Commander stresses community fitness, customer service, transformation awareness

By Karl Weisel (USAG Wiesbaden)November 9, 2009

Commander stresses community fitness, customer service, transformation awareness
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

WIESBADEN, Germany - An all-hands briefing Oct. 23 addressed the command's focus on Comprehensive Community Fitness, ongoing efforts to enhance customer service and the impact of transformation within U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden.

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"There's so much going on on any given day," said Col. Jeffrey Dill, USAG Wiesbaden commander, explaining that the all-hands briefing for all garrison employees was an opportunity to give everyone a look at the big picture and to share information.

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"There's change going on every day," he said, "and it will have an impact on what you do."

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The bottom line, Dill said, is "Are you taking care of Soldiers and families the best that you can'"

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"We're in the midst of change. Our challenge is to maintain our high customer satisfaction rates in the midst of all that change," he said.

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Encouraging the entire workforce - Soldiers, civilians and local national employees - to take advantage of the garrison's various health and fitness offerings, Dill said the Comprehensive Community Fitness program welcomes all participation, "because a healthy worker is a happy and motivated worker. ... Everyone wins in an increase in our levels of fitness."

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Arne Curtis and Camille Howes from the garrison's Plans, Analysis and Integration Office described ongoing efforts to measure customer satisfaction through tools including surveys, the Interactive Customer Evaluation system and other forms of feedback.

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Curtis described how the annual Organizational Self Assessment conducted in May is a comprehensive tool used to identify areas in need of improvement. "The purpose of it was to evaluate some key performance indicators of how we do business in U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden."

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Besides showing areas in need of improvement, OSA feedback helps determine whether a garrison will be invited to compete in the Army Communities of Excellence competition, Curtis said, "an annual Army-wide awards program that encourages and rewards installations which optimize their environments and demonstrate a commitment to facility as well as service excellence. The bottom line is that only the very best garrisons are invited to compete in ACOE."

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Following analysis of the responses in this year's OSA, which showed an improvement in all areas as compared to last year's results, USAG Wiesbaden joins four other garrisons out of the total 18 overseas in being invited to take part in ACOE, said Curtis. "This workforce is to be congratulated for making us eligible to compete in ACOE. ... Thank you all very much for your efforts."

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"Everyone in this room has a very real impact on Soldiers and their families and a Soldier's decision to stay in the Army," said Howes, praising the efforts of garrison workers to play a positive role in enhancing Soldier and family quality of life.

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As part of the overall recognition of superior service rendered by the garrison workforce, Sharon Moseley, USAG Wiesbaden's director of human resources, described the many achievements throughout the year - 474 U.S. and local national employees awarded $423,000 in performance awards, 175 workers awarded more than $50,000 in on-the-spot cash awards, 65 employees earning a total of $16,250 for superior customer service, 24 employees splitting more than $27,000 for special acts of service and 24 employees garnering a total of $21,987 for their Lean Six Sigma efforts.

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As part of the command's emphasis on Comprehensive Community Fitness, Tahroma Skugrud of the Health Promotion Office explained the five pillars of overall fitness: physical, emotional, social, spiritual and family. She said that like their military and family member counterparts, civilian employees can improve their morale and self-esteem by ensuring they are fit in all aspects of the program.

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A Civilian Fitness Program, open to U.S. and local national employees, will start in January 2010. The six-month program offers workers the opportunity to work out during duty hours for up to three hours a week. Skugrud added that the program may be extended for successful participants as regulations allow. More details on the program will be announced as the registration date nears, she said.

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The all-hands meeting's final speaker, Roger Gerber, director of the Transformation and Stationing Management Office, gave an overview of the many ongoing construction projects in the Wiesbaden area. Barracks and housing renovation projects, two new parking garages on Wiesbaden Army Airfield, construction of 7th Army's new Command and Battle Center, work to improve the credit union and community bank on WAAF and a host of other projects were addressed.

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Of particular interest for employees who work on WAAF was a new ring road which will reduce vehicle traffic on the installation while providing access. "We will build a new access control point," Gerber said.

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A bypass road to the WAAF South Gate is just about completed, Gerber added, explaining that it will keep construction traffic out of the way of normal traffic into the installation. "The last step is to build a fence to separate the traffic. ... Trucks will go down the existing road and normal traffic will use the bypass road."

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The TSMO chief described various other future upgrades as part of transformation including a new clubhouse and golf cart storage area at Rheinblick Golf Course, a new motorcycle training course facility at Wackernheim's McCully Barracks and ongoing work to improve schools in Hainerberg Housing.

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