Gotta Love Federal Holidays!

Ahhh... the government. Monday, as you know, was President's day. Being in a government position, and it being a federal holiday- I didn't have to work! =)

The rest of my week was spent making fliers for upcoming events (Mardi Gras/Nor*Cal Basketball Tournament), starting up the MWR website, and corresponding with the CSM (Client Services Manager) of the Harlem Ambassadors in regards to ticket designs, marketing, and hotel booking for their event here in May.

(click images to view larger) To see the website: http://www.petmwr.net/

This coming week will involve the actal Mardi Gras event, posting the Nor*Cal fliers, ordering all of the supplies needed for the annual Easter Egg hunt and Breakfast with the Easter Bunny events, and most importantly... preparing for the 50 person Snow and Ski Trip to Lake Tahoe this Saturday.

Sleepy Week

This week, I've felt pretty groggy... I think it's the weather. I'm used to sunny blue Arizona skies, not endless days of gray and rain. Oh well.

Nothing too substantial occurred this week. I sat in another briefing with the CO, XO, MWR Director, LCDR Marchione, and the Sports Director. A lot of talk about budget, improvements and new equipment/ideas.

The most interesting meeting for me was my one-on-one with Mr. Sturla (the Sports Director). He told me all about the Nor-Cal Coast Guard Basketball Tournament and the Harlem Ambassador's Event, he gave me a complete folder listing all the details from the Harlem Ambassador's PR department. I am responsible for making a timeline in order to get things done by their due date.

I just got done helping Heather (The director of the CDC- Child Development Center) give a tour of the MWR facilities to her 6 new employees. It was a nice test for myself, being able to answer their questions, point them in the right direction, and have the keys to the buildings we were going in and out of.

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"Examine the mission of the organization. How does the mission of the organization relate to the significance of play, recreation, and leisure?"

My answer would be- how does it not? "The mission of the Coast Guard Morale, Well-Being, and Recreation (MWR) Program is to uplift the spirits of the Coast Guard Family and be an essential element of Coast Guard readiness and retention through customer-owned and driven MWR programs and services." Everything the MWR does only serves to show the significance of play, recreation, and leisure. Through serving such a unique population, the MWR realizes the stress enlisted members and their families go through daily. They also know that there are specific physical training guidelines placed on the enlisted. By giving them adequate recreational facilities and programs, not only are we helping them stay within their guidelines by giving them an outlet for play. The MWR offers leagues of all kinds from bowling to basketball, outings such as ski trips, and then operates the movie theatre for a nice leisurely afternoon or evening.
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Oh, and just in case you were wondering... it's still raining. This makes it day #4.

What a week!!!

Blog Prompt: "Have you experienced conflict with a co-worker or employee? Have you witnessed conflict? How did you handle this and what would you do different next time? What did you learn about employee relations from this experience?"

This week I have really been able to see the inner workings of the MWR Management Team, as well as the preparations taken in order to have one-on-one briefs with the Commanding Officer. The first meeting I attended was the Morale Committee Meeting.


This committee is comprised of 12 enlisted members each representing a different area of the Training Center (ex: A-School, Officer Candidate School, C-School, etc.). These 12 hold all the voting power in the committee; however, at least 3 management team members from MWR attend to provide support and make sure our events co-exist and do not compete with each other. Each division provides a summary of past events and details for upcoming events. The budget is discussed thoroughly because funds must go through an intense approval process- due to military rules/regs on non-appropriated and appropriate funds. From this meeting I left with the following events on my shoulders:

• 24 Feb- Mardi Gras Themed Texas Hold'Em Tournament. My duties include the creation of the signs/banners to be posted throughout the base. Helping to create decorations, I will also go to take a few pictures.


• 28 Feb- Snow & Ski Trip. My duties included updating the sign near the Galley with a sign-up NLT date of 13 Feb. I will be helping distribute the morning breakfast on the bus, possibly given MC duties, helping with the BINGO game on the bus, keeping track of the winners and distributing their prizes on the ride home (Starbucks Gift Cards). At the lodge I will be helping to BBQ and distribute lunch.


• 21 Apr- Quarterly BINGO Night. Helping to organize the tables in the club, setting up the BINGO Board/Machine, possibly calling numbers and keeping track of winners and distributing their prizes.
  

