Notice to the community,
As many of you have seen on the television or read in newspapers, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army are experiencing funding reductions.
As a directorate within the Army, Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation was not immune to the budget reductions. The FMWR operating budgets were reduced 27 percent, or $3.2 million, from previous years funding levels, and program changes were required.
In efforts to reach the budget decrements, under the guidance of the senior commander, FMWR spent countless hours analyzing the organization to identify redundancies and eliminate duplication of efforts in order to gain efficiencies. Our team reviewed usage of programs and services, outputs, expenditures and deliverables against Army baseline standards, as well as core program requirements.
As part of this review, we identified several efficiencies and have begun realignments to streamline processes and programs. Unfortunately, the internal efficiencies identified did not gain enough savings to reach the budget reductions.
As part of the senior commander's guidance, more than 50 potential courses of actions were developed regarding the various programs that focused on minimizing the impacts to the community and the staff. These were presented to our major subordinate commands for input into the decision-making process.
Several commands provided us valuable feedback as to which courses of action to consider, and which programs were of importance. The decision making was not done in a vacuum or behind closed doors, and final decisions have been determined.
FMWR is committed to providing outstanding, quality of life services and programming to the U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii community. FMWR will begin to reduce some programs and services offered, reduce hours of operation, and some fees will be reinstated. The good news is that very few programs were eliminated completely.
We do recognize that many in the community may not embrace the changes at first, but we tried to continue offering the same type of programming options in both the north and the south communities.
Due to the geographic nature of numerous installations that make up USAG-HI, one may just have to drive a few extra miles then they have in the past. We fully understand this may not be as convenient as it has been in the past; hence, we need to focus on resiliency and enjoy the programming still offered.
The FMWR staff have also been impacted by these changes and any frustrations experienced should not be directed at them.
FMWR will begin placing advertising materials in the programs and will continue to inform the community of the new operating hours and standards. Many of the changes will begin implementation, April 1.
For a complete listing, please visit www.HIMWR.com.
As we move forward, we need to focus on being resilient and overcome any challenges we may face in the near future. I would personally ask that we all remain optimistic and together we will get through these times.
Thank you for all you do, each and every day in support of this great nation.
Douglas S. Mulbury
COL, INF
Commanding
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