Hundreds of Sailors from Naval Station Rota and various tenant commands participated in informative briefings conducted by members of the Navy Personnel Command's (NPC) Fleet Engagement Team (FET), Feb. 29 to March 1.

The various FET seminars included topics such as force management, distribution of Navy-wide assets, the Career Waypoints (C-WAY) system and changes to the detailing process.

"We are bringing the most updated information for all the different programs associated with community management, detailing and placement," said Capt. Bruce Deshotel, the FET's senior enlisted community manager. "There are some new initiatives out there and we're delivering it to the fleet."

One of the Navy's newest initiatives concerning the detailing process is billet-based distribution, commonly referred to as BBD. It is an application within the Career Management System - Interactive Detailing (CMS-ID) system and focuses on enabling the Navy to better manage force structure and readiness by more accurately matching Sailors and their unique skill sets to individual billets.

"For the Sailor, there is virtually no difference," said Lt. Cmdr. Michael Mosi, the FET's aviation enlisted branch manager. "For the activity-manning manager, the person who handles the enlisted distribution verification report, it's a tremendous improvement in their process. It is a real-time process so whatever changes are made during the day or night; it's automatically updated in the system the very next day."

The FET makes about six trips a year to visit major fleet concentration areas at least once a year to engage with the fleet and stress upon them that they are important, as well as the FET's primary customers. They want to find out what Sailors thoughts, concerns, desires and dreams are so they can bring that back to their leadership, which are the plans and policy makers in the Navy, according to Deshotel.

Another important message that the FET had for Rota Sailors was to make contact, whether through email or phone, with their respective rating detailer.

"I encourage them to utilize their chain of command to help them and to reach out to us," said Deshotel. "Go to our NPC website and actually talk to the people who are behind the programs... your community manager, your detailer, your placement coordinator. Call them and email them and we will get you an answer to help the Sailor navigate their way through it."

Mosi expressed that detailers are advocates for Sailors and making contact is extremely important.

"The detailers encourage the Sailors to call us," said Mosi. "Sailors need to understand that they are the ones in the driver's seat for their careers. They should take career development board seriously and express all their concerns, wants and desires with the chain of command and their detailer so everyone knows what the Sailor is looking for."

For more news from Naval Station Rota, Spain, visit www.navy.mil/.