Embracing change is best safety net in online world Published May 12, 2009 By Major Andrew Phillips 305th Maintenance Operations Squadron Commander Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst -- There are two kinds of people in the Air Force - those who are computer/internet savvy and those who aren't. Some minor middle ground exists, but isn't relevant to this discussion. Those in the latter category, like me, have been having a rough time of it, as more and more training, force management and career management tasks are migrating to web-based applications. We groan when we have to go into the online "Portal" to figure out where an application is, and then how to use it, save it and often prove it. We reminisce wistfully about the days when paper travel vouchers and leave forms, sporting actual wet-ink signatures, routed their way merrily through various levels of approval, shepherded by the smiling faces of orderly-room personnelists and the Commander's Support Sections. It's hard to imagine an Air Force career field whose members regularly touch more of our force than the personnel career field. When the decision was made via Program Budget Decision 720 to trim that career field by an astounding 40 percent, the ripple effect drove 330,000 Air Force members to quickly acquire personnelist skills in varying degrees. Those old gray heads who were Information Technology, or IT, resistant were suddenly forced to manage a good portion of administrative tasks, which directly impacted their careers on varied and sundry computer applications - AMS, MyPay, ADLS, vMPF, AEF Online, TBA, ARMS, etc. It was and is not uncommon to find some chiefs and colonels velcroed to an IT-fluent Airman who can input and extract the chief's/colonel's sensitive data, meeting critical suspenses and keeping them from missing or botching a career-impacting IT "event." The flood of problems, complaints and criticism was as predictable as aircraft de-icing operations during a Minot Air Force Base, N.D., winter. In a nutshell, the Air Force Personnel Center was in a no-win situation. The career field's extreme staffing cuts compelled this IT proliferation, as there was no accompanying reduction of tasks needed to be performed - just people to help do them (read: orderly rooms). The resulting flood of computerized solutions was the best way to keep the administrative wheels turning in people's careers. To be sure, there are growing pains associated with the ever-increasing amount of tasks we perform online. We have all experienced software-related issues or connectivity problems, but at some point, we must take a "glass-is-half-full" perspective, acknowledging that these IT solutions are at least enabling us to function. As software solutions mature, connectivity issues are resolved, and we become more familiar with the care and feeding of our internet-based career and force management tools through their routine use. Helpfully, logins using the Common Access Card mean fewer and fewer username and password nightmares, which is always a blessing. What's the message? There are a lot of hard working professionals at the Air Force Personnel Center who have the thankless job of finding ways for us to easily manage the administrative tasks formerly aided by our long-lost personnelists. They appreciate constructive suggestions on how to make their products better, faster and easier; but negative, unproductive comments don't help anybody. Face it - we're not going to go back to the way it was. Dinosaurs like me are better off just wrapping our brains around this brave new world and pressing on with the business at hand, using all the internet applications that may entail.