What Is a Dinner Table Conversation?
A Deep Dive into the Decisions Impacting Military Retention & Recruitment
What is a Dinner Table Conversation?
When we think of military decisions we think of the life and death moments on the battlefield or calculated plans made by leaders in war rooms.
However, the decisions made around the dinner tables of military families are just as vital and have a direct impact on recruitment and retention. Dinner Table Conversations bring the experts, military families, to the table to get to the heart of the issues they face.
It is important to note that this is not a typical Town Hall. It is a REVERSE Town Hall, call it an interview or a Conversation, the purpose is to learn from you, the expert on your own situation.
Upcoming Dinner Table Conversations:
Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in Asia
Stateside Date: 10/10/2023 / Time: 9 PM EASTERN
OCONUS Date: 10/11/2023 10 AM (Japan/Korea)
Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in Europe
Date: 10/11/2023 - Noon EST / 6 PM CET (Europe)
Guest: Beth Conlin - military spouse advocate & SOFA expert - Beth has worked tirelessly to improve the SOFA and will share SOFA Italy updates
Host: Jennifer Barnhill - columnist for military.com & military spouse
Expert: YOU - please be prepared to answer questions about your experiences with the SOFA in Asia
Who Gets a Seat at the Table?
Everyone.
Military spouses are the experts in the military family experience. So, why do they go to town halls and ask questions of leaders when it’s the leaders who should be asking the questions?
These Conversations are focused on military family experiences and are informed by guests with resources to share to inform the Conversation. (advocates, nonprofits, DoD and Congress).
What Will We Talk About?
Other than the first Conversation, the topics will be chosen by military families with a focus on the issues that impact their decisions to stay in the military. The focus of these conversations is to better understand military family decision-making and learn about emerging issues in order to be sure our media outlets, DoD and civilian support organizations are in touch with families.
Rules
Be kind. We are here to listen to stories in order to better understand problems and issues impacting our community, not to make them worse. Those who are disrespectful of others will be removed from the Conversation.
Respect the Clock. Because everyone’s story is different it can take time to tell it. If you are given the opportunity to share please only answer the question you were asked and be respectful of the timeframe you are given to answer. If you need to share more please contact Jennifer via email.
Focus on Solutions Not Problems. It is easy for stories to focus on what went wrong. While we need to understand the problem, we are also here to identify ways to improve the situation.
Decide What You Want to Share. If you want to be quoted by what you say out loud or in the chat please list your first and last name and service connection (i.e. Jennifer Barnhill, Navy spouse). If you don’t please turn off your camera and rename yourself (i.e. Navy spouse, service member or anonymous or whatever identifier you are comfortable sharing)
Chat Rules. Please keep it short. If you have something to say that is more than a few sentences please consider emailing this to Jennifer and pop a quick summary in the chat.
Conversations will not only be used to inform the stories I write about this community but also the work already being done by nonprofit, DoD and Congressional leaders to help you and those who come after you. These Conversations will be summarized and recorded so that leaders who are unable to attend live have the ability to learn from your shared experiences. Recordings will not begin until everyone has had an opportunity to remove identifying information.
Registration
Registration is free and open to anyone with a military connection or who serves the military community (families, service members, veterans, nonprofits, DoD/Congressional staff, the media, etc.). While participation in Conversations can be anonymous your registration information is required, but will not be shared by anyone other than me, the host, Jennifer Barnhill.
The information you choose to provide at the time of registration will be used to inform articles written for military.com and/or other publications. Any open-ended responses you provide may be used in a publication, but will not be directly attributed to you without your consent as the purpose of this Conversation is to encourage an open dialogue. The aggregated data collected on a topic will be published in the summary of the event.