JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska –
When people think about the Better Opportunities for Single Service members, or BOSS, program, they don't always consider just how much the program is involved in.
Much has changed in light of the federal budget cuts, and in light of the joint base.
"I actually asked for this job," said Sgt. Timothy Kacillas, BOSS president. "When I got back from Afghanistan a couple of years ago, I got involved in the program through my unit representative."
Kacillas went to various events and activities, and noticed the BOSS president at the time was about to move to his next assignment. He took the initiative.
"I took control of a big Battle of the Bands event, and it was really successful," he said. "After that, they invited me to become the vice president. It kind of grew from there."
Kacillas had been preparing for separation from the Army, but found this job irresistible.
"I actually had to reenlist to take over the program," he said. "I wanted to do it that much. It was a really great opportunity."
As BOSS president, Kacillas is assigned to both U.S. Army Alaska and the 673d Force Support Squadron. The job position acts as borrowed manpower.
"Usually BOSS stands for 'Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers'," he said. "I think using 'Better Opportunities for Single Service members' is Department of the Army approved now. We still call it BOSS, the 'm' is silent. They're saying it at a lot of other joint bases as well. You have to utilize the resources that are right in front of you; it doesn't make sense not to."
Once he was officially in as BOSS president, he had the ability to make improvements to the program.
"This year, one thing I've started doing is having the unit representatives actually run their own events. There's supposed to be a BOSS representative for every unit," he said. "That's 80 or 90 people on the Army side alone. It doesn't always happen that they are full-time; it can be an additional duty for them."
The BOSS president said many events run more smoothly when he lets the unit representatives take the lead for their unit's event.
"A really successful one was the Midnight Sun Brewery Tour downtown," he said. "It's a free tour where I think they just had to pay $5 to $10 for beer samples. We checked I.D.s, provided transportation with designated drivers, they did the tour of the brewery and came back. We booked up as many people as we could on that one."
There are several events coming up soon.
"We've got the Car Show coming up in June. We called it the Freedom Festival last year; it's the sixth annual car show. For four years it was just called the Car Show, so it's still just that. It'll be on Saturday, June 15; 11 a.m. to about 6 p.m., right in this parking lot at building 655.
"In the near future, we're also going over to the skeet range, we're volunteering over at the Thrift Shop. There're all kinds of different things that we do. We just focus on one thing at a time."
Kacillas said using his unit representatives makes things run more smoothly.
"Different unit representatives are the points of contact," he said. "It allows me to look at bigger events or broad-scale stuff and it allows the representatives to take leadership in doing exactly what they want to do. We get more done that way, and it gives them more freedom of events that they want to do. What I've been focusing on are the battalion-level representatives, or squadron level for the Air Force side. If I have good representatives there, they'll control the representatives of smaller units."
BOSS hosts events for singles, single parents and even some for families.
"For single Soldiers and single Airmen, we focus on them for the trips like going snowmachining and white water rafting, things like that," he said. "Our events are either free or at very little cost to the service member. Like, we'll pay half of the bill.
"Over the course of the winter, we went on three or four snowmachine trips where the individual single service member didn't have a pay a dime. We just covered the entire cost of that, which is like a $150 value. It's a pretty good deal."
Kacillas said he invites parents to bring their children to some of the events.
"There are certain things family can come up for, we do hikes and things of that nature," he said. "There are a lot of single service members and a lot of single parents and volunteers where we'll do stuff and invite them to bring their kids. For example, the car show coming up in June, it's a festival. It's open to the JBER public, not just the single service members."
Paying for events isn't easy, but Kacillas finds ways to make things cheap or free.
"It's part of my job is to find sponsors and do other income-generating events so that we can afford certain things," the BOSS president said.
For example, the shirts with the BOSS logo come directly from the Department of the Army; it is originally an Army program. Still, at JBER the program has opened its doors to other services.
"We're actually really heavy on the Air Force side," he said. "We're almost 50 percent Air Force. About a year and a half ago, we actually opened it up and started advertising for the Air Force. We picked a technical sergeant to be the vice president. It'll always be an Airman vice president, so I have a counterpart over on the other side. The Air Force will always be involved so that we have the equality and diversity. It's pretty interesting.
"We have vice president, secretary and treasurer positions as well," he said. "So we have a BOSS committee and on top of that all of the representatives."
Kacillas said there are about 70 BOSS programs worldwide. Army support helps, but funds are still a challenge.
"We have smaller money because of the budget cuts," he said. "I can't go out and buy eight copies of the latest Halo game for the program."
Kacillas' office is located in building 655, also home to the Arctic Chill and the Warrior Zone. Not far from his office door are a collection of movies and video games, classics and relatively new releases.
"The games you see by the front door are actually part of the Warrior Zone. The BOSS program, the Warrior Zone and the Arctic Chill are like 'The Three Musketeers' - we just do everything together. So what affects the Warrior Zone will actually end up affecting the Chill, for example. We share funds; we do events together. We just make it work."
Funding so many events and activities is not easy; the programs don't do it alone.
"We get an overwhelming amount of support from the community," the opportunity boss said. "We also find local funding from sponsors and other entities. We usually work it out to be able to do completely free events, one way or another. If we're going to use Outdoor Recreation stuff, they give us a discount because we work so well with them, we can use the gym for free, we can rent out the Arctic Chill for free."
Funding doesn't only cover equipment and events; BOSS is active in far more.
"Events are just one part of it," he said. "There's community service, there's recreation and leisure, and there's quality of life. Our third-Thursday meetings are generally issue meetings; whenever anybody has issues as far as quality of life, like an issue with the dorms, those get brought up then. Chief (Kevin L.) Call and Command Sgt. Maj. (Jesse) Pratt, the installation command group, one of them is usually at the meetings. Potholes were a big topic in the last meeting; there was a big post about those on Facebook.
People can search 'JBER BOSS' on Facebook.
"There's also JBADD, or Joint Base Against Drunk Driving. It used to be Airmen Against Drunk Driving and Soldiers Against Drunk Driving; we made it one," Kacillas said. "Our council is running that, too; it's part of the BOSS program. All the funding and help that goes into it, like the new vehicle that we got, all that is part of the BOSS program.
"Every Friday and Saturday we look at the JBADD program," he said. "That also has a Facebook page, search for 'JBER JBADD', those are really great ways to get information out there. Social media has been successful for us. I also do weekly emails. It's a little crazy, but it's been beneficial. I learned recently that that's what some BOSS representatives do; they just check their Facebook page. They take screenshots of the calendar. I usually post digital fliers on there. It helps make things a little easier, instead of posting flyers on walls."
As Kacillas reaches the end of his term as president, he looks to the future and hopes his work continues.
"I would like to get more organized and have different sections," he said. "I'd like to have a single section for parents, and so on. I haven't gotten there yet; there are so many working parts. So hopefully whoever takes over can continue that direction," Kacillas said. "We're coming full circle and I have to find a replacement. It's been good."