Welcome to the landing page for the 2018 SGAUS Mid Year Conference!

This year Mid-Year will be a bit different! In San Antonio besides the Executive Board meeting we will have training for MEMS, UPAR and Medical; Engineer and Chaplain will have conferences. JAG will have their training in Fort Worth.

For information about the conference and the workshops offered in San Antonio: Information.

For information about the JAG training in Fort Worth: Information.

 

SGAUS VETERAN/PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP CARD

Product Fact Sheet

 

The SGAUS Veteran ID Card is a document sold and issued by the State Guard Association of America (SGAUS) to its members.

It is a simple, yet informative card, the member can use it for identification and/or registration during SGAUS formal events and conferences and also use it as a Veteran Card in other establishments.

The SGAUS ID card is well labeled. The front of the ID card contains relevant information about the member; to include, head picture of the member, the SGAUS Logo, the member’s state of membership right under the SGAUS Logo, a flowing United States Flag with a “V” device superimposed on the flag to indicate that SGAUS has verified via DD-214 and/or Honorable Discharge certificate that the member is a U.S. Armed Services veteran. If the member is not a U.S. Armed Services veteran, then the “V” device will not show. The card also displays the member’s military Grade and Rank. It also displays a QR-Code containing the member’s ID card information so it can be easily scanned with a hand held mobile device during registration for SGAUS events and conferences. This QR-Code should speed up registration processes significantly. Lastly, the front of the ID card displays card issue and expiration dates. For Life members, the expiration will read “INDEFINITE”.

Below is an example SGAUS ID Card (front):

The back of the SGAUS ID card includes more information regarding the Veteran certification by SGAUS for Veterans, a gray color security picture of the member, the member’s state seal, instructions if the card is lost and a standard barcode field for SGAUS use. See below for an example of the back of the member ID card.

SDF’s interested in having a State SDF ID Card, we can provide the same card replacing the SGAUS logo with your SDF patch and the State Seal with your respective State seal. Before we can provide this service, the SDF Commanding General only, must make the request and provide the logo and seal in writing to kenneth.takasaki@sgaus.org.

For more information about the SGAUS Veteran / Premium membership card, please contact BG(TN) Chago Santiago at chago.santiago@sgaus.org

SGAUS PME Academy Update!

The SGAUS PME Academy is in full swing! The Academy continues to provide online Professional Military Education (PME) services to State Defense Forces (SDF’s) across the nation.  As of 21 April 2017, there are 594 students who have completed or are actively enrolled in online courses. Since the end of March in 2016, the PME Academy has awarded 482 course completion certificates.  Requests for enrollment are coming in on a daily basis. Once requests come in, students are set up and enrolled within two business days, max! We work very closely with the approved SDF’s PME coordinators to ensure each student’s effort and course work data is in the hands of the SDF training departments.

We would like to remind Commander’s to appoint state Training Officers and to identify Subject Mater Experts who are willing to become part of the PME Academy curriculum development teams. Upcoming projects will include developing a senior officer training course and developing course Programs of Instruction that allow organization with existing curriculum to integrate their curriculum using a resident and non-resident phases.  The resident phase would allow the organization to customize the training to fit their organization and the non-resident phase could be built largely of SGAUS PME online Courses.  This process would allow units to greatly increase their annual training hours with minimal expenditure of training resources.

The SGAUS online Academy also hosts the JAG Academy and their 10-module “Practicing Military Law” course available to SDF attorneys nationally, after approval by the JAG Academy Committee. The JAG Academy has awarded 35 certificates of course completion since its inception last Fall.

We are starting to see more military education standardization arise by the commonality the PME Academy and JAG courses across the various SDF’s. In addition to the JAG course, the current suite includes 12 PME courses:

Preventing Sexual Harassment (annual mandatory course in some SDF’s)

Officer Basic Course (OBC)

Officer Advanced Course (OAC)

Command & Staff Course Phase 1 (CAS1)

Command & Staff Course Phase 2 (CAS2)

Warrant Officer Basic Course (WOBC)

Warrant Officer Advanced Course (WOAC)

Warrant Officer Staff Course (WOSC)

Primary (Warrior) Leader Course (PLC)

Senior Leader Course (SLC)

Advanced Leader Course (ALC)

Command Sergeant Major Course (CSM)

Some SDF’s are now requiring their students to go through the online PME Academy courses before the in-residence academies in their states. They are discovering that this approach exposes the students, especially non-priors, to the instruction before the classroom experience which makes the discussion in class more focused and richer and the retention of instruction higher due to the repetition.

Some SDF’s are also requiring non-prior recruits to sign-up and enroll in courses as part of their recruitment/onboarding processes. The same goes for specific courses being required for promotions.

So, if your state is interested in participating, the SDF Commander needs to contact the SGAUS Executive Director, BG (TN-R) Kenneth Takasaki at:

kenneth.takasaki@sgaus.org

BG Takasaki will brief the SDF Commander on the program and the onboarding process. Each state has the flexibility to merge the services of the Academy into their PME process.

I also need to remind everyone that the instructional content of the PME Academy is a living entity. The current suite of courses is not static. We anticipate more courses being added in the future and existing courses being refined for more effectiveness of instruction. The SGAUS Education Committee Chair is COL James Hardy. Please make any suggestions for changes, improvements and new courses to him at:

James.Hardy2@fema.dhs.gov

If you have technical questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at:

Chago.santiago@sgaus.org

 

Thank you.

 

CHAGO SANTIAGO, COL (TN)                                                     JAMES J. HARDY, COL (NY)

Chief Technology Officer                                                                Chair, SGAUS PME Academy

SGAUS                                                                                                  SGAUS

 

More than 67,000 veterans have applied to shop on the military exchange store websites under a recently released benefit.

The benefit clears the way for honorably discharged veterans from any era to shop at the exchange stores online. In the past, the shopping benefit both online and at brick-and-mortar locations was limited primarily to active-duty troops; National Guardsmen, reservists and their dependents; and retirees and their dependents.

To signup, go to VetVerify.org web portal. That system allows veterans’ information to be verified with the Defense Department so they can be cleared to use the online exchange stores.