The Magazine of MiliTary housing, lodging & lifesTyles

DefensecommunitiesJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 www.phma.com

Sustainability involves everyone on base

Mentoring magic page 20

Privatization updates page 28

One-stop shopping page 41

to go greenLearning

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE COVER This issue of Defense Communities features a special section on training. See page 10 for the first story in the series, “To Train or Not To Train.”

Defense Communities

20 The Magic of Mentoring Case studies show how mentoring programs can help support the Armed Forces. By Mark Towers

25 Warm Welcome in Stuttgart PHMA’s customer service training promotes professionalism. By Geert-Jan Hendriks

PRIVITIZATION UPDATES

28 Home for One Should the private sector pro-vide housing for unaccompa-nied personnel? By Donald Brannon

36 A Haven in Alaska Alaska Forts Wainwright and Greely prepare for the con-struction of the residential project North Haven. By Betsy Woolley

38 Building Better Communities The Air Force sees savings and increases efficiency with privatized housing. By Rachel Fish

SPECIAL SECTION: Training

10 To Train or Not To Train Help your staff become the best it can be with these up-to-date training methods. By Rick Worrell

16 Training for Sustainability Follow this road map for creating and achieving sustainability goals. By Tabitha Crawford

16

JAnuARY | feBRuARY 2011

A Publication of the Pro fes sion al Hous ing Man age ment Association

Publishing OfficesStratton Publishing & Mar ket ing Inc.

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PHMA Office154 Fort Evans Road, NE, Leesburg, VA 20176

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www.phma.com

Executive DirectorJon R. Moore

Defense Communities (ISSN #1088-9000 USPS #004-502) is pub lished bi month ly by Stratton Pub lish ing & Mar ket ing Inc., 5285 Shawnee Road, Suite 510, Alexandria, VA 22312-2334, for the Pro fes sion al Hous ing Man age ment As so ci a tion, 154 Fort Evans Road, NE, Leesburg, VA 20176. PHMA mem bers re ceive this pub li ca tion at the an nu al sub scrip tion rate of $30.

Nonmembers’ annual sub scrip tion rate is $100. Send sub-scription re quests to Defense Communities at PHMA. Periodi-cals post age paid at Leesburg, VA, and ad di tion al mail ing offices.

Defense Communities, ©2011, Pro fes sion al Hous ing Management As so ci a tion. All rights re served. All con tents of this pub li ca tion are pro tect ed by copy right; how ev er, they may be re pro duced in whole or in part with prior ap prov al of the publisher. Prior to photocopying items for educational classroom, internal, or personal use, or to request rights to republish an article, please request re print permission from Editor, Defense Communities, phmadefensecommunities@ earthlink.net.

Unless otherwise stated, ar ti cles and ed i to ri als express the views of their au thors and not nec es sar i ly those of PHMA, the editors, or the pub lish er. An nounce ments and ad ver-tise ments in this pub li ca tion for prod ucts and ser vic es do not im ply the en dorse ment of PHMA or any of its members or staff.

Postmaster: Send subscription/address changes to: Defense Communities, 154 Fort Evans Road, NE, Leesburg, VA 20176 or e-mail: phmaoffice@earthlink.net.

Publisher

Editor

Interim Managing Editor

Editorial/Production Asst.

Art Director

Debra J. StrattonBirgitt SeymourSally ZakariyaTeresa TobatJanelle Welch

Defense Communities magazine is designed to keep those who operate and manage the whole spectrum of military housing and facilities maintenance informed on the industry’s latest technology, products, and services. It provides a forum for members to share lessons learned, news and events, and training opportunities and updates.

