FORT BRAGG, N.C. - The First Sergeant's Barracks Initiative is the Department of the Army's program that transfers the responsibility of the day-to-day facilities management of the barracks from the assigned units to the garrison staff.
The Directorate of Public Works will be the designated entity responsible for barracks maintenance.
"An organization such as DPW is designed to manage facilities from a maintenance standpoint, so this is a partnership between DPW and unit leadership to ensure the Soldiers receive and have the highest quality of life in their barracks environment," said Greg Jackson, Housing Division chief for the DPW.
FSBI frees Army leadership from the daily duties of managing the barracks and allows them to concentrate more on their mission.
"With deployment schedules, training schedules and other management requirements that unit leadership has, barracks maintenance is a task that is best suited for the DPW. It allows Soldiers to focus on training, prepare for deployment and keep their focus on battle readiness," said Jackson.
Even though barracks management will now be the responsibility of garrison staff, the management of Soldiers residing in barracks facilities will continue to be the responsibility of unit leadership.
"This is a partnership. We have taken over the facilities management aspect of the barracks, but we have not taken over the management of Soldiers. That is a unit leadership responsibility. We are working closely with leadership to ensure that the management of Soldiers is done by the unit," Jackson stated.
FSBI will standardize the management of the barracks Army wide to make sure that all barracks are at the same standard on each Army post.
"With the FSBI being responsible for all barracks on all Army posts, the management of barracks facilities across the board will be the same. In turn, all Soldiers will be receiving the same quality of maintenance for their barracks and all Soldiers can expect to have the same quality of life," said Jackson.
The first mission of DPW was to formulate a staffing system to make the transition of the FSBI into the barracks run as smoothly as possible.
"First and foremost ... we had a First Sergeants Barracks Initiative staff put in place. We have an additional 65 employees to take over the workload associated with the mission," Jackson said. "The 65 bodies have been broken up into 13 building management teams and those teams have been subdivided into four geographical regions."
The FSBI staff will manage the barracks parallel to property and apartment management.
"The staff will implement new procedures to enable them to keep tabs on key management and unit utilization rate. Now we can track things such as how many barracks rooms are being used along with occupancy rate," said Charles E. Williams, FSBI manager of the DPW Housing Division.
The FSBI team duties include: assignment and termination of rooms, key management, collecting for damages beyond fair wear and tear, reporting occupancy rates and barracks utilization reports, and identifying, tracking and ordering requirements.
Daily barracks maintenance is a key aspect of the FSBI.
"Staff has been hired to do the everyday maintenance in barracks rooms. They are changing out filters. They are changing out light bulbs. They are performing all those everyday maintenance checks that use to be performed by the Soldiers themselves," said Williams.
Room assignment is also a top priority for the FSBI staff. It is an important task because the staff knows which units are occupied and which are vacant. This allows the rooms that are vacant to be continuously maintained and ready for Soldiers who redeploy and need to occupy these units.
"It benefits Soldiers because when a unit comes back from downrange they will be able to return home to a barracks room, cleaned by professional cleaning teams and contractors. When at first Soldiers would come back to a room that has been sitting for eight or nine months with no one providing maintenance for the room," said Williams.
FSBI is important especially to Soldiers redeploying from overseas.
"We assure a Soldier that they are going to return home from deployment to a room that is fully functioning and free of any significant defects and it is clean," said Jackson. When a unit deploys, no longer does a barracks room sit idle. We have responsibility for that space. And before they return we recommission or upgrade that space to make sure that the space is up to standard with all barracks across the board."
In the near future, all barracks facilities on Fort Bragg will be up and running on the First Sergeants Barracks Initiative program.
"By September 30 of this year, all the barracks here on Fort Bragg will be at 100 percent, as far as participation in this program," Jackson said.
Soldiers living in the barracks should learn where the garrison staff is located for their particular barracks and how to contact them if they have any issues.
"For any Soldier that may be experiencing any type of problem please visit your FSBI building management team of your barracks. The FSBI teams are strategically located inside the barracks themselves for easy access," Jackson said. "It is important that Soldiers keep us informed of any new or ongoing problems so they can be corrected expeditiously. That is the number one goal of FSBI."
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