Employee suggestion turns into latest DLA ‘Loglines’ issue

Courtesy Photo | Gary Sandiford, a DLA customer support representative, suggested the most recent issue of Loglines, which focuses on the agency's efforts to better serve its customers.  

FORT BELVOIR, VA, UNITED STATES

06.18.2014

Story by Amanda Neumann 

Defense Logistics Agency   

As a Defense Logistics Agency customer support representative, Gary Sandiford handles issues and challenges all the time for the agency’s customers. But when he had one of his own, Sandiford realized there was no easy place to find an answer.

Tasked with finding a consolidated website listing all of the training that DLA offered, Sandiford soon found there wasn’t one. Knowing that others also might not know where to look to find training, he decided to contact the one source he thought might be able to help: Loglines, DLA’s flagship magazine.

FORT BELVOIR, Va. - “I first called Kathy [Rhem, Loglines managing editor] and told her I thought I might have an idea for a future Loglines,” Sandiford said. “She agreed and asked me to write something up and send it to her. So I did. Later, I got an email saying they were adopting my suggestions wholesale and were going to move forward with an issue. I was amazed. It’s kind of cool. We all get ideas, but when you send someone that idea and they say, ‘Yeah, that’s pretty good,’ it makes you feel good.”

An avid reader of the magazine already, Sandiford uses past issues to help reach out to customers at his current assignment, located at the Combined Arms Support Command’s headquarters in Fort Lee, Va.

“I use Loglines all the time,” he said. “I take it to all my classes and pass them out so they are familiar with it. And I read them. Every [issue] I get, I read cover to cover. I learn stuff I don’t learn from any other place. I keep a bunch of boxes full of a year’s, almost two, worth of back issues in my office. As I go, I take three or four of every issue with me and I pass it on. I go around and put it throughout the building, I give it to people all the time and I send them to folks. I think it’s a great magazine.”

Sandiford is still amazed that one phone call has turned into an actual product, especially one that he regards highly.

“The reason I came to Loglines is because of the quality of the work,” he said. “When you read an issue, it’s good. It tells me something and I can actually use the information. Loglines has the unique ability to collect data and put it into a form that’s easily digestible. There’s no other place that gets in-depth with what different parts of DLA does; it gets me caught up.”

Already armed with his next suggestion, Sandiford is excited to continue to pitch topics in the future.

“This makes me feel like I’m getting something done,” he said. “Because I submitted this, now there are a bunch of people out there that are doing this training that are finally getting some recognition. Everybody likes to raise their hand and have someone say, ‘Hey, that’s a good point,’ and that’s kind of like what I did. And it all started just because I called her up.”

• Date Taken: 06.18.2014
• Date Posted: 06.26.2014 11:09
• Story ID: 134494
• Location: FORT BELVOIR, VA, US