Building pride among dorm airmen Published Dec. 17, 2015 By Staff Sgt. Alexx Pons 27th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- According to Air Force Instruction 32-6005 Unaccompanied Housing Management, an Airman’s personal residence should be modern, functional, well maintained and comfortable, as well as promote pride, professionalism and personal dignity. Building off of this foundation, Cannon’s Dorm Council came up with an idea geared toward improving integrity within the dorms to promote esprit-de-corps, camaraderie, the wingman concept and a little friendly competition. “We are calling it the Dorm Pride Program,” said Airman Mason Young, 27th Special Operations Maintenance Squadron aircraft electrical and environmental systems technician and Cannon Dorm Council president. “This initiative will challenge dorm residents to show pride they have not only in their own personal dorm, but their entire dorm building.” Young stated the dorm council meets monthly to address concerns unaccompanied airmen have about their living environments, propose recreational activities, identify areas needing improvement and present feasible solutions. “We do our best to make sure dorm airmen feel like their voices are being heard by leadership on base,” Young said. “At one of our meetings earlier this year, Master Sgt. Tilley threw out the idea of building teamwork within the dorms. One thing led to another and before we knew it, we had this idea for an incentive program to reward entire dorm buildings that exceeded living standards.” To simplify Young’s vision, teams will begin inspecting random rooms and additional components of all dorm buildings each quarter. An eight-person team made up of two chief master sergeants, two first sergeants, two company grade officers and two noncommissioned officers will inspect things like: the exterior of the dorm building, attached parking lots, common areas, dayrooms, kitchens and laundry facilities before examining individual dorm rooms. “Each room will be randomly selected by dorm management every quarter and will make up the rest of the composite score for that building,” stated Master Sgt. Ruby Tilley, 27th Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron first sergeant and Cannon Dorm Council mentor. “Winning will come down to teamwork; to those airmen who really do care about morale, welfare and keeping people motivated.” And what is the ultimate prize to be won? “Our professional and private organizations are sponsoring this initiative,” said Tech. Sgt. RayShawn Brown, 27th SOCES unaccompanied housing NCO in charge and Cannon 5/6ers president. “They are offering one of two prizes: a $300 cash value prize to the winning dorm building or a pride project to be paid for by wing that will improve overall quality of life for that building’s residents.” While this concept started with the dorm council, Brown noted it will be led, maintained and organized by members of the 5/6 council dorm recognition subcommittee [Staff Sgt. Joseph Nahas, 27th SOCES and Staff Sgt. John Ambrus, 27th Special Operations Support Squadron], which was set up specifically to work on this project with dorm airmen. “This is a great opportunity for dorm residents to work as a team; not only do they have to work together to show pride in their building and exceed standards, but they have to rely on each other to have their personal rooms ready for inspection,” Tilley said. “How they accomplish that will be up to each dorm council representative – it is all part of the competition. I am looking forward to getting out there on inspection day and see what our amazing airmen come together to accomplish.” The first winners of the dorm competition will be announced during the next quarterly award ceremony, slated for late January. “We talk about the pride epidemic within AFSOC [Air Force Special Operations Command] and I have to say that I am proud to see our Airmen motivated for this competition, as well as leadership across the wing supporting this initiative and our dorm airmen,” Tilley stated.