By Charlene Pugh, TEAM Public Affairs, Jacksonville

NAVAL AVIATION DEPOT, JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Capt. Gary S. O'Neill, commanding officer here, recently signed Special Message 00-02 announcing the first Acquisition and Logistics Reform Week 2000 to be held in Jacksonville.

The theme for the week was Embracing Change for the 21st Century Warfighter. In observance of this week, a two-day training conference was held April 19 and 20 at the University of North Florida Conference Center in cooperation with the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, the University of North Florida, and other Federal and local community organizations.

The intent of the conference was to make training available to the acquisition community that would enhance their ability to perform their jobs on an ongoing basis and get the most up-to-date information on acquisition reform. Since acquisition personnel are involved in the process of obtaining supplies and services for the government, conference attendees were given the opportunity to speak with prime contractors who do business with the government and the small business communities during a trade show.

The trade show addressed subjects such as changes to the government-wide commercial purchase card program, the best value contracting concept, the automated non-standard requisitioning system, how to get paid for a government contract, and other topics vital to acquisition and logistics reform.

More than 1,000 members of the acquisition and logistics community attended the conference and trade show.

According to Eileen Roberson, Acquisition Reform executive, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, the purpose of the week was, "to simply take some time to reflect on what our goals are with acquisition reform," she said. "Where we have been, what we’ve accomplished and look at how well we are doing and then to think about the challenges in the way ahead for the future of reform."

Keynote speaker, Rear Adm. Gwilym H. Jenkins, deputy for Acquisition and Business Management for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, addressed the assembly.

"As we reinvent the way we are in the military we have to reinvent our business practices as well," he said. "And so we’re looking at the process end to end with the sole purpose of going after the total cost of the environment, reducing the total cost of the infrastructure to create more money for ships, planes and submarines."