On August 5th, I had the pleasure to spend the day at the FAA academy in Okalahoma City, to meet some of our new Air Traffic and Tech Op personnel. Every month, the Organizational Effectiveness office and Air Traffic SUPCOM sponsor a “Meet & Greet for New Hires” at the academy. Managers from around the country get together with new employees at the academy to share pizza, sodas and information.

This is a great way to introduce the new workforce to the “field managers” and answer questions that there are no book answers for. At one point, I was able to sit down with six new employees that will be reporting to NCT (Northern California TRACON) in the near future and talked about things like, “What happens when I walk in the door,” or “How long before I talk to actual airplanes?” These people are very energetic and excited to be working as Air Traffic Controllers.

The Meet & Greet is just one initiative to make our new employees feel welcome and appreciated. Other opportunities exist for you to welcome new employees:
• Complete a facility guide and upload it to this web site
• Create a local sponsor program.

These new controllers are the future of the ATO. Let’s all do what we can to help them succeed in their new career field.