Posted on Oct 4, 2017
Hello Bill Rausch here from Got Your 6. I am coming by on Tuesday for a live Q&A. What questions do you have for me?
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*RallyPoint Staff will be monitoring this discussion*
From RP Staff:
We are honored to welcome Bill Rausch to a live Q&A here n RallyPoint. Bill is the Executive Director at Got Your 6. He is a former Army Major with over ten years of service including 17 months in Iraq serving under Generals Casey and Petraeus while assigned to the Information Operations Task Force. Before joining GY6, Bill was Political Director at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America where he oversaw policy and advocacy campaigns.
Prior to his veteran advocacy work, he was a Senior Consultant providing products and services to the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense while assigned to the Pentagon. Bill regularly testifies in front of Congress and has appeared on NBC Nightly News, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and MSNBC’s coverage of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Bill is also an active community leader and volunteer serving as Chapter Captain for Team Red, White & Blue (Team RWB) in his local community in Alexandria, VA. He serves on the Board of Directors at Volunteer Alexandria, an organization promoting volunteerism across all charity sectors. Bill received his Bachelor of Science in Geospatial Information Science from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY.
From RP Staff:
We are honored to welcome Bill Rausch to a live Q&A here n RallyPoint. Bill is the Executive Director at Got Your 6. He is a former Army Major with over ten years of service including 17 months in Iraq serving under Generals Casey and Petraeus while assigned to the Information Operations Task Force. Before joining GY6, Bill was Political Director at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America where he oversaw policy and advocacy campaigns.
Prior to his veteran advocacy work, he was a Senior Consultant providing products and services to the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense while assigned to the Pentagon. Bill regularly testifies in front of Congress and has appeared on NBC Nightly News, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and MSNBC’s coverage of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Bill is also an active community leader and volunteer serving as Chapter Captain for Team Red, White & Blue (Team RWB) in his local community in Alexandria, VA. He serves on the Board of Directors at Volunteer Alexandria, an organization promoting volunteerism across all charity sectors. Bill received his Bachelor of Science in Geospatial Information Science from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY.
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Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 23
MAJ Bill Rausch, thanks for spending time with us today. Can you talk a bit about the times you've testified in front of Congress and your overall takeaways from those sessions? Veterans issues are numerous and complex so I'm curious to get your sense of the progress stimulated by such governmental interactions.
So I decided to review your public website and I found it interesting that one of your stated missions is to work with Hollywood in an attempt to de-Hollywoodize (my word) portrayals of veterans and service members in entertainment--good luck with all that by the way--but just how do you gage success in that regard? And as a follow on, just how receptive are those partners to such efforts? All too often "support" is more slogan than action.
Lastly, you had me at the Penguins!
Thanks for your time.
Lastly, you had me at the Penguins!
Thanks for your time.
MAJ Bill Rausch
Great question and thanks for checking out our website! We do work with the entertainment industry to ensure that veterans are accurately portrayed in film in television. We've made strides although there's more work to be done. One way we engage the entertainment industry is through our 6 Certified program (gotyour6.org/programs/6-certified/). It's a great way to celebrate projects that "get it right!" While some projects have main story lines about vets, you'll notice some shows or films only have one or two mentions of veterans, which is fine. The purpose is to normalize the characterization of veterans away from “broken heroes,” which is how we’ve been traditionally portrayed. The broader way we measure success is to see how the overall US population views veterans and we do that through our perception shift study (found here: https://gotyour6.org/impact/cultural-perceptions-of-veterans/) You'll see that while we've made progress there is much more work to be done!
MAJ Bill Rausch
Sorry the link didn't go through -- try this one! https://gotyour6.org/programs/6-certified/
WHAT IS 6 CERTIFIED. 6 CERTIFIED ACTIONS.
The 6 Certified films must portray veterans accurately and responsibly—meaning avoid exaggerate veteran character traits or effects of military service:
First, welcome to RallyPoint MAJ Bill Rausch and thank you for taking the time to review and respond to questions posed.
Background: I am a service-connected VA disabled veteran as well as a USMA graduate and retired Army officer.
How would you advise those who are transitioning from military service to post-military service who are interested in getting more involved in volunteer and/or advocacy "work including lobby local/state or federal government legislators or executives?"
Background: I am a service-connected VA disabled veteran as well as a USMA graduate and retired Army officer.
How would you advise those who are transitioning from military service to post-military service who are interested in getting more involved in volunteer and/or advocacy "work including lobby local/state or federal government legislators or executives?"
MAJ Bill Rausch
Thank you for the kind words. The RP community is unlike any digital community I've ever been part of and it's a place I def feel welcome! There are a ton of great nonprofits out there and we are very proud of our veteran empowerment coalition that represents the military, veterans and our families. Check out all 34 here with more being announced later next week: https://gotyour6.org/partners/nonprofit/ My recommendation on how to get involved is to try them out and take organizations on "test drives." Many groups have Hill lobbing days or what we often refer to as "storm the hill" here in DC. This is a great way to learn more about an organization and the issues. Some local groups may not even have a policy shop so there might be an opportunity to organize something yourself. Even my local Team RWB chapter in Alexandria, which doesn't do advocacy, does engagement with City Hall as the result of our group meeting weekly on the same day/time as when council meets. It's been a great way for our local leaders to know we're in the community and has led to opportunities to engage more broadly on our issues. Also, you can always shoot us a note -- our Gov't Relations Director could always use a retired West Pointer to help her out with things! :) I should end with, Go Army -- Beat Navy!
The success of GY6 is in the power of collective impact
GY6’s coalition of nonprofit partners has the unique ability to leverage their networks to enhance the work each organization is accomplishing on the ground
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Ultimately, most Gov't Leaders want to get it right. I view part of our job as telling them how it really is, the good and the bad, to ensure that the sea of goodwill drives real and positive change!