Where do you get better support — in person or online? At SpouseBuzz we debate this one all the time. Me? I’m all for doing support in person. According to the research, your deployment goes a lot better if you have one real, local, in-person, up-close-and-personal FRIEND on your side. Your girlfriend in Quantico, Va. cannot pick up your son in San Diego, Calif. no matter how much she loves you or how stranded you are on the Coronado Bridge.
Our managing editor Amy Bushatz disagrees. She is all about life online. Amy holds on to friends from every duty station online and says that some of her favorite friends she met first online and later in person. She assures me that military spouses who don’t use Facebook to keep up with their friends don’t exist. I say they do. They are called Women Of A Certain Age.
That’s why we are bringing SpouseBuzz LIVE to San Diego on September 29. It’s open to active duty and reserve spouses of the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard. We will be getting together in person over lunch to determine the very best support for military spouses. Instead of the usual boring Powerpoint that tells you stuff you already know, we are bringing our best bloggers to deliver the inside-tried-and-tested solutions to a happier military life. (Sign up for SpouseBuzz LIVE here.)
In addition to workshop segments on making your marriage deployment proof and the secrets of happy military kids, Amy Bushatz (An Open Letter to a Naive Guard Spouse) and SpouseBuzz Blogger Raleigh Duttweiler (Top Ten Things NOT To Wear To Homecoming) are determined to help you cut through all your social media nightmares. In their no PowerPoint, out-of-your-seat workshop, Amy and Raleigh will help you figure out how to use your online tools to make new friends and keep the old. There are even new solutions for all of you Ombudsmen, FROs and command teams who are working to get your units together.
I can’t wait to see Amy and Raleigh rock their workshop. For one, I know I need it. For two, I know that while participants are learning to use online tools to get support, they will also be interacting with real, live, local people. Just the kind of people who make the very best of friends.
