Future of the OPME program/Everything you ever wanted to know about OPME

[fhg1893]

Yikes, looks like I missed the cut for that as well, unless more people registered after the beginning of March. Fingers crossed!

I've had more than a few courses where getting on the course or not was determined by a mere matter of hours.

I have to confirm with my supervisor tomorrow, but now that I have the Navy ~75% done, - all of Esquimalt is registered, and about half of Halifax, and barring any last minute changes, *fingers crossed* NCM confirmations for English courses should start coming out tomorrow, probably afternoon.  French DEF001, and DEF002 have been done.

 

[fhg1893]

It never fails.  The moment that registration closes, a large number of junior officers, but mostly captains will come screaming out of the woodwork with every excuse known to man, and some brand new for why they couldn't register in time, even though hundreds of their peers, and litteraly thousands NCM's managed this astonishingly simple task.  They had a full ~8 weeks to mess around with a DWAN computer, put in their registration and get confirmed almost immediately.  Meanwhile, some poor, but infinitely deserving MCpl, got up a o'dark stupid to register on the FIRST DAY, in the first HOUR of registration, all by himself, without help, and now, chances are, that poor dedicated soul isn't going to get his course, because these Johnny-come-lately's are trying to manipulate me into breaking the rules because they're special. 

Am I the only one who's become extremely frustrated at this situation?  Don't get me wrong, I love serving the Forces, but someone PLEASE do something about these junior officers whoa are at least on paper supposed to be leaders!

Okay, sorry.  Rant off.  Back to my withdrawal forms...

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Don't cave in. Do not enable poor planning.

 

[fhg1893]

Don't cave in. Do not enable poor planning.

I ussually manage to avoid caving.  Now, I just send them up the chain because I'm too busy to entertain their request. 

The chain of command on the other hand...  Some always manage to get in, and there's nothing I can do about it.

 

[fhg1893]

And here we go folks, it's what many of you have been waiting for! 

I've got the green-light to process NCM course registrations, and have done a good number of them. 

If you registered for DCE001 after February 14th, you are probably not going to get the course.  DCE002 will have a similar result.  Other courses are considerably worse, including some which will have ZERO NCM presence.

 

[PuckChaser]

Wonder if they're gonna remove the points on merit boards for NCMs... you can't give people extra points on a merit board based on luck of getting a course.

 

[fhg1893]

Wonder if they're gonna remove the points on merit boards for NCMs... you can't give people extra points on a merit board based on luck of getting a course.

I have a bone to pick with whomever it was who came up with the idea that NCMs should get points on their merit boards for OPMEs.  All the career managers have started pushing NCM's to take OFFICER professional military education, and it's made my job a helluva lot harder. 

Worse, it's patently unfair to the NCM's, because it's created a "need" for a course where the rules prevent me from treating them as a priority, even though some of them have applied 5 and 6 times.  As far as the chain is concerned, I'm just the idiot paper-pusher.  Not the University educated smart-guy I actually am. 

Ah well...  If this thing blows up in CDA's face, and maybe ends up boomeranging onto B. Gen Tremblay, I won't be shedding any tears. 

 

[aesop081]

you can't give people extra points on a merit board based on luck of getting a course.

You can apply that logic to any course a member takes.

 

[SkyHeff]

I was advised a few weeks ago that since I was doing OJE this summer, I might as well take an OPME or two to fill the time. Now after reading these posts don't I feel like a jerk for applying two weeks ago.

 

[jwtg]

Fortunately for you, probably.  RMC is going through some restructuring at the moment, so I can't be 100% sure.  I know that there is a plan to phase the courses through the OPME program out gradually.  However, this shouldn't affect RMC courses.  HIE208, POE206, HIE275 and PSE402 should still be offered through RMC, and RMC DCS.  But they will no longer be OPME courses.  They've always been RMC courses, and should continue to be RMC courses.

I'm obviously pretty new to this scene, so forgive my ignorance.

If the courses are still going to be offered as courses at RMC, and still deal with the same material, then where are the savings by no longer having them be OPME courses?  Won't it cost more to put us through those courses and RMC and also through OPMEs? 

I guess I don't see what the CF gains here.  I'm sure there is a big piece of the puzzle I'm missing.

