Registration open for annual Caring for People Summit Published April 17, 2012 By Airman 1st Class Earlandez Young 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- The deadline to register for Fairchild's fourth annual Caring for People Summit forum is April 25. The event takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 27 at the base chapel. Lunch will be provided and military members may wear business casual attire. The summit is open to any adult within the Fairchild community to include veterans, civilian employees and family members with base access. Participants will be divided into five different focus groups to discuss health and wellness, family, single Airmen, housing and guard support topics. "Community members will meet to identify, develop and prioritize issues that affect their personal and professional lives," said Melissa Still, an event facilitator assigned to the Airmen Family Readiness Center. Diversity amongst participants and the different ideas about issues helped make previous summits a success. "Each group is encouraged to brainstorm issues and come up with possible solutions," said Chris Marble, chief of the AFRC. "Later during the summit, those groups will share their top three initiatives or issues they would like to be addressed." Groups will prioritize their ideas then share what they talked about with the other four groups. Top initiatives will be consolidated then presented to Fairchild Air Force Base leadership. The base's Community Action Information Board will receive all the feedback to take action on the items that fall within Fairchild's scope -- keeping in mind the best use of resources, time and money. For issues discussed during the summit that can't be resolved locally, participants will vote to forward ten issues up the chain to Air Mobility Command where a similar review and prioritization will be conducted. Once all AMC base summit ideas are submitted, they will forward Air Force issues to the Pentagon. The Caring for People coordinators will track the issues through resolution and results will be published for the Fairchild community as results or information becomes available. "This event is a great opportunity to directly inform base leadership of any issues or concerns that leaders may have operational control over," Marble said. "Leaders and base agencies may have the resources to make changes and improve an already great place to live and work. I would encourage Fairchild community members to register for the summit because it will be fun and it's free!" Marble said the summit is also a fantastic place to network with other great folks in the community, build informal networks and collaborate with several of the base agencies who support our refueling mission every day. Past Fairchild summit successes have included reestablishment of Airman Against Drunk Driving. AADD is just one example of improvements Fairchild has made. Improvements for the Exceptional Family Member Program, a re-structured and streamlined Right Start Newcomer's Orientation and available drop-off slots for childcare at the child development center are just some initiatives that started with participation from the Fairchild community in this summit, said Still.