Leading With Knowledge

It is a fact we all tell ourselves and others isn’t it, “Everyone is special in their own right. We all have unique talents and abilities to contribute. Don’t compare yourself to others. “

Sometimes we don’t listen to this good advice or apply it when it comes to not just ourselves as individuals but to our individual TRMN chapters/ ships. No two ships are alike. They are all made up of an assortment of individuals. Each member has a vital role to play in the life of their chapter, however, insignificant that role may seem at times to them or others. If that individual moves who is the one that adds that fresh burst of excitement to any new project the chapter undertakes, it makes a difference in the chapter. If the member who is the behind the scenes organizer for meetings has a health crisis or a new baby or even has a death in their family and because of these real life issues can not participate for a couple of months, it can have a dramatic impact on their chapter’s activities.

At such times, and these times occur at some point in every chapter’s life cycle, the members of that chapter may feel like their chapter is not as good as it used to be. That they are dead in the water or that not much is going on.

At such times it may be helpful to lead more with knowledge than just feelings in dealing with the situation and remember these DO’S and DON’TS.

1. DO NOT QUIT. This is not the time to give up on your chapter. Every chapter goes through seasons when events happen that effect what happens and what can reasonably be expected of your members at the present moment. Just because some activities have to be rescheduled until later, does not mean your chapter has failed or is dying. Get help from fleet leaders and sister ships and their triads. Ask for help from the BuPers Office of Retention and other Bureau areas that may have resources that would assist your chapter.

2. DO FIND A RUNNING MATE(S). Select another chapter(s) to partner with on a special project. Nothing stirs up interest like making new friends and having fun together. Go to a fun park and bowl or play laser tag together then sit down together over some shared pizza. Take to someone’s back yard for a cookout and some yard or board games with other TRMN members in your area. If you don’t have another TRMN chapter around, maybe there is another fan group you could do a joint project with for a local charity. There is fun and strength in combining numbers between groups and in the new friendships that result.

3. DO FIND A CON TO GO TO JUST FOR FUN. Okay, real life has taken a toll on your chapter this year, and you don’t think that you are up to supplying volunteers or manning a recruitment table at a Con. You can always just put on your uniform or Con Min and attend and have fun together. Don’t be surprised if some folks walk up to you and want to join because they want in on the fun and friendships. Be sure you get in touch with BuPlan to find out what Cons are close to you. They have a lot of good information on Cons and some good recruitment materials you might want to have with you just in case someone wants to join your chapter.

4. This one is very important. DON’T COMPARE YOUR CHAPTER TO OTHERS. No matter who we are or what we do in our chapters, we always think we could or should have done better. Now, this is not a bad thing if you are focusing on a personal or chapter best where you compete against yourselves or what your chapter did last time. But if a seven person destroyer compares itself constantly to a 200 member SD , the destroyer crew is bound to be discouraged. This is why some fleet challenges are geared to percentage of participation and others are geared to raw numbers. It isn’t just about winning. If I see a ship that is meeting regularity 3-4 times a year, has recruited 2-3 members in the last 12 months, has members who each have been earning some participation points each year of their membership, and a few members actively engaged in taking a couple of courses a year,  and whose Captain is making a report every two months even if all they say is “We are keeping in touch but have nothing new to report right now. “ As a Task Force CO,  I would count that a very good and growing chapter with nothing to feel bad about. Are there chapters that do more? Sure there are. (There are also chapters that do less.) So what? What does it matter what other chapters do? Have they had the challenges your chapter has had to overcome this year?  Probably not. Can you celebrate where you are right now with no apologies? Probably so!

5. DO LOOK FOR THE POSITIVE. Did you ever meet someone who only saw the negative in everything? Bet they were not much fun to be around. People are drawn to positive people. Positive people look for solutions to problems, not who to blame for failures. Positive people face forward, they don’t rehash old wounds, old problems, old arguments, etc. Okay, let’s be honest. Every chapter has at least one nay- sayer – one person who can never see the good in anything. But we don’t have to go along with that attitude. Task them to use their negative vision to debug problems for your group. Set up a precedent that members can only bring up a problem they see with a group plan, if they are willing to find a better solution. A good staff support officer in the real military is taught early on that they don’t bring a problem to their CO unless they also have already worked out a solution to offer to that problem.

The reason I think we often has issues with replacing Command Triad members in our chapters is that members are afraid to step up to command a chapter because they think that they can not do as good a job as some other Captain or Executive Officer or Bosun of another chapter or previous chapter triads that they know about. They think that they can not establish or run a chapter that meets weekly or at least monthly, recruits 10 new members a month, has every member taking 12 courses a year, and earning about 100 activity points annually. Oh, yes and earning about 6 medals at every Con they attend. LOL! This is simply not reality. No chapter does this. We so often build such unreasonable expectations for our chapters that we freeze up and don’t do the things we can do because we think we can’t do the things we think we ought to be doing or that people expect us to do.

I don’t know anyone who reads chapter reports who has not stood in the spot to have to write them at some point. No one is judging your chapter who reads them. All of them care a great deal about TRMN members and chapters and will help you in any way they can to make your chapter what you and the members of your chapter want it to be.

Dame Dora Ann Erikson, GCE, MC, SC, OR, QBM
Commodore, RMN
Commanding Officer, Task Force 21

Marksmanship Update

By order of CO 2nd Fleet, the following marksmanship awards are issued effective 15 July, 2019:

FLECHETTE GUN MARKSMANSHIP CERTIFICATE:

• MS Sara SWAFFORD, HMS Invincible

GRENADE LAUNCHER MARKSMAN CERTIFICATE

• Mr Don REISDORPH HMS Valkyrie

GRENADE MARKSMAN CERTIFICATE

• Mr Don REISDORPH HMS Valkyrie

PISTOL MARKSMAN CERTIFICATE

• Lieutenant[JG] Patrick ANDERSON, HMS Invincible
• S1C Matt MCMILLAN, HMS Valkyrie
• Petty Officer 1st Class Brianna KLEIN, HMS Valkyrie

FLECHETTE GUN SHARPHOOTER

• MR Don REISDORPH, HMS Valkyrie

PISTOL SHARPSHOOTER AWARD

• S1C Dean FLOREANI, HMS Valkyrie
• S3C David BERLIEN, HMS Valkyrie

RIFLE SHARPSHOOTER AWARD

• PO1 Ethan ANDERSON, HMS Valkyrie

PISTOL EXPERT AWARD

• Capt[JG] Dan STIGLICH, HMS Valkyrie

RIFLE EXPERT AWARD

• Lt Commander Ross PROSSER, HMS Valkyrie
• S1C Karol KURTZ, HMS Invincible

The Tradition Lives!

For CO 2nd Fleet:

Issued by:
KEVIN WALSH, NS
Senior Chief Petty Officer, RMN<
2nd Fleet Range Officer