RIO Buzz                                                                                                     Vol. 33

Welcome to FY22, friends.  Due to funding, we had to say goodbye to many RPA-paid RIO staff members, which means there are 40+ fewer people working your tickets and submissions.  Please know we are doing all we can to make it as easy to serve as possible for you with the resources we have.  Here’s the latest Buzz …

ALL RESERVISTS NEED TO BE VACCINATED FOR COVID-19
We recently held a virtual town hall about the requirement to be vaccinated against COVID-19.  The slides and recording can be found here:  http://www.hqrio.afrc.af.mil/Guidance-Updates/Article/2772517/update-mandatory-covid-19-vaccines-for-imaspirr/ (note that some bases are having an issue accessing the RIO website, but you can get to it from home or on your smartphone.)

All published guidance, to include FAQs for IMAs, is located on AFRC’s Sharepoint site which can be found here: https://afrc.eim.us.af.mil/sites/fgc/afrc_cat/CurrentCrisis/SitePages/Vaccine Ops.aspx.  I strongly encourage you to look through this information.  As documented in the “Updated Flow Chart COVID Vaccine Line 20211001” on their Sharepoint site, “AFR Airmen must complete one of the four options by 18 Oct 21.”  Those four options include vaccinated, religious accommodation request in progress, medical exemption request or adverse actions processing. 
 
Please be in status when you get the vaccine, either at an MTF or from a civilian provider.  A points-only IDT is a great way to be in status.  If you have not received your vaccine or have not sent the paperwork in to update your medical records, please do so by the 18 Oct deadline. 


TRAVEL VOUCHER PROCESSING – DELAYS – GTC OPTION
Due to the high volume of submitted travel vouchers (2000+), a civilian hiring pause and current manning levels, the HQ RIO Travel office is experiencing delays of up to 40 or more days to process travel vouchers.  We continue to work as hard as possible to process vouchers quickly and find creative ways to solve our resource problems.  My goal is to have our processes back to our regular SLA of 10 business days by Thanksgiving.  I’m sorry for those of you continuing to wait for payment. 

If you currently have a balance due on your GTC and have an open travel voucher, we recommend you contact your unit’s Agency Program Coordinator (APC) and have your account put in a mission critical status.  This status allows for additional time to pay your card.  Payment is required 45 days after this status is removed and will prevent your account from being suspended.  Once your travel voucher is processed, payment will be made to your GTC, as required.


NEW URC GUIDES AVAILABLE
To help make it easy to serve, we developed a URC & IR Supervisors Guide.  These guides help you with some of your most frequently asked questions or unique issues you come across.  This guide will provide information about advertising IR positions, hiring IRs, MilPDS access, officer and enlisted promotions, OPR/EPRs, and more.

Check out the HQ RIO website for more info.   https://www.hqrio.afrc.af.mil/URCs/

 
Thanks for ALL you do!
v/r,
Col Amy Boehle, HQ RIO Commander