WMU, anybody using it, is it any good?

[sparks]

WMU is supposed to be going away at the end of this year. I don't know exactly when. That will remove an option I like to use. Updating ES quals is easier in WMU and looking up CAP members is too. I haven't used the IMU (mission manager) option so that's an unknown.

The comments about self certification assumes the verification step is missing, the commander and ES officers are asleep at the switch. Another problem will occur if the records are audited during an SUI. Quals without back up documentation will be noticed. Self certification shouldn't be possible unless you have the login and passwords of everyone in the chain of approval. That would be a huge violation of protocol.  Yeah, I know, pencil whipping is still happening somewhere.

[Short Field]

I attempted some self-validation & approval this week in eServices.  Didn't work.  The checks are in place.   

[PANDER]

The WMU is not going away. Many people believe tha the WMU is a tool for ES qualifications. Although this was true 8 years ago, nothing can be further from the truth today. The WMU should not be used to input ES qualifications (although it still can do this). Most users of the WMU use it to manage flight activities, scheduling, and maintenance. It eliminates the need to even know about WMIRS (of course if you love WMIRS, you probably should not use the WMU since it hide it from you). The WMU manages the safety meeting requirements. It manages a wing's vehicle management. In fact, just about everything needed to run a wing is in the WMU.

The IMU is a mission management tool. It uses data from Ops Qual and e-services. The only tool in the WMU that is absolutely necessary is the WMU tool to create the IMU database.

[RiverAux]

I echo the earlier comment that it is insane for us to have several optional systems rather than putting our efforts into making the required system work easily and correctly.

[Short Field]

The WMU is also used to identify your availability for specific time frames - as in a SAR or SAREX.  The IMU pulls the data from the WMU to show who is available for the mission.  Sucessful use of this fuction does require training of the Mission Base staff as well as training all the members how to input their information.

[desertengineer1]

We use it to record our safety briefings - among other things.  Thought this was still the required procedure?

[IceNine]

^ it may very well be in your wing.

The WMU has features that are unavailable in e-services but are VERY valuable to running units from squadron all the way up to wing.

My wing manages ROA's, generates SET lists, and produces CAP DL's using the WMU.

Let alone the added bonus features of the reports that it generates, and forms that can be produced using this system.

Is is a perfect system, no.  Is it a useful tool, Absolutely.  Do I think that NHQ should create a system with this much functionality YOU BET.

But they won't, can't, or whatever... So until NHQ creates a system with the WMU's capabilities I will continue to use it with the value that it provides.

[Larry Mangum]

If you really want to know all about the WMU or IMU, your best source is PANDER, who wrote both of them.

[Eclipse]

If you really want to know all about the WMU or IMU, your best source is PANDER, who wrote both of them.

Yes, and he's been very vocal and public about the fact that he is not excited about the way NHQ has treated him and on several occasions has threatened to "turn it off", which is why, "better" or not, we all need to move off of it sooner than later.

[KyCAP]

I guess since he just posted in this thread that you all didn't read that he just said it ISN'T going away.  In my conversations with him NHQ has changed the relationship under the new regime, to the POSITIVE.

[Eclipse]

I guess since he just posted in this thread that you all didn't read that he just said it ISN'T going away.  In my conversations with him NHQ has changed the relationship under the new regime, to the POSITIVE.

Actually, I read the above, and Lt. Col. Anderson clearly indicates that the one thing most states are still using it for, ES Qualification Management, is the one thing he no longer suggests they use it for.

[KyCAP]

Since we can't release the CI inspection reports here I would suggest you get a copy of the July 2008 and review all of the Commendables they received from the inspection team because of their use of the WMU.

[IceNine]

^who is "they"

[Eclipse]

Since we can't release the CI inspection reports here I would suggest you get a copy of the July 2008 and review all of the Commendables they received from the inspection team because of their use of the WMU.

The CI team should be more aware of what is actually authorized for use by Wings.  I've had plenty of experience with inspectors who offer commendation for things which are actually minimum requirements, break regulations, or simple common sense.

At a minimum, continued use of the WMU by a Wing for ES quals should be a negative observation, if not an outright finding requiring remediation.

A) All wings were ordered off the WMU by the Nat CC at least 5 years ago.

B) It is broken in a number of places that Lt. Col. Anderson has indicated he will not fix.

C) Having two, separate, "authoritative" databases is a poor way to run any organization with as many moving pieces as CAP.

And no, I'm not insinuating eServices is necessarily any "better", but is is the "Way" with a capital "W".

[KyCAP]

Before you salt the food, you should taste it.   You passed judgement on the content of the CI reports without even knowing what was stated in them or how the WMU was implemented.

The WMU is no longer intended to be the "source" for the data it is fully capable of synchronizing data "from" e-services every morning at 6AM.  The WMU is filling in the GAPS that e-services currently does not support.

From what we are seeing, wings that are successfully using the WMU are not using it as the storage piece of their systems where they overlap with e-services (MIMS or CAPWATCH).   

Data is entered into e-services then consumed by the WMU for validating information and managing it (specifically - not the source of ES quals per the post from Pete earlier).

[Eclipse]

Data is entered into e-services then consumed by the WMU for validating information and managing it (specifically - not the source of ES quals per the post from Pete earlier).

Which would be great if that were the case, except that is not how all wings are using it.

If this were a SIMS situation, where the data can only be changed or updated at the National level and the "client" is simply viewing or manipulating read-only data, that would be one thing, however that is not how it is being used by all states, and the fact that data can currently be entered in two directions, by members with different levels of approval and authority depending on where the data is entered, that is a problem.

[KyCAP]

I have not had that discussion with Pete. 

Ky did not use it at all before this week.   We're in the process of training up on the IMU which is a completely different application from the WMU that is completely focused on the Incident Management from ICS perspective.   For what we do day to day this is as good as it gets until some $$ from USAF comes our way for an alternative.

We are not using WMU for entering any data that CAN be entered into e-services which is the current intent that Pete is modifying the application to work toward in my experience in working with him this month.   

Fields that were once "duplicated" in e-services and the WMU are being removed and replaced with fields that contain "synchronzied" data from e-services.   In fact just last night he flipped the switch where all of the WMU data for KY is pulled from e-services for duty assignments and I don' t know what all else.

I would say that pragmatically if there are folks reading this who are in wings that aren't synching the data from e-services then get with the program and make the switch.



I have a power point that I saw at National Board in Orlando that I am trying to post to this thread to show folks what IMU is, but I can't get the file compressed to lower than 1600K and CAPTALK only allows 1200K uploads.. 

[KyCAP]

Online training is now being scheduled for the IMU.

http://pandersys.com/