Re: educating military campgrounds

Larryf -- in brief defense of my statement ...

I agree, many MCGs are probably fully aware of this site. I was actually referencing the people that make MWR budget decisions higher up the food chain -- because the MCG hosts and individual base commanders do not make the major DOD budget decisions nor do they set policy, they implement the budget and policy others higher up give them, generally. And mean no disrespect to this site if you took it that way ...

And MWR policy decisions are made higher up as well -- it is unlikely that DOD MWR policy makers in Congress read this site and base MWR policy decisions on what it contains. SO, those decisions are made WITHOUT the benefit of extremely valuable input this site could provide them.

And my reference to the 'commercial site' meant that it supports itself -- does not receive any funding from military, gvt, or MCG, or anywhere else except it's own resources.

For example: A very hot topic a short time ago -- regards AD using MCG as housing. IF DOD made the decision to use MCG as support housing for AD, the base commander would no longer have a say in the length of stay issues for AD ... and would upset the balance of site use for everyone else. We hope that never happens -- but local command does not make that decision, so local command reading this site would not help that specific situation. As unfortunate as that might be.

Knowledge is a powerful tool, if u really are interested in solving problems. A good place to start is to look at the testimony before the House Armed Force Personnel Subcommittee on the state of Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR}. Follow this thread, armedservices.house.gov/calendar_past_hearings.shtml scroll down to Thursday April 17,2008
Interestingly no mention of RV parks but check the testimony on Golf Courses. This will also give you the identity of the MMFIC's from all services who oversee MWR.

Larry did u block my email I sent yesterday regarding the use of ICE.

An Ancient Combat Infantryman

Followed the link - but don't know what you want us to see here ... what I get is a line up of people ... and an intro that skips RV but mentions many other components of MWR. And then a whole series of "talks" about lots of "Not RV' related issues. Not sure I got where you want me to go, actually. Nothing specific about golf either ... I'm probably in the wrong place, but am pretty CPU stupid tooooooooooooooooooooooo ...

Is there something specific you want us to see here that makes a point -- if so, please direct me to it --

Larry did u block my email I sent yesterday regarding the use of ICE.

Nope - the few messages I've ever blocked were SPAM.

My point in directing ur attention to the "State of MWR" testimony before the Armed Forces Subcommitte is if the top feeders (all who gave testimony and control the purse strings) don't recoginze Famcamps/ RV facilities as important as Golf don't expect to get the attention of the bottom feeders ( Post, Camp, Base MWR Managers, Outdoor Rec or what ever title).

An Ancient Combat Infantryman

What if the DoD added MWR - Facilities campground evaluations as a rating criteria under the Commander In Chief's Award for Installation Excellence?

ICE evaluations at the DoD level would seem the best method of tracking praise and constructive criticism. I copy and paste my ICE evaluations, re-mailing them myself to the camp manager and the MWR director. Their "official" copy arrives later through channels. Several years in a row, I've evaluated a campground via the Base ICE card and asked that a separate campground eval sheet be added. The auto hobby shop was there but no campground eval.

Why did DoD create ICE? Is it eye candy or is someone actually monitoring customer evaluations at the command level as they send responses down channel to the custodial provider of the service?

What if campgrounds were moved from MWR to Billeting/Lodging with a gain of 24 hr. reception support at "most" installations, a standardized "reservation" system and a chance that campgrounds then would be part of the win/loose eval on installation excellence!

Do we know or can we find out "if" campgrounds are PROFIT CENTERS as I suspect they are? Will that information empower our advocacy?

Last, "be careful what we wish for!"