Helping and Not Helping

As if to prove a point from the previous post, I checked my email this morning and there was a lead waiting for the entire station. We had a new "Hot" Lead waiting for us. The person had been a FS Loss, and had a history of mental illness, prescription medication usage, and law violations. None of that was mentioned in the information provided to the "refinement" center. Not one whit. To look at the information we' been provided you'd think that this lead was the hottest one ever and was just itching to go. Maybe they are, maybe they are not, but they are wicked unqualified and would be a waste of a recruiter's time to contact.



To make it worse, this individual is a liar. They lied to my face, to the recruiter's face, to the station commander's face, and even to their family. Apparently they continue to lie as their pre-qualification questions all say they have a clean background with no issues. If we hadn't enlisted this person before, we'd have known none of this from the lead information we'd been sent.



I know recruiting is painfully tough and our ability to accomplish out mission is contingent upon finding someone, anyone, who is willing and able to serve. However pushing down someone who is not only unqualified, but is known to be unqualified is not helping. We're lucky that the lead went to my station instead of another one because they'd have likely enlisted this person and either take the FS loss or be investigated when they went crazy at Basic.



However, while the lead generation system seems to be broken there is hope on the horizon.



Today we got our new computer. It's not a "new" new computer, but a computer we didn't have before. Apparently someone at USAREC got the idea that, rather than turn in old desktops, they could be given to recruiting stations as machines dedicated to March2Success. We've also installed the EST on it so we no longer have to lose a laptop when someone is taking the EST. Now, when we have Mr. Motivated CAT4, they can come in to our office and use that computer to do their studying. I don't know how often it will help us move someone from CAT4 to Bravo, but if it works with one, really, that's a success for us.



This is really unnecessary sniping on my part, but it sure would have been nice to have had this system before the last month of the recruiting year. However better late than never.



Anyways, it's late, I'm tired. Have a good one.