Project Management and COVID 19 at MAFB - Essay Sample

Project management refers to the process and activities set to meet the specified period's goals and objectives successfully. One primary aim of project management is to achieve all the project's purposes within all the constraints. For project management, the primary constraints are time, scope, budget, and quality. Project management aims at completing the project to meet the requirement of the clients. It also strives to optimize the allocated inputs and resources to meet the objectives defined before. A project is usually temporary, it brings out a unique result or product. Its result has a definite beginning and end. Unlike in businesses, project management requires specific technical skills and management strategies. As a result of the Coronavirus, different projects worldwide have stopped or failed to meet the constraints.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic, social, and political disruptions across the entire globe. COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease that began in Wuhan, China. World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic on the 11th of March 2020. Its effects are so devastating. Millions of people lost their jobs, and they risk falling into extreme poverty. Other millions went under compulsory pay-cut (Marcus et al., 2020). The pay-cut has caused them to change and adjust their lifestyles. Governments and businesses are not left behind. The adverse effects of the pandemic hit them as well. Many companies have reported a loss in their quarterly financial reports. It is the same companies that have been sending home their employees or providing half the pay.

It happens as a result of interference with the normal operations of the companies. They are registering revenues and incomes way less than they received in the previous accounting year. Routine procedures of the governments do not remain behind. Governments of different states had to chip in to protect its citizens. They enforce the World Health Organization (WHO) protocols to maintain and curtail the virus's spread. Governments implement measures such as social distancing and putting on facial masks. This pandemic has affected different people, organizations, and businesses in different ways. MAFB housing is also one of the entities affected by this pandemic. The pandemic has resulted in extra management strategies for projects at the MAFB. This is due to protocols and guidelines spelled out for carrying out self and other operations.

Maelstrom Air Force Base (MAFB) is one of the three US Air force bases. It is located in Great Falls, Montana, and plays the home of the 341 st missile wing. It maintains and operates the middle of minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile. MAFB got its name in honor of World War 2 warrior Pow Colonel Einar Axel Malmstrom. The base's construction began in June 1942 and received its first landing in November the same year. It provides America with combat-ready people and aerospace, thus keeping it free and strong. MAFB is the smallest community in Montana as well as the youngest workforce in the Air. They have an employee base of 4,000, of which 88% are members of the military while the other 12% are civilian employees. The community has gaining units which assign sponsors to its members. One ought to hear from their sponsors within 60 days of reporting. The older employees help newcomers settle in the base and the community by giving them a sincere helping hand. Members of the base report to their quarters between 7.30 am and 4.30 pm. Beyond that or arrival on a weekend and holiday, the arrival point is the Malmstrom inn. The temporary quarters reside in the military for a maximum of 30 days, of which they will only get 10 days of reimbursement. It has a Family Support Center known as the Airman & Family Readiness Center that provides information on relocation and referral services.

Malmstrom AFB Homes offers gated residential community leasing to families of the active members of the air force stationed at the Malmstrom Air Force Base. These homes provide various 2, 3, and 4-bedroomed floor plans and master suites with ample compounds and easy access to MAFB facilities, amenities, and services. The main project of the MAFB office is the house construction project. It is a project that intends to save the military and their families from high accommodation costs and give them convenience and a sense of community. It is a cost-effective project compared to having an off-base house. The house construction project offers low upfront and monthly fees since there are no lengthy lease terms, and monthly utilities are in rent. The project supports the unique needs of US service members and their families. It provides them with the necessary amenities they need. The housing office also offers relocation services to new areas of the country.

The office offers different housing options to various clients and members of the base. The office works so that when one gets to Malmstrom before entering into any lease, they appropriately get counseling and guidance. The housing options available include privatized housing, unaccompanied housing, and community housing (Cheng et al., 2020). In a privatized housing option, Balfour Beatty Communities own the housing and take repair and maintenance responsibilities. Here, tenants sign a lease agreement with Balfour Beatty. For application purposes, one contacts the Ministry of Housing Office when they want to move to Malmstrom. These private houses provide tenants with various amenities and support services compared to local housing and communities. Just like in the local community, tenants sign the lease agreement, usually for a year term. The lease agreement includes the military clause in addition to the termination clause.

