INVEST - DOD wants your ideas to cut waste

[JarheadBoom]

As much as it pained me, I actually Googled TIB and went to their website, looking for facts to back-up my "Eliminate TIB" submission.

I found that on this year's "team", there are (among others) a few SPs, a few aircraft maintainers, an AFSOC loadmaster, and a fucking ARABIC LINGUIST! You simply cannot tell me that with the ops we are currently involved in, Tops In Blue is a valuable use of Airmen with these critical skills.

Ridiculous.

[Gravedigger]

As much as it pained me, I actually Googled TIB and went to their website, looking for facts to back-up my "Eliminate TIB" submission.

I found that on this year's "team", there are (among others) a few SPs, a few aircraft maintainers, an AFSOC loadmaster, and a fucking ARABIC LINGUIST! You simply cannot tell me that with the ops we are currently involved in, Tops In Blue is a valuable use of Airmen with these critical skills.

Ridiculous.

Wow, my submission could have been a lot better than "TIB is gayer than two dudes kissing" had I known those facts. Nice work Jarhead!

[Dave Koza]

Here is an update to the INVEST program:

The deadline for submissions was September 24th, with winners scheduled to be announced in October. Nearly 16,000 ideas were submitted. In November, the DoD finally updated their website stating that they would need until early December to evaluate the proposals. It is now the middle of February and the DoD is over two months late on its own revised deadline. The website now says that "final winners will be announced here as soon as they are selected."

While this contest was a good idea, it is pretty ridiculous that the DoD cannot even accomplish an efficiency/savings contest anywhere near on time.

[Toro]

While this contest was a good idea, it is pretty ridiculous that the DoD cannot even accomplish an efficiency/savings contest anywhere near on time.

What a bitter irony.

And this is interesting - stats breaking down submissions by service.

[pawnman]

Does anyone else remember that when this whole thing started, some congressman said the fact the USAF had so many submissions was a justification to cut our budget? I can't recall where I saw it or who said it, so maybe I'm wrong...hell, could have been some forum troll on the .af.mil site announcing the program.

[Guest]

Does anyone else remember that when this whole thing started, some congressman said the fact the USAF had so many submissions was a justification to cut our budget? I can't recall where I saw it or who said it, so maybe I'm wrong...hell, could have been some forum troll on the .af.mil site announcing the program.

That's a good idea. Penalize the people who are smart enough and care enough to take it seriously. Maybe we should refocus and submit ideas on how the USN/USMC/USA budgets should be cut. Then the same political leaders can say "The USAF submitted 69,001 ideas...69,000 of which involve viable and brilliant budget cutting proposals for their sister services."

[Dave Koza]

It seems like nothing ever materialized from those 15,000 ideas submitted to the DoD's 2010 INVEST Initiative. Here is another such program:

The President's SAVE Award

I submitted an idea about masking AADs for promotion to major. Some of the points may seem familiar to frequent visitors of this board.

Please vote for it if you agree, since that is how they select the finalists.

Summary: At $250/credit hour, each AAD costs the USAF about $10K in TA. That means it costs $10 million for 1000 CGOs to play the game.

Edited July 21, 2012 by Dave Koza