JBSA-Fort Sam Houston hosts Armed Forces Action Plan forum Oct. 29-Nov. 1 Published Oct. 9, 2018 By David DeKunder 502d Air Base Wing Public Affairs JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- Workgroups representing a cross section of Joint Base San Antonio will be addressing quality of life issues brought forth by servicemembers at a four-day forum that starts Oct. 29 at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston. The Armed Forces Action Plan forum will be Oct. 29-Nov. 1 at the JBSA-Fort Sam Houston Military & Family Readiness Center, 3060 Stanley Road, building 2797. The annual forum gives military members an opportunity to provide their ideas and suggestions on critical issues concerning quality of life, readiness, welfare and morale to senior JBSA leadership for action and resolution. JBSA servicemembers had until August to submit issue forms online or at JBSA Military & Family Readiness Centers for the AFAP forum. Quality of life issues submitted to the forum will be reviewed by four workgroups consisting of 11 delegates each selected from installation and tenant commands throughout JBSA. Workgroups include family, force, military health and teen. The first day of the forum starts at 8:25 a.m. with opening remarks from Brig. Gen. Laura Lenderman, 502nd Air Base Wing and JBSA commander; Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, Army North (Fifth Army) commanding general; and Rear Adm. Tina Davidson, commander, Navy Medicine Education, Training and Logistics Command. At 9 a.m. delegates will undergo training before meeting in their specific workgroups to begin their work. “AFAP is a grassroots process,” said Yazmine Gutierrez, JBSA Armed Forces Action Plan coordinator. “It funnels information from the bottom up and it provides the (JBSA) community the opportunity to voice their concerns – what isn’t working, what is working and what they like to see implemented. It’s a way to get their quality of life concerns in front of (JBSA) leadership who can help affect that change.” Gutierrez said 81 quality of life issues were submitted through the AFAP process, with 25 of those issues selected to be reviewed and discussed by workgroups at the forum. The remaining 56 issues submitted have been sent through the Interactive Customer Evaluation, or ICE, program, an online survey system that allows Department of Defense customers to rate and provide feedback on products and services provided by DOD offices and facilities. Delegates will review and discuss issues designated for their workgroup. Issue papers submitted by JBSA community members and an information paper on that issue written by assigned subject matter experts will be provided to the delegates. The information paper will include facts, regulations and whatever is applicable to that issue for the delegates to read over. In each workgroup, delegates will prioritize and select the top two quality of life issues for senior JBSA leadership to act on and resolve. The workgroups will work with the assigned subject matter experts and the Facilitators, Recorders, Transcribers, or FRTI, support team made up of JBSA staff members and community volunteers. Gutierrez said JBSA members are welcome to come by, observe and listen in to any of the workgroup sessions at the AFAP forum. She said visitors to the workgroup sessions will not be allowed to speak, but will be given an evaluation form on their observations of the AFAP forum process. On the form, JBSA members will be able to evaluate and rate the performance of the workgroups, delegates, facilitators and subject matter experts. Workgroup sessions will be from 10:35 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 29 and from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 30 and 31. On the last day of the forum, Nov. 1, each workgroup will reveal its issue recommendations to JBSA leaders in a final report. Final reports will be presented at 10 a.m. Also on the forum’s last day, JBSA leaders Lenderman, Buchanan and Davidson will give closing remarks. In 2017, 43 quality-of-life issues were reviewed at the AFAP forum. While fewer issues, 25, will be reviewed and discussed at this year’s forum, Gutierrez explained that those issues that will be taken up are more in line with quality of life concerns of the JBSA community than those dealing with customer satisfaction, which were passed on through the ICE process. For more information about the AFAP forum, call 210-221-2705/2418.