Commander's Blog

I hope that everyone has been able to get out and enjoy all that summer brings; whether it be the craziness of following your children's sports teams all over Maryland or the glory of being able to lie lazily by the pool.

It's only fitting that each of you gets a break from all of the hard work you contribute to the excellent team we have here at USAMMDA. I am proud of the professionalism of my co-workers, a good deal of whom have many, many years of experience in the acquisition workforce. It is because I can count on you to do your jobs well that there is very little need for me to get involved in day-to-day management of things. This leaves me more time to look at the big picture, especially in my role as Program Manager for the Command.

As you may know, about half of the USAMMDA team works in Project Management Offices. Each of the five PMOs has its own Project Manager and Product Managers, but have you ever wondered exactly what they do? In the upcoming weeks a series of articles will be published describing PMOs - what they are and how they work. The articles will also give an overview of what Project and Product Managers do.

For my part as Program Manager, I am thankful for the work done by Kathy Berst, my Deputy Commander for Acquisition; a role currently being filled by Michael Husband until Kathy returns from her detail at the Defense Health Agency in October. Berst has the responsibility for overseeing integration and funding for our programs. To meet our obligation and disbursement targets for funding, we may find that one program or product is behind schedule or that there is a contracting action that is holding things up, while another program has a need. So at the command level, we can realign funding between the different products. This maintains the momentum of products with the highest level of success that are furthest ahead continue to move along. Those products, even if they are not fully funded or have met a speed bump in schedule that slows down the need for or availability of money, can progress through the life cycle.

It is because Berst does her job so well, that I am able to focus on my role as setting the vision and direction of the command. I can be a resource enabler to obtain resources for the Command (whether they are personnel, dollars, contractor support, etc.) to enable the Project and Product Managers to execute their programs. Leveraging resources is an important part of getting my job done. To this end, I spend most of my time assisting in our interactions with external organizations. I am able to work with other Army laboratories to gain their expertise on our products. Additionally, I am able to initiate dialogues and open doors to new information and points of contact, which is sometimes easier to do from the top down rather than the bottom up. Overall, I am able to spend my time on finding efficiencies to benefit the USAMMDA mission.

I encourage all of you to read the upcoming articles on PMOs to familiarize yourself with what your fellow teammates are doing.

And remember to enjoy every minute of the summer - you deserve it!

Hooah!

COL William Geesey