ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- The depot's 2014 Army Family Action Plan Conference was held Oct. 29 at the Directorate of Community and Family Activities' headquarters.

The annual conference is a forum of delegates comprised of active duty military, Department of Defense civilians, tenants, Non-Appropriated Fund employees, deployed civilians, retirees and family members who come together and submit quality of life issues to Army leadership.

The forum is a grass-roots initiative aimed at identifying what is working and what is not working on the installation.

AFAP Program Manager Amanda Mullinax opened the conference by welcoming the delegates and Jason Thompson of the depot's Directorate of Information Management, who provided the AFAP program training.

ANAD Commander Col. Brent Bolander addressed the delegates by stating the mission and the importance each participant in the AFAP process.

"The program enlists representatives from around the world to identify and prioritize issues that will improve the standard of living in the Army and the ANAD community," said Bolander.

The AFAP Conference workgroup was provided 11 issues, submitted by employees of the installation.

The issues ranged from supervisor and employee communication, family medical hardship and Automated External Defibrillators/Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training for employees at ANAD.

All issues were relative to the quality of life for all depot employees.

Delegates selected the five issues they viewed as most important and presented these at the close of the conference to a panel consisting of Depot Chief of Staff Phillip Trued, Director of Community and Family Activities Keith Colbert, Tim Rolfe from the Army Community Services and Director of Public Works Mike Mathews.

All issues will be briefed to the commander, who will assign them to a responsible staff office or directorate for an action plan.

No issues were elevated to the Army Materiel Command or Department of the Army level, which means all issues will ultimately be addressed by Depot Commander Col. Brent Bolander. The resolution to these issues will be distributed to all employees via TRACKS.

Issues submitted for the 2014 AFAP conference:

Issue #14-1: Automated External Defibrillator/Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation training

Issue #14-2: Supervisor and employee communication

Issue #14-3: Individual Development Plan

Issue #14-4: Grab and go food

Issue #14-5: Access to interactive customer evaluations

Issue #14-6: Death benefits

Issue #14-7: Family medical hardship

Issue #14-8: Hazardous intersection

Issue #14-9: Supervisor training

Issue #14-10: Customer service at the Child Development Center

Issue #14-11: Recognizing employees at the Child Development Center

2013 Army Family Action Plan issue update

Addressing quality of life concerns at ANAD remains a priority.

The commander's Army Family Action Plan Meeting was held Sept. 27 to address and brief the four open issues. All issues are now closed.

Their status is as follows:

Issue 12-3: Civilian Personnel Advisory Center customer service -- CPAC has implemented measuring tools for a customer service survey. CPAC will continue with the current action plan established at the last conference, which is as follows: "A CPAC representative will be assigned to each directorate. If the supervisor or employee does not know who the assigned CPAC representative is, they can call Ext. 7860. Employees should speak to their first line supervisor when problems arise. The supervisor or employee may contact the assigned CPAC representative at any time. Established time frame for CPAC to return employee calls is 24 hours. The CPAC staff is reminded during staff calls, team meetings, etc., to return calls and emails in a timely manner. If the matter needs to be researched, the employee should be provided an interim response and status update."

Sept. 27, 2013 update: CPAC went through four rounds of customer service surveys consisting of questions regarding various customer service aspects. The overall rating steadily increased through all four rounds, resulting in a 4.03 out of 5.00 overall score. CPAC will continue training employees and communicating with supervisors and employees in order to better serve ANAD. This issue is closed.

Issue 13-1: Supervisory training -- Depot leadership is in the process of developing supervisors trainings, which include the use of a Leaders' Toolbox. The training is being reviewed by the command staff for approval.

Sept. 27, 2013 update: Thyris Banks, chief of the Depot Operations Office, stated the Supervisor Training Tool Box has been implemented. Each supervisor will be trained in the Civilian Education System Foundation Course, Supervisor Development Course, Manager Development Course, annual mandatory training, Defense Travel Services and participate in the Depot Leadership and Management Program. This issue is closed.

Issue 13-3: Alternate work schedule -- This issue has several different aspects to it, including the tele-work policy and the alternate work schedules. A tele-work policy is in place and has recently been updated and signed by Depot Commander Col. Brent Bolander. The command staff is researching to see if an alternate work schedule policy is in place for temporary, irregular work schedule approvals.

Sept. 27, 2013 update: This issue has two aspects, the tele-work policy and the alternate work schedule. The tele-work policy was signed Dec. 11, 2012 and is located on the depot intranet.

There are two types of alternate work schedules:

1. Flexible work schedule - A flexible schedule splits the work day into two types of time: core time and flexible time. During core time, all employees must be at work.

2. Compressed Work Schedule -- Employee's tour of duty is defined by the particular schedule the installation chooses to establish.

ANAD is on a compressed work schedule. Compressed schedules are always fixed schedules. There are three types of compressed work schedules: (1) Four-day work week, (2) Three-day work week and (3) 5-4-9 plan. ANAD is on the 5-4-9 schedule. This schedule was negotiated with AFGE Local 1945, the exclusive representative for bargaining unit employees on ANAD.

Employees cannot mix a compressed work schedule and a flexible work schedule to create a hybrid work schedule. For additional information, visit the OPM website at http://opm.gov. This issue is closed.

Issue 13-7: High food price and lack of employees -- Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation leadership is meeting with depot leadership/supervisors to find out how to meet the needs of the patrons due to lack of employees. FMWR will also survey the workforce. The food facilities are not funded with appropriated funds (taxpayer dollars). These facilities, like any private sector restaurant, need to generate enough revenue to cover their expenses (food cost, labor, overhead, admin, etc.). IMCOM Central sets guidelines as to what FMWR food service facilities' food costs and labor expenses should be as a percentage of revenue. FMWR strives to keep their prices as low as possible and still maintain IMCOM guidelines.

Sept. 27, 2013 update: Keith Colbert, director of Community and Family Activities, stated, "Food costs are going up every week, which makes it hard to make NIBD, which make it impossible to go down on food prices." Depot Chief of Staff Phil Trued asked DCFA to strive to speed up the checkout lines in the food facilities. This issue is closed…. Unattainable.

The issues raised during each Army Family Action Plan conference are your issues and are taken seriously. No issue is unworthy if it matters to you. Issues can be submitted at any time during the year by emailing amanda.c.mullinax.civ@mail.mil or by placing them in the yellow issue boxes, located in all FMWR facilities.

If employees have questions regarding current issues, they may contact the Army Community Service Office at Ext. 7445.

DCFA is striving to make ANAD a better place to work than it already is and we need your help. Every employee is an important member of our community.