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Waves of
change
Story by Spc. William E. Henry, Indiana
Army National Guard Posted: May 22, 2008
ORLANDO—The
National Guard Chapter of the American Society of Military
Comptrollers’ Professional Development Institute for 2008 was held
in Orlando,
April 20-24.
One of the main goals of
the conference is to bring people from across the country’s National
Guard and territories together to address and improve a wide range
of issues through in-class training and advanced development with
the exchange of information for military resource management,
according to ASMC leaders.
“We’ve improved each and
every year. I think our PDI has gotten bigger, expanded and I think
it will continue to expand into other offices to get more people
involved in this. It’s not just comptrollers and the USPFO (United
States Property and Fiscal Office); we need to get all the staffs
from different areas involved in this,” said Dale Dudley, ASMC NG
Chapter president.
Many speakers were present
to provide insight on an overall outlook of many financial
processes, and to give advice to those in the resource management
positions.
Featured speakers included
Col. (Ret.) David Berg, director of executive education at Syracuse
University, Col. Francis Machina, Jr., deputy director for the
Center of Force Structure, Mr. Peter Kunkel, principal deputy
assistant secretary of the Army, Mr. Zack Gaddy, Director of the
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Mr. Roger Bick, director of
Air Force Financial Management Strategic Planning, Communications
and Support and Mr. Dennis Savage, joint staff comptroller.
Professionals arrive at
the event with a variety of issues and situations they deal with
everyday, according to Lt. Col. Diana Meador, ASMC NG Chapter
incumbent president and USPFO executive officer for Georgia National
Guard’s 201st Regional Support Group.
“I’ve never left a PDI
without a pocket full of good information and issues resolved. I
think the wealth of information you get at this event is just
phenomenal and there’s no way you can replicate in notes or reading
material,” said Meador.
Awards presentations were
another main highlight of the conference.
The Indiana
National Guard was one of the many recognized with two major awards.
The Pioneer Award was received by Lt. Col. John Seprodi, United
States Property and Fiscal Office financial manager, for sustained
commitment and enduring contribution to the ASMC NG Chapter as
treasurer and election committee chairman. The Budget Officer of the
Year Award was received by Maj. Carl Farley, United States Property
and Fiscal Office deputy financial manager, for significant and
sustained contribution to the budget field of the ASMC NG Chapter.
Also a Minuteman Award was
given to Sgt. Holly Chambers, Joint Forces Headquarters - Indiana
government travel card agency program coordinator, for outstanding
support and contributions to the National Guard Bureau for her
instructional work at an earlier conference.
All ASMC leaders agreed
that many issues are addressed during the conference and every
single person that attends will leave ready to handle tasks at any
level of their career.
“The real benefits of this event are the diversity
of things they get spread across the spectrum and the ability to
work with their counter parts. The senior leaders can work down to
see what their folks are doing, junior folks have the opportunity to
go to and experience the workshops that their senior leadership go
to. The opportunity to expand your horizons, look at the strategic
picture and move up to the next level of how we do business,” said
Clif Jenkins, ASMC NG Chapter vice president.
Not only learning and
exchange of information gets accomplished, people also get connected
by forming bonds with peers across the board, said
Dudley
“I think the most
important thing is the friendship and camaraderie that we have and
to keep those contacts and throughout the year and call and email
each other to continue to share those thoughts and ideas and their
friendship,” said Dudley.
For more information about
the National Guard Chapter of the ASMC or to find out how you can
get involved please visit
www.ng-asmc.org
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