2009 IMCOM Lean Six Sigma Excellence Awards Program. Four organizations in addition to HQ will be submitted as IMCOM’s nominees for the 2nd annual Department of the Army LEAP. Congratulations to these organizations and project teams for winning the 2009 IMCOM LEAP awards:

Organizational Deployment Awards

IMCOM Pacific Region
· The strategy for the Pacific Region is focused on improving cost management, contract management and energy conservation improvements.
· Leadership at the Pacific Region is highly engaged in LSS. The region director is a strong advocate of the program and has participated in a Rapid Improvement Event by setting the direction of the RIE and personally reviewed progress.
· The Pacific Region developed a Web-based site for collection of project suggestions that allows region personnel to submit anything from an idea to a complete charter.
· Two of the region’s most successful “enterprise” projects generated substantial financial savings for the region. The first project at USAG Fort Richardson identified an improved method of processing and disposing of spent range brass. The project generated financial savings, labor cost avoidance and generated revenue through the sale of the spent brass -- all three areas generated benefits of $220 K per year. The second project at the region level consolidated the licensing of their Computer Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) software. By implementing a license manager the project was able to realize financial benefits of $1.2 M over a 5-year period.

“Enterprise” Project Team Awards

HQ, IMCOM
Lean Six Sigma Service Metric Process
· Wide-scale benefits: Prior to system synchronization, 100% of CLS performance metrics were entered manually. Now CLS is able to benefit from the 40% ISR top-load for identical measures and that percentage is growing as the multi-generational plan is implemented. Synchronization eliminates entry of duplicate measures leading to a workload reduction across 157 Army installations.
· Wide-scale participation: The project team included members from IMCOM, Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, National Guard Bureau, United States Army Reserve and Fort Belvoir. The governance structure is more expansive.
· Wide-scale replication opportunities: This project established an approach to synchronize reporting of metrics and established a governance structure, which are both being replicated across the installation management community in the Metrics Rationalization project.

Fort Knox
Federal Employee Compensation Act (FECA) Claims
· Reduced Federal Employee Compensation Act (FECA) claims costs-project aimed to reduce continuation pay and leave without pay costs.
· Increased visibility of ongoing claims process while reducing system abuse rates.
· Implemented new training measures with emphasis on injury avoidance and workplace safety- training classes are tailored to most common local accidents/injuries.
· Realized a cost avoidance of over $570K/yr from FY09-14.

“Non-Enterprise” Project Team Award

USAG Baumholder
Civilian Security Guards
· Realized cost avoidance of over $570K/yr from FY09-14.
· Improved the utilization rate of the contract security guards by 39%.
· Realigned resources from under-utilized Access Control Points (ACP) to more highly utilized ACPs.
· Reduced total # of required contract security guards.
· Reduced annual contract cost for affected ACPs from $1.46M to $830K − a savings of over $500K per year.

“Non-Gated” Project Team Award

Aberdeen Proving Ground
Energy Savings Performance Contract
· Implemented energy savings cost reduction initiative by negotiating a new contract with Johnson Controls
· Reduced energy costs by over 11% leading to a cost savings to the Army of $6.9M through 2014 (validated by AAA)

BRAC is expected to bring 9,000 employees to Fort Sam Houston

San Antonio is one of 12 locations worldwide where Department of Defense sites are combining to form joint bases. Under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Joint Basing plan for San Antonio, installation support functions at Fort Sam Houston will combine with those at Randolph and Lackland AFBs.

Restored historic structures on Fort Sam Houston will provide administrative space for about 3,000 military personnel and civilian employees. They will support a variety of realigned agencies and commands, including the Installation Management Command, the Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command, and the Army Environmental Command.

More: http://www.armymwr.com/news/news.aspx?nid=143

"Beans, bullets and BTUs" reminds Soldiers of energy security

The Army will soon be the largest fleet owner of both low-speed electric vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles. "That will have significant impact on our fuel consumption at our installations," said Dr. Kevin T. Geiss, program director for energy security in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment.

Geiss said orders are in now for an additional 800 low-speed electric vehicles, formerly called "neighborhood electric vehicles" by the Army. The purchase is part of a plan to add 4,000 of the LSEVs to the Army over three years. The Army is getting an additional 502 hybrid vehicles for installations as well.

