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Deadline is Friday for the 149th Medical Corps Birthday Ball – 7 MAR in Coronado, CA
The Medical Corps Ball will be held on the evening of 7 MAR 2020 on North Island in Coronado, CA in celebration of our 149th birthday. The details and registration info are available here:
Please disseminate this as widely as possible to all MC officers. We’re looking for an excellent turnout!
Also note that although uniforms are strongly encouraged, formal civilian attire is permissible as an alternative to dress uniforms for ALL Ranks ALL Services at this event.
Multiple Director Positions Available at NMC/NMRTC Portsmouth in 2020
Please read the below announcements of upcoming Director position vacancies at NMC/NMRTC Portsmouth:
- Director of Strategy & Operations (DSO) Vacancy Announcement June 2020
- Director of Primary Care (DPC) Vacancy Annoucement June-July 2020
- Director of Expeditionary Medicine (DEM) Vacancy Announcement June 2020
The timeline for the selection process is below:
- All applications for DEM, DPC, DSO due by 13 March. Any applicants would need to either be at NMRTC Portsmouth, already have inbound orders, or have Detailer clearance to apply.
- 16 March – 1 April – 1st Round interviews – Directorate Level board
- Week of 6 April – 2nd Round Interviews – top 3 selections for DEM, DPC and DSO will interview with XO, CO, PXO
Please direct any questions to the POCs for each position (contact info in the global):
CDR James M. Nogle, MSC, USN
Director, Expeditionary Medicine, Navy Medicine Readiness and Training
Command, Portsmouth
CAPT Jose G. Pedroza, DC, USN
Director, Primary Care and Branch Clinics, Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth/
Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Units, Portsmouth
CDR Shauna O’Sullivan
Director, Strategy and Operations, Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth
Occupational Medicine Fundamentals Provider Course – April 20-24 – NMC Portsmouth
The info is in this document:
Personal Finance for the Military Physician – A 2020 Update
Here are the slides I used for this podcast, in both PDF and PPT format:
Personal Finance for the Military Physician – A 2020 Update – PPT
Personal Finance for the Military Physician – A 2020 Update – PDF
My Research on Crowdfunded Real Estate Investing
I periodically suffer from investment boredom because good investing is boring. Investing in all the world’s stocks and bonds through low cost index funds is effective but not very exciting.
Whenever I get financially bored, I consider adding a 5th asset class to the 4 that are already in my investment portfolio (US stocks, international stocks, US bonds, international bonds)…real estate. While I know for sure that I have ZERO interest in becoming a landlord, crowdfunding real estate investing has opened up a new way to passively invest in real estate.
While I ultimately decided (once again) NOT to add a 5th asset class and keep my financial life as simple as possible, anyone interested in researching this can benefit from my thorough investigation. Here are all of the blog posts I read during my research in outline form. Enjoy!
- Real Estate
- 16 Different Ways to Invest in Real Estate
- Taxes
- REITS
- Assessing the inclusion of alternatives in target-date funds (this Vanguard research is why I don’t overweight REITs like a lot of other people do)
- Real estate crowdfunding
- Crowdfunding Debt vs Equity vs Syndications
- The Best Real Estate Crowdfunding Sites
- Tips For Real Estate Crowdfunding
- Real Estate Crowdfunding vs REITs
- The Best Real Estate Crowdfunding Sites for Non-Accredited Investors
- Is THIS the Holy Grail of Real Estate Investing?
- How to Build a Real Estate Crowdfunding Ladder
- When it Makes Sense to Utilize Private Real Estate Investments
- 10 Things To Know Prior To Purchasing an “Accredited Investor” Investment
- The Guide to Real Estate Syndications, Part I
- The Guide to Real Estate Syndications, Part II
- The Life Cycle of a Real Estate Fund
- Investing in Opportunity Zones: What’s This Amazing Opportunity All About?
- Is Real Estate Crowdfunding in Trouble?
- The Sad Demise Of RealtyShares: What’s Next, Alternatives, And Lessons
- Should I Invest in a Real Estate Syndication or Fund?
- Why It’s So Important to Diversify Your Real Estate Portfolio
- Is It Better to Invest Early or Late in a Real Estate Fund?
