RIO Buzz

RIO Buzz (Vol 14)

RIO Buzz banner with shield and commander's photo

(This was sent to all IMAs and PIRRs 10 Sept 2020.  If you did not receive it in your personal email, please log in to the vMPF and make sure you have a good personal email in that system.)

 
RIO Buzz                                                                                           Vol. 14

Hello!  In the last buzz I mentioned summer flying by, and this week here in Denver, it SNOWED!  Luckily the snow hasn’t shut down our efforts to make it easier for you to serve.  Here’s the Buzz:

THE NEW IR GUIDE IS NOW AVAILABLE!
After months of updates, rewrites, editing, and formatting, I’m thrilled to tell you that the brand new IR Guide is now available.  Make sure you bookmark arpc.afrc.af.mil/hq-rio/IRGuide, instead of downloading it.  When guidance changes, the guide will be updated.  If you use the bookmark, you’ll always have the most up-to-date version. The whole document is now bookmarked, with a hyperlinked Table of Contents.  Inside we’ve hyperlinked any guidance, forms, or websites referenced.  We hope it’s the most user-friendly guide ever!

VIRTUAL TRAINING: HOW DETACHMENTS SERVE IMAS AND PIRRS
Our next virtual training will be all about our RIO detachments … how they serve you, how they’re organized, and what the best practices are for working with them to do what you need to do.  The training will be held on Friday, 18 September, at 1200 EDT/1000 MDT.  Click the link below to attend.  We will also host a Q&A session during the event, so bring your questions!  You do not need an account or log in to attend; the functionality works best on a personal computer, smartphone, or government computer WITHOUT VPN.  Remember that you can use this link to watch a recorded version if you can’t be there live. 
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OWU2NTM1ODctYzBjMi00YzM5LWE3NGMtNzgyZTM1ZGE2YzYx%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2221acfbb3-32be-4715-9025-1e2f015cbbe9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%222d811298-f7de-4345-a9ab-0b6a322aefe9%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d

NEW QUICK GUIDES ARE NOW AVAILABLE
We’ve added a few new quick guides to assist you.  Head to the IR Guide page (https://www.arpc.afrc.af.mil/HQ-RIO/IRGuide/) and scroll down.  There are now quick guides for doing AROWS-R online Tour of Duty Certification (TODC), accessing your readiness report on ARCNet, and what we call the IR ADCON At-a-Glance.

The TODC is the best way to certify short tour orders, especially if you want to get paid very quickly!  The At-a-Glance is a reference guide for you to help determine where to go (RIO, ARPC, active component unit) to accomplish certain tasks or get information on certain topics.  More to come!

SOCIAL SECURITY TAX DEFERMENT
Some of you may have heard about the presidential memorandum calling for a deferment of social security tax for the remainder of 2020.  Here is what I can tell you.  If your monthly military base pay is $8,666.66 or less, your military paychecks between now and the end of 2020 will NOT have the 6.2% social security tax deducted.  Military members may not opt out of this.  While that extra 6.2% in each check may burn a hole in your pocket, keep in mind that in 2021 those funds will be repaid via double social security tax withholdings from Jan through April paychecks.  I HIGHLY recommend you hold that extra social security tax that isn’t taken out of your paycheck somewhere safe because you’ll eventually have to pay it back!  You can get more information at https://www.dfas.mil/taxes/Social-Security-Deferral

That’s the buzz for now.  Thanks for ALL you do!

v/r,
Col Amy Boehle, HQ RIO Commander

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