Greetings Team 88,
In a previous Commandant’s Corners’ I discussed my focus areas, one of which is community. No installation or region can reach its potential without being engaged in and with its local community. You will recall the guiding principles Vice Adm. Smith outlined upon assumption of command of Navy Installations Command - in them you will find a discussion of the value & importance of representing the Navy in the surrounding communities. In the Secretary of Navy priorities you will find partnerships and how our global partnerships are critical to the future success of the Navy. You can see the common theme here. Community involvement, whatever you happen to define as “community,” matters.
In practical terms, this means engaging externally; leadership building relationships with stakeholders and key influencers. It means looking for opportunities to engage and telling our story around the region. As the Regional Commander, over the past year I have met with state and local elected officials, state and federal agency officials, civic organizations, community and neighborhood groups, and many more. The venues change, but each engagement presents the opportunity to meet with some of our biggest supporters, or those who can impact how we or our tenant commands operate. These are invaluable opportunities to establish or grow meaningful relationships and a chance to communicate regional and installation objectives and perhaps build those relationships into partnerships. For example: On opening day for the 2014 baseball season the Washington Nationals dedicated a memorial to the victims of the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting. The initial discussion of the memorial event took place during a meeting I had with executives from the Washington Nationals.
Meetings with the Washington D.C. Chief of Police and her staff have led to an increased level of information sharing and cooperation between the Metro Police Department (MPD) and Naval Support Activity (NSA) Washington; enabling MPD to be better prepared to respond to emergencies on installations within the region, and NDW installations better prepared to cooperatively respond with MPD.
For the past five years, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling has partnered with Project Giveback, a Washington-based charity, to ensure needy military families are able to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday week. Volunteers from the military and the District of Columbia’s Ward 8, team up each year to make this event a success.
Active engagement with the staffs of Senators Cardin and Mikulski and Congressman Van Hollen, and participation in Montgomery County Citizen Action Transportation Committee meetings has resulted in an invitation for NSA Bethesda to be part of an action committee for the Rapid Transit System.
In January, the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland finalized the 18-month long Naval Air Station Patuxent River Joint Land Use Study, a collaborative land use planning effort conducted as a joint venture between the Navy (locally NAS Patuxent River), surrounding jurisdictions, state and federal agencies, and other affected stakeholders.
At Naval Support Activity South Potomac, the Commanding Officer chairs a 450-member Community Relations Council (COMREL) that meets quarterly. The COMREL council provides an opportunity for critical information sharing and allows her to work directly with her four local communities, elected officials and business and community leaders.
The region is about to host the first regional education forum with educators who work with military families to discuss unique educational requirements of NCR military families. This comes after meetings with several state and county school officials.
These are all good news stories that resulted from establishing or fostering strong relationships. Throughout the region you will find many success stories like the ones just mentioned that stem from active engagement with local leaders and communities. At NDW I continue to support and promote an active and aggressive community relations program; we reach out to local communities and try to reinforce the Navy’s ethical and responsible stewardship of the financial, natural and human resources that have been placed in our trust. We collaborate on issues that impact the long-term sustainability of our installations and seek to be involved in the discussions leading up to decisions that impact our mission and people.
For the annual Solid Curtain/Citadel Shield exercise NSA Annapolis works closely with community partners including the city of Annapolis’ police and fire departments and the Anne Arundel Medical Center. The exercise provides exceptional training not only for NSA Annapolis security forces but also provides these local community organizations needed skills and training. Additionally, their community outreach was critical during the construction of the new commissary/ Navy Exchange complex and mitigated noise and disruption complaints.
Community engagement can take many forms and covers a broad range of activities, but however you look at it, engagement is a key contributor to our mission success. It’s not just something we do, but rather, it is integral to how we work. Moving forward, we will continue to refine our model for community engagement that will strengthen region/installation- community partnerships and become an enterprise model for community engagement.