The scenario in title is a situation I found myself in once when I forgot to pause Madden when I ate dinner. I came back and found that Delay of Game penalties took my once goal-line play to the bad side of the 50 yard line. I went ahead and tried for it anyways, and failed miserably. Not only did I not make it, my WR was injured on the play and wound up missing the rest of the game.
When I read the comment from "Blah" in my last post, it reminded me of that time in my living room way back in the glory days of pre-USAREC. Blah is talking about a HUGE bonus available for people who agree to ship by 27 August 2007. This Quick Ship bonus is, with few qualifications, a $20,000 bonus for anyone, regardless of MOS, who agrees to ship for Basic prior to the end of August. In my office we've seen $40,000 bonuses for bravos going in to Combat Service Support MOS's. This is ridiclious money and it's money available just to get someone to ship. Blah refers to it as desperate, and I can't help but think that he's right.
I don't pay enough attention to what happens at the USAREC level stuff. All I know down here in Recruiterlandia is that we're not in a good position. This feeling of mine is bolstered by the actions being taken to help us try and recover the shortfalls from the previous months.
Over 1,000 Gold Badge recruiters being called back to serve as lead generators. While Jack Army managed to escape being recalled via a risky, but brilliant strategy of being deployed to Iraq, others were not so lucky. I know two of the recruiters who were recalled. One of them was pretty grateful for the opportunity to get back out there talking to kids. I hear the other one had to be talked off a ledge.
During MG Bostick's remarks to the military personnel subcommittee of the House Armed Service Committee he mentioned that the Army has requested additional funding to create a veritable flood of HRAPs and SRAPs to further help us recruiters in making mission. The rumor I've heard is anywhere between 4,000 and 5,000 HRAPs will be going out on to the streets.
Another piece of this puzzle has been the continued application of lead refinement services. I'd mentioned this before, but never really got in to much detail on it. I simply called the numbers as they came down. Well, now there is, apparently, another company going through the bajillion names and numbers generated by recruiting and its activities and providing us in the field with things called "SuperLeads". Yes, there is no space.
I'm going to go ahead and give a little stock tip. If anyone knows who currently has the contract to refine these leads; invest in them. They have the sweetest deal on Earth. In my experience they're getting paid by the government to give me leads I've already gone through.
Today I was going through a list of these SuperLeads and saw a name that looked familiar. I checked the contact history and here is what I found.
JUN2004: No Contact. Recruiter: SFC B's mentor's mentor
SEP2004: No Contact. Recruiter: SFC B's mentor
FEB2005: No Contact. Recruiter: SFC B's mentor
MAR2005: No Contact. Recruiter: SSG B
APR 2005: No Contact. Recruiter: SSG B
MAY2005: No Contact. Recruiter: SSG B
JUN2005: No Contact. Recruiter: SSG B
OCT2005: No Contact. Recruiter: SSG B
DEC2005: No Contact. Recruiter: SFC B
APR2006: No Contact. Recruiter: SFC B
JUL2006: No Contact. Recruiter: SFC B
APR2007: No Contact. Recruiter: SSG Tree
AUG2007: No Contact. Recruiter: SGT W^3, SSG Tomas, SFC B
I wish I was exaggerating. And those are just the ones that were recorded on this particular record. But, it is a SuperLead, and as such, someone with a high propensity to enlist. So high in fact that we need to report back daily on where we are in their enlistment process. Disregard the fact this individual has no apparent interest in contacting the Army themself (they also happen to live about two blocks from the station), there is nothing in this record to imply that it has changed one whit since I last attempted to contact them over a year ago. It's the same phone number. Same address. Same everything. There is no indiciation that the company refining these leads has contacted this person at all. But it's being fed to me as a SuperLead and worthy of nothing less than the best and most urgent attention of the recruiters in the office.
This isn't the only such lead either. Another SuperLead is so old that the person didn't just enlist before we got the lead, they reenlisted. The email address for this person is their AKO email address. How the heck did this thing pass any sort of screening?
I really, truly appreciate the efforts of those above and around me to help accomplish my mission, but a SuperLead like that is one I can do without. I could grin and laugh about it were it an exception, but I'm yet to find a SuperLead which was anything but someone wasting time submitting it. How is it that these leads can, apparently, be easily contacted by a person calling from a phone bank in Whoknowswhere, USA and yet are never home, regardless of what time a recruiter calls, or drops by in person. What secret sause do the lead refinement people have which makes them impervious to people not being home?
Anyways, it was a long, hard day in recruiting. With a week to go I remain behind the eight ball. I'm lucky though in that I'm actually on the table. Some of my teammates are so far behind that they haven't even shown up at the metaphoric bar where I'm playing metaphoric pool. If I was actually ahead of the game I'd be passing out what I could to help, but I'm going to get what I need by the skin of my teeth, if I get it at all.
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