I had just been stationed here at the airforce base. One of my job titles is budget officer. I am in charge of approving or not approving new equipment or services for the entire base hospital. This is a harrowing task at best considering that each section's commander insists that his section's needs are more important than others.
Diplomacy here is the key.
My first week here I was to hold my first meeting. I took the entire week to prepare and felt pretty good about it all. My slides and presentation were in shape. A person, who looked to be civilian, kept asking question after question and I was frankly getting a little impatient. Finally, with tact I told him that perhaps we should take the military personnel's questions first.