BRAC recruiters turn on charm

ARLINGTON, Va. - Jeanne Payne needs a Spanish teacher. Mariel Morales is a Spanish teacher.

The two had a great conversation at the Tennessee Valley BRAC Committee's job fair Thursday, and now the Virginia teacher is giving thought to applying for a teaching job in Decatur when her lawyer husband's Missile Defense Agency job moves to Huntsville in August.

That's how a job fair is supposed to work.

Payne, curriculum supervisor for Decatur City Schools, said the way to woo good teachers to the area is to make a personal connection.

"It's about the relationship," said Payne, who chatted with the spouses of almost 100 federal workers whose jobs are coming to Redstone Arsenal over the next few years.

"They want to know they're coming to work for people, not just for a school district. You've got to make it personal for them."

That kind of one-on-one attention is appealing to Morales, 49. The Puerto Rico native is outgoing, and she said she likes to surround herself with people who are friendly, too.

The representatives from 20-plus companies at the job fair bathed themselves in friendliness. They know if the spouses of the 4,500 Department of Defense workers are excited about their career prospects in the Tennessee Valley, the more federal employees will transfer.

Estimates for how many Washington, D.C.-area employees will move with their Missile Defense Agency, Army Materiel Command and Space & Missile Defense Agency jobs range as low as 15 percent, even though historically about 30 percent of the work force transfers in such BRAC moves.

Tennessee Valley BRAC Committee head Joe Ritch said it's too early to know how many will move, "but we're shooting to get 100 percent."

That's why a diverse array of jobs were presented as open at the fair, ranging from custodian to mammography technologist to chemical engineer to bus driver.

"We want to show that there's something for everyone," said Loren Traylor with the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

"We've got information on more than 200 different types of jobs. For some people, the decision to move will be at least partially based on if the spouses can get the jobs they want."

Shirley Morgan, 35, already knows that her family is moving to the area because her husband, Tony, wants to follow his MDA job. She works in accounting and, even though she didn't find a job Thursday, she feels like the networking she did will help.

"A lot of MDA people have been hesitant about committing to go to Huntsville, but they're opening up more," said Morgan, who has lived in the Washington area for 10 years. "And I'm one of them that's opening up to it."

They had to convince their 7- and 12-year-old sons. After Morgan and her husband visited Huntsville a few weeks ago, she had what she needed to persuade them: video footage.

"My oldest son had asked, 'Alabama? Will there be other people there?' " she said. "He had an idea in his head that hardly anybody lived there. But when I showed him video of people and cars and malls, he came on board."

Bryan Hammond, who worked the booth for the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting company, knew how it felt to be an Alabama-bound transferee. He moved from Maryland five years ago for the Defense Acquisition University, and he told everyone who would listen what a great move it has been.

When he later applied for the Booz Allen job in Huntsville, it was suggested that he move to the company's Virginia office because of his Navy background. He said he told his interviewers that he wouldn't move, "even if they wanted to make me CEO."

"My first day on the job in Huntsville, people came up and said, 'We're glad to have you here,' " Hammond said. "I never heard that in Maryland. And the commute was horrible, and the taxes were outrageous. Alabama has been great for us.

"My wife accuses me of being the poster child for the Tennessee Valley. I'm happy to be guilty of that. And I'm going to spread the word about Alabama as fast as I can."