Author: Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE
Finance Friday Articles
Here are my favorites this week:
Covid-19 Reminds Us of the Need for an Emergency Fund
No, You Didn’t Just Lose Half Of Your Retirement Savings
Here are the rest of the articles:
Actions to Take When Under Financial Pressure
Behavioral Finance Lessons from Bear Markets
Buying Foreign Stocks After a Fall
Does Experience Matter During a Bear Market?
Employee Versus Independent Contractor (people screw this up all the time when they start moonlighting)
Hard Times Teach Us About Money
Keeping My Balance During a Market Decline
Retirees and Pre-Retirees: You’ve Got This
Tax Loss Harvesting with Vanguard: A Step by Step Guide
The CARES Act – What Doctors Need to Know and Care About
The Danger of Not Checking Your Portfolio (I’ve Made a Huge Mistake)
The Relationship Between Earnings and Bear Markets
What Happened to Small Cap Value?
Would You Rather: Buy Too Early or Buy Too Late in a Bear Market?
Force Health Protection Guidance – Supplement 7
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Matthew Donovan recently released Supplement 7 to the Force Health Protection Guidance. Supplement 7 provides guidance on cloth face coverings and updates the guidance on personal protection equipment and non-pharmaceutical interventions.
(I’m not seeing anything new here, but it might be new if you haven’t read everything I’ve read. It is hard to keep up with the flow of information.)
Supplement 7 can be found here.
CNO Message to the Fleet
WASHINGTON (NNS) — The events of the past week have been difficult for our Navy and our nation. We will learn from them. But make no mistake, we are moving forward. The Navy has our orders and we are executing them.
As I write, we have thousands of Sailors on mission, above, under, and on the seas as well as here at home on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis. We’re operating far forward on 90 ships, including three aircraft carriers and two big deck amphibious ships. Navy Cyber teams are defending our networks. Seabees are converting commercial buildings into medical facilities across six states. Three thousand Navy doctors, nurses and corpsmen, including hundreds of reservists, are caring for our fellow Americans on USNS MERCY, COMFORT, in New York City’s Javits Center, and in civilian hospitals. Hundreds more deployed to treat the sick in Dallas and New Orleans. The NIMITZ carrier strike group and her air wing at Lemoore are in 14 day Restriction of Movement (ROM) as they ramp up to deploy. Same for our SSBN crews. Countless more Sailors are leaning in to support them – across our fleet staffs, intelligence centers, training facilities, and supply depots. More than six thousand recruits at Great lakes are preparing to head to the fleet.
Given this, I have three priorities for us right now. First, our health and safety. Second, ongoing fleet operations and our support to the coronavirus effort. Third, continuing to generate the enormous amount of support required to keep #1 and #2 on track. I know much of that effort is behind the scenes and out of the limelight – but every bit of it is critical.
We must ensure the health of the force. And we must be laser-focused on the Fleet – from manning to maintenance, and from training to warfighting. Operational readiness is our job… and every one of us has a role. Nobody sits the bench.
Everyone must pull together. And in this new environment of coronavirus, we’re all learning, adapting, and improving by the hour. There is no better example of this than USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT – staring down an invisible enemy – dedicated in their efforts – making phenomenal progress, and providing lessons for the Navy and beyond.
America. Has. A. Great. Navy. Our nation counts on you and so do I. Never more proud to be your CNO.
DOD Ramps Up COVID-19 Response Efforts From Coast to Coast
Here’s a link to this good summary of the current state of DoD efforts:
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – All the Posts About Letters to the Board in One Place
The question most people ask me is answered in these posts:
Should You Send a Letter to the Promotion Board?
Do You Still Need to Send the Above Zone Letter?
The bottom line is:
Pretend that you did not send a letter to the board, the board is over, and you were not selected for promotion. Are you going to be kicking yourself for not sending the letter? If the answer is yes or maybe, then send the letter. As long as you keep it short and sweet, there is no real downside.
