Defense Department plans morale, welfare, recreation survey

WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials are preparing to conduct the first militarywide survey to assess morale, welfare and recreation programs.

“We’ve established standards for all the services,” Arthur Myers, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, said. “Now we want to get feedback from the (servicemembers) on how we’re doing with our programs.”

Myers’ office is conducting the survey with the help of CFI Group, an international customer-satisfaction consulting firm with headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The survey will be e-mailed to about 150,000 randomly selected servicemembers in the near future and will appear as being from CFI Group “on behalf of DoD.”

“So, remember, when you get that, it’s not spam,” Myers said.

Though the survey will collect data on participants’ service branches and, if they choose to provide it, their ethnicity, the responses will be completely anonymous, Myers emphasized.

It’s also important, he added, that those selected participate in the survey to ensure the best level of accuracy in the results.

Though the survey will be sent only to active-duty servicemembers, Myers encouraged those selected to take their families’ opinions into consideration when responding. As more data is gained, future surveys will be open to the reserve components, he added.

Those receiving the survey will have about three weeks to participate. When the responses are collected and analyzed, the findings will be published on the Defense Department Web site, as well as on Military Community and Family Policy’s Military OneSource and MilitaryHomefront sites.

“This survey will actually tell us what (servicemembers’) needs are so we can meet those needs,” Myers said. “We really believe our programs are a key thing in keeping our military ready and (in helping to retain them.)”