|
DINFOS
HIGHLIGHTS
January 2010
We have realized the full
funding of the Program Objective
Memorandum (POM) 708 which saw us start FY
2010 with an increased funding of $18.6
million in budget authority – bringing
the total DINFOS budget to nearly $40
million.
These funds will be allocated to 82
new civilian positions (15 of which are
already in the hiring process – the
remaining are instructor positions which
will be hired starting in April), new
equipment purchases and funding for
portable trailers (and equipment) so we
can begin remodeling portions of the
existing building and began planning for
the 50,000 square foot addition to the
building.
We will move some of the
administrative (and some of the
classrooms) into the portable trailers in
November of this year, while remodeling of
the existing building continues.
Planning and construction of the
new addition will start in FY 12.
At the annual Structure
Manning Decision Review (the Service’s
annual statement of training seat
requirements) this year – we were able
(for the first time) to meet all the
military training seat requirements for FY
2011 and beyond.
We will increase training seats by
nearly 30% overall to nearly 4,000
students per year.
The majority of the additional
training seats were requested by the Army
in the Broadcast maintenance, basic combat
correspondents (broadcasting), video
production, basic still photography and
the Public Affairs skills courses.
All the services had increases –
the Army just had the largest total
increases. We have also begun planning for an international public
affairs course and to reinstate the Joint
Course in Communication which was dropped
three years ago because of a lack of
funding.
This course will again be
contracted - it was hosted by the
University of Oklahoma for nearly 32
years.
We are now offering our
second distributed learning class – the
Basic Public Affairs skills course.
The first class of 24 is currently
enrolled in their online portion and they
will attend a two-week resident capstone
course later this spring. Following this validation course, we are on schedule to
complete two courses per year.
The Joint Senior Public
Affairs Course will be start next week –
it is now a three week course.
We are pleased that General Wilhelm
(USMC Ret), former SOUTHCOM Commander,
will again be on hand to serve as the
senior mentor for this class.
We have a full array of senior
government, academic and military leaders
scheduled to address the class.
We have begun planning
in earnest for the sixth annual
“Communicators of Excellence award
ceremony to honor the winners of the
Military Photographer, Videographer, and
Graphics Artist of the year competition,
as well as the winners of the Thomas
Jefferson Awards in both Print and
Broadcast categories.
This year we will also add
the Video Production Awards for the first
time – recognizing the best full-length
video programming within the Department of
Defense.
Mr. Robert Gibbs, White House Press
Secretary, has been invited to be the
keynote speaker.
The
reaffirmation of our accreditation by the
Council on Occupational Education will be
conducted this year in September.
At that time we will host a
visiting team of four educators who will
review our Self Study and visit the school
for a one-week period.
This will be our second
reaffirmation, as our initial
accreditation was granted in 1997 and
renewed in 2004. We will also host a
visiting team from the American Council on
Education (ACE) later this year.
They will be here to review all our
courses for recommended college credits.
Fort
Meade continues to grow.
Construction has begun in earnest
for the new headquarters building for the
Defense Media Activity – (formerly AFIS).
They plan on moving from Alexandria
in September 2011. This fall the Defense
Information Systems Agency will open their
new headquarters on Fort Meade, They are
in five new buildings and more than 5,000
people will move to Fort Meade starting
this fall.
Additionally, there are new
headquarters buildings being built for the
Service’s security clearance
adjudication offices and the 902nd
Military Intelligence Group.
For those familiar with Fort Meade,
most of the new buildings are being built
on the Golf Course, so plans are now being
completed for two new 18-hole golf courses
on the east side of the post.
Unfortunately, the third hole will be
right where our FTX site is now located,
so we will be looking to move that
facility to another location on post
within the next year.
So,
we begin 2010 busy as ever, but confident
knowing we continue to serve the Military
Services by training outstanding young men
and women in the public affairs and visual
information career fields. We
thank the Alumni Association for their
outstanding support – your most recent
donation of books for the Savanuck library
was most sincerely appreciated.
We hope you will stop by if you
ever get to the Washington DC area – the
faces and location may have changed over
the years, but I think you will be pleased
that the outstanding training that you
provided over the many years continues to
this day – albeit with newer equipment.
Please come and see us!
|
