SCHINNEN, Netherlands Aca,!" With a rating of Aca,!A"full accreditation with commendation,Aca,!A? the U.S. Army Garrison Schinnen Army Community Service is continuing to improve the support it provides Soldiers and family members across the Netherlands, Germany and parts of Belgium.
An Installation Management Command-Europe ACS Accreditation Team inspected SchinnenAca,!a,,cs ACS Nov17-21 and came away fully impressed.
Arthur Jones, an IMCOM-Europe ACS accreditation specialist, said, "The USAG Schinnen ACS really has it going on," while detailing the outcome of five-day visit to the garrison commander, Lt. Col. Fern O. Sumpter.
The accreditation standards inspected here covered the areas of structure, oversight, management, services and volunteers.
Jones complimented the garrison ACSAca,!a,,cs leadership, teamwork and the community relationship they foster throughout their area of responsibility. For example, the Schinnen organization took the needs assessment and made it accessible throughout the office through automation, helping the entire staff keep a focus on client feedback.
Helen Gross, USAG Schinnen ACS Director, put the accomplishment into perspective.
"The ACS staff is mostly new and many programs were left in limbo due to a lack of personnel,Aca,!A? she said. From 2007 to 2008, entire programs had to be rebuilt, implemented then inspected to meet accreditation standards. When the Army Family Covenant gave us the ability to fill four vacant positions and establish a team, all that was left to do was get to work.Aca,!A?
"The fact that we've been able to build the programs, then do so well on our accreditation inspection, well, we just couldn't be more pleased with the outcome and to know that we're doing good things for our clients," Gross said.
Statistics tell a story of launching Schinnen's ACS from the ground up.
According to garrison records, client contacts in 2008 were 26,792 Aca,!" up from 15,888 in 2007. The increase in client contacts across the board shows an ACS coming to life and making a difference: Army Emergency Relief contacts were up 338 percent; Army Family Team Building up 2,138 percent; Volunteer Corp Services up 1,681 percent; Deployment and Mobilization up 359 percent; Exceptional Family Member Program up 295 percent; Family Advocacy contacts up 446 percent; Financial Readiness up 75 percent; and Relocation up 66 percent.
"Everyone is new to the team," Gross emphasized. Aca,!A"For a team comprised of rookies to achieve this commendation is incredible."
The relocation services were applauded for their initiative in helping newcomers. Unlike any other garrison in the Army, they sign-out GPS navigation devices and pay-as-you-go mobile phones to help newcomers search for housing. This is important here as newcomers can wait from 30 to 60 days for Internet and phone service in the Netherlands.
"The Army Family Covenant provided a means to give our customers first-class service," said Ed Carter, the USAG Schinnen Relocation Manager.
"And a mobile phone and GPS allows newcomers to postpone or avoid costs while enabling them to get settled quickly," Carter said, explaining that newcomers and sponsors alike appreciate the support from the USAG Schinnen Relocation Office.
"It took a lot of hours to prepare for the accreditation," he noted, "but it was worth every minute."
USAG Schinnen has the largest geographical area of responsibility of any garrison in Europe, extending across northern Germany, all of the Netherlands and into eastern Belgium. The USAG Schinnen ACS supports clients from all services, including NATO's Joint Forces Command in Brunssum, Netherlands; the NATO Air Base and Allied Ready Reaction Corps in Germany and personnel stationed at other installations across Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.
"We work in a multi-border environment and the rules we apply vary from customer to customer. The inspectors were very understanding to this aspect of USAG Schinnen," said Anne Daugherty, USAG Schinnen deployment readiness coordinator.
Trudy Wheatley, USAG Schinnen AFAP coordinator, said: "We reached out to other garrisons and found some great advice and assistance from Hohenfels and Grafenwoehr, which both did well for their accreditations in 2008. We feel really good about our commendation, and thanks to the other garrisons, we were able to do really well."
Wheatley sighs with relief now that the accreditation process is complete but she is now busy preparing for the garrison's annual Army Family Action Plan conference in Feb. 2009.
"No rest for the weary," Wheatley joked while pointing out that the operations order for the AFAP conference has already been released to the garrison staff.
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