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program participants should be expected to provide
personal referrals, phone contacts, and interface with
COIs. They may also
be helpful by making
presentations or visits at local schools and participating
in interviews with high school counselors and teachers.
Most of the participants will not readily know how they
can help the recruiting effort. It is up to the RINC to
help them see where they can be most useful. The
ultimate goal of recruiting assistance program
participants is to provide referrals who will enlist, but
there are many other benefits that can be derived from
their assignment. Their very presence in the community
can be a living example of Navy opportunities. Make
sure they know that they are advertising for the Navy
each time they go out in the community. Stress the
importance of professional appearance and conduct.
Above all make them feel that they have an important
job to do during their assignment. Make sure press
releases are made announcing their arrival. Provide
training and monitor their progress. Now let’s look at
the programs individually so you will have a better
understanding of your participants.
Recruiting Assistance Leave program.– To qualify
for receiving 5 days of nonchargeable leave, personnel
must be on regular leave between A or C school or
apprenticeship training and their first permanent duty
station. Members are authorized to help the local
recruiter for 5 consecutive days. They are expected to
participate in regularly scheduled school canvassing
visits, to speak at recruiting functions and civic
activities, to follow up PRO-Navy recruit training center
(RTC) referrals, and to accompany recruiters on home
visits. After completion of recruiting assistance,
members with the proper endorsement from the Navy
recruiting district (NRD) will be credited with up to 5
days of nonchargeable leave.
Hometown Area Recruiting Program.– HARP is
a program that returns enlisted personnel to their
hometowns for a 12-day period to help local recruiters
by relating their Navy experiences to their peers.
Participants are assigned to the recruiting station nearest
their hometown on permissive no-cost temporary
additional duty (TEMADD) authorizations normally in
conjunction with regular leave. HARP duty is not
authorized in conjunction with permanent change of
station (PCS) orders. Participants must be screened by
their commanding officers (COs) and exemplify the
highest standards of military appearance, conduct, and
courtesy. They must be high school graduates from the
town where they want to participate in HARP and their
home must be within 30 miles of a recruiting station.
They should normally be under 24 years of age
(waivers are considered on a case-by-case basis) and
must provide their own transportation to and from the
NRS. The NRD may authorize them to operate
government vehicles during their assignment for
recruiting business only.
Senior Minority
Assistance to Recruiting
Program.– The SEMINAR Program was established to
provide assistance to the Navy in its efforts to recruit
more black and Hispanic applicants and to enhance the
Navy’s image in these communities. Through this
program, the Navy temporarily returns (for a minimum
of 20 days) highly qualified black and Hispanic officers
and senior enlisted personnel to their home communities
to meet with local influential community members and
to discuss the variety of educational, career, and
advancement programs the Navy offers. Although the
program is specifically targeted to black and Hispanic
communities, participation is open to other minorities
when the Navy needs specific recruiting assistance.
SEMINAR is performed in conjunction with PCS orders
and, usually, the participant is entitled to per diem and
travel allowances. SEMINAR participants must be
volunteers in paygrades E-6 through E-9 or W-2
through O-6, Personnel in grades O-4 and below will be
screened by their COs. There are no rate or age
restrictions.
Referral Techniques
As we mentioned before, how you ask for a referral
is more important than who you ask. If you walk into
a room and ask who knows someone who wants to go
in the Navy, rarely will a profusion of hands be raised.
Ask who knows someone who needs money for college,
a good job, training, travel opportunities, or financial
security and you are likely to get a more positive
response. When asking for referrals, we must paint a
picture of the prospect we are looking for. People need
some frame of reference to remind them of people they
know who would benefit from Navy opportunities. Be
creative, One particular y imaginative recruiter was
working with a COI to get some new referrals. The
recruiter asked, “Who do you know that I should be
talking to – someone who has good potential but needs
some new opportunities, someone who would make a
good team player, someone who needs to continue his
or her education, someone who can be a leader. . .”
Each picture left the COI without a referral in mind.
Finally, the recruiter asked, “Okay, I’ll bet there is some
young fellow who hot rods up and down your street
that you’d like to send to boot camp.” The COI smiled
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