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Warrior Gateway Honored To Support “The Education Center at The Wall” on 11/11/11

Posted on by Mike

To honor and benefit the construction of The Education Center at The Wall, Warrior Gateway CEO Devin B. Holmes is honored to be attending the “2011 Build The Center Benefit” in Washington, D.C. on Veterans Day, 11/11/11.  The benefit will recognize and present awards to The Honorable Chuck Hagel and author Joseph Galloway, for their contributions to our country, and their support of The Education Center at The Wall.  Starting at 6:30pm with a cocktail reception, the event kicks into full gear at 7:30pm with dinner and the start of the main program.

Please share this event with others.  Help us promote this special occasion, as well as educate others on The Education Center at The Wall.  By telling the stories behind each name, The Education Center will help visitors understand the courage, sacrifice and devotion of those who fell, those who returned, and those who waited during the Vietnam War.  Click here to view more information about the event.

The Education Center at The Wall

The Education Center is an initiative of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) to build a visitor center adjacent to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (commonly reffered to as “The Wall”) on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is the organization that raised the funding that built The Wall in 1982.  This effort is being led by found and president of VVMF, Jan C. Scruggs, who conceived the idea of building a memorial dedicated to all who served in the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam.

Warrior Gateway Featured Resource At “2nd Annual Wounded Warrior Hiring and Support Conference”

Posted on by Mike
The Warrior Gateway team is proud to be a featured resource at the “2nd Annual Wounded Warrior Hiring and Support Conference” on November 9-10, 2011, in Vienna, Virginia.  As we approach Veterans Day, we are reminded of our commitment to those who have served our Nation and are looking for employment opportunities in both the public and private sector. In recognizing this, the Department of the Navy is hosting the 2nd Annual Wounded Warrior Hiring and Support Conference “Hiring our Nation’s Heroes.”

Goal:

To convene prominent government, military, and industry leaders and their human resource professionals who are committed to hiring and supporting Wounded Warriors. Conference attendees will have the unique opportunity to learn best practices from many successful organizations on how to recruit, hire, train and retain Wounded Warriors.

On the Agenda:
There is an AMAZING line-up of distinguished guest speakers including senior leadership in the federal government, private industry, Wounded Warrior care agencies, and hiring programs that will share their best practices. Our conference will boast OVER 20 BREAK-OUT SESSIONS to offer you their TOOLS and RESOURCES on how to hire and support Wounded Warriors. There will also be EXHIBITORS from various agencies and organizations that support our Wounded Warriors.

Fees:
THE CONFERENCE IS ENTIRELY FREE.  Plenty of free parking is available. You may purchase food and beverages on-site.

Register:
To register, please go to the following website and received the latest conference updates: http://www.public.navy.mil/donaa/Pages/woundedwarrior.aspx

Date:
November 9 – 10, 2011

Location:
Sheraton Premiere at Tyson’s Corner, 8661 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA.

More Information:
Please contact the Conference Management Team at nssc_wwarriorhiring@navy.mil

Please forward this email to anyone who may interested in attending our event.

Warrior Gateway Attends Vietnam Veterans Memorial Event in Times Square

Posted on by Mike

Warrior Gateway was honored to attend the “Call for Photos” event in Times Square, New York City on Tuesday, October 11, 2011.  The event, which featured a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., was the first in a series of ceremonies to be hosted during the coming month by The History Channel’s upcoming series, “Vietnam in HD,” and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano, both Vietnam veterans, spoke to the audience about remembering our fallen heroes. “We owe it to those who died that we remember; we owe it to them that we tell their stories of how and why they gave their lives; and we owe it to them that we honor the ideals by which they lived,” the NYPD commissioner and Marine Corps veteran added.

One of the main purposes of the campaign is to publicize a “call for photos” of those whose names are featured on the wall.  The photos will be included on the upcoming Education Center at the Wall, expected to break ground in 2012.  Organizers want to collect photos for all of the fallen service members listed on the memorial.  According to a statement, more than 35,000 are still missing.

Check out more photos from the event on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/warriorgateway

Resource Overload

Posted on by Devin

A few days ago, Mark Thompson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, wrote on the Battleland blog on Time.com about the “tidal wave of information enveloping” our service members and their families.  He also commented on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s order to the Pentagon to come up with the “one Web portal”.

It’s a great blog post that highlights the information challenges these individuals face.  When we launched the Gateway Information Network earlier this year, one of our goals was to eliminate this information tsunami by making sure the ever growing Warrior Gateway directory (up to 45K resources today) would be available from any website or portal serving this community.

