Hill Airman and Family Readiness Center gets a new director

  • Published
  • By Catherine McNally
  • Hilltop Times staff
HILL AFB, Utah --  He may be a newcomer, but Tom Badman, the Airman and Family Readiness Center's new director, is already hard at work to make Hill's AFRC an exceptional service provider for the base community.

"Our key goal is to assist every organization in becoming more mission capable, more mission ready," Badman said in regards to his goals for the center.

Badman, who has worked as a Community Readiness Consultant at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and Ramstein Air Base, Germany; and as a Supervisory Community Readiness Consultant at Robins AFB, Ga., has also served for 22 years in the Air Force.

While juggling the challenges of finding a house, getting set up on base, and helping his family settle in, Badman says that right now his plan of attack is to view how successful the AFRC services are in the community and what customers need to be successful.

"It's in a stage right now to where we're just taking a look at all the services the center provides," he said.

After analyzing the services and their success, Badman and the AFRC staff plan to tackle any issues and make sure to "provide the support services to organizations to have a positive effect on their mission readiness," he stated.

"Our plan is to 'work smarter, not harder,'ââââ" he added.

One of the ways Badman and the center staff will "work smarter" is by applying what is called the "consultant model."

"The model is intended to frontload our services to our assigned organizations," Badman said. "The old school mentality was that we were center-centric: that is, 'Build it and they will come.'ââ"

"It's far easier for us to send a single consultant out there to maybe conduct or facilitate an educational moment for an assigned group of people as opposed to trying to transport 50, 60, 100 people to some other place," he explained.

While the transition is already under way and consultants are being sent out, part of the analysis is to see how effective they are in providing the necessary services to the base.

Though these changes may seem daunting, the AFRC is in good hands. Badman's work at Offutt AFB, one of the first bases to test the consultant model, will allow him to provide insight and direction.

Badman and his staff are also seeking feedback from customers and the community.

"It's very important that our customers provide feedback, too," he said. "They're the ones that are going to let us know whether we're being successful or not ... If our customers aren't getting the services that make them successful, then we're not providing what we need to provide."

Along with the challenge of incorporating the new model, Badman hopes to challenge his staff, as well.

"I would like to challenge the staff ... to see if we can't be the best," he said as he mentioned the awards the AFRC has earned over the years. Maybe there will be an award for 2010 up there soon, Badman said.

Challenges or not, Badman and his staff are dedicated to doing their best to provide quality services to the community.

"We are here and our services are available to active duty, family members, retirees, (and) DoD civilians ... We are all Airmen with a capital 'A'. You don't have to wear a uniform to be eligible for our services," Badman said.