Posts Tagged military moves
Service Members Can Find Pet-Friendly Resources at Their Next Duty Station
Posted by carol.bowers in Uncategorized on October 26, 2012
By Navy Lt. Theresa Donnelly
Oct. 23, 2012
Guest blogger Navy Lt. Theresa Donnelly is the owner of Hawaii Military Pets, a volunteer online resource for military families in Hawaii to help with moving with pets in the military, boarding information and pet policies in state and federal governments. She partners with nonprofits that specialize in service members and their companion animals, such as Dogs on Deployment and Pets for Patriots.
Moving in the military is tough. With loose ends to tie up, such as obtaining spouse employment, moving household goods, transferring schools, shipping vehicles and setting up child care, it can seem overwhelming. Many families have questions on and are sometimes unprepared for what resources exist to help them move their pets. Read the rest of this entry »
Tips to Ease Summertime Moves
Posted by in Family Matters on June 20, 2011
By Elaine Sanchez
Elaine.sanchez@dma.mil
June 8, 2011
As our seasoned military families are keenly aware, the end of the school year typically marks the start of a high-volume moving season.
Service members commonly know the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day as “PCS season,” which refers to permanent-change-of-station moves. Many families aim to move during that stretch of time to avoid disrupting their kids during the school year.
On average, the military moves about 600,000 shipments a year, and more than a third of those moves take place over the summer. John Johnson, the chief of the personal property branch for the Army’s Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, told me in a recent interview.
With this summertime surge in mind, I asked Mr. Johnson for his top tips to ease the moving process for service members and their families. His tips include:
– Stay organized. Create a personal moving calendar with checklists, phone lists, to-do lists, and links to critical moving processes and information.
– Find out options early. Contact your transportation office as soon as possible to learn about your moving options, including a personally procured move, former known as a do-it-yourself move, or DITY.
– Don’t hesitate to ask. It’s never too early to ask questions, and your transportation office is your primary point of contact for customer service.
– Start early. Once you get your orders and know the dates you want to move, immediately start the moving process. The sooner you start, the better the chance you’ll lock in the dates you want.
– Know your weight. Having a good estimated weight of your personal property and household goods is very important. An easy and dependable method for making this estimate is to figure about 1,000 pounds per room. Keep in mind this is only an estimate and individual shipments will vary.
– Don’t be a no-show. Pack, pickup and delivery dates are scheduled on weekdays. You or your designated representative needs to be available between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. You don’t want to miss your moving dates, as this will cause unnecessary hardship on everyone.
– Lock your move date in. Once you’ve selected your moving dates, don’t assume they’re set. Your moving dates are not confirmed until you coordinate with your carrier or transportation service provider.
– Be flexible. Moving in the summer months is extremely busy, with June being the busiest moving month of the year. Your preferred dates may not be available during this time. You will need to be as flexible as possible and always leave some time in your schedule for unforeseen circumstances.
– Lighten the load. Moving is a good time to dispose of unnecessary items. This will help avoid excess weight charges for being over your authorized weight allowance. You don’t want to ship and pay for something you didn’t want anyway.
– Reweigh if needed. You can request a reweigh of your personal property shipment at no cost. This is usually done when you are near or over your weight entitlement.
– Separate shipments. If you will have multiple shipments, clearly separate them at your residence. Multiple shipments should be scheduled on separate days to avoid confusion. You want the right items going to the right destination.
– Update contact information. Defense Personal Property System places you in direct contact with your carrier to manage the movement of your personal property. It is extremely important to ensure your phone number, email address and contact information is updated and current in DPS.
– Stay in close contact. If you have a delivery address for your personal property and want a direct delivery it’s important to work closely with your carrier or transportation service provider to arrange delivery. This will avoid your personal property being placed in storage.
For more moving tips or information on allowances and responsibilities, see the “It’s Your Move” pamphlet for service members or the “It’s your Move” pamphlet for Defense Department civilians. Or, visit the Move.mil website. For more information on planning summer moves, check out this Defense.gov article, “Planning is Key for Peak-season Moves.”
Military OneSource also offers families a host of resources; Military Homefront offers “Plan My Move,” which features a moving calendar and checklists; and Military Installations links families to information about their new bases and communities.
Do you have any moving tips or lessons-learned you’d like to share? Don’t hesitate to write in.
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DOD Offers Help With Moves
Posted by in Family Matters on March 11, 2011
Robert L. Gordon III is the deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy. In this guest blog, Mr. Gordon spotlights an online resource called “Plan My Move,” and invites families to join discussion boards to submit questions or share lessons learned.
Moving? Let Us Help with ‘Plan My Move’
Robert L. Gordon III
Military Community and Family Policy
Moving again? Even when a move is months away, it’s natural to get a little stressed when imagining everything at home getting packed into a box and shipped off to parts unknown. There is so much to do and so much to plan. That’s why we offer “Plan My Move.”
Plan My Move features a calendar that you customize. When are you moving? Where are you going? Do you have family members with special needs? The site creates a calendar that walks you through the day-to-day process of moving. You can change the calendar to fit your family’s needs. Tasks can be changed, moved or removed. You can add your own tasks.
Along with the calendar, Plan My Move creates travel checklists, arrival checklists, lists of documents to hand-carry and important phone numbers. You can print each of these lists and the calendar.
Plan My Move also links families to a massive amount of information about where you’re going and how you’ll get there. The site explains permanent and temporary housing options. It goes over the shipment and storage of your household goods. You can read about schools, employment assistance and recreation opportunities. You’ll find lots of information about the local community. The site lists websites, phone numbers and e-mail addresses, so you can contact them directly.
Whether it’s your first move or your fifth, there are always new challenges. How do I move my pets? How do I find the best day care and schools? What moving allowances will I get? Plan my Move has tip sheets for more than 150 different moving topics.
What moving tips do you have? Join our discussion if you have advice to share with other families or if you have questions about a move. We’ve also started discussions on moving with special needs family members and moving with children. I will focus on these subjects in my next two posts. In the meantime, I hope you’ll use these discussions to share experiences, advice with others who may benefit. Thank you.