The vehicle purchases are part of a larger plan by the Army to focus on energy security, Geiss said. The plan also includes a solar project at Fort Irwin, Calif., and a geothermal project at Hawthorne, Nev. Geiss said the Army should know soon who the civilian developer will be for the Fort Irwin project, and that a memorandum of agreement with the Navy is now being finalized for the 30Mw geothermal project in Nevada. "Our goal there is to by the end of the summer or early fall, have the request for proposal on the street and have the industry day to get the developer for that project," Geiss said.

The Army's plans for energy security include such things as electric and hybrid vehicles, micro-grids for more efficient power distribution, reductions in consumption of energy on installations, certification of tactical vehicles for alternative fuel use, and partnerships with industry to build power-production capacity. Ensuring the Army has enough energy, when and where it needs it, is an important consideration when prosecuting both training missions and contingency operations overseas, Geiss said. And efforts to provide that energy, so the mission can continue uninterrupted, focus on five key components: surety, sufficiency, supply, sustainability and survivability.

"All of those things are important to us for energy security," he said. He modified a Marine Corps motto, "beans, bullets and bandages," to include "BTUs" or British thermal units -- a unit for measuring energy. "Think of the concept of beans, bullets and BTUs," he said. "Most people are familiar with the beans and bullets -- but beans, bullets and BTUs, I think, focuses us on the vital importance of energy for the Army and our missions."

Right now, Geiss said, neither the Army nor the United States is in a place where it can claim it has energy security. "I would say energy security is an end state," he said. "If we were able to satisfy those five key requirements at our installations and our deployed operations, and with our weapons systems, then we would achieve a state of energy security. I don't think that the nation is in an energy-secure state at this point."

Inside the United States, the Army has to consider what happens if the civilian electric grid, on which it depends for its power needs, should go down. Plans for that event, and the ability to continue operations unimpeded are at the center of the Army's energy security concerns in the United States. Solutions could involve equipping every installation with its own power-generating capability -- a natural gas power plant, for instance. But the cost for that, Geiss said, is prohibitive. Additionally, there are community, state and federal restrictions about what kinds of things can be done.

Instead, Geiss said, the solution involves looking at both power production and reducing energy consumption. Reduction involves identifying what power consumption on an installation is mission critical and also taking measures to be more efficient in energy use. The Army is conducting ongoing studies to determine the nature of energy use at its installations.

For reduction of energy use, the Army must now comply with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, that says all new and remodeled facilities must be off fossil fuels by 2030. Additional legislation mandates a decrease in consumption of 3 percent a year for a period of 10 years. By 2015, Geiss said, the Army will have achieved a reduction of about 30 percent.

For generation of power on an installation, the Army will look to partner with industry to develop renewable energy production capability. Last year the Army established the Energy and Partnerships Office to facilitate those kinds of developments. "The Army does not have the funds internally to accomplish all this," Geiss said. "We can't fund all the geothermal plants, all the wind farms, all the solar farms, to get us the power and energy that we need. It's going to require a partnership with industry."

Partnerships with industry mean looking for investors and the right locations around the country to develop projects that will benefit both the Army and the developer. "We can generate large projects that will provide us with power, as well as an economic case for the developer being able to sell some of that power off to the grid," Geiss said.

Ongoing Army energy projects include the solar projects at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and Fort Carson, Colo., and large-scale energy-management programs at Fort Hood, Texas. There is also the development of a 500-megawatt solar thermal plant at Fort Irwin, Calif.; a 30Mw geothermal plant at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nev.; and biomass-to-fuel demonstrations at six Army posts. Overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy security is also important for contingency operations and for weapons systems.

The Army needs continuous, uninterrupted power for its forward operating bases. Added to the mix in forward locations is the exponential increase in the cost of fuel. While fuel prices rose at the pumps in the United States last year, the price for fuel used by forces in Iraq and Afghanistan rose as well. But there, the cost of the fuel itself is eclipsed by the cost of getting it to where it is needed.

"Last year, the big deal was the price of fuel," Geiss said. "You go from $2 a gallon to $4 a gallon -- so we are doubling our costs. But that's really the tip of the iceberg as far as how much it really costs to get a gallon of fuel to an operating base or some other operating location." The "fully burdened" cost of fuel accounts for the cost of transporting it to where it is needed, Geiss said. And moving fuel by convoy or even airlift is expensive.

"In some places you have to fly it in by plane or by helicopter and drop off bladders of fuel," he said. "Those costs can be an additional $20, $40 or even $200 a gallon. To complete that mission with weapons a system in a remote location in Afghanistan, for a week, you (might) need 1,000 gallons. For us to get that in there, it's going to cost us maybe $200 a gallon. So that's $200,000."

