Commander's Message
Garrison Commander
Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem
Yesterday, the garrison staff held its quarterly BRAC town hall meeting. It was an extremely successful event in that a great amount of useful, timely information was released and discussions were active and insightful.
As always, the major topic of conversation and concern involved personnel issues. This time, the focus was reduction in force (RIF) notices, which will be hand delivered by myself and the deputy garrison commander to garrison employees in March with a July 29 release date.
Obviously, this is an extremely sensitive topic, and a painful one for everyone involved. I sympathize with employees and realize the impact a RIF has on individuals - from the threat to their livelihood to increasing already-heightened levels of stress. That the RIF will happen is not a surprise.
The requirement to draw down the number of employees as part of the closure process has been briefed at previous town hall meetings, and has been part of the garrison's backward planning matrix (which is available at the intranet portal site at https://macgil.forscom.army.mil/brac/default.aspx) for months.
Still, knowing RIF notices are coming in the future doesn't lessen the emotional jolt employees receive when they have the actual RIF document in their hands. It was with this knowledge that we have been promoting, and will continue to offer, a variety of personnel, educational and professional services to help employees transition to the next phase of their lives with as much success and satisfaction as possible. The garrison management has:
Aca,!Ac Ensured the military community is informed of the status of the closure and the benefits and services available to employees through a variety of means, including the town hall meetings, articles in the Sentinel newspaper, e-mail messages and briefings.
Aca,!Ac Sponsored several job fairs, including one focused strictly on federal agencies, and will offer more in the future.
Aca,!Ac Granted early, voluntary registration for the Priority Placement Program (PPP) in September, and has since provided free employment and rAfAsumAfA counseling to employees who are registered in the program.
Aca,!Ac Offered eligible employees the opportunity to register for the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP) programs in 2010 and 2011.
Aca,!Ac Offered, and continues to offer, career education and training programs. The BRAC Mobile visits both installations regularly, helping employees create individual training plans, earn a Georgia work ready certificate, create a rAfAsumAfA and more.
Aca,!Ac Recommended employees visit their Civilian Personnel Advisory Center (CPAC) representative for one-on-one career counseling.
Aca,!Ac Offered PPP and outplacement assistance to garrison employees from members of the DA-G1 Raven Group.
Employees have already been departing at a steady clip through individual job searches and PPP hits. The providing of RIF notices will allow many remaining personnel to benefit from the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) hiring preference when applying to non-DoD federal agencies.
It will also give RIF employees an opportunity to apply for discontinued service retirement. All these factors will undoubtedly result in an even more rapid thinning of the ranks. In addition, as of March 15, garrison employees who are not eligible for any form of federal retirement benefits will be automatically enrolled in the mandatory PPP program.
CPAC personnel will contact eligible employees to provide one-on-one counseling on severance pay and related issues. I understand that the next few months will be especially trying for garrison personnel. For many, as the days count down, the pressure to find a new job increases exponentially.
Meanwhile, they're working with increasingly shrinking staffs to continue to provide services while taking steps to prepare for closure.
As you work in these confines, I ask that you look at how you perform your tasks to see if restructuring your duties or personnel can help - of course, coordinate changes with your supervisor.
Supervisors should look for missions with no customer value that can be scaled back to free value-added tasks. And everyone should watch each other for signs of extreme stress. If you see someone struggling, talk to them. Remind them of the counseling services available through medical, physical and religious services available both on post and off.
The closure road ahead will neither be easy nor fun, but it is our mission. And it is my personal mission to travel that road not only mindful of the destination, but also of all the people involved in reaching that end.
Whether your time working with the garrison is one more day or you're here until the very end, as long as you are garrison employees, you are an important part of this command.
I implore you to take advantage of the services available to you, stay engaged, ensure your questions are answered and be your own most active advocate in ensuring a successful transition to the next phase of your life.
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