FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- Fort Campbell directorate leaders and representatives from organizations gathered at the Kinnard Mission Training Complex Dec. 6 to participate in the post's most recent virtual town hall.
At exactly 6 p.m., Fort Campbell Garrison Commander Col. Joseph P. Kuchan's welcome message was posted on Facebook encouraging citizens of Fort Campbell to share their feedback, suggestions, ideas and questions.
The message read in part: "This is your opportunity to have your voice heard and a way you can help keep Fort Campbell as the Army's best Soldier and Family experience."
As the chat went live, key leaders from every major directorate and post agency were seated at monitors ready to respond to inquiries about their services while posts began to trickle in.
"There's always questions about schools in the community and we're happy to answer those," said Kim Butts, Fort Campbell High School principal. "There have been questions about the new high school and we're very excited about that."
Butts said most of the questions were pretty standard, such the opening date for the high school, when the middle schoolers will move to the old high school and how Department of Defense Education Activity plans to better serve military children, but also said they made her realize that the schools could work on communication with parents.
"There was one question about services and it's actually services we provide, but the parent is not aware of that," she said. "So we need to work on how we communicate and get things out to parents. We can always improve."
Butts said the best way to ask questions outside of a town hall format is to email the school principal. Each school has a webpage with the principal's email address, as well as those of the teachers. "I've done the live town halls, but I've never done the Facebook ones so this is interesting. I like this," she said. "You have time to think about your answer and make sure you're actually answering their question. Sometimes when it's live, you really don't have time to get all the information and later you think 'Oh, I should have told them this.'"
Directorate of Emergency Services representatives answered questions about the gates, such as the gate hours and traffic at peak times.
"I think it's very beneficial for the community to have the opportunity to voice their concerns," said Diana Cotey, DES physical security chief.
Cotey said access control questions are something DES always addresses at town halls.
"A lot of people don't manage their own expectations very well on wait times at the access control points, either going out or coming in," said Keith Shumate, Fort Campbell Police chief. "It's all about proper planning, leaving home at the right time, and managing your expectations in the interest of the security of the installation."
Laura Boyd, Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, public affairs officer, answered several questions about the on-post pharmacies, clinic hours and wait times during the hourlong session.
"The hospital services are one of the busiest services on the installation," Boyd said. "We have over 70,000 beneficiaries so we expected to have a good number of questions and we're always happy to answer them."
Boyd said BACH is here to serve Fort Campbell's population, so she felt it was important to participate in town halls to answer questions from members of the community.
"I think virtual town halls are the way to go today because so many Families are busy at home in the evenings and they work during the days," she said. "Whenever they have Family time it's easier to be on a computer where they can monitor their children and be part of the Family life."
Boyd believes some people are more willing to participate virtually than they would face-to-face at a live town hall.
"I was very appreciative of the questions we had today because they impact patient care and child care services as well as wait times, those types of questions are always important to hear," she said. "We actually have a patient advisory council where patients can partner with us and they're always welcome to reach out and join us with that council so we can … continuously work to improve care and services."
The town hall wrapped up at 7 p.m. with a message from Kuchan thanking both members of the community and directorates for participating.
"We had more than 400 people who visited virtually. That is more than double the partcipation of our previous virtual town hall, and significantly more than if we would have had a town hall in the conventional sense," Kuchan said.
Reaching out to Fort Campbell's citizens, getting their feedback and answering their questions was the main goal, Kuchan said.
"I think that we got some really good suggestions and it's always good to hear what people are thinking about the services we provide."
Every question was answered except for one that was posted after the town hall officially ended. That will be answered during the directorate's normal business hours outside of the Facebook event.
Kuchan was impressed by several of the suggestions because they offered a new perspective he would not have thought of otherwise.
"Without the 25,000 or so folks who are out there, it's tough to come up with those types of good ideas," he said. "So we're relying on the participants to do that."
Kuchan said before the next virtual town hall, organizers will publish a list of directorates and representatives who will be available to answer questions because several, such as the chaplains, had no questions.
"We had all the directorates here, but we also had DENTAC, BACH obviously was here, AAFES and the commissary, all these folks were out here," Kuchan said. "And those showing up shows a dedication to responsiveness to their customers."
Kuchan looks forward to more and bigger participation next quarter after community members have had time to think up new questions and suggestions.
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