The management of unaccompanied housing is essential to the development of an Airman. This kind of accommodation is a personal residence. The office provides for those soldiers who want personal residence a high quality, well maintained, and comfortable home. The office provides for those unaccompanied Airmen in the ranks of E-1 to E-4 who have less than 3 years of service with unaccompanied housing. However, unaccompanied Airmen in the grades of E-4 with more than 3 years of service will move to the local community housing. There are no pets in the dormitory for health and safety reasons, no firearms, and flammables in the storage areas. It restricts a lot of stuff. The staff at Unaccompanied Housing is so professional, and they help anyone with their housing needs (Field et al., 2020). The member's composition includes; non-commissioned officers, senior non-commissioned officers, and sometimes civilian employees.

The Military Housing Office gives all the Department of Defense services personnel to locate housing in the local community. It is sometimes an exciting opportunity for these personalities to live outside the base. However, sometimes it is stressful to leave. It is the Military Housing Office's duty to assist the base members in finding a new location amidst the community (Medeiros 2016). Once the individual knows they should be moving out, they contact the MHO, who then provides them with the latest housing information. The support given includes helping the members understand the lease agreements and all the necessary arrangements for the military release clause.

Malmstrom Air Force Base is well known for providing high-quality housing packages for all its clients. The available housing options they offer beat the quality in the local community (Johnson 1999). Both the military and civilian employees have access to all these high qualities. However, they did not plan for a crisis such as the pandemic. Therefore, it means COVID-19 is a crisis that they need to manage effectively and efficiently as they remain to offer quality living standards to the incoming military families. Colonel Jennifer Reeves, the commander at Missile wing, declared a public health emergency at the base so that everyone at the base to take precautionary measures. Declaration meant to provide the Airmen with the necessary tool for protection and their families and curb the virus's continuous spread at the base. While giving the declaration, he noted that preventive measures such as frequent washing of hands and proper hygiene maintenance are essential for the success of efforts towards protection. The health emergency declaration enabled the leaders of the base to take actions resulting in force protection.

Moreover, the declaration preceded actions such as the closure of base facilities, limitation of non-essential activities within the base, movement restrictions, and the implementation of quarantine and isolation for suspected positive case individuals. The declaration stated that the office would be doing everything possible to ensure the Air Force personnel get up-to-date information concerning the virus's potential spread. This strategy was to minimize the virus's spread so that the soldiers' families and the incoming soldiers do not get infected and affected.To manage the COVID-19, the Air Force leadership worked very closely in monitoring the situation. In coordination with the Montana Health Department, put up prevention and response measures in the local area. The office made changes to the procedures at the gate and a single entry point into the clinic. Security forces personnel at the gate minimized physical touching and contacts with the visitor's ID at the entrance; this was just a measure to reduce the virus's possible contraction. Visitors at the gate would show the front side of their IDs and turn it in for scanning.

Additionally, the office implemented visitors' restriction into the senior members' facilities such as Grandview, Westview, Assisted Living, a precautionary move since the elderly and the senior citizens are most vulnerable to this virus's attack. In enforcing the law of protection from the virus, soldiers and their families took orders and followed the health guidelines such as social distancing at gatherings and putting on face masks (Thomas et al., 2020). All of these measures taken are precautionary steps. They also helped to reduce or minimize the spread of the virus from one person to the next. The virus is highly contagious and infectious. A break of the chain in the transmission keeps the community shy from contracting the disease. These measures remain essential for the quality of life for the Airmen who are already in the base and the incoming military personnel's families.

References

CHENG, C., Yu-Cheng, C. H. E. N., & Zi-Jing, M. A. (2020). Research on Construction for Discipline System of Military Research Institutes under the New System. DEStech Transactions on Social Science, Education and Human Science, (icesd). http://www.dpi-proceedings.com/index.php/dtssehs/article/view/34434/0

Field, E. A., Williams, K., Reveley, T. B., Barvin, A., Bergman, R., Buquicchio, V., ... & Rubin, K. (2020). Military Housing: DOD Needs to Strengthen Oversight and Clarify Its Role in the Management of Privatized Housing. Government Accountability Office Washington Dc Washington Dc United States. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1098914

Johnson, M. J. (1999). Individual Housing Choices among Air Force Members. AIR FORCE Inst Of Tech Wright-Pattersonafb Oh School Of Engineering. https://www.housing.af.mil/Home/Units/Wright-Patterson/

Marcus, J. E., Frankel, D. N., Pawlak, M. T., Casey, T. M., Blackwell, R. S., Tran, F. V., ... & Yun, H. C. (2020). COVID-19 Monitoring and Response among US Air Force Basic Military Trainees—Texas, March–April 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6922e2.htm