National Guard offers bonus for recruitment

| Tuesday, January 10, 2006

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RAPID CITY — A new incentive program could allow National Guard soldiers to earn as much as $2,000 for each potential soldier they recruit into the South Dakota Army National Guard.

Maj. Gen. Michael Gorman, adjutant general, announced Monday that the Guard is beginning a new recruiting initiative designed to help soldiers to recruit potential soldiers.

The new initiative is known as the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program, or G-RAP, according to a written news release from the Guard.

“G-RAP is a truly transformational way to fill our ranks by empowering soldiers to participate in our Guard’s future,” Gorman said.

“Soldiers engaged in their communities can fill the ranks with those friends, neighbors, family members, and co-workers within their sphere of influence,” Gorman said. “This program will keep a ‘strength from within’ tradition very much alive.”

Soldiers who want to participate work with their unit’s recruiting and retention non-commissioned officer to receive online training through a civilian contractor certifying them as a recruitment assistant.

The recruitment assistant can expect $2,000 for each soldier who is successfully brought into the Guard, the news release said. The first $1,000 is paid after a potential soldier enlists in the Guard, and a second $1,000 is paid after the new recruit reports for his or her initial entry training. Recruitment assistants are not limited to the number of soldiers they bring into the SDARNG.

One of the main differences of G-RAP from other recruiting programs is how sponsorship plays a role in the process. The recruitment assistant not only recruits but also is responsible for a continued sponsorship after the potential soldier is brought into the program.

“Individual sponsorship creates a one-on-one bond that promotes a mentoring relationship,” State Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Birnbaum said. “We feel that this approach will be more successful because the sponsoring soldier has vested interest in seeing the new recruit succeed. Likewise, the new soldier feels that someone is directly looking out for their well-being.”

Maj. John Weber, Guard recruiting and retention commander, said more than 200 soldiers have already been trained as recruitment assistants since his command started the program.

“Currently, the National Guard Bureau stated that 80 percent of our recruiters’ time is spent prospecting new leads, and only 20 percent is spent processing enlistments,” Weber said. “G-RAP will give us potentially more than 3,100 soldiers to prospect potential soldiers throughout South Dakota.”

The South Dakota Army Guard was not originally scheduled to conduct the program until late January or February. However, the state’s recruiting command requested that South Dakota be designated as a test state along with about 17 other states.

“South Dakota has always been a strong National Guard state and one of the leaders in the country in all recruiting and retention categories,” Weber said.

Gorman said, “We have far exceeded our first quarter’s goal of 104 new soldiers, enlisting 119 new recruits since Oct. 1, 2005.”