Guard offers financial incentive to join
Missouri and four other states serve as test sites for the program.
Dec. 9, 2005
In hopes of reaching recruitment goals, the Army National Guard has started a program that will pay guardsmen to recruit new members.
The Guard Recruiter Assistant Program offers up to $2,000 to guardsmen who recruit new members for service.
On Dec. 1 Missouri, Kentucky, North Dakota, West Virginia and Iowa began serving as the test states for the program, said Sgt. 1st Class Dominic Butell of the Missouri National Guard. Eleven more states will be added to this program by the end of January.
Butell said ideally the program would increase recruiting, and the Guard would have a waiting list of qualified applicants.
The G-RAP program is available to active guardsmen, said Teresa Amos, spokeswoman for the Columbia office of the Missouri National Guard.
The guard members can become recruiting assistants by completing an online training course, which covers ethics, Guard and Army values, duties and the assistants' responsibilities. The assistants work for a civilian contractor to recruit new members but still are held to the values of the Army.
"I think it's a good program for recruiting soldiers," Amos said. "There will be a new ownership and pride in being a Missouri National Guardsmen."
Once a recruiting assistant recruits a new member to the Guard, he or she would receive a $1,000 signing bonus, Butell said. The assistant then would receive an additional $1,000 when the new member is shipped to basic training.
Both Butell and Amos said the program should help build a team from within the National Guard because current guardsmen recruit people they want to be in the guard with them. In addition to having a vested interest in the National Guard, the guardsmen would have extra income through recruiting.
Butell said because of this program recruiters would be able to concentrate their time on finding the right job and position for each recruit instead of having to always actively recruit.
The program seems to be working, said Guard Specialist Michael Hart, an MU student. He said because of the program he is now much more likely to talk about his service in the National Guard and recommend that people join.
Hart has yet to go through training but said he plans to look into it when the semester ends.
The recruitment goals of the National Guard have not changed, Amos said. G-RAP is a different way of accomplish ing the same mission.
"It's really changing the way we do business," Butell said.
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