Digital membership records

[N6RVT]

Regulation says digital records are authorized - and little more.  Other regulations cover data security, storage requirements & such, but not the details about WHAT it is you are storing.

I am getting ready for a big project at my unit - scanning everything in a members 201 file and then giving the entire paper file to the member concerned.

End goal is to have records accessible to the personnel officer (me) and the commander in R/W and read only for the PD officer, member and possibly others depending on requirements.

I'm planning to use google docs for this, with two online sites plus a monthly backup to a flash drive.

We have 60+ active members and this will be a lot of work, so I need to have the details worked out before I spend multiple weekends with a scanner getting this done.

So how is everyone else doing this?

[Eclipse]

Did this on my last command, resulted in a zero-discrepancy, remote SUI.

Created a Google Drive folder for each member using a generic CAP-owned account
as the owner.

Purged all member files of everything not required to be in the folder (returned
detritus to the members), some well-seasoned members had 4-folders despite the fact
that almost nothing needs to be in a Personnel folder any more.

Created a facsimile of the Form 45 in Google Sheets to satisfy that ridiculous requirement, scanned
the remaining documents as PDFs, and didn't look back.

Members received read-only access to their files, but only to cap.gov emails.

We also created a file plan that had URL links back to the respective folders, setup suspense folders for new members and pending actions, whatever, as well as a folder that contained anything required to be destroyed using standardized dates as the name prefix so that they were displayed in reverse order with the oldest at the top for purging.

Filename: "###### - Last Name, First Name MI

Date: 20210101

All files, at a minimum, have the CAPID as the prefix for ease of search.

We then set dates on the calendar for staff work at each meeting to check for the various
things we needed to each week.

Worked great and mean no Woolworth's file box forever inaccessible in someone's trunk or basement.
We also discovered that rarely does anything get filed anymore.  I think there was one or two decs
that were only on the 45 that still mandated it be around, otherwise everything else is in eservices
(or if not, should be put there as part of the excercise.)

[N6RVT]

Created a facsimile of the Form 45 in Google Sheets to satisfy that ridiculous requirement, scanned the remaining documents as PDFs, and didn't look back. I think there was one or two decs that were only on the 45 that still mandated it be around.

I can't find anything in the current regulations that even refers to the form 45.  The fact National no longer provides the forms tells me it should not be a requirement to have it.  And honestly when I went through the hardcopy personnel records of my unit most of the form 45's were blank except for the member information.

Page 1 is all Eservices now except for the leftmost two columns.
Page 2 is all Eservices - and what is on this 12 year old card is totally obsolete
Page 3 is all Eservices now
Page 4 would still be kept locally, but in 47 years I have never seen any unit that actually maintained page 4.  And honestly I can't see anyone in the past going through and entire file cabinet of personnel records with the attendance roster of a SAREX making all of the related entries.

Rather than just a handwritten list of what awards a person has, I would think it would be better to have scanned copies of the orders that authorized the award to be issued.  Or at least a statement attesting that the paperwork was lost.

I would include a google sheet listing every award and appropriate information, as I can see no way to correct awards & decorations in Eservices outside of a call to National, and service awards, for incomprehensible reasons, cannot be maintained by the personnel officer at all, so for that one thing, Eservices is essentially useless.

[Eclipse]

No argument with any of this - as long as your Friendly Neighborhood Inspectors
are cool with it. 

I argued back in 2017 that it was effectively dead: http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=22360.0

Unfortunately

CAPR 39-2, Page 5 (09 Jan 2017):
https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/media/cms/R039_002_A74FDA9552C2D.pdf

