The Bugle Boy May/June 2010
www.southcom.mil/usag-miami/mwr.html
Spotlight: Mr. Audy Snodgrass, New USAG-M Manager 1
SPOTLIGHT: MEET THE NEW GARRISON MANAGER
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
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WHAT’S UP IN SOUTH FLORIDA
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FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER NEWS
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PARENTS’ PAGE
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WHAT’S UP IN FMWR
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percent of what officers do, frankly. What we pay them for is to put it all together, and understand the bigger picture.
GOING GREEN
Recently, Garrison Matters, the USAGMiami newsletter, sat down with incoming Garrison Manager Audy Snodgrass for an interview about his vision for U.S. Army Garrison– Miami, and its role supporting U.S. Southern Command and Special Operations Command, South here in South Florida. Following a 30-year military career, Mr. Snodgrass came to Miami from Fort Hood, Texas, where he served as the Director of Plans, Training, Mobility and Security.
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WHAT GRATITUDE LOOKS LIKE
GM: How would you define your leadership style? Did you have any mentors?
GM: What about your own plans for the future of USAG-Miami?
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SPOUSES’ CORNER / WHO’S WHO
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FMWR FUN BUS TRIPS
Snodgrass: I’ve had the opportunity to work for a lot of great people. As an example, when I was at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California, I got pulled up to be the SGS. It wasn’t a job I sought. I didn’t know what (Secretary of the General Staff) stood for, and all of a sudden I was one, working for the chief of staff, Col. E.G. Fish. Fish was a patient, caring leader who took the time to explain the why as well as what he wanted. He got me off to a proper start, and when I did something wrong, he took the time to explain how to fix it. That’s a philosophy that I have followed since.
Snodgrass: It would be unfair to say I come here with a set of pre-programmed changes, because I don’t understand USAG-Miami yet. It is a different kind of installation. But I also suspect a degree of complacency has set in, because it is natural, and that is one reason the Army likes to swap leadership out. I am not afraid of change; there is nothing wrong with change. But understand that change for change’s sake is just silly, it’s selfserving, and that is one thing I am not.
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GM: Doesn’t the pace of current operations limit the time we have to explain things? Snodgrass: I don’t accept that – we’ve always been at a fast pace, whether you are at war or not, you are always doing things continuously, training, deploying, doing, doing, and doing. I used to give an in-brief to all my officers. That brief informed them that an officer has two purposes: Analysis, which is why we send them to college; the other is Reflection. Let’s face it, sergeants can do 90
GM: What should Garrison supervisors take away from that? Snodgrass: I hope our managers and subordinate leaders do what they always should have been doing, which is look to see how they can best serve our customers, how they can improve the processes they are responsible for, and ask themselves, what is coming up next? Not to look at the past – i.e. we’ve always done it that way – that is a terrible way to look at it! We have to be asking what is next? It is so easy to become complacent.
GM: Have you received any guidance from Installation Management Command? Snodgrass: John Nerger (Executive Director for IMCOM) said my responsibility was to “take it to the next level” – which means to me that the mission for USAG-Miami will become dramatically different. We are moving into a new headquarters with SOUTHCOM, so instead of dealing with leased operations we will be dealing with property we will own. We will be more responsive to a primary customer who has continued on page 2