Photo By Master Sgt. Nicholas Carzis | Over 68 members of the California Air National Guard enriched their leadership skills...... read more read more
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Over 68 members of the California Air National Guard enriched their leadership skills Jan. 24 through 26 during the annual California Force Development Course (CFDC) held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ventura, California.
The 146th Airlift Wing, based out of Channel Islands Air National Guard Station, hosted the event for the first time, gathering Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCOs) from all of the state’s five Air National Guard wings and the State Headquarters.
“All 5 wings sent participants to this course,” said Senior Master Sgt. Daniel Morency, an Airfield Manager with the 146th Operations Support Squadron. “It was a fantastic networking opportunity for everyone involved. I cannot think of any other event where all 5 wings and State Headquarters participate simultaneously at the same location. It’s rare to have us all in the same room at the same time.”
Morency says The CFDC was developed in 2017 to prepare Airmen to remain relevant and ready to lead with confidence throughout their careers. It does this through a series of courses and seminars taught by Airmen for Airmen.
“The CFDC is designed to enhance and develop the NCO and SNCO Corps,” said Morency. “Each wing that hosts the course can add and remove classes based on the needs of the community at the time.”
According to Morency the course provides force development for Airmen allowing them to better understand Air Force institutional competencies and provides California Airmen an opportunity to develop and learn together.
The use of educational classes creates the framework for the course, then group and individual discussion expands the viewpoints of those in attendance and gets people to think outside of their box.
“Each instructor brings their own knowledge and experience to the table,” said Morency. “We had instructors from every career field ranging in rank from Staff Sgt. all the way up to Chief Master Sgt. They were teaching about all sorts of topics including leadership skills, awards and decorations, Enlisted Performance Report writing, finance classes and human resource concepts such as unconscious bias among many other topics,” said Morency.
The CFDC utilizes diversity to create a venue for networking possibilities among the Airman of the California Air National Guard, helping to create relationships that students can foster to help each other grow in their careers.
“The CFDC course had rich content spanning diverse areas of professional development that definitely prepared me to better mentor and lead my Airmen,” said Tech. Sgt. Evan Zalesak, an aviation resource management craftsman with the 146th Operations Support Squadron. “The voice of experience and anecdotes provided from the instructors was valuable for real-world application and context. I also had the opportunity to meet several members from other wings and was able to discuss leadership scenarios and benefit from their perspective and experience.”
Morency explained that it’s imperative for the California Air National Guard to collaborate on how they build our airmen into tomorrow’s leaders.
“I feel the course is important because it’s a deliberate force development opportunity,” said Morency. “The focus of the Air Force is changing. We have four different generations in the Air Force, and if we don’t take deliberate actions to develop our leaders and to develop our junior troops, we’re going to fail. We can’t continue to do the things the way we’ve been doing them. We must change and innovate our thoughts and processes.”
Morency also believes an added benefit of hosting the course is having the public see how we develop our Airmen.
“It was great to be able to bring these top-notch NCO’s and Senior NCO’s into the community,” said Morency. “We’re showing the public that we are making a deliberate effort to grow and develop our future leaders. I think that doing It in a place public place such as the Crowne Plaza Hotel helps build relations with the community because they can see us mentoring our future leaders.”
Zalesak added that many of the participants agreed that the course gave them a new perspective on their careers and is beneficial to attend.
“It was absolutely worth participating in, and I gleaned valuable new information as well as new details about already-familiar topics,” said Zalesak. “I hope to be able to send my Airmen to the course in the future to help develop them.”
| Date Taken: | 01.27.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 02.24.2023 19:57 |
| Story ID: | 439181 |
| Location: | VENTURA, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 58 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, 146th Airlift conducts Annual California Force Development Course, by SSgt Michelle Ulber, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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