Hey /Army!

The big AUSA conference is right around the corner. It takes place 09-11 October 2023 in DC, and hosts a wide array of Army Leaders across dozens of panels and talks. There's also sweet conference swag - I got a german shepherd K9 for my kids last year. If anyone has a good idea, there's still sponsorship opportunities...

With such a big recent focus on QOL issues, I was hoping we could maybe have a discussion and help to highlight specific issues. AUSA is a big focus not just for the Army - but for the journalists that cover it as well, who will all be descending on the conference. AUSA Conferences have historically lead to journalists asking pointed questions to the leaders in a public setting. We saw Steve Beynon subtlely point out the lack of tangible SHARP progress to SECARMY, Davis ask about IT Oversight/Modernization which also revealed for the first time that the flaming crater that was the Ignited Launch (go team) was a key decision in significantly delaying the IPPSA launch and Haley B posing specific Senior Leader accountability issues.

I happened to go for a day (Anyone can! I just wandered around) last year and wound up sitting next to Jonathan Lehrfeld at a talk - he doesn't normally cover Army stuff, but AUSA becomes an all hands on deck situation to provide coverage for a lot of the Mil focused outlets. You know that people don't raise their hands to get to ask questions? I got to ask random questions as a member of the audience that the speakers did not appreciate. I wouldn't mind doing it again.

My hope is that maybe we can come up with some QOL Conversation to highlight points that can be either be discussed by leaders - or shouted at them by journalists. In the past we've seen how aggregated posts from here can wind up in front of these people for consideration, and even picked up by members of congress to be pressed on senior leaders about.

Obviously Suicide Prevention has been a big topic of discussion - and one of the constant things I see mentioned is that for more upstream prevention, Soldier QOL needs to be addressed. So please keep that in mind - just sharing your concerns or taking 5 seconds to say what matters to you might have an impact down the road on prevention efforts.

With this in mind, what I'd like to do is break this up in to separate threads for discussion, and I'll rotate sticky those individual threads for discussion. As the discussions become 'available', I will link them here. All threads will remain available, but I can only sticky two threads to the sub at any given time, and will try to keep this thread up as a 'hub'.

As topics under the umbrella/thought of 'Quality of Life' that seem to pop-up regularly;

• Barracks Life Link To Thread - Posting 9/6

  • This can be anything to the setup of the living space (1+1 vs 2+2) to mold issues, privacy, etc.

• Warrior Restaurants Link to Thread - Posting 9/9

  • Food Quality, Availability, Distance from Barracks, etc.

• Housing [Link to Thread] - Posting 9/12

  • On and Off Posting Housing issues apply here.

• Current OpTempo [Link To Thread] - Posting 9/14

  • What specifically is the issue in your area? Is the Brigade's training Calendar ridiculous? Are you working mindlessly til 1830 every day - or are you in the field 300 days a year?

• Dependent Concerns - Child Care and Spousal Support - Posting 9/18

  • Child Care, its availability and quality is a big focus right now. Spousal Employment and engagement is another obvious area of concern.

• PCS Season and Moving - Posting 9/20

  • How can we make PCS-ing easier? What are the best and worst parts?

• Promotion System - Posting 9/22

  • There's been a lot of discussion about different NCOES availability, the current process, the effect of up/out and STEP, pick-up rates for Officers, etc.

I will post a Summation Thread on 9/27 as well!

Feel free to treat this thread as a 'General QOL' thread. If there are any issues or topics not listed above you want to explore, please talk about them!

I would ask that you do your best to gather your thoughts and coherently express them.

"My Barracks Sucks" is not as helpful as "It has taken two weeks to fix my AC", which is not as helpful as "I have been dealing with temperatures above 90 degrees in my barracks room for two weeks, my leadership is aware, I submitted an Arma Ticket for DPW but was told this isn't an emergency fix. This is the third time this year this has happened to me" or similar details. Whatever you can give without doxxing or feeling like you're causing a problem for yourself would be great.

I would love to hear positives too. If your barracks are awesome, please share that, and why they're great. Can you control the temperature without taping a doritos bag to a fan in front of a sensor? Are you in a 1:1 and that's why? Is your base's Child Care open from 06-18? Examples of what 'right looks like' are always good.

To start here is a -

General Quality-of-Life-Survey

You are not required to fill out any specific question. I am not collecting emails. I believe that Component, Grade, and CMF would be nice to know, but again, this is an informal survey. I don't have DoD codes to give you assigned to your .mil. The results will be displayed after you complete it - there's no hiding these results.