GinC's Address, Jan., 2011, Officer Retention

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Joe Meyer
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Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2010 1:58 pm
Location: Antelope, California

GinC's Address, Jan., 2011, Officer Retention

Post by Joe Meyer »

Gentlemen of the ACWGC Union Army,

I should like to take this opportunity address all of you directly by e-mail as I begin my first tour of duty as your Chief of the Armies (CoA), or, as I prefer, the more historically accurate title of General-in-Chief (GinC). It has taken me some time in properly compiling all of your e-mail addresses, but I feel and know that I will have a much more direct link to you than by simply posting in the forums. And what I have to say I want all of you to properly hear.

I will be working hard to keep the Union Army as much as an active and healthy organization as I can. Over the past few years our numbers have declined somewhat, attributable in some cases to the inevitable attrition that must normally attend a club of our type. Officers leave the ranks for a variety of reasons, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes not!

Real Life will always exert a casualty list upon us, whether we wish it or not! Illness, finances, job and marital issues, relocations, and, yes, even death, are all circumstances that can suddenly occur to remove an officer from the ranks. And most often when these things happen, the officer simply doesn’t have the time to notify his game club of what has happened! For all of its existing vibrancy and attraction, when you come right on down to it, the ACWGC is nothing more than an expendable hobby when Real Life knocks on our doors. In most of these cases an officer will simply disappear from communication and go “dark!” Sometimes they return after a crisis has passed, oftentimes they don’t.

When that happens the field army staffs can do nothing more than to follow the very liberal yet necessary policies established to give that officer the benefit of the doubt. Since we cannot know why he has gone "dark,” we can only assume that it was something out of his immediate control; and we treat him with the respect and courtesies that we would expect for ourselves in like situation! The officer is first given three months before being lifted from the active roster while efforts are continually made to contact him; and, failing in that, another three months in the “Hospital” are given. If he has not responded within that six-month period, then, and only then, is he regrettably discharged from the club.

Our numbers are also reduced when an officer decides that his membership has run its course or that, for the moment, he no longer can give the time to it that he’d like. In those cases it is an honorable man who notifies his parent army that he wishes to retire. As a field Army Commander myself, I can tell you that there have been far fewer retirements than there have been discharges!

Some officer losses are simply attributable to poor administration! Sometimes a newer officer will lose interest because he feels abandoned and neglected. In these cases a potentially promising game career in the club is cut short for want of a kind or instructive word from a superior officer. Left to fend for themselves, some of these newer officers will hang around for a few games, maybe even receive promotion into the field grades, before they finally walk out the door, orphaned by the organization they joined!

There’s little that can be done in all of the former cases I’ve mention beyond what I already stated as UA policy; but there is, I think, a great deal that can be done in this latter case. And it is within the scope of officer retention that I will be directing some of my earliest efforts as the UA GinC. I will be consulting with the existing Command Staffs of each field army and with the Union High Command officers to both identify what can be done in this regard, and then to implement it. General Matt Perrenod and the Instructors at the UMA have put in many voluntary hours throughout each year in providing an erstwhile effort to educate our new cadets in the conventions of game play and club membership. That work and voluntary contribution ought not to be undercut by inattention and ignorance when the cadet is finally assigned to an active command in a field army. These new officers ought to be welcomed warmly and brought within the camaraderie of their brother officers as firmly and extensively as possible until they, themselves, become those that do the welcoming!

In short, I believe that we can do a much better job in the retention of our officers than has heretofore been the case, and I will be exerting considerable energy in that regard!

There are other related issues of which I would be speaking with you all in the near future, but I wanted to make a start by signalling you that I believe that the ACWGC Union Army can become a more vibrant and robust organization than what it currently is. With your help I intend to pursue every opportunity that presents itself in that regard.

I welcome your open comments on the subject of officer retention, and to that end I’ve posted this letter in the Union Army HQ Forum in the Parade Ground & Mess Tent section. If you have not yet registered yourself at that forum, I would urge you to do so as soon as possible. We will have much to talk about in the weeks and months to come!

Let me close by stating that I have enjoyed every minute of my time in this club from the day I joined, back in September of 2007. And I intend to spend the rest of my normal days associated with it in some manner or form until I can no longer operate my keyboard. It has not yet been my pleasure to meet all of you directly, but I have never been disappointed in any of those of you I have met! At the risk of sounding selfish in the extreme, thank you for being here and sharing my interests!

I am, in all respects, courteously yours,
General Jos. C. Meyer,
Union Army Chief of Staff
Commander, Army of the Shenandoah
(2011-2014 UA GinC)


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