I had a huge problem getting all of my paperwork organized because I work in a secure office and my NIPRNet is locked down to an almost unusable level. Here is what I finally figured out:
- Microsoft OneDrive. I used this for my cloud storage because it is accessible from work (for me)! Having a centralized location for everything was essential.
- Hard Copies. Like I said in another post I printed the BOT Guide and had a 3-ring binder for all of my paperwork. This was tremendously helpful because it was much easier to reference a quick line in the BOT Guide Attachment 5 for example by hard copy instead of logging in and pulling up the PDF. I am an IT guy so this one surprised me, but for whatever reason hard copies were easier for me for this.
- Soft Copies. I downloaded everything I could get my hands on from the SharePoint. This was extremely useful because SharePoint tends to go down at the most inconvenient times (like when 600 people are trying to access the AD select instructions). I kept them in my OneDrive.
This is how my binder was set up:
- TAB 1 – My applicant profile, copy of CC’s bullets, and Letter of Recommendation. This will become your “app” packet later (this will make more sense later). I put this up front because I personally believe this is what the board will see about you!
- TAB 2 – BOT Questionnaire’s 1 and 2, AFOQT scores, ABM/CSO score (yes this was needed for me even though I applied non-rated), transcript, AF Form 56, Career Data Brief (from vMPF), vMPF print out (individual, current duty, duty history, etc.) the entire print out, Commander’s Quality Force Review Memorandum, Derogatory Information Check Memorandum from AFPC, AF Form 422. This will become your “srce” packet.
- TAB 3 – All EPRs. This is your “epr” packet.
- TAB 4 – Decoration citations, awards not in EPRs. Only which are not in EPRs. I had a few awards not mentioned but I went ahead and uploaded all decoration citations because they added a lot of value to my package in my opinion. This was my “award” packet.
- TAB 5 – Hard copy of BOT Guide. I placed every attachment in it’s own page protector, each was stapled for easy reference.
- TAB 6 – Schedules. Both OTS board schedule and BOT schedule.
- TAB 7 – Supporting documentation not otherwise needed for the application. For example your MDG will likely require your commander to submit a memorandum to request the 422 update. This memo isn’t needed for your application, but is needed to obtain something needed for your application. I didn’t want to shred these so I kept them all together in this tab. Another example is the AAC 05 update memorandum.
The packets are simply PDF files containing all paperwork scanned into one file. This is what you actually load into SharePoint on submission day. There are more options but I only had four.
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