- 3 Important Things to Know About a Sponsor Before Investing
- Different Ways to Make Five Million Dollars in Real Estate
- Active vs Passive Real Estate Investing
- 5 Major Things To Look For In a Real Estate Fund
- Your Fear of Investing In Real Estate Is Totally Normal
- 6 Ways to Invest in Apartment Buildings
- Sites that review crowdfunding companies:
- Companies:
The FY21 O6 Promo Board Convening Order Emphasizes Operational Medicine and Readiness
What better way to spend a Valentine’s Day evening when your wife is out of town than this…
There are some new things in the FY21 O6 convening order. Grab both the FY20 and FY21 below and let’s take a look page by page:
FY-20 O6 Staff Corps Convening Order
FY-21 O6 Staff Corps Convening Order
The Method to My Valentine’s Day Madness
I went through both convening orders and noted the pages in the FY21 order that represent a substantial difference from last year’s order. I focused only on impact on the medical community (MC, NC, MSC, DC). In other words, if something was different for the JAG Corps or Supply Corps, I didn’t highlight it. Any pages not highlighted are functionally the same.
Page 2 of FY21
- The promotion opportunities changed:
- Medical Corps went from 81% to 91%
- Dental Corps from 89% to 90%
- Medical Service Corps from 60% down to 50% (bummer)
- Nurse Corps stayed the same at 50%
Page 8 of FY21
This is where the meat starts, the section entitled “Medical Community Considerations”:
The bold portions highlighted below are new from FY20:
Knowledge and proven performance/experience in a variety of settings including operational medicine, joint medical operations, and current garrison health care and fleet/FMF support is necessary.
Additionally, Navy Medicine greatly values joint experience and formal education, including JPME, with knowledge and experience in a variety of settings including joint medical operations and current garrison health care delivery and operational support initiatives.
Do you see a pattern here?
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Pages 9-10 of FY21
The following sentence is brand new:
Excellence in operational support settings should receive special consideration as Navy Medicine shifts greater focus to readiness and operational support.
Which brings me back to…
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Here is some more brand new stuff in bold:
Best and fully qualified officers for the rank of captain will be those with proven leadership experience who have demonstrated experience and expertise across the spectrum of military medicine, especially inclusive of operational experience and operational platforms. With Navy Medicine’s renewed focus on operational support and readiness, our future leaders must have shown leadership excellence in those activities.
Oh boy! I feel like I’m beating a particular drum…
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Read that again, people:
With Navy Medicine’s renewed focus on operational support and readiness, our future leaders must have shown leadership excellence in those activities.
MUST have shown. That’s a strong statement!
The Bottom Line
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
MHS Director of Governance in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs – O6
Here is the advertisement for an amazing opportunity for one of our senior O-6s. A “best fit” would have some Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD)/Pentagon experience, big picture Joint understanding of Air Force, Army, Navy health care current and future priorities, and understanding of the Defense Health Agencies scope of Military Treatment Facility/Markets authority, direction and control. The person needs to be able to accurately interpret and document discussions across the Services’ SGs, DHA Director, Reform/Transition initiatives (OSD Congressionally Directed) and Health Affairs organization (Deputy Assistant Secretaries’ of Defense and Assistant Secretary of Defense four star position). Understanding of big picture and OSD organization is necessary.
Applications should be submitted to CDR Melissa Austin (contact is in the global) by 21 FEB 2020.
New Process to Add Degrees to Your Record
Thanks to the Detailers for sending me this update. Below and in the just updated Promo Prep are the new procedures for adding degrees to your record:
To have your formal education updated, the official transcripts must come directly from the school to the office below. They can be delivered electronically as long as the school uses a secure delivery system such as eScript/Parchment to JST@DODED.MIL or they can be mailed to:
NETC N644
JST Ops Center
6490 Saufley Field Road
Pensacola, Florida 32509
Before sending the transcripts, you must contact the Joint Services Transcript Operations Center (JST OPS) at JST@DODED.MIL, advising them that you are having an official transcript mailed to them directly from the academic institution for the purpose of adding it to your Joint Services Transcript (JST). You are to provide your name, last four of your SSN, and either your e-mail or phone number so that they can reach you should there be any questions.
To see if the degrees have been added, please check the ACADEMIC page or the INQUIRIES tab on the JST website before contacting the office to see if the degree has been added. Please wait a minimum of 10 business days before contacting the JST office to see if they have received the degree.
The JST website can be found at https://jst.doded.mil/jst/.
1st Ever (We Think) Medical Corps Symposium – 3 APR 2020 – NMC Portsmouth
The first ever (we think) Medical Corps Symposium will be held at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth on April 3, 2020. There is no central funding to facilitate attendance, but it will still be awesome as the SG, Corps Chief, Reserve Corps Chief, and RDML Via will all be in attendance and speaking. All of the details that we have can be found here:
https://einvitations.afit.edu/inv/anim.cfm?i=495270&k=0668470B7C57
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 