Town Hall hosted to address RDA reorganization at USASMDC/ARSTRAT

By Ms. Deborah Erhart (SMDC/ARSTRAT)November 10, 2009

Town Hall addresses RDA reorganization at USASMDC/ARSTRAT
1 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Dr. Steven L. Messervy, deputy to the commander for Research, Development and Acquisition, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, hosted a Town Hall meeting Nov. 9 to discuss the recent implementation of the RDA re... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Town Hall addresses RDA reorganization at USASMDC/ARSTRAT
2 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Dr. Steven L. Messervy, deputy to the commander for Research, Development and Acquisition, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, hosted a Town Hall meeting Nov. 9 to discuss the recent implementation of the RDA re... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Town Hall addresses RDA reorganization at USASMDC/ARSTRAT
3 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Dr. Steven L. Messervy, deputy to the commander for Research, Development and Acquisition, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, hosted a Town Hall meeting Nov. 9 to discuss the recent implementation of the RDA re... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. - Dr. Steven L. Messervy, deputy to the commander for Research, Development and Acquisition, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, hosted a Town Hall meeting Nov. 9 here to discuss the recent implementation of the RDA reorganization and personnel concerns.

The Town Hall meeting was broadcast via video teleconference to multiple conference rooms internally and to personnel at Kwajalein Atoll, the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility in White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and Colorado Springs, Colo.

"This process began with senior leaders meeting to take a close look at the organization and decide where we wanted to be in the next three to five years," Messervy said. "Then the task was to make sure that we were best organized to make that happen."

The reorganization went into effect Oct. 11, and Messervy announced that briefing charts on the reorganization are available to interested personnel on the USASMDC/ARSTRAT internal CommandNet.

"We've made the first big step in the reorganization," said Messervy. "Now we have to look at functions that have been moved or overlap. Some functions we have helped, and others are not fixed yet. The commanding general mentioned this morning that USASMDC/ARSTRAT Organization, Missions and Functions Regulation 10-1 needed to be updated. There may be some changes we need to look at down the road, and after understanding RDA's organization, missions and functions, we can tweak those things that need to be tweaked."

As with any reorganization, personnel concerns rank at the top of issues within any new structure.

"Only nine positions were moved to different job descriptions in this reorganization," Messervy said. "We wanted to make sure we kept the same number of NSPS supervisors, and the same number of employees. We also waited for the Sept. 30 deadline for appraisals so it did not impact individuals in any way. We wanted to make sure that no one was hurt in this reorganization."

At the conclusion of the meeting, a question was posed about future promotion opportunities at USASMDC/ARSTRAT in light of budget constraints and the recent shuffling of personnel in the reorganization.

"I think that promotion opportunities look good within RDA," Messervy said. "There will be retirements as well as growth in areas as we have seen in the past. We don't expect to experience a zero-growth period, so the outlook on program growth is positive."