The Magazine of MiliTary housing, lodging & lifesTyles

DefensecommunitiesDefensecommunitiesJanuary | February 2011 u Volume 22, Number 1 u www.phma.com

41 One-Stop Shopping Improvements to the Furnishings Management Program mean increased effi-ciency, cost savings, and more. By Gia McKenzie

44 Operation Restoration Private sector partners and industry experts band together to restore a flood-battered Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Millington, Tennessee. By Gina Dolezal

48 Follow Us on Facebook Military housing communities communicate more effectively using social media tools. By Cindy Gersch

52 Defense Communities 2010 Subject and Author Indices

Please send your articles for Defense Communities to

Birgitt Seymour at phmadefensecommunities@earthlink.net.

NEXT EDITORIAL DEADLINE:May/June: March 18July/August: April 29

DEPARTMENTS 4 President’s Message

n PHMA’s President Del Eulberg shares his thoughts on the impor-tance of mentoring.

6 Association Newsn PHMA announces 2010 Writing Award Finalists.

8 Chapter Newsn Virginia golf tournament benefits the Wounded Warrior Project.n PHMA’s U.K. Royal Chapter raises funds for specialized equipment.

55 Military Marketplacen Check out this go-to resource to find compa-nies that provide products and services to the mili-tary housing and lodging industry.

57 PHMA Corporate Sustaining Members

58 Advertising Index

44

Defense Communities

Hole in One for Wounded WarriorsVirginia golf tournament benefits injured service members

By Isabel Allen and Margaret Barr

CHApTER NEws

The scene: golf carts neatly lined in a row, regis-tration underway, and volunteers busy putting last-minute items in goodie bags. The date: Oct.

8, 2010. The golf tournament was about to begin at the 18-hole Pohick Bay Golf Course, a scenic course located on the Mason Neck Peninsula in Lorton, Virginia.

When the shotgun sounded at 9 a.m., the golfers were off and ready for a spirited day.

The contestants in this tournament were not only pres-ent to play golf, but their contributions were to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

While the teams were playing, some volunteers were stationed at different locations hoping to catch a hole in one, longest drive, or closest-to-the-pin shot, while others

were engaged in preparing for the luncheon.As the day continued, the golfers started to make their

way back to the clubhouse. We were honored to have a wounded warrior participate in the tournament. He was quite moved and obviously appreciated how the National Capital Region (NCR) and Old Dominion chapters had teamed up to host this tournament. MAJ Brian Bilski from the Wounded Warrior Regiment expressed his heart-felt thanks to everyone who helped with this event.

After an enjoyable luncheon, great conversation, and much laughter, PHMA Executive Director Jon Moore and NCR Chapter President Brian Collins awarded the follow-ing prizes:• Longest drive (men): Harry Marshall• Longest drive (women): Jennifer Flather• Closest-to-the-pin: Harry Marshall• First-place team: Rob Powell, Lee Murphy, Ron Early,

and Hursien Evisman• Second-place team: Ivan Bolden, Phil Sakowitz, and

Todd Hunter

• Third-place team: Mike Duffy, Bob Inaba, Michael McLaughlin, and Jim SincereMore than $3,300 in proceeds from this tournament

were donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.A special thanks to PHMA International for its con-

tinued support, guidance, and assistance in making this event a huge success.

To the volunteers, we thank you for your commitment and service.

We also wish to extend out gratitude and apprecia-tion to the event’s many sponsors: ADS Corp., All Pro Transfer, Battlefield Basketball Officials Association IAABO Board 98, Brickman Group, The Louis Berger Group, Inc., Grant Thornton, Daphne Melillo, MilitaryByOwner, Oakwood, Wilmar (sponsor of the luncheon), Trade Products Corp., NCR Chapter 5, and Old Dominion Chapter 37.

Isabel Allen is the President and Margaret Barr is the Vice President of Old Dominion Chapter 37.

Left to right: MAJ Brian Bilski, Wounded Warrior Regiment; Margaret Barr, Vice President, Old Dominion Chapter 37; Robert Critcher, Wounded Warrior Regiment; and Isabel Allen, President, Old Dominion Chapter 37.

