Wow! Its May Already. 360° had a very busy 2021 delivering 11 Virtual 360° Courses right up to the end of the year! And the team started the year preparing for its first ever two-week live Leader 360° Course at Fort Riley, Kansas. I’m pleased to report our first live class since January 2020 and the onset of COVID 19 was a success and such a treat to be live and to interact face-to-face with the Soldiers and Families of the great 1St Infantry Division in support of the Divisions’ Victory Wellness Program. We are programmed to deliver a record breaking 16 courses – combination of virtual, one week live and our new, two-week Hyrbid – in 2022. We are excited to deliver Skills for Leaders, Skills for Life to more and more military Leaders and their Families while also growing the ranks of our 360VA Leader members. Meanwhile, your Nonprofit Association has been busy and is moving forward with some exciting changes to increase the number of leaders and Families able to attend the life changing Leader 360° Course and increase and improve our delivery of growth and sustainment services for you, our members.
Recognizing that 360VA was at an inflection point in our growth and needed a true strategy to scale to make a more significant and sustainable difference, we formed a highly qualified team of 360VA Board Directors, augmented by some outside expertise. We have been through a rigorous process to evaluate our position, contemplate and refine our purpose, mission, and values; and develop a strategy for growth. During the process facilitated and resourced by my dear friend and former West Point Cadet Basic Training roommate, Mark Miller of Bearing Tree – Making it Easier to Make a Difference, we commenced a professionally facilitated “Branding” process with the initial intent of refining our logo and updating our website. During the process, our facilitator, Daniel asked a question we had not previously considered: “Who do you NOT want to be affiliated with?” Immediately, the Veterans Administration came to mind, not to pass judgement on, who I am sure are the many well-intentioned and committed professionals at the VA. But we do not want to be confused with the very large, government funded institution. On occasion, we have had to explain that 360VA (originally intended to connote Veterans of the Leader 360 Course) is not affiliated with the Veterans Administration. So, we brainstormed and came up with a new name. We considered that although we support our Veterans and that the active-duty leaders, we target are future Veterans, our focus/purpose is fortifying the well-being and resilience of our active-duty first line leaders, the “backbone” of our military, our NCO Leaders. Anyhow, we settled on, …drum roll…:360 Military-Veterans Partnership, 360MVP! We believe it captures the relationship between 360, our active-duty leaders, and our nation’s military Veterans…all our Nations, Most Valuable Players (MVPs)! Your Board of Directors has voted to make it official, and we are filing to change our name. Your membership remains valid for life. But you will see some changes: We will incorporate our new name and logos into all our products and communications, including and update and upgrade to your website.
But 360MVP is more than just a name change. 360VA member growth has been dependent upon and limited to inviting graduates of the government funded Leader 360° course. Government funding and contracting have always been the limiting factors in the ability of the Leader 360° Course to make a difference for more and more Military Leaders and Family members and ultimately make a real difference in our entire military. We believe that you and those who can be like you are the key to combatting all the adversities plaguing military service today: excessive alcohol and substance abuse, sexual assaults and harassment, domestic violence, and suicide. Engaged, empathetic leaders who know how to take care of themselves, their Families, peers, and those they lead can make the difference in effecting a positive command climate. The kind of service climate the parents of our young servicemembers expect and deserve for their sons and daughters. We are committed to delivering the Leader 360° Course to as many leaders of each service as we can. Our ambitious, SMART Goal is within five years to deliver 100 Leaders 360° Courses/per year to 5,000 Military Leaders and their Family members. To affect this, we are changing or model and will pursue large donors who are willing to commit to our mission. We will also expand our sustainment services by hiring paid 360MVP Chapter Coordinators at each major Command to facilitate 360MVP support of member personal growth and Life Skills strength sustainment in coordination with their commands’ Resilience Initiatives, e.g., the Army’s Health and Holistic Fitness (H2F) Program. These local chapters will grow our membership, develop relationships with the local commands as well as other support services, including other Veteran Service Organizations and affect delivery of Leader 360° Courses for their installations and commands. We are very excited about our potential to make a real difference for our Nation’s Military.
Business
360MVP Updates its Officers. I am pleased to report that our board recently voted MG (R) USA Barbara Holcomb, former Army Chief of Nurse Corps as our Vice Chair of the Board and 360MVP Vice President. The board also voted Mr. Bill Nash, USAFA graduate, A10 pilot and successful entrepreneur to serve as 360MVP Treasurer. Mrs. Anita Skelton was voted to serve another term as Secretary and I am honored to serve another term as Chairman of the Board and President, 360 Military-Veterans’ Partnership (360MVP). Thank you for the honor.
Upcoming Events and Activities:
- 1st Monday of each Month, Small Victories!
- 16-27 May: Hybrid, 1st ID, Fort Riley, KS (FRKS)
- 21 May, Healing Continues Workshop, Zoom
- 21 May, JBLM Virtual Reunion
- 23 May, GOT Golf Tournament, New Orleans
- 27 May, Guided Meditation with Paula Stephens, Zoom
- 29 May, Memorial Day Truffle Shuffle, Zoom
- 6-17 June: Hybrid, NTC, Fort Irwin, CA
- 18-29 July: Hybrid 360° Course, JBSA
- 16-23 Sep: Virtual 360° Course, JBLM
- 26 Sep – 7 Oct: Hybrid 360° Course, FRKS
- 10-13 Oct, AUSA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
- 17-28 Oct: Hybrid 360° Course, JBSA
- 6 Nov, Veteran’s Day Truffle Shuffle, Zoom
Small Victories. We know that the practice of gratitude promotes resilience. We invite our members to share their small victories on our Facebook page and monthly we recognize them and raffle gift card prizes.
The Healing Continues workshops continue to make a difference for participants. Over 70 members have participated in our monthly workshops. We have taken a journey from the Midnight Library’s ‘books of regrets’ to reconsider our perspective on ‘regret’ and life alternatives to the practice of self-compassion facilitated by the Self-Compassion Workbooks to Brene’ Brown’s Gifts of Imperfection: Courage, compassion and Connection, to don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements. We have sent out over 100 copies of these books to participants. The workshops are supported by Ms. Shirley Bratton, a domestic violence survivor and Quintana Memorial Award recipient and 360 Team members: Dr. Mary Lopez, Dr. Joe Conroy, and Reverend Fausto Kaverenge. Please watch announcements for upcoming events.
Warrior Yoga. 360MVP continues to offer Yoga, now bi-monthly on Zoom. We will alternate monthly with Guided Mediation practices led by Paula Stephens. Our first one last month was very well received. Watch for your invite to our next guided mediation session with Paula, 28 May
Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 2022 Annual meeting. We are honored to be AUSA Association members and returning to represent you and 360MVP at a booth in the AUSA Pavilion.
Memorial Day Truffle Shuffle, 29 May 2022
Truffle Shuffle is a popular, as seen on Shark Tank, virtual cooking experience. We have gifted the experience to a few members and will be participating will be funding the 360MVP members to register for the Special 360MVP featured, Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day Experience on 29 May and 6 November, respectively.
360MVP 2022 Starfish Awards. Congrats to our Quintana Memorial Leadership Award recipients and Thank you to our major donors for making a difference!
Staff Sergeant Micah Peed, USA, 1st Infantry Division, 1 April 2022
Staff Sergeant Christopher Grube, USA, 1st Infantry Division, 1 April 2022
1sgt Chase Gilkey, USMC, 2d marine Division, 6 May 22
Hope you will sign up for Truffle Shuffle and join us to celebrate Memorial Day!