 

[fhg1893]

If the courses are still going to be offered as courses at RMC, and still deal with the same material, then where are the savings by no longer having them be OPME courses?

OPME courses are "free" for CF members.  RMC-DCS courses you have to pay for, CF members included.  It costs a lot of money to run an OPME course where ~1/4 the course ends up withdrawing - that tends to bleed money. 

Won't it cost more to put us through those courses and RMC and also through OPMEs? 

I guess I don't see what the CF gains here.  I'm sure there is a big piece of the puzzle I'm missing.

No.  In order to teach an OPME course other than DCE001, or DCE002, RMC needs to contract an instructor who holds a Master's degree or PhD in the proper discipline.    Furthermore, the governing faculty has to approve every new instructor.  This can end up being a very slow and expensive process.  In the past, we've had instructor's "pop-up" out of nowhere, after I had cleared the registration queues.  We'd effectively hired an instructor, but already notified large numbers of people that they weren't getting the course.  It became extremely difficult to find enough people to take the course, if only because of poor communication within our section, and between Faculty Services.  If such a thing were to happen on the undergraduate side of things, well, much of the money "lost" could and would be recovered by tuition fees. 

Then there's the issue of books, even though we've eliminated most of the books for OPME, we still have a handful of courses where we have to send books.  There used to be books for every course.  Average registration for OPME courses was ~2500 people.  In several cases, we'd have to send out multiple course packages because of members being deployed, someone forgetting to press a button, members moving, members going on exercise and missing the package etc. etc.  Sometimes, we didn't and still don't get the books back.  RMC has to pay the shipping both ways in any case, and add the replacement cost for books lost, and or not returned.  Books quickly become I believe the single largest line-item on the budget. 

In undergrad, unless I'm mistaken, the member is responsible for securing their books through Queen's Campus bookstore. 

So, in sum, it's much more expensive to run OPME where no tuition is paid by the member.  This is a big part of the reason why OPME is going to change radically in the next few years.  By getting rid of the academic component, CDA can employ, theoretically anyone to deliver the course, which cuts down on the expense associated with the red-tape that comes with contracting.  Further, CDA can produce whatever materials it wants in house, and put them online which is a minimal expense compared with mailing "dead-tree" editions.  And when material is updated, that makes things a lot cheaper, than having to re-buy everything.

It's a lot cheaper to go this route, but students will lose their ability to have OPME courses counted for academic credits.  In the past, some members have counted on this.  Others have counted on doing OPME's to get into UTPNCM.  That could well be a substantial setback for some people.  Some members will have no choice but to pick their poison it would seem.

 

[dcs]

But at RMC... are they not going to have to have other academic course to fill the spots??? 

You need to have a certain number of courses to graduate.  If they now have to take additional courses is the cost of them not going to be the same ?   

 

[navymich]

But at RMC... are they not going to have to have other academic course to fill the spots??? 

You need to have a certain number of courses to graduate.  If they now have to take additional courses is the cost of them not going to be the same ?   

I think this quote from earlier in the thread should answer your question.  The OPME courses are actual courses at RMC already.

Fortunately for you, probably.  RMC is going through some restructuring at the moment, so I can't be 100% sure.  I know that there is a plan to phase the courses through the OPME program out gradually.  However, this shouldn't affect RMC courses.  HIE208, POE206, HIE275 and PSE402 should still be offered through RMC, and RMC DCS.  But they will no longer be OPME courses.  They've always been RMC courses, and should continue to be RMC courses.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I applied for 2 courses (defense management and military law I believe)
In an email back in feb I was told I should get a package to my email by April 15th or a confirmation Email. I have not recieved anything yet, should I continue to wait or try and contact someone?

 

[fhg1893]

I applied for 2 courses (defense management and military law I believe)
In an email back in feb I was told I should get a package to my email by April 15th or a confirmation Email. I have not recieved anything yet, should I continue to wait or try and contact someone?

DON'T CONTACT ANYONE YET!  Read this post first!  ;D

I get a HUGE number of e-mails and phone calls asking this kind of thing.  Each one limits my ability to respond to everybody else.  There were at least 6,000 applications.  Do the math.  Voicemail is god-awful right now.  It would take me about 2 hours, just to listen to my voicemail, and take the notes necessary to respond.  I would probably have to devote 2-3 days next week to listening to and responding to voicemail.  That's 2-3 business days at least where I couldn't do ANYTHING else.  No e-mail, no phone calls, no database, no password resets,  NOTHING.  Every phone call sets me back substantially because I have to drop everything I'm doing, and deal with one phone call.  Every other task allows some degree of multi-tasking.  Phone calls are by far the least efficient, and most problematic. 