In some places, Geiss said, analysts have estimated the fully burdened cost of fuel might even be as high as $1,000 per gallon. Energy consumed by a combat vehicle may not even be for actual mobility of the vehicle, Geiss said, but instead to run the systems onboard the vehicle, including the communications equipment and the cooling systems to protect the electronics onboard.

One combat vehicle, Geiss said, operates an 800-horsepower power plant -- of which only 200 horsepower are used for mobility. The rest is to power the vehicle's subsystems. "What is it cooling? Electronics and sensors, some for the engine," Geiss said. "That's how significant this other stuff is."

In January, the Defense Science Board released a report titled "More Fight, Less Fuel," that focused on the fully burdened cost of fuel. Addressing the issue means changing the way Soldiers operate at forward operating bases, and even the way weapons systems are designed. Applying spray foam insulation to a tent can reduce energy costs related to climate control by as much as 50 percent. That was determined though research conducted at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Also at the NTC, the Army has demonstrated microgrid technology that can better manage and reduce energy consumption at forward deployed locations.

"At an FOB, electricity is generated by a generator," Geiss said. "You fill it up and turn it on and they go 24/7 -- whether you need all the power being generated or not." With micro-grid technology, generators are linked together and equipped with computer-controlled intelligence. The system is aware of the total power demand and can turn generators on or off to meet that demand.

"If you are turning the generator off instead of running it when you are not using all the power, it's pretty simple," he said. "The savings estimates are 25-40 percent. But you have to have the intelligent systems to do that."

The culture of Soldiers themselves also has to change, Geiss said. He said Soldiers must realize that the price of fuel needed for survival at FOBs is paid not only in dollars, but in lives and mission resources to get it there.

Economic stimulus package funds improvements at Fort Rucker, Ala.

Post-wide renovations will begin later this year thanks to the more than $12.1 million in funds Fort Rucker recently received through the presidential economic stimulus package. Projects include renovating the Andrews Avenue Physical Fitness Center, building a mail distribution center next to the Soldier Service Center, and upgrading heating and cooling systems in some barracks.Jonathan Cole of the Public Works Directorate the garrison submitted 19 project requests to IMCOM. "[The money] allowed us to address a lot of projects that were in our backlog," Cole said of the funding, the first of its kind.

More: http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/07/09/24095-fort-rucker-schedules-improvements-with-stimulus-funds

Fort Belvoir is positioned to be the home of the first LEED building on a military base and the second in the Commonwealth of Virginia

Certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum status is being pursued for the Fairfax Village Center at Fort Belvoir. Formal approval from U.S. Green Building Council is expected this summer.

From the orientation of the structure itself to the renewable energy solar panel system on its roof, to its façade of salvaged brick and recycled aluminum roof and the butterfly garden nearby, the Village Center Building stands out on the Belvoir community for its many environmental features.

More: http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/04/16/19745-the-greenest-of-the-green

How and when to fight cooking fires

• When in doubt, just get out. Close the door behind you to help contain the fire. Call 911 or the local emergency number after leaving.

• If you do try to fight the fire, be sure others are already getting out and that there is a clear path to the exit.

• Always keep an oven mitt and a lid nearby when cooking. If a small grease fire starts in a pan, smother the flames by carefully sliding the lid over the pan while wearing an oven mitt. Turn off the burner. Do not move the pan. To keep the fire from restarting, leave the lid on until the pan is completely cool.

• In case of an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed to prevent flames from burning you or your clothing.

• For microwave oven fires, turn it off immediately and keep the door closed. Never open the door until the fire is completely out. Unplug the appliance if the outlet can be safely reached.

• After a fire, both ovens and microwaves should be checked and/or serviced before use.

BRIG GEN Jones takes command of Army Family and MWR Command

BRIG GEN Reuben D. Jones took the reins of the Army Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command from COL Brick T. Miller during a change of command ceremony July 30 at Wallace Theater.

LT GEN Robert Wilson, commander of the Installation Management Command, and SGT MAJ Abe Vega of FMWRC assisted in the passing of the unit flag during the change of command ceremony, a time-honored military tradition that originated during the 18th century reign of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. It signifies the passing of responsibility for the unit from one commander to the next through the unit’s senior enlisted Soldier.

More: http://www.armymwr.com/news/news.aspx?nid=138