Army's annual financial symposium held in Hawaii

By Pfc. Owen Stupcenski, 8th Theater Sustainment CommandAugust 2, 2022

Financial Symposium
Financial officers from units around the Indo-Pacific Command area of operation to include the 25th Infantry Division, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, and the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command gathered at the U.S. Army Pacific building for a Finance Symposium at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, July 25, 2022. (Photo Credit: Pfc. Owen Stupcenski) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii – Financial officers from units around the Indo-Pacific area of operation to include the 25th Infantry Division, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, and the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command gathered at U.S. Army Pacific for a Finance Symposium at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, July 25-27.

The Finance Symposium is an annual event that helps facilitate knowledge of the financial state of the United States Army and the operational advantage of knowing how to properly use each of the finance capabilities supplied to each unit over the course of the fiscal year.

The Financial Symposium is held at different locations around the United States; this year the Symposium was held in the beautiful state of Hawaii.

The theme of this year’s symposium was “Resourcing the way ahead across the Indo-Pacific, the world’s most consequential theater.”

The symposium is a place where finance professionals can discuss different aspects of the Finance Corps, to include how the military budget is broken down, how money is transferred overseas during a mission.

Attendees also discussed different possibilities of the future of Army financing in regards to crypto currency.

During the finance symposium there was a ceremony to recognize the soldiers and government civilians who helped the families during the Red Hill water contamination crisis, as part of Task Force Ohana.

“I personally thank each and every one of the 40 plus individuals that assisted the service members and their families in Red Hill, Hawaii,” said Cindy Garcia, Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis deputy director. “Today we are here to recognize you for your efforts with helping approximately 1,544 individuals.”

The Symposium fostered dialogue which addressed different aspects of the Finance Corps which included contracting, Fiscal law, theater banking, and cash management. Each of these topics had speakers from a different financial unit brief the audience who was physically present in the conference room and those who attended online.

All of the speakers discussed challenges in the financial corps and made recommendations for how to improve processes that could address those challenges. One of the significant challenges the Corps is facing is a loss of personnel.

One unit in particular discussed concerns of losing a detachment and the necessity to shift the workload to other detachments in the area in order to mitigate a degradation of capabilities in support of customers. Some of the experts in attendance educated the audience about Theater Banking and Cash Management.

This was an important event, not just for finance professionals in attendance, but for all Soldiers, civilians, and family members across U.S. Army Pacific.