The contestants in this tournament were not only

present to play golf, but their contributions were to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

JAnuARY | feBRuARY 2011

Walking for the Visually ImpairedU.K. Royal Chapter raises funds for specialized equipment

By Beverley Uter

CHApTER NEws

The Norwich Social Center for the Blind held a spon-sored walk around Eaton Park, Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010.

Service members from RAF Lakenheath took part and raised more than £1,000 (approximately $1,580) for spe-cialized facility equipment for the center. The money will allow the visually impaired to safely prepare food using spe-cialized cooking equipment.

We would like to thank the following for their contribu-tions: Lani Waikiki, 48 CES; SSgt Lawrence Ploski, 48 LRS; SrA Joshua Townsend, 48 CMS; and A1C William Eales, 48 CMS. Beverley Uter, 48 CES, was the event POC from Lakenheath.

The PHMA Royal Chapter, at RAF Lakenheath, sponsored water for the participants. Also, local PHMA members made generous contributions toward the funds. n

Berverley Uter is a member of the Royal Chapter, RAF Lakenheath. For additional information, contact Vivienne Spittles at vivienne.spittles.GBR@lakenheath.af.mil.

Defense Communities

Are you satisfied with the way your company or organization is operating? Is it accomplishing the mission in the most effective and efficient way? Are your employees really satisfied with the work being

accomplished? Are you doing everything you can to eliminate roadblocks to productivity? If you answered no to any of these questions, then you and your team need training.

So now you face the age-old dilemma of management: I can’t afford training, but if I don’t train my employees, how can I hold them accountable for their actions? The budget is tight and I have to cut costs, but new directives and procedures are coming out, and I can’t provide the minimum levels of service they require. Or my favorite excuse: There’s just not enough time, and I can’t spare anyone to go to training—there’s too much to be done.

Training is always the first thing to go in a budget cut—and the first thing that is blamed when disaster strikes.

Training is a management decision and an investment. It is a cost of doing business, just like advertising, facilities, and product delivery. An untrained workforce can be your worst nightmare. You see it every day in organizations that are unable to successfully accomplish their mission in a cost-effec-tive and productive manner. One untrained employee could cost you millions in damages, lost contracts, and production—or simply create dissatisfied customers who tell everyone how bad their experience was with your organization.

What if you invest money in training employees and they leave? You might spend years grooming new interns and employees to take up current and future challenges only to face the possibility that they will not stay. Should you expend limited resources on training just to see your best and brightest

leave, taking with them the training you provided? How can you train people faster and at a reduced cost without losing sight of the final objective—a trained, mission-driven work-force that is responsive to the needs of the customers?

As someone once said, “The only thing more expensive than training employees and having them quit is not training employees and having them stay.”

Multiple methodsSo what is the answer? Train? Don’t train? If you want to get the most out of your limited budget, the answer is to assess what training is really needed and then choose the right train-ing method for yourself and your employees. Then, training the right employee at the right time will go a long way to bring-ing it all together. Sending employees to training sessions just for the sake of sending someone simply wastes your limited resources. Too often we hear that a student is in class simply because “my manager told me I had to be here” or “we are required to attend this training by this instructor.”

These days, there are many ways to accomplish training. In text-based training, participants read various source materials and try to apply them to the tasks at hand. In instructor-led on-site training, the instructor comes to your location and trains your team. In instructor-led training in central classrooms, the instructor trains groups of students on specific topics or a series of topics. In computer-based training, participants interact with a machine. (This includes Web-based training/distance learning, which allows for interactive classes without actually being in the classroom.)

All of these methods work to some degree, but in the end it is the participants who determine which type of training

By Rick Worrell

Are your staff members the best they can be?

To Train or Not To Train

| S P E C I A L S E C T I O N : T R A I N I N G |

creates the best learning experience for them. The individual manager needs to find the right training method that will result in increased productivity and enhanced delivery of ser-vices to customers.

