Commando Care Center is gateway to personnel actions Published June 17, 2008 By Senior Airman Thomas Trower 27th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Cannon implemented the Base Level Service Delivery Model at the Military Personnel Flight June 9 as part of an Air Force-wide program that will consolidate all personnelists and personnel actions, forming a one-stop shop for customer service. "The reason the Air Force directed this is in large part due to deep manning cuts in the [Personnel] career fields, which no longer afforded bases the ability to maintain a traditional Commander's Support Staff," said Maj. Jason Turner, MPF flight commander. "By consolidating scarce resources, we can actually maintain or even improve service to our customers." The MPF is located on the second floor of Bldg. 600. Personnelists who worked in the CSSs of other squadrons, also known by many as Orderly Rooms, are now integrated into the MPF. "Clearly, there are challenges associated with such a major change in how we do business," said Major Turner. "These include apprehension about receiving timely and valuable support that members are used to from their [CSS]. Therefore, I would ask two things of my fellow Air Commandos and customers. Provide feedback, good and bad, and have patience. Both of these will enable us to continue improving our service to our customers." One of the changes associated with the BLSDM is the location of acquiring support. There are many actions, such as promotions, reenlistments, and awards and decorations, that Airmen are accustomed to receiving at the MPF. However, actions like AEF updates are new to this unit. To help with this transition, the MPF provides several communication options for personnel support. These include in-person, phone availability and e-mail. In-person assistance will be provided by a new addition to the Cannon MPF. The Commando Care Center (CCC) will ease the transition. The CCC will be responsible for getting quick questions answered, scheduling appointments, and dropping off and picking up paperwork. "Everyone who comes to the MPF for service will flow through the CCC and be greeted, then signed in, by a military personnel specialist," said Major Turner. "We'll attempt to take care of [any] needs in the CCC, but many times it may be necessary to send you into the 'main body' of the MPF for direct service, or to schedule an appointment." The "main body" is broken into three areas: Customer Support will handle items such as passports, AEF updates and sponsorships, Force Management oversees actions including evaluations, duty history and retraining, and Career Development will control processes such as assignments, separations and promotions, said Airman 1st Class Bryan Karason, MPF Customer Support Section. Each area consists of teams trained in a wide variety of support. The one section in the MPF that is unchanged by BLSDM is the Personnel Readiness Function. This large realm of responsibility highlights one of the more complex changes of BLSDM. Prior to BLSDM, it was commonplace for personnelists to be assigned to a specific personnel area such as reenlistments, promotions or evaluations. Their expertise in that area would grow, but their overall exposure to all military personnel areas suffered, said Major Turner. Under BLSDM, these Airmen will be required and trained to know a larger variety of personnel processes, which according to the major, will do a better job preparing personnelists for promotion tests. "I think the largest benefit [of BLSDM] is better rounded military personnel specialists," said the major. "Obviously, if this wasn't good for the customer, we wouldn't be doing this. I think the biggest benefit to the customer is instead of having those one or two folks in your [CSS] that can provide personnel support, you now have entire teams. My hope is that our customers will say the support they receive from the Cannon MPF is the best they've ever received."