Fail Forward Fund in memory of Maj Jess Ross
Donation protected
The Fail Forward Fund supporting Innovation in the CAF is in memory of Major Jessica Ross who passed away from Stage 4 Colon Cancer on September 30th, 2022.
Jess was no stranger to setting lofty goals, one of which was to enhance the CAF’s procurement system so that technicians could get the tools, training, and parts they need to do the jobs asked of them! Quite often, technicians see creative solutions to problems, but wind up having trouble getting the solutions put into practice because of circumstances outside of their control. Unfortunately, she passed before she was able to get this done.
The purpose of this fund is to inspire creativity and outside-the-box thinking for RCEME and Signals technicians within the Canadian Army. The framework of the fund and how it will be dispersed is still being formalized by the RCEME Corps (managed through the RCEME Guild Fund); however, all funds raised will wind up being awarded to members who are spending their own money to solve problems, or are looking for funding to trial a solution to a problem before taking it through the formal procurement process. If these solutions are successful/effective, they may enable the purchasing justification for wider spread solutions. Ideally, it will remove projects that fail from the procurement system early, helping with the volume of procurement being put through; and, if successful, provide more justification to the stakeholders approving the funding, saving on the communication traffic between all parties. Therefore, even failure is a success with this fund!
No matter which position Jess held, she always made an effort to have an open door and an open mind. This allowed her to foster a trusting, enabling relationship with all those around her. Her message was always to at least try and that failure wasn’t a bad thing; doing nothing was. This was noticed during her time in Command, both in Canada and Deployed. She enabled creativity in navigating the beginning of the pandemic by purchasing 3D printer filament/mask material in Ottawa and delivering it to technicians under her command to help with creating personal protection equipment. Deployed, she surprised her peers by having 3D printers delivered into theatre, where the first deployed additive manufacturing capability in the Army was born.
As she reached the end of her time, some of her final bandwidth was put into setting the intent for this fund. Any donation is greatly appreciated, and all funds raised will wind up enabling the RCEME Corps, and the technicians that Maj Jess Ross thought so highly of throughout her career.
For the purpose of managing the Go Fund Me page, Chad Mooney and Johnny Optis are close friends and Jess and Eric Ross, and the RCEME Guild Fund will be the beneficiary of the funds raised on this page.
We will start collecting links of some of Jess' accomplishments for those of you that may be interested to read further:
Jess’ Thesis:
Fundraising team (2)
Chad Mooney
Organizer
Petawawa, ON
Eric Ross
Beneficiary
Johnny Optis
Team member