Leaderboard

We need to give up the metaphor of a "form", as though in the modern digital era character counts and "two-pages" mean anything. We use acronyms and incomprehensible language for two reasons: 1) Once upon a time someone had to write performance reports on a typewriter. 2) When you force bad communication, it becomes really easy to hide bullshit. Those are both really bad reasons to recreate OPRs in some wonky document viewer program rather than using the flexibility electronic records should provide. Not sure what a bullet means? Click the expand button to see a plain english description. Not sure about an acronym? Mouse over. Had a kick ass year? Write 20 bullets. No so much? Put down a good 5. One line not enough? Add an explanatory paragraph. PRF time? Click your best 10, then let your boss revise the list, on up to your senior rater. You're a board member and you want to see an officer's strats? Click "Show Strats". Want to see if a senior rater is speeding? View all of their submitted strats for this year group. Tired of printing out records for promotion boards? Here's an iPad. All of that becomes easy if we just get away from the idea that OPRs are a sheet of paper and instead think of them as information. For my next rant, TAFs, METARs, and NOTAMs written as though we were still paying to send them via teletype...

HAF already put their fingers in the strat pie a couple years ago with the A1 guidance memo that worked its way into the reg in Jan (emphasis on peer group labeling, etc). But that was semi worthless. Strats have gotten out of hand because everyone believes the only way to say someone is a good dude is through a strat, when we both know there are useful strats (#x/x CGOs in sqdn) and there are worthless strats that seem forced (#x/3 wingmen in my flight). Not every strat is the same obviously, but to the masses in the cheap seats who only hear "must have strat to be good" they take that too far and create the BS ones because they don't know any better. The root cause is the OPR form itself. It is not an evaluation. It is a list of things you did followed by a push line. And the push line is an art where it should be a science. Since, minus the push lines, the "list of things you did" OPR makes it difficult to sort the 30th percentile from the 70th percentile we have found ourselves in the over-reliance on square filling to sort the lists. Which very few would agree is the right way to do business. The evaluation form should emphasize actual evaluation...subjective assessments on job performance, leadership qualities, communication skills, etc. maybe a small section on "stuff you did" but a focus on actual evaluation. I know subjective assessments scare people because they might not be "fair", but quite frankly its what we have now just in a different format. And there really is no way to evaluate some of the things that are truly important (leadership qualities) against truly objective criteria. Each officer should also get graded on major subject areas with a numerical grade. To avoid the EPR everyone gets a 5 debacle, those grades should be tied to a unit commander (or div chief, etc) and entered into a database. Upon meeting a board, those scores get compared to that commanders career long "grade point average" and presented to the board along with that average. If you got 4s but his average was a 3.5, you did okay. If you got 4s but his average is 4.8, then you are below average. If everyone gets a five, then that cc screwed his true top performers. Built in stratification, difficult to BS the system, no more challenge determining the 30% from the 60%, much less need to resort to square filling to rack n'stack. But that's too different, so we'll keep doing the same old thing and just complain about how inadequate it is.

Since we're only using 4 lines on an OPR anyway, why not reduce an OPR to 4 lines? No need to do a PRF at the 8 year point since your entire record would be 32 lines total. If this idea gets implemented, one of my lines would include "100,000 man hours saved."

But yet the quotas for the 2012 and the 2013 IDE boards changed by one. The number is very close to 500 when looking at the PSDMs. Was that number later reduced after the PSDM dropped? Are the number of selects in the 2001-2003 year groups that much larger and so now they are the ONLY ones who have it made to Lt Col? For example, the promotion rate this year to O-5 was just under 75% for LAF. The promotion rate for those attending DE is 99% and now the pool has been narrowed to those who performed the first six to seven years of a twenty year career. I agree with you that the promotion boards shouldn't have that much pull in who gets to go to school as I don't think it is an accurate representation when the DEDB meets 2-5 years later. Unfortunately, this doesn't help those currently caught in this mess.

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." --Barack Obama, Dec. 2007 oops

Thanks PCola. Our Group Execs mislead me then... always better to just know the regs. We had several O-5 R.O.A.D. types that were persuaded out of upgrade in order to not push an ADSC passed 20yrs. Hmmm the mission was significantly less awesome than briefed

Slick for fucks sake cut it out. I've never seen a captain so self righteously drop tales if his supervisory prowess like you do. How many posts now have you casually thrown in the fact that you're a supervisor? Enough SOS stories and enough talk of your own "leadership" techniques. Aren't you a shop chief? Get over yourself.

Good. Now perhaps certain people will start worrying about becoming competent in their AFSC instead of how they are going pepper-grind their way to that school slot.

It is legal to ship a firearm through FedEx and UPS. There is no specific packaging required, but I would ensure that the pistol is protected from damage using bubble wrap or popcorn. You can ship it back in its case, but the case will have to be placed in a box. If you decide to let them know there is a pistol in the box, they may ask you if you are shipping it to an FFL, which you are. Realize that many, if not most, of FedEx's and UPS' retail stores will not accept a firearm. You will have to typically bring it to their service/shipping centers. These places are where packages get sorted and distributed out for delivery. You can look up the service centers in your area and bring the package there. I've shipped firearms backed to manufacturers and to gunsmiths using UPS with no issues. FedEx should be the same. I'm assuming you already got a shipping label from SA?

It's definitely amateur hour over at the WH. My hope is that they treat it like a death penalty...and just put it off for several years, maybe even forever.

If only there had been an engineer to stop this from happening.

It is not that is won't fit. It is the fact that it will blow the trees down and the exhaust will burn holes in the nice grass.

How about, for once, we mind our own fucking business?