Frankly, I think that when officers send letters to promotion boards they are often just making themselves feel better, and there is nothing wrong with that. You want to make sure that when the promotion board results come out, no matter what happened, you feel like you did everything you could to get promoted.
Letters to promotion boards have a new due date. You can’t send them the day before the board anymore:
Letters to Promotion Boards Now Due 10 Calendar Days Before the Board
If you know you are getting out of the Navy and really don’t care about getting promoted, you should read this post:
What is a “Don’t Pick Me” Promotion Board Letter? Why Would You Send One?
Have you been on active duty for less than 1 year? Read this:
How to Be Considered for Promotion if You’ve Been on Active Duty for Less Than 1 Year
You now need to use your DoD ID number and not your Social Security number on letters to the board. Read this:
Use DoD ID Number and Not Your SSN on Letters to the Board
You can now submit letters electronically:
Comfort, Javits Center Open Care to COVID-19 Patients
Here’s a link to the article:
Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper Accepts Resignation of Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly
Today (ed: which was actually yesterday), Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper accepted the resignation of Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly and announced that he is appointing current Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson as Acting Secretary of the Navy. For Secretary Esper’s statement, please click here.
Faculty Development Outreach and Certification for the Uniformed Services (FOCUS) 2020 Call for Nominations
Background: The Office of Academic Affairs under the Associate Dean for Faculty Development developed a program, FOCUS (Faculty Development Outreach and Certification for the Uniformed Services), in 2017 to aid individual Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs) have a more flexible local program that is standardized across the MHS. Since that time 2 groups of faculty have been trained to be “faculty developers.” These faculty have given over 250 workshops in two years for 13 standardized workshops.
Selection Process: Nominations for FOCUS faculty can be submitted from the MTF designated institutional official (DIO), residency program director, OR the department chair at the USU. These must consist of:
- The nominee’s current CV
- A letter (no more than 1 page) from the nominee outlining the a) faculty member’s interest in being a FOCUS faculty, and b) personal goals participating in the program would help accomplish.
- A letter (no more than 1 page) from the person nominating the faculty discussing examples of the nominee a) working within a team, and b) character regarding self-assessment and respect of others.
Selections will be made by a committee consisting of the USU faculty development team (Associate and Assistant Deans for Faculty Development and administrators on the faculty development team) and 3-4 current FOCUS faculty.
Proposal: Up to 10 faculty representing multiple specialties and MTFs will be selected. The goal is a diverse group of people in the community. Faculty should have been core faculty (not fellows teaching residents) for a minimum of two years. Due to the training requirements outlined below, it is helpful if the faculty will be in uniform at least until Summer 2023.
Training includes (and everything is mandatory):
- 1 week in-person session 7-11 Dec 2020 at USUHS. Most people will arrive Sunday and leave the following Saturday morning. The exact schedule is not set.
- 1 required travel with the USU team the Spring of 2021 to a different location to practice workshops
- Required videotaping for peer feedback, and deliver peer feedback to others
- Have read, understand and agree to the “Expectations of FOCUS Faculty”
- Faculty members will be eligible to perform local faculty development workshops after the Spring travel is complete (can start in May 2021)
- Willing to have annual feedback from USU faculty using data from evaluations collected over each fiscal year.
- 100% travel funding will be covered by USUHS Faculty Development
Applications: Application packages are to be emailed Tom McFate (contact info in this document) by 15 May 2020. Decisions will be communicated to nominees by 15 June 2020.
Rapid Mobilization Process Established for Reservists Supporting COVID-19 Response
NORFOLK (NNS) — In support of the Navy’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic response, the Navy has instituted a Distributed Mobilization process allowing a more efficient path to recall Reserve Sailors to active duty in support of the COVID-19 response.