The situation as it stands now is as follows.  I still have ~1500 applications to deal with.  I spent about 3/4 of Friday processing NCM applications and sending out rejection notices.  I don't personally send out notices, I just push the buttons which tells the server that it's supposed to send out notices.  For rejections, I took the bottom group, pretty much anybody who registered in March, or April was sent a notice yesterday, but it could take a few more days to catch up with them.  I'm still sort of finalizing spaces, and for obvious reasons I could be completely inaccurate about this, but from what I remember, anybody who registered after February 15th is not going to get onto a course.  If that's you, there's a rejection notice in your future.  If you registered BEFORE February 15th, I'm talking February 10th,  your acceptance notice should be on it's way.  Again, it could take a few days before it makes it to you because the e-mail system is very clunky, and nobody is willing to pay to fix it.  Makes me wish I was still working with MITE...

And April 16th is the first day that we could theoretically begin notifiying NCM's.

PAY ATTENTION. 

We NEVER manage to start notifying people on close of registration +1 day, because the very SECOND that registration closes, EVERYBODY AND THEIR DOG suddenly develops a burning need to register for OPME courstes, and we have to spend about a week telling Johnny-come-lately, "No, that course is full."  I honestly get MORE registration inquiries in the week immediately following the close of registration than in any of the preceeding 7 weeks!  I SHOULD be using the time post-registration to sort out my class lists, and send notices, but instead, I've got to devote basically a full week to dealing with a variety of people demanding special dispensation.  So when I mention April 15th, it's always AFTER.  About a full week after.  NEVER on April 15th, or April 16th.  If you apply for summer, look for notices ~August 20th.  AFTER August 10th, not before.  Not August 11th.  Not August 12th.  Realistically, August 20th, 21st, 22nd.  Around there.  Any time before, I'm dealing with Bloggins-come-lately.  April 15th is only mentioned because it is a KNOWN DATE.  When I am able to start notifying NCM's depends a lot on the number of mostly junior officers, but really it cuts accross all ranks that I have to send up to the supervisor to rule on whether or not they get special dispensation.

CLEAR!?

Good.

 

[navymich]

So no news right now could be good news?  I always put my request in the first day it is open and typically within the first hour.  Luckily (and not typical), the DL RMC courses aren't full, so I still have that to fall back on if I get my rejection email from you.  I still have enough other courses besides RMC/OPME to take, so I'm still taking the cheap (i.e. free) way instead of paying.  Although reimbursement after the fact is great, it's the coughing up of the money up front that isn't always fun.

Here's keeping my *fingers crossed* for HIE275 - Survey of Technology, Society and Warfare.

 

[fhg1893]

So no news right now could be good news?  I always put my request in the first day it is open and typically within the first hour.  Luckily (and not typical), the DL RMC courses aren't full, so I still have that to fall back on if I get my rejection email from you.  I still have enough other courses besides RMC/OPME to take, so I'm still taking the cheap (i.e. free) way instead of paying.  Although reimbursement after the fact is great, it's the coughing up of the money up front that isn't always fun.

Here's keeping my *fingers crossed* for HIE275 - Survey of Technology, Society and Warfare.

No news COULD still be good news, yes, absolutely.  It always takes about two weeks to finalize everything, simply because we have to shuffle things around for a while.  And there's always the chance, slim though it may be that an instructor will "pop-up" out of nowhere.  It happened this semster on PSE402.  We have one section that is I think something like 3 officers, and 22 NCM's, simply because the instructor was "unexpected" from my perspective. 

HOWEVER, if you're hoping for HIE275, or POE206 in summer semester, go the undergraduate RMC route ASAP.  The officers currently waiting for those courses are undoubtedly going to be absolutely LIVID when I send their rejection notices. 

