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Fairchild maintenance shaves time off EPR process

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Larry Carpenter
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  The 92nd Maintenance Squadron has come up with a new AFSO 21 initiative with the revamp of their Enlisted Personnel Report process.

The plan is to take the old process of an EPR being routed for up to 120 days for changes, to a one-time meeting process where all members involved meet in a room and don't come out until the EPR is done.

"The three main objectives with this AFSO 21 initiative for the EPR process are to standardize the rating system, teach the raters how to become better writers and to minimize the processing time," said Tiana Church, NCOIC of the Commander Support Staff with the 92nd Maintenance Group.

Standardizing the rating system will become a bit easier with this process, because the raters will have to be able to support the ratings they have given out in front of the rest of the group during the EPR meeting, firewall five airmen should be separated from the others, said Sergeant Church. This process should reduce the instances where high ratings are given just to keep an Airman competitive for promotion and let the EPR system work like it's suppose too.

The new process calls for the Commander Support Staff to schedule an EPR meeting 30 days before the close out date of an EPR. The meeting will consist of the commander, first sergeant, superintendent, rater, additional rater and flight chief if necessary.

Other than standardizing the rating system, the new process will provide training to the raters, some who are writing for the first time.

Once a member leaves Airman Leadership School, they have been given the basics on how to write an EPR but may lack the experience required by junior NCOs to become really proficient.

Now, the person who wrote the EPR will be able to see the changes that are being made and get an understanding of why, said Sergeant Church. This should make them better writers and give them a feel of what leadership is looking for.

In the past, the CSS would have to send out the EPR shell four months in advance just to meet the closeout deadline, which wasn't guaranteed but since the 92nd MXS started using the process on Dec. 1, 2006, they have completed 84 EPR's with zero of them missing the close-out date, said Sergeant Church.

So what if the commander is unable to attend the EPR meeting?

The meeting will still take place as scheduled, therefore when the commander gets back and is ready to sign the EPR, they can feel confident that they are signing a quality product, said Sergeant Church.

Due to the AFSO 21 thinking by the 92nd Maintenance Squadron, they have developed a process that allows a finished EPR to come out of a 30 minute meeting.

"If this process can work in a maintenance group, there is no reason that it couldn't be applied to any other squadron," said Sergeant Church.