NAVADMIN 099/20, released Apr. 3, provides details on the DM process for COVID-19 mobilizations for Selected Reserve (SELRES) Sailors. The process will allow the rapid and efficient leveraging of existing Reserve commands and facilities to meet COVID-19-related mobilization requirements.
SELRES Sailors identified for a possible mobilization will be contacted directly by their Navy Reserve Activity (NRA) or Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC). Once a SELRES Sailor has received official mobilization orders to active-duty, they will be pre-screened, activated, processed, and then proceed directly to their supported command. The NRA or NOSC performing COVID-19 mobilization processing will maintain responsibility for the Sailors it processes throughout the full mobilization cycle.
There are currently no plans to involuntarily recall IRR Sailors. The Navy Reserve has prioritized the mobilization of SELRES before recalling IRR Sailors for the COVID-19 pandemic response. However, IRR Sailors should familiarize themselves with Navy Personnel Command (NPC) regular requirements for readiness, which can be found on NPC’s official website.
For 105 years, the Navy Reserve has been a ready, agile force that provides valuable, vital support to the Navy and the Nation. The Ready Reserve Force consists of approximately 49,550 Selected Reserve (SELRES) Sailors, 10,163 Full Time Support (FTS) members, 48,815 Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) members and over 422 civilians. This force of over 100,000 delivers strategic depth and unique capabilities to the Navy and Marine Corps team, and the Joint Force in times of peace and war.
For more information, please read NAVADMIN 099/20.
Reserve Sailors with additional questions should contact their NRA or NOSC chain of command.
For more news from Commander, Navy Reserve Force, visit www.navy.mil/local/nrf/.
USU School of Medicine Visiting Professorship Program
Background: The Office of Academic Affairs and the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs would like to provide a platform by which faculty who aspire to learn more about careers and opportunities in academic medicine may do so by bringing their academic expertise (scholarship in teaching, discovery, or integration) to the forefront through deliberate interactions with colleagues at the Uniformed Services University. The program is open to School of Medicine (SoM) military national faculty.
Selection process: Nominations for visiting professorships can be submitted from the MTF designated institutional official (DIO), residency program director, OR the department chair at the USU.
These must consist of :
- the nominee’s current CV
- a letter written by the nominee (no longer than 1 page outlining the a) faculty member’s interest in progressing as academic faculty, b) potential areas the faculty member would like to enhance while at the university, and c) potential future career plans enabling the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs to continue engagement after the University visit.
- a short letter or email from the nominator describing how the faculty member’s visit would benefit the member and the organization
Selections will be made by the Associate and Assistant Deans within the Office of Academic Affairs.
Proposal: Each year there will be up to 10 visiting professors selected. The “visiting professorship” will be 1-2 days in length depending on the travel and availability for the faculty member. The professorship will be fully funded by the Associate Dean for Faculty Development. Activities are intended to expand the faculty member’s understanding of the breadth of academic life, make connections with senior members of USU and to enhance identity formation. This activity is open to all health professional who have an active (and current) USU SOM appointment for 2 years. This program is open to all academic ranks Assistant Professor or higher, with or without prefixes.
Visiting professorships may include:
- Delivery of a formal seminar, workshop or lecture in their area of expertise to USU and/or WRNMMC Faculty
- Specific meetings with the Department Chair (of the department in which the faculty member is appointed), for mentorship and specialty specific academic planning
- Attendance at SOM or University level meetings
- Attendance at medical student assessments or department education meetings (unless the faculty member already attends secondary to position)
- Meet with CAPSTONE Director to discuss opportunities for scholarly projects at the local hospital with medical student involvement.
- Other potential activities could include: meeting with a research team or receiving research guidance, peer observation of teaching, consultation for other academic endeavors (ex: curriculum development, statistics, interacting with student specialty groups)
Applications: Application packages are to be emailed Tom McFate (contact info in this document) by 15 May 2020. Decisions will be communicated to nominees by 15 June 2020. Visiting professorships will commence during FY21.
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