LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
An Airman's vision and perseverance have made it possible for Lackland's Permanent Party dormitories to have a single point of contact for information.
Using his experience with a Community of Practice Web site in ground radio maintenance, Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Patrick, with help from fellow dormitory managers, has created a CoP for the Permanent Party dorms.
Community of Practice is a site people can visit to collaborate, and share ideas and concerns.
When the Air Force created Knowledge Now, it gave Airmen the capability to create their own Web page for AF communities to communicate with one another.
According to Sergeant Patrick, when dorm inboxes were being filled with hundreds of e-mails, his familiarity with CoP from ground radio led the dorm managers down the path of building a CoP for its residents.
"It made me think about creating it for the Airmen so they can talk about their problems in discussion form instead of filling up inboxes," he said. "It (the CoP) solved the e-mail problem and gave the Airmen a place to voice their concerns about the dorms without necessarily having to go to meetings."
The CoP is only available to dorm residents. Out of the approximately 800 Permanent Party residents, 456 have registered for access to the Web site. After taking four to five months to create, the site has been running since January and it has proven to be a popular tool.
Of approximately 13,000 CoPs in the Air Force, the Lackland Permanent Party site ranks No. 234 in number of hits in recent metrics, according to Sergeant Patrick.
"We don't let just anyone have access (to this site)," said Sergeant Patrick. "It is restricted to the Airmen who live in the dorms. Base agencies have administrative rights to the documents they upload so they can update information on a day-to-day basis or when they feel it's necessary."
Information available to the Airmen includes base services, Airman's Voice, San Antonio Military Medical Centers, Healthy Living, chapel information and the basic allowance for housing Web site. Additionally, information about requests to move off base is available only via the CoP, and it is the responsibility of the Airmen to track their information through it.
One of the biggest time savers on the CoP is frequently asked questions. Almost all questions regarding the dorms can be answered through the FAQs.
Sergeant Patrick said he hopes the site will be expanded to include information about financial aid options and the family support center.
According to Sergeant Patrick, convenience is the CoP's biggest advantage. "If you're busy, you don't have time to read every single e-mail so this lets people get to the information on their own time," he said.