"Active Records. The member's unit of assignment maintains personnel records. Personnel
files maintained locally may be traditional paper files or electronic files created at the unit.
Normally, the unit personnel officer is responsible for this duty; however, this duty may be
delegated to the unit administrative officer, or in the case of active member records, to the
professional development officer, at the discretion of the unit commander. Many
achievements/training are recorded in the member's online membership record available for
review through the eServices section of the CAP website. Units may use this information to
supplement the information maintained in the local file at the unit level. At this time, the
eServices online record cannot be used as the only personnel file since all information concerning
the member is not currently tracked online. Those items recorded in eServices are not required
to be entered in the local personnel file. Any items not recorded in eServices or additional
information pertaining to the member's service and performance that should be retained should
be made a part of the local personnel records. Regardless of who maintains the personnel file,
the professional development officer remains responsible for recording professional
development training as prescribed in CAPR 50-17. Note: CAPF 25, Personnel Data Card, which
is now obsolete and no longer available may be filed with the CAPF 45 for active members who
were in the program prior to development of the Form 45. Previous editions of CAPF 45 may also
continue to be used. Do not transcribe information from the older CAPFs 45/45a or 45b just for
the sake of updating the newer CAPF45. Personnel files should be protected and remain in the
custody of CAP at all times. Members should be granted regular access to their records at
reasonable times during normal unit meetings, in addition to such other times as may be agreed
to between the member and the record's custodian."

Google drive is fine for the first bold, but the second one is what leads some Inspectors to
assert the 45, per se, is still required, thus our skeuomorphic representation of the 45 created
as a Google sheet ended those conversations (it even has the pink background).

Whether and if your wing would required the 45, or worse a hardcopy can only be answered by them,
but should be answered as policy before an SUI.

Again, I agree wholeheartedly that the 45 should be obsoleted, there is nothing of consequence
on it that can't be better tracked in eservices.

[Eclipse]

And honestly I can't see anyone in the past going through and entire file cabinet of personnel records with the attendance roster of a SAREX making all of the related entries.

This was the reason for the 4-inch folders, and in some cases multiple 45s.

I had members who would bring in anything with the letters "C, A, or P" on it if it
was some how tangentially related to them.  AOPA newsletters, local newspaper articles, etc.
The amount of concern raised when the ES folders were obsoleted was palpable.

On the other hand, it was how I learned that my wing had a "Grievance Committee" at one time,
so there's that.

And don't get me started about the "Google will steal your information" nonsense.
Dude, the Nigerians can't use your CAPID for anything, and the Chinese don't care you
are in custody of a No_find, relax.

With that also said, we found LOTS of SSNs unredacted, which is a legit concern.

[NovemberWhiskey]

And don't get me started about the "Google will steal your information" nonsense.
Dude, the Nigerians can't use your CAPID for anything, and the Chinese don't care you
are in custody of a No_find, relax.

... besides, it's the least of our problems given that we apparently have active duty personnel uploading nuclear weapon custody duress protocols to publicly-available internet flashcard apps.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2021/05/28/us-soldiers-expose-nuclear-weapons-secrets-via-flashcard-apps/

[N6RVT]

I'm seeing a local personnel file should now have only 3 sections to it.

1.  The Past:
Orders issuing awards, decorations, service ribbons, at least until Eservices covers this area better.

2.  The Present
ES qualifications not tracked in Eservices, such as upper levels of CERT, State issued credentials, certificates from local schools such as the G-1000 ground school for non-pilots

3. The Future
Specialty track progress, PD Levels progress

Any additions to this?  Everything else is in Eservices.

[Eclipse]

You're working yourself into the same situation as before.

For the Past, once they are in eServices, dispose / return.  Just because the
PDO doesn't control service ribbon entry doesn't mean it's not valid.  Have the user
enter them, work the approvals and move on.

For the Present, if it's "non-CAP" then it doesn't belong in the file, period.
Upper CERT, state stuff, whatever is irrelevant to CAP.

Same goes for the Future - I suppose an interactive version of active checklists
is valid, and stuff like a cert from a conference isn't tracked anywhere, but once it
becomes "approved" it should be removed.

[Eclipse]

I think I mentioned this before, but standardized naming conventions for everything key.

Google has made the "subjective view" situation better, but it's not perfect and doesn't
address past files.   Once this is in steady state you'll have hundreds of files with
similar names.

Also, only sharing at the root, and getting people to understand no working in "shared with me" is another.