The Big “A” Airman and records management Published Sept. 23, 2011 By Capt. Paul Voss COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Who would have thought the focus of the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century Records Management would be our big "A" Airman here at Columbus? When I was asked to be a member of an AFSO21 event I physically sighed, mentally listing my thoughts. Here we go again, another soup-de-jour, fad of the day practice that focuses on a broken process. Little did I know the focus would shift away from the process, to reducing the task load of the Airman of Columbus Air Force Base. The big "A" Airman is the hardworking, dedicated, mission driven civilian or military member without whom this base would grind to a halt. Shackled with the current process, Columbus has not met the expectations of our leaders at all levels. So using the AFSO21 process we went from ideal state of two steps to the realistic process of five steps, working for you the Airman! The 14th Flying Training Wing Commander Col. Barre Seguin, "The Champion" of the process on the very first day said, "Make this easier for the user" and "we have to find a better way". With this charter thirteen Team BLAZE members pressed forward to improve the process. Over a week of dedicated time the AFSO21 team looked at the current records management process which takes 15 steps from cradle to grave of every record that is produced at Columbus AFB and worked to improve it. Now, grounding ourselves in reality, we as team members have our work cut out for us. It's fantasy to think that after a week we would have developed the magic pill to solve all our woes. From here we move, reaching out to the wing to find out how Airmen do the mission and how we record our outstanding work! We'll be asking questions from the ground up, Airman up, GS-01 up to the Air Force level. Success depends on us, the AFSO21 team, keeping our nose to the grindstone, diligently gathering purposeful research and keeping the mission in mind; "make this easier for the user". Team BLAZE we need your help. We need data to ensure we reduce the impact to you, the user. Don't expect to get an e-mail, or another survey, but a face-to-face talk with an AFSO21 team member. This is the importance we, as team members, place on the hard work Airman put forth to execute the mission in a spectacular way. Expect a team member to come to your work place, shake your hand and ask you, the expert, how you record your hard work. The scope of this goes beyond Columbus AFB, to as far as Air Education and Training Command and Headquarters Air Force. We're starting something that affects all of us, not only now, but the foreseeable future. Let's seize this opportunity to affect change and record your efforts for generations to come.