Real property symposium goes virtual

  • Published
  • By Susan Walker
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  Nearly 300 Air Force personnel worldwide attended the first Air Force esymposium March 19-21, via video teleconference. Spearheaded by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center's Installation Center of Excellence, or ICE, the theme of the session was "Advancing Real Property Excellence."

AFCEC's Real Estate Transaction Division partnered with Air Force Information Technology to bring the first, all-virtual training to the real property community. AFIT's satellite training, combined with its video conferencing capabilities connected training rooms at various installations with headquarters AFCEC to bring real-time training to the esymposium audience.

Responsible for execution and oversight of real property transactions, the real estate transaction division manages all active-duty and Base Realignment and Closure real estate actions. It executes acquisitions and in-grants such as licenses, leases, permits, easements, gifts, condemnations, congressional notifications and readiness and environmental protection initiative easements. The division also executes out-grants and disposals, congressional notifications, special waivers, fair-market value negotiations and other complex property transactions.

Since the last real property training symposium, held in San Antonio in 2010, there have been many changes in regulations and personnel, said Bobby Roberts, the ICE western branch chief in the real estate transaction division, and the person presented with the challenge of delivering training to the community in light of extreme budget cuts facing the Department of Defense.

"Mr. Robert Moore, ICE director, was adamant that we needed to deliver training somehow and he was insistent that we should move ahead with the esymposium, rather than push it to a later time," Roberts said.

The esymposium program focused on the nuts and bolts of real property acquisition, lease and disposal. Geographically diverse real property practitioners had the opportunity to learn from leaders, subject matter experts, legal experts and each other during the course, which combined individual presentations and panel discussions, Roberts said. The course also provided participants time to submit questions and make comments on the various subjects in a real-time format via interactive video teleconference. For those participating via a web feed, there was also an email question and answer option.

This virtual training, specifically designed for base-level real property accountability officers, their representatives and supervisors, was designed to encourage the open discussion of strategies and trends. The training also allowed participants to share real property best practices with a focus on training, through successive real property and related sessions.

"There were presentations from senior Air Force leadership, senior Air Force realty experts, hands-on instruction from experienced Air Force realty specialists and a number of open forums to discuss current and future Air Force realty processes," said Diane Bailey AFCEC Real Estate Transactions Division chief.

Although the event targeted Air Force realty specialists, real property officers and asset managers, real property element supervisors, flight chiefs, quality assurance evaluators, functional area staff, resources flight chief, CE project management, military construction programmers, environmental specialists, CE flight supervisors, base civil engineers and their deputies also benefited from this first every Air Force wide e-Symposium, Roberts said.

"This esymposium provided a forum for these real property partners to collaborate with one another," said David Walterscheid, AFCEC Real Estate Transactions Division eastern branch chief. "It also afforded an opportunity to provide direction and feedback to ensure the Air Force real property program's continued improvement and success."

For other divisions considering virtual training options, esymposium organizers plan to provide lessons learned and best practices for upcoming sessions.

"We'll share our challenges and successes with others who are planning their virtual training programs, and the process will continue to improve," Bailey said.