Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

• Office call in Baltimore office. Met HoDs for design phase but am unlikely to meet any of them again for 8 months.
• Cel phone available – call 001 443 805 9636
• Cac card not ready. No ssn. No car.  Many admin problems to resolve. (No CAC = no access to bases or access to IT facilities)
• Col Anderson is championing our cause and is very on Side. Understands our situation and is keen to ensure we get what we need out of theattachment.
• Have collected project docs for HQ project in Harrisburg.
• Light rail commute to Baltimore works well.
• Am repeatedly being asked if i am Australian….. 
• Strongly recommend future US attachments come out early to avoid admin issues. Can not apply for social security number until have been in country for 10 days. Remaining 4 days insufficient to work outremaining admin. first week at work will be affected.

14 Mar

• Still chasing CAC(Common Access Card) and SSN (Social Security Number). Must identify a system of ensuring our future officers know what to ask for as the staff here do it so infrequently they do not process correctly.
• Had first experience of Maryland Vehicle Authority…….madness, but now have 1 set of wheels for travel up North to Harrisburg.
• Had initial orientation of Harrisburg office.
• Have volunteered to participate in the USACE outreach program to visit schools and promote science and engineering.

15 Mar

• 3 hour drive to deepest darkest Pennsylvania to visit a Reserve Centre. They are closing down smaller centres and consolidating them with larger, better equipped centres that cater for a larger area. The project is approx 25% complete.
• Contractors have changed personnel and so have USACE and the result is a birds nest of previous decisions / omissions with errors on both sides. I see a complete lack of communication, an overworked junior project engineer with little support from above or any ability to delegate. I believe the contractor is taking advantage of the ‘mess’ and is not pushing for resolution to submissions (as they get compensation after 30 days). I made a point of keeping quiet in the meeting as I clearly don’t know the procedures yet but chose to ask questions privately after the meeting. I also noticed a complete lethargy on site and very few workers were present. To me this site is not being recovered, considering it is behind schedule.
• Also visited levee systems to see how they work.

16 Mar

• Am now the proud owner of a SSN…..not that it helps with getting utilities to the house. They now want notarised copies of all my docs……
• Had further orientation of USACE Harrisburg office.
• Had orientation to New Cumberland Depot and specifically some new builds and a steam plant.
• Raised concerns reference Reserve centre problems with another engineer who is removed from the project. He confirms that the issues I raised are relevant but advises to wait a while before wading in. Will address diplomatically.
• Weather is gooood.
• Local radio is much better than uk. Have plumped for 98 rock! It’s the sound of Baltimore and helps make the 1hr 15min commute each way a little more tolerable!

19 Mar:

• Issues with new vehicle purchase. Chased though state police. Need to return to Virginia.
• CAC issue running in circles.
• Met with area officea manager.
• In depth discussions ref contracts used at usace.
• Discussions ref Ashley project. Reserve centre with many issues to resolve.
• Contact info with proposed home tel number etc passed up.
• Still no joy finding a Harley.
• Proposed HQ project on hold – will have to get involved in some levee projects that are being queued up.

20 Mar 

• Conducted admin ref submissions. All logged in diary for area managers to see and help identify peak periods.
• Met Remi – another office manager who is in charge while Dawn Conniff is away playing soldiers.
• Have come up with alternative plan to acquire CAC via embassy. Will require trip to Washington which would also tie in nicely with vehicle admin required. Will have to go to Virginia to Fort Mead(?) for issue.
• Observed bottom of chain with reference to submittals* to see how they are processed.
• Still no utilities in the house (result of not having SSN until recently)

*Submittals:

USACE is structured and geared so that the project engineers work closely to a fixed set of rules and procedures. Their idiots guide to project management reeks of the APMP course that we did just before heading out here. Submittals are the formal way in which the contractor brings any information to the attention of the project manager. There is a computer system called RMS which tracks the progress of each submittal (which could be literally anything related to the projectr.) This system acts as an audit trail and enforces the role of USACE in the Quality Assurance role, leaving the contractor responsible for Quality Control. It seems to be odd that the contractor is self policing in terms of quality controil but I am assured that USACE makes it work…..

21 Mar

Re-visited Ashley (Reserve Centrre) project to see what progress has been made. Many issues with the submittal process were resolved betwene the PM, his supervisor and the Contractor. Contractor seemed very tuned in to the language that USACE wants / needs to hear. It is clear that there are still serious communication issues and in my mind it is crazy that the project manager on this particular site is not authorised to make decisions that will expedite the construction and allow progress to be made. 6 hours of driving today has left me lacking in horsepower.

All in all it has been a slow process of bedding in and there are still many administrative issues to overcome. Tomorrow will be spent at the embassy trying to resolve. I expect that next week will see some advancements (after I have completed the obligatory on-line training……[bangs head on table repeatedly])