Read the blog and check out our response and let us know what you think!!

 

******************Here is our response****************

Mark,

I agree that there are probably too many programs, initiatives, task forces, committees, working groups and websites and it is overwhelming for vets and their families.  In both government and the non profit world, I have seen more and more programs being created without taking the time to evaluate what’s working and how to we leverage what’s already in place.  I also agree that we should be questioning the dollars spent on these programs and measuring their value and impact.

However, I have a dissenting opinion on the “one Web portal” approach.

Imagine an internet where you only had one search engine (let’s say Google…seems like the de-facto one these days but no Yahoo or Bing), or only one restaurant guide (Zagats but no Yelp), or only one travel site (Expedia but no Travelocity).   Or a world with only one car company (Ford but no Chevrolet or Chrysler).  Or only one laptop maker (Dell but no HP or Sony).  I could go on but you get the point.

While sometimes less is more, as consumers we want choice and don’t accept single solution provider scenarios in our day to day lives.  Yet that is the approach that is talked about in this scenario.  I disagree.  If the Navy wants to list 16 websites in their pamphlet, fine.  If the Army wants to list 19 in their pamphlet, okay.  Each site might be different in design, function and purpose.

However, what is IMPORTANT, is that those websites are using the SAME information and COLLABORATING.

Why force someone to go to a single DOD or VA website site when they would prefer to go a local non profit’s website?  Or perhaps go to a web search engine?   Or pick up the phone and call 211?  Or go down to their local VSO/Red Cross/etc and talk to someone in person?

Rather than talk about a single website, why aren’t we talking about a single DATABASE that  everyone has access to and participates to verify, validate, grow and improve the information?

This is the philosophy that Warrior Gateway has been talking about for two years with DOD and VA.  We are a new non profit based in Washington, DC that built a directory of nonprofit and government resources in 2010 (currently at 45K organizations across the entire country) and published it on WarriorGateway.org. We then opened it up this year to make that directory available at no charge to other organizations that want to use it for their purposes.

We did this because a) no one else was doing it, b) because it’s how we think the problem should be solved and c) because sharing our work helps not only those who served but also those who support those who served.

We work in partnership with non profits and government agencies to ensure we are providing a valuable information source as we have for almost a year now with our first pilot partner, ChallengeAmerica.com.  And now we’re working with a few of the state VA’s to incorporate what we’ve built into their websites (the Feds are still thinking about how to work with us). Yt’s a grassroots effort right now and we would welcome participation and partnership from all.

What the Senate Appropriations Committee SHOULD be asking is how to we make sure that our military service members, veterans and families get access to CONSISTENT and ACCURATE information REGARDLESS of which one of the myriad of .gov, .mil, .org, .com websites they go to.  No matter where you go to ask for help, there should be no wrong door.

The issue of information delivery and access is too complex to build a cookie-cutter-treat-everyone-the-same solution.   The “one Web portal” approach simply won’t work.  Open-ess, partnership, collaboration and information sharing is the key to solving this problem.

IMHO of course.

Sincerely,
Devin Holmes
CEO – Warrior Gateway

Summer 2011 Marketing Internships!

Posted on by Devin

So you use Yelp to find where to go to dinner.  Or perhaps Rotten Tomatoes to help decide what movie to see?  Trip Advisor to decide where to vacation?  Every day you use the power of other people’s opinions, insights and experiences to make decisions.  So why don’t our veterans have those same tools available to them when decided on where to go for healthcare, job opportunities, family assistance or education and training?

If you’re looking for an internship to become a rockstar product marketer and social media guru, Warrior Gateway is looking for you.

We’re looking for someone to come into our DC office or our San Francisco office at least two days per week.  If you have an interest in being part of a digital non-profit that is transforming the veterans landscape, then we want to hear from you.

The marketing internship is a hybrid role that will include assignments and learning opportunities across our strategic partnership and social media marketing groups.

Responsibilities may include but are not limited to: General office assistance, Salesforce.com management, Google Adwords Advertising Campaigns, Market Research, Facebook Fan Page management, Twitter Follower management, Social Media marketing metrics reporting and creation of Warrior Gateway blog posts.

Expectations:

-       Minimum commitment of 15 hours per week at one of our offices

-       A high energy level

-       Competency with Google Apps, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Sprout Social, TweetDeck

-       Fast learning and interested in the world of online marketing

 

This is a paid internship. Email all applications with a resume and cover letter to: resumes@warriorgateway.org with Marketing Intern in the subject line.  Applications without a cover letter will not be looked at nor considered.