Every month, twice a month, on the first and second Tuesday, for an agonizing 50 minutes, there is a common thought between Noncommissioned Officers (NICO's) to poke out an eye and run screaming from a room to avoid being forced to listen to a lecture being delivered by speakers who could easily put the Serta sheep out of business.The purpose of the lectures is to provide professional development, but what it becomes is an opportunity to write grocery lists, count ceiling tiles, or contemplate what one would rather be or could be doing. Inaccurately titled as Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development or NCODP it would be more accurate to title it as Noncommissioned Officer Daydream ...view middle of the document...
The speaker was faced with a mind-numbing topic, and a tough crowd as almost every NCO in the audience was a professionally trained Instructor.The speaker stood on top of a stage at the end of the auditorium, and used PowerPoint to present the bullet-style slides. She walked back and forth on the stage, read the slides word for word, and occasionally added a comment or two of her own. When reading the slides she faced away from the audience and would sometimes go through four to five slides without even looking or glancing towards the audience. One quickly got the impression that she was just as anxious for the event to be over as was the audience. Most likely she found out just a few days prior that she would be giving the lecture, and was using a presentation that had been passed on to her. Her delivery was void of spontaneity or interaction; the audience could have left the building and she would have been none the wiser due to the lack of contact.It was evident that she was unsure of herself and of the presentation because on the rare occasion when she did add something not on the slides, her voice would falter, and no one could hear or understand what was said. However, rather than prolong the agony felt by all, to include the speaker, no one asked her to repeat what she had said.In the Army it is considered unprofessional to have your hands in your pockets for anything other than a quick coin count or retrieving something from the pocket. Being on a stage, the center of attention, is not the time to forget this...but she did. Eyes were drawn to the hand in the pocket and mental counts were made to see how long it would take before she realized it and removed it. It took about five minutes.We all were on a mission, survival. We were waiting for the sign or words that would indicate we had survived and that freedom was at hand; and in conclusion. Finally, the long anticipated slide appeared, but before the speaker could verbalize her closing comments, the applause began. She smiled, used the remote to turn off the projector, and walked graciously off stage. We survived the ordeal, the speaker and ...
