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Online system lets you update promotion score

Corporals, specialists and sergeants: listen up. You are now in control of your own promotions. And if you pay close attention you will add a stripe faster than ever before.

With the elimination of hard-copy promotion point worksheets, the Army has issued some tips on how soldiers can use an automated system to improve their chances for making sergeant and staff sergeant.

The online automated system allows soldiers to update portions of their electronic worksheet.

One of the big advantages of this system is that soldiers can add points to their promotion score any time points are earned.

The system not only eliminates the need to accumulate 20 points for score revaluations, but also allows soldiers on selection lists to be promoted in less than one month after being boarded.

For example, if a soldier is boarded Sept. 20, and his unit personnel section enters the points into the Army’s personnel data system by Oct. 8, that soldier can be promoted Nov. 1, provided he or she makes the November cutoff score.

What you can do:

• Act now to familiarize yourself with the new system so you’re ready when it takes effect in nine months.

• Make sure your records are correct and up-to-date and accurately reflect your accomplishments.

• Add your points as soon as possible. If points are not added to the system by close of business on the eighth day of a month, they will be valid toward promotions on the first day of the following month.

Soldiers can change promotion points only in these categories:

Awards

• Certificates of achievement.

• Hazardous duty points (airborne).

Civilian education

• College course completion for soldiers who have a record of initial college credit in their file.

Promotion points will be awarded only for courses taken from accredited colleges and universities.

This is not a new requirement, but it is a policy strictly enforced by the Army.

Soldiers should work with their installation education center when enrolling in a course, said Sgt. Maj. Debra J. Sturdivant, chief of enlisted promotions in the Promotions Branch of Human Resources Command.

Once the education center or unit personnel (S1) section validates a soldier’s enrollment and initial college credits, the soldier can add points or hours for that institution.

Soldiers must coordinate all initial college credit with their S1 section.

They should keep all civilian education source documents in case they are audited or questioned by their chain of command.

• College Level Education Program (CLEP)/Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) — changes to initial credits already in the file.

• Degree completion — for completion within current grade only.

Military training

Soldiers can add these to their worksheets:

• Army correspondence courses and computer-based training credits. Add these only if initial credit for the course was coordinated with your S1 section.

• Certificates of training (DA Form 87) when soldiers complete their courses. The self-service worksheet automatically will calculate the points earned for that training.

• Noncommissioned officer education system achievements, such as honor graduate. The source document for the entry is DA Form 1059, the Service School Academic Evaluation Report.

Regardless of when points are added, soldiers must meet the monthly cutoff score for their military occupational specialty to be eligible for promotion.

The self-service system, introduced in fiscal 2008, is a bridge toward the June 1 launch of a new sergeant and staff sergeant promotion system.

The system is not available to Active Guard and Reserve and other Reserve soldiers, as those components continue to use hard-copy worksheets.

Paperless system

While the new system will retain the 800-point format of the current system, the points will be distributed differently for promotions to sergeant and staff sergeant. New scoring charts for soldier achievements will be introduced, and worksheet points from the commander and board categories will be eliminated.

One of the key changes June 1 will be to eliminate the promotion point worksheet for active-component soldiers, creating a paperless system for calculating points.

After the worksheet is dropped, scores will be calculated automatically using information in the Total Army Personnel Data Base and the Army Training Requirements and Resources System.

As automated support becomes available, the Army Reserve also will eliminate the worksheet and convert to a paperless system.

Until then, the Army will field a new, but temporary, worksheet for reservists.

“This has to be done before June 1, 2011, because if a soldier’s points are not correct, his or her promotion score will be affected,” said Gerald Purcell, an enlisted promotion policy integrator in the Office of the G1 (Human Resources) at the Pentagon.

The self-service worksheet is available via a link on the Human Resources Command website for active-component soldiers to keep their records up-to-date as the Army moves toward launching the new system.

Specialists and sergeants can use the worksheet even if they have not been boarded for promotion.

However, achievements recorded for soldiers who have not been boarded will not be credited toward promotion points until they make a successful board appearance.

Soldiers in promotable status can update certain categories of the worksheet, and make changes to the Enlisted Record Brief that will be applied toward promotion scores, Sturdivant said

Soldiers who need to make changes to their Enlisted Record Brief, a summary document of military service, should contact their S1 section.

“Soldiers must make sure that if they enter points in the system that they keep the source documents [for verification],” Sturdivant said.

Commanders and first sergeants can require soldiers to bring in those documents for review.

Unit S1 sections continue to maintain certain documents that can verify information on the electronic DA Form 3355.

These include documents related to board proceedings and documents that confirm promotion points for achievements such as awards and decorations, PT test results and marksmanship.