Text-based trainingOne example is a correspondence course in which a student reads the text and is tested at the end of each lesson or course. The test is usually sent to another agency for evaluation, and the student receives a final result. The student can keep the material for future reference, but incorrect answers are seldom corrected. As a result, the student does not know a response was incorrect until confronted with a real-time situation that does not work out as planned.

Many technical manuals, policies, and procedure docu-ments are put together this way. Employees print them or refer to electronic files, then simply read and perform the tasks. Unfortunately, most of these documents read like typi-cal military or government texts and are generally confusing, incomplete, or out of date. It is best that such texts be used as reference material for other types of training and be available for specific policy reference when needed.

On-site trainingOn-site training can be the right method because it is team building and tailored to your local needs. It is always more cost-effective to train your employees where they work. It is always cheaper for an instructor to come to you and train your employees in the comfort of familiar surroundings than

to send employees elsewhere and incur the costs of travel and per-diem for each participant.

This type of training is perfect for those times when you need everyone to become familiar with new policies and pro-cedures or when you have new facilities, customers, or systems. It should always be driven top-down (mandatory for all), endorsed top-down (fully supported by management), and evaluated top-down (measured for success).

The possible downside to keeping training internal is that students learn from each other’s experiences and usually solve complex problems outside the formal classroom by sharing information they have acquired over time and experience. Again, specific training goals dictate which training may be most beneficial.

Instructor-led trainingInstructor-led training comes in many forms. It can be Web-based, as in distance learning in which students can get a col-lege degree and never set foot in a classroom on the campus. However, this type of training requires significant discipline on the part of the student and allows very limited interaction with the instructor while the class is going on. It does allow for plenty of interaction through chat rooms and direct communi-cation with the instructor via e-mail or other social networks, however.

Another type of instructor-led training is the traditional classroom style. The key to this training is sending the right employee to the right training at the right time. Sending employees to training just to fill a quota is the worst use of lim-

Recent on-site training in Stuttgart, Germany.

Defense Communities

ited budget dollars and really does the employees an injus-tice because they are usually not prepared for the specific level of training or will never use the skills they are taught.

Computer-based trainingAny computer-based training should be at the most basic level and serve the purpose of preparing an employee for additional training. The use of webinars or tutorials is an excellent way to indoctrinate an employee before the actual hands-on application. Webinars are best when they cover the basics a little at a time. Terminology, background information, and reference explanations are all good top-ics for webinars, which are narrated and can include video or FlashPlay technology. Single safety procedures are also best presented in webinar format, as long as there is no required assessment, such as certification or performance evaluation.

Tutorials are the “how-to” training for computer sys-tems. Every major computer system used in housing offices has a series of tutorials that cover specific situations related to the system. Tutorials are topical and address spe-cific procedures or tasks. For example, how to check some-one into unaccompanied housing is a specific tutorial that an employee can do over and over again, especially if that employee does not do the task on a daily basis. Also, all of these computer-based training programs come with tech-nical support that allows the student to ask questions. As an example, enterprise Military Housing (eMH) has tutori-als for almost every module in the program.

Tailored to needsLastly, any training program should be specific to your current needs. This is best served by the on-site method. It is fine to use programs at other locations as examples, however, especially if they are working successfully at that location. Employees vary from location to location, and they need to address the issues of the customers they see on a daily basis at their location.

True, there are some common core elements in all training programs, but your program needs to be tailored to your employees, based on their mission and manage-ment’s expectations. This will allow you to use limited resources to send only those employees who need specific skills to other locations for training.

A successful training program, using all of the training elements discussed, should serve to enhance productivity, increase customer satisfaction, and increase employees’ sense of accomplishment and ability to contribute to the overall team. n

Rick Worrell, CHA, CDUHM, is the Deputy Director for Training at MHLI. Reach him at rworrell@mhli.org.

| S P E C I A L S E C T I O N : T R A I N I N G |

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Defense Communities

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