Wing Administrator/Wing Financial Analyst - Support?

[A.Member]

These two roles support the Wings but are actually paid NHQ employees.  This puts them in a unique position.  They are responsible for completing work on a daily basis to support the Wings.   My question is, who is responsible for providing them with technical resouces and more importantly technical support (ie IT help desk, etc) to complete their daily job?

I've searched and cannot find any thing that even remotely provides a true black and white answer to this question.   The closest statement is in the Wing Commander's Financial Guide that Wing Administrator's can't work from home.  Thus, implying they must have an office somewhere. 

Anyone able to offer some clear insight/direction.  As NHQ employees, seems this should be mapped out somewhere.

[Eclipse]

I would have assumed IT support would be done by the wing ITO.

At least it is in my wing - the WA's office is at Wing HQ.

Never heard of a WFA.

[sardak]

The WFAs I'm familiar with are all assigned to NHQ, and I believe work from virtual offices since they can access most of the financial stuff remotely. I would guess that IT support comes from NHQ.

I happened to come across this just today looking for something else. From AFI 10-2701, "Organization and Function of the Civil Air Patrol"

3.4. Wing Administrators and Wing Financial Analysts. The Air Force may provide funds for compensation, travel, per diem, and allowances for a Wing Administrator at each CAP wing and Wing Financial Analysts on a regional basis. The Wing Administrators and Financial Analysts provide administrative and program support to CAP in order to facilitate compliance with CAP's obligations under the CA [Cooperative Agreement] and SOW [Statement of Work]. Both the Wing Administrator and Wing Financial Analyst positions are necessary to fulfill Air Force requirements. Wing administrators are considered CAP Corporation National Headquarters employees.

Mike

[Eclipse]

By WFA, are you talking about the auditors that make the rounds on a regular basis?

[sardak]

Yes, but there is also a lot of contact with them by phone and email.

Mike

[A.Member]

I would have assumed IT support would be done by the wing ITO.

At least it is in my wing - the WA's office is at Wing HQ.

Never heard of a WFA.

So, when they can't print to a printer, their computer doesn't boot up in the am, network issues, etc.  you have a Wing volunteer on call to assist them?

[Eclipse]

Correct, or at least as "on call" as the wing ITO is for any other problems at Wing HQ.

[raivo]

As a former corporate IT guy, I'm cringing at the notion of having paid employees reliant on unpaid volunteers for IT support... but I guess if it works, it works.

[Eclipse]

A lot of those "unpaid volunteers" are actually highly paid IT professionals in their day jobs.

[A.Member]

A lot of those "unpaid volunteers" are actually highly paid IT professionals in their day jobs.

Curious to hear from others.   

I tend to have the same viewpoint as raivo.  Are there capable people in the organization?  Probably.  Do they live in reasonable distance, have the help desk skills, and willingness/ability to provide that support?  That's another question and one we currently grapple with, especially when even trying t fill the Wing IT role.  There's turn-over.  How one person does things is not how another would.  And there's not exactly a line of people wanting to take on a help desk role in this capacity.

It begs the bigger question, how/why do we have paid resources in a role with no reliable infrastructure/support model for them.

[Eclipse]

It begs the bigger question, how/why do we have paid resources in a role with no reliable infrastructure/support model for them.

Who says we don't?

It sounds like you have, or are aware of, a specific issue.

Like comm people, you can't swing a dead cat in a room of CAP members and not hit at least one IT guy.
Granted, that also means there are a lot of "opinions" (BTDT), but basic breakfix and similar are not usually
much of an issue.  I've had some fairly spirited discussions about which platform(s) are appropriate for CAP to be using,
and some of our people can tend to "over" things, but the web is the web, etc.

The wing admin and WFA's roles aren't exactly technically challenging.  In most cases, as long as you can get online and
to email, and Quickbooks works, that's your day.

This is, however, one of the reasons I constantly advocate free services like Google, etc., for groupware and web hosting,
precisely because it takes zero knowledge to admin, and the tech support is generally pretty robust.  The systems live
outside any personalities, and aren't "under Tim's desk".

[JeffDG]

A lot of those "unpaid volunteers" are actually highly paid IT professionals in their day jobs.

And are happy to lend their years/decades of experience when a phone call comes in.

[Al Sayre]

My wife is our Wing Administrator, she just calls me when something doesn't work...

[FW]

Last time I dealt with such issues:

Wing Financial Analysts are employed by CAP NHQ, and report to the CFO of CAP, as a member of the FM staff, to insure complience with financial regulations and policies of the organization.  They work from NHQ (for the most part), however they visit wings when needed. 

Wing adminsitrators are employed by CAP NHQ, and report to the Wing Commander.  They are responsible for day to day financial and logistics administration.  They coordinate with the Wing director of Finance, and the wing Logistics officer for guidence.

[Private Investigator]

My wife is our Wing Administrator, she just calls me when something doesn't work...

Best answer.

When I first retired from the police department I thought about applying for WA to supplement my retirement. 

[Private Investigator]

These two roles support the Wings but are actually paid NHQ employees.  This puts them in a unique position. 

Every Wing is different but at mine, its 'casual Friday' every day. 

[raivo]

A lot of those "unpaid volunteers" are actually highly paid IT professionals in their day jobs.

I'm not arguing that, I'm saying that it seems to me like an potential flaw in the system to have paid corporate employees relying on volunteers for tech support.

But again, if it works, it works.

[FW]

"Tech" support?  The Wing Administrators "depend" on NHQ for any technical support which is needed to accomplish their job.  For software problems, a phone call to the IT department is all that is necessary.  For hardware support, the same. If there is a volunteer that can help, great. "Depend", however is not a word I would use (Al is an exception...)

[Tim Medeiros]

Like comm people, you can't swing a dead cat in a room of CAP members and not hit at least one IT guy.

While true, it is also worth noting that there is more than one "flavor" when it comes to IT guys/gals.  You've got programmers (and all of their subflavors depending on the language they use), networks folks, designers, engineers, ops folks, security types, managers and your front-line support folks.  For some of those you may have to duplicate things based on the flavor of OS, whether it be Windows, *nix, or Mac.  Not to mention the folks who say they are IT because they can successfully navigate a program install (seen it happen).

[NIN]

I don't know, I am an IT guy in my day job, I'm doing support for small companies etc. Managed services. Non-profits, doctors offices etc.  The last thing I want to do for CAP is my day job .

That being said, if my wing administrator called me on the phone to tell me she was having a problem, I would help her.

Speaking of dead cats, I live dead cat swinging distance from wing headquarters. Seriously. I can walk there. In 5 minutes.

But more to the point, organizations pay for on call technical support all the time. Especially for their paid staff. Why should CAP be any different?  Even down so far as the wing level.

As a man once said, " speed is just a question of money. How fast do you wanna go? " Is it appropriate for a wing administrator to sit in the office twiddling his or her thumbs waiting on a volunteer?