Cannon wraps up year with worldwide town hall
 By Jeff Landenberger
  Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services Director Mike Cannon addressed his command’s worldwide workforce during an end-of-year town hall Dec. 3 in Battle Creek, Michigan. **Cannon on stage looking at slide
        DLA Disposition Services Town Hall
            DLA Disposition Services Director Mike Cannon addresses his work force during worldwide town hall.

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                    VIRIN: 191203-D-OS362-012**His first topic was the great work accomplished since the last town hall. He also touched on the Employee Suggestion Program and highlighted two suggestions recently approved. One suggestion involves Foreign Military Sales, and according to Cannon, may result in a monetary reward for the suggesting employee. Cannon recognized the most recent Employee of the Quarter awardees: Shontavia Ortega at Battle Creek, Jacob Suazo at Lewis, Carlos Chapman at Hood, Megumi Ikeda at Sagami, Antoinette Hardeman at Lewis, Lavette Rush at Warner Robins and Rita Binns at San Diego. “We have some incredible employees around the world,” Cannon said, while reminding the workforce that anyone can nominate a co-worker for Employee of the Quarter. He recognized four local Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center employees who received awards at the Battle Creek Military Appreciation Luncheon in November. The awardees were Irene McKeen with DLA Disposition Services, Thomas Kik with DLA Logistics Information Services, Jeff Fulcher with DLA Information Operations and Lisa Grenon from DLA Installation Management. Cannon explained how the city provides recognition each year for members of the armed services and federal employees who support warfighters in the area. Field sites received awards at the leadership summit held in October. Cannon highlighted the site award recipients and recognized a new category that was created at the request of region leaders, the “Battle Creek Super Star” awards. As the holiday season approaches, he asked the workforce to keep deployed co-workers in mind and reminded everyone that it takes three weeks to get a care package to the Middle East, so now is the time to send for those wanting deployers to receive packages in time for the holidays. “E-mails are great, text messages are nice, but when you’re deployed, nothing beats a card or letter in your pocket,” Cannon said. Cannon briefed on his recent travel to DLA headquarters, his field site visits and a trip he made to one of the contractors that handles e-recycling for the agency. “I think it’s important that we as an organization understand the industries that support us,” Cannon said. He said that by knowing more about how private industry operates, contracts in the future can be written in terms and practices that are common to that industry, making the contracts more inviting and opening doors to more bidders and higher bids. He touched on the recent leadership summit held in Battle Creek, explaining that it not only coincides with the start of the new fiscal year but also with the beginning of the annual operating plan. The summit allows the senior leaders the opportunity to meet face to face and discuss the operating plan, ensuring everyone is aligned and knows the goals of the agency. Cannon emphasized the summit’s materiel handling equipment safety event. The primary goal was to train the trainers of MHE operators in an effort to reduce mishaps. While Cannon said he wanted the number of mishaps to be reduced this year, he also stressed that he wanted people to report the near-miss accidents as well. “I would rather not have the accident and learn from the near miss than wait until somebody is hurt or killed,” Cannon said. Another topic discussed at the summit was G-invoicing. He encouraged the audience to learn about G-invoicing if they did not already know about it, explaining that it was a new, auditable system to transfer funds between DOD units. The last part of the summit Cannon discussed involved organizational culture and the upcoming survey. “We have to get ready for the Denison survey,” Cannon said. “I want to encourage everybody, now and in the future, to take the opportunity to provide input on culture using the Denison survey, as it’s a great way to do it. Put your vote in, let me know what’s good and what’s bad. I ask for good and bad because if you just tell me those things that irritate you a little bit and we focus on all that we may stop doing something you love,” Cannon said. Cannon said that he and Deputy Director Army Col. Wayne Bondy read every comment written on the surveys. Cannon talked about holiday safety, answered several questions that had been submitted in advance of the town hall from the workforce and reminded employees to keep their focus on service members. “Even though it’s the holidays, our warfighters are fighting over the holidays. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are forward deployed,” Cannon said. “They’re at home stations in garrisons, they’re on ships and they’re serving throughout the month of December - every day at every hour at every minute somebody is out there. Let’s make sure we are postured to support them over the holidays.”