Maintenance Group holds off-site team building meeting

  • Published
  • By Major Robert Jayme
  • 452 MXG Executive Officer
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  The officers of the 452d Maintenance Group recently held their first ever off-site meeting and leadership workshop at North Island Navy Base, Coronado, San Diego.

"We're at a critical point in our Maintenance timeline [near inspections], we wanted to use the time to get back to basics and talk about leadership," explained Col. Robert Stormes, 452d Maintenance Group Commander. "Many of our officers reside near San Diego, and it made sense for us to do an off-site in that area." The offsite/
leadership workshop was just that--to have the MXG officers step back from mission "trees" for a weekend and look at the "forest" of leadership and management in the environment they work in and to get to know each of the other officers better.

When the officers returned for duty, there would be a positive mission impact on the rest of the MXG personnel and their culture.

The off-site agenda was simple and designed to allow for socialization. Friday afternoon was check in at the Navy Lodge on North Island, a Navy billeting facility with rooms within walking distance to the beach. That evening, there was an officers' dinner in downtown San Diego that included families.

Saturday and Sunday mornings included early morning volleyball.

On Saturday, the MXG officers took turns individually talking about themselves and where they've been in their careers and some sharing of photos from past assignments.

"I didn't realize so many maintenance officers were coming off years of active duty like me," explained Capt. Jessica Salvatore, Officer in Charge, Maintenance Flight, 452d Maintenance Squadron, "it was really interesting to hear the other officers' personal stories."

Col. Stormes also tasked a pre-off-site homework assignment to the officers--to read and mark up a leadership book, titled "Sacred Hoops," by Phil Jackson. The book takes a look at the higher wisdom of teamwork from a coach's perspective.

Col. Stormes spent a full two hours going over some leadership and mentoring concepts in the book, things such as how the Ancient Zen facilitates bringing out team potential and commitment to a vision, the ideal "spoke" and invisible leader. Each officer was asked to offer their thoughts on what the book provided.

"Leaders are what make/break teams," said Maj. Dang Nguyen, 752d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Commander as he reflected on that discussion segment, "leaders set the pace and tone and we're in the fish bowl 24/7 and susceptible to perception and rumors."

Saturday afternoon, the officers were treated to a visit from Col. Karl McGregor, 452d Air Mobility Wing commander. He spent time with them, talking with officers individually and offering career and professional advice.

The agenda for the half-day Sunday, after beach volleyball, started with a post-deployment briefing from Capt. Ben Roy, Maintenance Operations Officer, 752d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

He talked about the drastic change from the in-garrison to deployed maintenance environment and the stress and challenges from being away from family.

"It was really hard for me the first few weeks, as I really missed my wife and four children," reflected Capt. Roy, "I now have an appreciation for when the active duty force have to be tasked for 179 plus days out there."

Capt. Richella Rosete, Bravo Flight Commander, 452d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron,
provided a summary of updates to the Air Force Instructions for maintenance.

Maj. Rob Jayme, group executive officer, gave a presentation on back to basics for Reserve officers. His charts showed screen shots of how to access the various websites that Reserve officers should use to monitor their careers; i.e., Virtual Military Personnel Flight (vMPF) and the Personnel Records Display Application (PRDA), among others.

The workshop ended with Col. McGregor offering mentoring advice on careers, the importance of completing Professional Military Education (PME) early, making yourself available as a Traditional Reservist and what it really takes to be considered for a Promotion Vacancy, aka "PV" promotion.

"The PV thing is really between us," said Col. McGregor, pointing at himself and Col. Stormes, "we have serious face-to-face conversations about which officers should be promoted early, if their past record supports it and if the timing is right."

Maj. Jayme also pointed out another bit of advice Col McGregor shared, "For any  promotion board, you should use the opportunity to write a letter to the board to explain any gaps in service, even if a gap report exists."

The off-site leadership workshop was a success. Officer morale and esprit de corps were enhanced. All of the officers will return to the mission with a renewed focus and energy to work at continuing to further Col. Stormes' vision of providing world class maintenance with world class leaders.