MAY 19, 2015, JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas (AFNS) – Beginning in May, supervisors of active-duty Airmen will be able to initiate, process, track and sign officer and enlisted evaluations using myPers, Air Force Personnel Center officials announced May 15.
Additionally, beginning in June, supervisors of active-duty members will be able to use myPers to initiate and track decorations as well.
“Airmen can view their personnel records, update assignment preferences, update their record of emergency data and more on myPers through the ‘Access AFPC Secure’ link,” said Christine Stingley, the military future operations branch requirements and testing chief. “Enabling Airmen to manage their personnel information and perform transactions electronically creates efficiencies all around.”
Adding the automated evaluation and decoration processing piece through an app on myPers called the virtual Personnel Center (vPC) will further improve Airmen’s access to personnel processes, she explained.
Once the automated process is activated in May for active duty, supervisors will be able to initiate Airmen’s evaluations and route them through their respective reviewer and approval officials, much like the existing Evaluations Management System.
“Unlike the existing system, once the evaluation is signed by the ratee, the military personnel section will be able to receive and forward it to AFPC through myPers vPC for final processing into an individual’s official record at the click of a button,” Stingley said.
vPC is a modified version of vPC Guard and Reserve, a system used by the Air Reserve Personnel Center to support Reserve and Guard programs.
“The important thing about vPC is that there will be no bugs to root out or workarounds to implement,” said Brig. Gen. Samuel Mahaney, the ARPC commander. “vPC is a tried and true application courtesy of the world-class development team at ARPC.”
Electronic processing of awards and decorations will save members time since it will include prepopulated certificates and memorandums, online “Décor 6” forms, automatic updates to Military Personnel Data System and automatic transfers to official records.
Active-duty decorations will be initiated, processed and tracked through the vPC app dashboard. Initially, the award automation will include the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal, Aerial Achievement Medal, Combat Readiness Medal and Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.
“The new process eliminates delays with scanning and mailing, and saves man-hours through a streamlined, single personnel system that performs transactions and updates to a member’s record,” Stingley explained. “Ultimately, personnel specialists will be able to spend more time assisting Airmen.”
Processing and submitting active-duty evaluations through myPers will be mandatory for all officer evaluations that close out on or after June 30 and for enlisted evaluations beginning with the senior master sergeant static closeout date of July 31.
Processing and submitting active-duty decorations through myPers will be phased in as base certificate stock is depleted.
“These are just two of several automated initiatives underway right now,” Stingley said. “AFPC teams are constantly looking at process improvements that better serve our Airmen and enable us to focus on customer service.”
All Airmen can access myPers using their common access card to login. For access from a personal computer, Airmen can go to the myPers page and create an account via the access information on the right side of the login page.
Once logged in to myPers, Airmen who need assistance can select the “Contact Us” link from any myPers page to reach the myPers-Total Force Service Center.
“Select ‘Email Us’ to correspond electronically or choose ‘Other Contact Information’ to find phone numbers and other options,” Stingley said. “Personnel specialists are available to help with a wide variety of career questions and processes, so give myPers a try. You may be surprised at what you find there.”
Although supervisors of active-duty Airmen will not be able to use the vPC until it is implemented in May, they can review details on vPC by entering “vPC” in the search window.
MyPers is the official site for all Air Force personnel topics and has hundreds of informative articles on military and civilian personnel programs such as promotions, reenlistments, benefits and assignments, as well as access to transactional personnel processes.