375th AW commander to speak on climate assessment Published May 20, 2009 By Steve Berry 375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Col. Gary Goldstone, 375th Airlift Wing commander, is speaking about the results of a voluntary wing-wide climate survey during the Commander's All Call meetings at the Base Theater today. At the commander's request, the online survey was conducted Jan. 26 through Feb. 16, and 1,398 members of the 375th Airlift Wing responded to the survey at a 44 percent participation rate. Tech. Sgt. Robert Carman, Military Equal Opportunity Office NCOIC, said the survey was conducted to "provide commanders an overall assessment of their human relations climate in their units." The survey included questions in the categories of cohesion and pride, motivation and morale, supervisory support, discriminatory behavior, overt discrimination and command equal employment opportunity. Plus, the survey included 10 locally developed questions in addition to the standard Unit Climate Assessment categories. Overall, the voluntary survey respondents rated the wing favorably at 5.8 on a Likert Scale from one to seven. On the rating scale, the number 1 is a very negative rating and 7 is a very positive rating. Sergeant Carman said the 5.8 rating does not include the results of the survey's locally developed questions because the variance of the questions made them unable to be ranked on the Likert Scale. The majority of the survey participants indicated they feel accepted in the local community, there is open communication between them and their supervisors, discrimination and sexual harassment do not occur at work and the unit commander's policies on discrimination and harassment are clear. The majority of the survey participants also perceived the following as problem areas: lack of recognition and reward by the chain of command to the most deserving, and low morale. Survey participants believed the overall health of the wing was the same as it was one year ago.