SAME News June-July Now Available!

Hot off the presses is the June-July 2008 installment of SAME News.  The electronic version of SAME’s bi-monthly newsletter will be distributed to all SAME Members via e-mail, and can also be viewed on the SAME Web site at www.same.org/samenews.  Highlights of the new issue include the first President’s Message from brand-new SAME President Rear Adm. Greg Shear, USN, and a collection of photographs from last month’s Joint Engineer Training Conference & Expo in Minneapolis, Minn. 

Project Management in the AOR

The mission of SAME is to promote and facilitate engineering support for national security by developing and enhancing relationships and competencies among uniformed services, public- and private-sector engineers, and related professionals. As such, SAME HQ has launched Project Management in AOR, a day-long, free-of-cost webinar intended to provide a just-in-time crash course on the principles of project management for engineers deploying to the AOR.

Approximately 120 Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines participated from locations worldwide in the most recent webinar, held April 29, and their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Some of the topics briefed included base development, project classification, reach-back capabilities and planning, programming and budgeting. Session presenters included representatives from the Air Force Institute of Technology, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps Officer School and private industry, among others.

SAME HQ anticipates the next Project Management in the AOR webinar being offered in late July. The next session will be limited to 100 military or civil service participants who are preparing for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. For more information on this and other SAME training opportunities, contact Kristin Duckworth, SAME Continuing Education Manager, at kduckworth@same.org.

JETC 08 Scrapbook: Part One

The 2008 Joint Engineer Training Conference and Expo, hosted by the SAME Minneapolis-Saint Paul and Rock Island Posts, kicked off earlier this week in Minneapolis, Minn.  This year’s conference features a bevy of great events, technical sessions and networking opportunities.  While it’s too late to take part in the Minneapolis conference, it’s never too early to mark your calendars for next year’s JETC, to be held May 12-15, 2009, in Salt Lake City, Utah.  (Don’t worry—most of what you’ve heard about SLC’s draconian drinking laws are either untrue or easily loopholed.  I did the research.)

While those of us not fortunate to be in Minneapolis right now can but daydream about all that we’re missing, our woman on the ground, Heather Alexander, SAME Advertising Coordinator, has been busy all week utilizing her considerable camera skills to immortalize the goings-on for the rest of us.  Below are some selected thumbnails from the conference’s first couple days.  Stay tuned.  More on the way!

   

  

  

Terribly Belated Coverage: U.S. Army ENFORCE 2008

The U.S. Army Engineer Regiment held its annual ENFORCE Conference last week, splitting time between St. Louis, Mo., and the home of the regiment, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to tag along for the week with Dr. Bob Wolff, SAME Executive Director, who was invited to lead one of six workgroups comprising a study examining the technical competency of the Army’s engineer leaders.

Dr. Wolff was tasked with coordinating the Strategic Communications workgroup, which assessed how the Army Engineer Regiment communicates with audiences both internal and external, and sought to create a list of findings and recommendations for improvement that were presented on Friday to Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, P.E., USA, Chief of Engineers.  Though the point of the study was not to create new Army doctrine, the recommendations formulated by the six groups will be reviewed and taken under advisement as the regiment positions itself for the future.

The workgroup system utilized at ENFORCE engendered countless great ideas, and judging by their statements at the conclusion of Friday’s backbrief, both Gen. Van Antwerp and Brig. Gen. Gregg Martin, USA, Commandant of the Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood, seemed thrilled with the results and excited about the future of the regiment. 

Though the recommendations are still under development and review, the members of the Strategic Communications workgroup, which included retired, active duty, Reserve and Guard, enlisted and officer, and civilian individuals, generally agreed that leveraging existing communications and outreach architectures will be the most efficient and effective method to modernizing the Army’s communications strategy.  An increased emphasis on outreach efforts to college and high-school engineering students is likely, as well as a renewed effort to utilize 21st century resources such as updated Web sites, blogs, amateur video, etc. 

Overall, my first trip to ENFORCE was an enlightening and profoundly educational experience, and one that I hope to repeat.  Moving forward, I would be surprised if many of the outstanding insights offered through the Engineer Leader Technical Competency Study were not put to use in the future.  A dedication to perpetual improvement is a trait of any great organization, and it should come as no surprise that the Army Engineer Regiment, as usual, is right on target.

Book Review of “The Pentagon: A History” by Steve Vogel

Book Review:

The Pentagon: A History
The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon – and Restore it Sixty Years Later

By Steve Vogel

 

SAME received an advanced copy of this book for review, but staffing and scheduling opportunities never cleared enough for anyone to read the book until fairly recently.  A paperback is now available, or you can still purchase the hardcover edition at amazon.com.

 

The book is nothing short of amazing.  It takes a potentially boring, classroom-type of task (telling the tale of a building’s construction) and makes it pop with a life that offers instead a real page-turner for anyone remotely interested in what it takes to move things through the bureaucratic ring of fire and move past chains of command to get things done.

 

Click through below to read the rest of my review of “The Pentagon: A History.”