This year’s theme, “Think outside the bowl,” was designed to motivate CONG Family Readiness Groups to gain new perspective on how to support families; to think beyond the fish bowl that limits our ability to see beyond the world in which we are comfortable.

Family Programs provided a host of the newest local resources available to families, including CONG’s new personal financial counselor, Linda Jacobs, and CONG Department of Labor Outreach Coordinator, Elaine Edon. Jacobs’ financial counseling is a free benefit available to families. Edon helps Soldiers and Airmen find both temporary and permanent work.

This was also a weekend for individuals to learn how to implement and run successful FRGs.  A strong FRG is essential to the cohesiveness of a unit, especially in the National Guard. It provides opportunities for families who live miles apart to come together and relate with those who are going through similar experiences not otherwise existing in the civilian population.

FRGs consist of a commander, first sergeant, unit coordinator, FRG leader, treasurer and family members such as spouses, parents, aunts, uncles and even grandparents, who are willing to set aside time to support families, the unit and in the end, the success of the Soldier or Airman. By fundraising, family days, monthly get-togethers and other activities, the volunteers can show love and pride for their Soldiers or Airmen, as well as their country. A thriving FRG can be the answer to success on the home front.

The weekend began Friday evening with networking opportunities between commanders, first sergeants, volunteers and their families at the Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center.  Attendees were given the opportunity to mingle while disc jockey Sgt. 1st Class Barry Armstead revved up the dance floor.

Saturday morning brought the official start of the conference with opening speaker Jenner Marcucci. Marcucci has more than 20 years of experience working with top-tier organizations and has also been described as “part stand-up comic.”  He addressed the need to understand how our own perspective can limit our ability to think outside the bowl. “We see the world through how we grow up and that’s our perspective,” said Marcucci.

Marcucci went on to present a breakdown of generational differences and how they can affect how we work with each other. The CONG consists of a variety of generations  and FRGs must maintain a flexible perspective on issues that arise from each.

However, the adults weren’t the only ones who were encouraged to think outside the bowl. The teens of attendees worked and played with motivational speaker and break dancer, Patrick Perez. Perez, a renowned youth success speaker and author, combined active break dancing lessons with setting personal goals. He also helped teens to see how their individual perspectives can affect their own success, stating, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always have.”

Perez had a unique ability to speak to the CONG teens, because his father was a POW in Vietnam. By noon, he had all 33 teens in the room performing break dancing moves that kept them moving and grooving before heading up to 4 Eagle Ranch in Wilmot, Colo., for an afternoon rafting trip down the Colorado River.

While the CONG youth were river rafting, horseback riding and hiking in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, CONG command staff members were fielding hot item questions from conference attendees. Questions covered concerns about reintegration issues, operational tempo, attrition after deployments and the recent replacement of Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan.

After addressing major concerns presented to his staff, Maj. Gen. H. Michael Edwards, the Adjutant General of Colorado, expressed the importance of this conference as a time “to think about how to take better care of each other. This is all about taking care of people.”

To learn how to better take care of people, Family Programs provided numerous classes for attendees during the remainder of the conference. Military protocol, net-working know-how,  suicide prevention, five love languages and recruiting and retaining volunteers were just a few of the classes offered.

This year’s curriculum proved so desirable that Michelle Miller, FRG leader for the 169th Fires Brigade, exclaimed, “I wish I could go to all of them, they are all interesting!” Miller decided to attend the class that taught FRG Leaders and other volunteers how to utilize the online Joint Services Support system used by the National Guard Bureau to track volunteer hours per state. Each state is then funded based upon the number of volunteer hours performed, and that demonstrates why it so important to understand and use JSS.

Among the other classes offered that afternoon, “Fish Philosophy” was constantly full. “Fish Philosophy” is a series of one- to two-hour classes to teach how to “catch the energy and release the potential” of organizations, corporations – and even families. Military OneSource expert, Angie Yount, led the one-hour class, which offered a taste to FRGs that might consider using this philosophy within their teams.  The four key points of the philosophy are “play, make their day, be there and choose your attitude.” The purpose of this class was to learn a new perspective that can help boost morale and improve results within an FRG.

Without the leadership and volunteers dedicated to care for Soldiers, Airmen and their families, FRGs would not exist. For this reason, Family Programs chose to honor the outstanding leaders of the CONG’s FRGs and the units that make them possible. The following is the list of CONG 2010 FRG award recipients:

Colorado Army National Guard

Family Readiness Group of the Year: Battery A, 3rd Battalion, 157th Field Artillery

Family Readiness Group of the Year: Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 193rd Military Police Battalion

Commander of the Year: Capt.  Jay Gustin, Company B, Special Troops Battalion, 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain)

Unit Coordinator of the Year: Sgt. Ryan Norfolk, Company B, 147th Brigade Support Battalion

First Sergeant of the Year: 1st Sgt. Robert Cunningham, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 193rd Military Police Battalion 

Volunteer of the Year: Marlene Phillips, Centennial Training Site

Colorado Air National Guard

Family Readiness Group of the Year: 140th Wing headquarters

Deployed Commander of the Year: Lt. Col Floyd Dunstan, 120th Fighter Squadron

Commander of the Year: Col. Thomas Shetter, 140th Maintenance Group

Unit Coordinator of the Year: Master Sgt. Gregory Elrod, 140th Security Forces Squadron

First Sergeant of the Year: Master Sgt. Halbert Frank, 140th Maintenance Squadron