The second meeting I attended was a pre-brief for Rob, the Gym/Aquatic Sports Center Manager. This meeting took place with LCDR Marchione. Through this meeting I learned the MWR's activities are broken down into 3 categories-

• Category A- "Mission Sustaining," contains activities that are considered most important for the health and well-being of the military member. These items make no money, and are provided for free, such as our gym.


• Category B- "Basic Community Support Activities," contains activities closely related, in terms of supporting the military mission. These programs satisfy the basic physiological and psychological needs of service members and families. These still help out with the mission, but sometimes bring in nominal income. An example from this base would be our movie theatre. It is used for lecture's, large group briefings, etc. It also offers extremely reduced priced movies, and free matinee/Friday night movies.


• Category C- "Business Activities," have the highest capability to generate revenue through the sale of goods and services to authorized patrons for use in specific morale programs. These are obviously the services that bring in profit. Examples here include Guest Housing, The Consolidated Club, and the RV/Camping Sites.

[For a full description: Click Here]

The third meeting I attended (actually took place in the theatre) was for the 3-Star Vice Admiral Pekoske! [If you aren't familiar with the military... less than 1% percent of career officers are promoted to a flag rank such as this. In order to achieve a position such as this, one must have a strong service record, at least 20yrs in the service already, a selection board recommends officers to the President who makes his decision via input from the Secretaries of the Navy & DOD in consultation with Coast Guard Command. After all of that, the Senate must confirm the President's choice.] He delivered a speech on the current Leadership in the Coast Guard, and the changes the branch was currently facing and would be facing very soon. The class this lecture was delivered to included the future graduating Officer's, whom he left with a very pointed statement regarding how strong leadership can invoke the best and worst change. (When you look at yourself taking that uniform off at the end of the night, I hope you can say that those who want to be you, have a good reason.)

The FINAL meeting I attend this week was the MWR Management Team Meeting. This is where I will be answering the blog prompt from above. I did not personally have a conflict with a co-worker, nor did I witness one directly. However during the meeting I witnessed much conflicting ideas and concepts that disagreed with many of the new plans the CO would like to implement on base. The CO is new here, and while he has great plans for expansion he seems to have little idea of what items are actually used on base. It seems that a couple of people on the MWRMT have simple taken to being completely annoyed with his ideas, and instead of challenging his ideas they simply go through with them less than enthusiastically. In order to resolve this conflict, I would collect data on facility/items use for 2mo prior to his dates of new implementation plans. Then I would create reports with all of the data, and present it all to the CO describing my findings.

This is Where I Live

I have no doubt that each and everyone of our internships will be an individual expereince, yet I feel as though no one else's will be quite like mine. Working and living on a military installation has been quite interesting so far, and I've only been here for 4 days!

I arrived at the Coast Guard base in the afternoon of the 29th. I immediately met with one of my supervisors (Ms. Linnis) and then the overall MWR Director of the base (Mr. Streeter) whom I had done most of my e-mail and phone correspondence with over the past 3mo. I was placed in a room located in Mace Hall, I then spent the evening getting acquainted with my immediate surroundings and then setting up my room:

I was also given a sign-in sheet to eat at the Galley for breakfast-lunch-dinner, it was a very interesting process in that the commanding officer of the chefs had to come out and talk with us.

Friday was spent in a breakfast meeting with Mr. Streeter and Mr. Duval, followed by completing and signing paperwork that was necessary for my stay over the weekend (Monday I will officially receive a sticker for my car to have it parked on base, and some form of identification card to carry with me). I was even given my own office! In general I won't be working weekends, and if I do I will get corresponding days off Thurs/Fri or Mon/Tues. I will be participating in the Superbowl Party taking place in the Consolidated Club later on this afternoon.

The coming week sounds like it will be extremely long/busy. I will be meeting with the base CO (Commanding Officer), XO (Executive Officer) and CMC (Commanding Master Chief), aka: The Top Dogs. It will be very interesting, considering most students here will never meet them. I will also be sitting in meetings between the Command Officers and MWR Departments taking notes on how things are currently operated and desired changes.

It's been quite a trip so far...
GO CARDINALS!
-Taylor