Traditional M-Day Guard/TPU Reserve leaders sacrifice a lot of personal time for military items between drills.  However, do you compensate these leaders for their time? I’ll say this, not many units do.  I think many leaders just don’t know the options available to them. Some options available to you are actually paying your leaders for their time, or at a minimum, awarding them a requirement point for their activities.

In the ARNG, NGR 350-1 has several options that you can utilize to ensure that your subordinates don’t feel like they’re just being used and abused.  The one I have seen used with great success is by awarding retirement points, basically IDT duty orders in an unpaid status.  I get it, it’s not $$ in your pocket right now, but for senior leaders and NCOs, those who do have an eye on their retirements, those extra points add up. NGR (AR) 680-2, Appendix C, has a list of the things that units/Commanders can authorize the award of retirement points.  Two in particular stand out and are in line with what you were discussing: Appendix C, #3: Prepared or presented instruction in non-paid status. a. Instruction was military and presented to Armed Forces units, State OCS, ROTC, State law and order organizations, first responders, military department seminars, or designated civilian groups b. Preparation time, satisfactory presentation, or both were verified by the unit commander. 1 IDT point, if preparation or presentation of instruction, or both, was of at least 4 hours, and was not performed during the Soldier’s regularly scheduled unit training assembly or other Inactive Duty period or active service. Appendix C, #4:Performed command, staff and administrative duties, such as supervisor or training of subordinate unit, inspections, planning of exercises, staff meetings and liaison visits. it was authorized in orders or other document 1 IDT point for at least 2 hours of duty. These periods will not be scheduled or performed on a day on which any other type of training or duty is performed whether paid or unpaid. Note: Commanders are not entitled to points for administrative duties unless performing Readiness Management Periods, nor are ARNG technicians entitled to points for duty performed in civilian status.

For the Reserves, look up AR 140–185, Training and Retirement Point Credits and Unit Level Strength Accounting Records, lists what you can earn retirement points for and how many points you can earn for the year and of which type.

Another option is the RMA (Readiness Management Assemblies), actually paying your Soldiers. In the reserves you can look up restrictions and requirements in AR 140-1, paragraph 3-14, which  authorizes the use of RMAs to compensate personnel for work performed outside of IDT for basically admin and other tasks (except for the conduct of actual training). See the references listed above for the policy with regards to the ARNG.
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All of these options items cover pretty much everything from writing NCOERs to attending teleconferences and dark nights.  Something that I want to point out, it ALSO covers those young NCOs who spend their time between drills preparing training.  I know awarding of a retirement point may not seem like a lot to a SGT who’s on’y been in 4 years, but it’s something that shows that young NCO that the unit cares and cares enough to do SOMETHING.

What else can be done to compensate leaders for sacrificing their between-drill time?

Brock