Team Wainwright works together on the 2020 vision

By Allen Shaw, Fort Wainwright PAOJuly 3, 2013

Planning
More than 60 Soldiers and Department of Defense employees met at the Mission Training Center June 27 and 28 to build a installation strategic plan for the future. Venus Sung (shown), from the Directorate of Family and
Morale Welfare and Recreation wa... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army)
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FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - More than 60 Soldiers and Department of Defense employees from a broad spectrum of directorates came together at the Mission Training Center June 27 and 28 to build and validate an installation strategic plan for the future. The group was a smattering of upper-level supervisors and mid-level workers hand-picked to provide a variety of perspectives.

This collaboration of efforts is designed to define direction and facilitate change to create a common vision for the future.

"These conferences are designed to provide leadership with understandable, measurable, executable and achievable goals and objectives," said Carrie McEnteer, strategic plan specialist, United States Army Fort Wainwright Garrison Plans, Analysis and Integration Office. "It creates a specific foundation and will help them [leadership] make informed decisions."

The process is team-based where individuals are afforded the opportunity to help shape Fort Wainwright's organizational future, "due to their institutional knowledge, forward-thinking and motivation," McEnteer said.

The Lines of Effort the group concentrated on were maintaining an Arctic Strong community, a flexible, agile organization; a ready and relevant installation and enduring partnerships with local communities.

Col. Ronald Johnson, commander, USAG Fort Wainwright, said there are several reasons we need an ISP.

"It defines direction, roles and responsibilities," Johnson said. "It creates a common vision for the future, as well as a common foundation for all to work from, it facilitates change and it creates an enduring legacy that will last beyond my tenure here."

The goals of the two-day conference were to have team members "buy-in" to the process McEnteer said, "and produce a solid product that will lead us into the next planning session in August, where we will drill down even further by developing specific actions that we will take as an organization."

Debra Zedalis, director, Pacific Region, IMCOM told the group, "As you approach this process, I ask that you look at your garrison as a private business and ask, 'would somebody want to buy us?'" She challenged conference attendees to focus on what it will take to provide the best customer service and support the mission during the current budgetary situation and into the future.

Participants were asked to look at several strategic planning products that have been derived through other recent planning events. "Now is a really great time to start this process at the garrison," McEnteer said, "We have United States Army Alaska 2020, IMCOM 2020, Fort Wainwright's Integrated Priority List and the Fort Wainwright Vision Practicum, all of which are current as of this fiscal year." The products presented to the group mesh with these higher-level planning efforts to provide direction.

The premise driving the ISP is a "sustainable installation," which the Department of the Army defines as meeting current and future mission requirements world-wide while safeguarding human health, improving quality of life and enhancing the natural environment.

The IMCOM vision is to have a ready and resilient Army and provide Soldiers, Families and civilians with a quality of life commensurate with the quality of their service. The mission is to synchronize, integrate and deliver installation services in support of senior commanders in order to enable a ready and resilient Army for years to come.

Johnson said, "We have the bumper sticker -- our vision. Now we need to figure out everything in between. What we will need to do between now and then to accomplish the mission? That is why you all are here."