 

[Jarnhamar]

DON'T CONTACT ANYONE YET!  Read this post first!  ;D

I get a HUGE number of e-mails and phone calls asking this kind of thing.  Each one limits my ability to respond to everybody else.  There were at least 6,000 applications.  Do the math.  Voicemail is god-awful right now.  It would take me about 2 hours, just to listen to my voicemail, and take the notes necessary to respond.  I would probably have to devote 2-3 days next week to listening to and responding to voicemail.  That's 2-3 business days at least where I couldn't do ANYTHING else.  No e-mail, no phone calls, no database, no password resets,  NOTHING.  Every phone call sets me back substantially because I have to drop everything I'm doing, and deal with one phone call.  Every other task allows some degree of multi-tasking.  Phone calls are by far the least efficient, and most problematic. 

The situation as it stands now is as follows.  I still have ~1500 applications to deal with.  I spent about 3/4 of Friday processing NCM applications and sending out rejection notices.  I don't personally send out notices, I just push the buttons which tells the server that it's supposed to send out notices.  For rejections, I took the bottom group, pretty much anybody who registered in March, or April was sent a notice yesterday, but it could take a few more days to catch up with them.  I'm still sort of finalizing spaces, and for obvious reasons I could be completely inaccurate about this, but from what I remember, anybody who registered after February 15th is not going to get onto a course.  If that's you, there's a rejection notice in your future.  If you registered BEFORE February 15th, I'm talking February 10th,  your acceptance notice should be on it's way.  Again, it could take a few days before it makes it to you because the e-mail system is very clunky, and nobody is willing to pay to fix it.  Makes me wish I was still working with MITE...

And April 16th is the first day that we could theoretically begin notifiying NCM's.

PAY ATTENTION. 

We NEVER manage to start notifying people on close of registration +1 day, because the very SECOND that registration closes, EVERYBODY AND THEIR DOG suddenly develops a burning need to register for OPME courstes, and we have to spend about a week telling Johnny-come-lately, "No, that course is full."  I honestly get MORE registration inquiries in the week immediately following the close of registration than in any of the preceeding 7 weeks!  I SHOULD be using the time post-registration to sort out my class lists, and send notices, but instead, I've got to devote basically a full week to dealing with a variety of people demanding special dispensation.  So when I mention April 15th, it's always AFTER.  About a full week after.  NEVER on April 15th, or April 16th.  If you apply for summer, look for notices ~August 20th.  AFTER August 10th, not before.  Not August 11th.  Not August 12th.  Realistically, August 20th, 21st, 22nd.  Around there.  Any time before, I'm dealing with Bloggins-come-lately.  April 15th is only mentioned because it is a KNOWN DATE.  When I am able to start notifying NCM's depends a lot on the number of mostly junior officers, but really it cuts accross all ranks that I have to send up to the supervisor to rule on whether or not they get special dispensation.

CLEAR!?

Good.

I looked and I registered back in January however I'm also an NCO so I'll just wait and see what happens. Got any dirt on your supervisor I could use?  Just kidding....(not really)

You seem to take your job very seriously and put a lot of work and effort into it, thanks for all your hard work. I'm sure your job can be pretty thankless at times.

Thanks for your candor too.

 

[navymich]

HOWEVER, if you're hoping for HIE275, or POE206 in summer semester, go the undergraduate RMC route ASAP. 

Thanks for the heads up.  Done.  Must be a summer thing for the RMC route; usually these are filled quickly but I am only 3/20.

 

[fhg1893]

I looked and I registered back in January however I'm also an NCO so I'll just wait and see what happens. Got any dirt on your supervisor I could use?  Just kidding....(not really)

You seem to take your job very seriously and put a lot of work and effort into it, thanks for all your hard work. I'm sure your job can be pretty thankless at times.

Thanks for your candor too.

Thanks, but I don't entirely deserve that.  A good part of this is bureaucratic laziness on my part.  ;D  Most of my interaction with the members happens 1-on-1.  I answer the same questions, the same way, thousands of times in any given registration cycle.  The problem is, I'm not reaching a wide audience.  People knowing what to expect cuts down on the number of questions I have to answer during a registration cycle.  Plus, on my own time, I can give additional details which provide some insight into how the sausage machine works that I just don't have time to explain ~50-60 times per day during the week.  I'd honestly love to travel to each base, and give an OPME briefing, but of course, that would be crazy expensive, so forget that.  The money is better spent on courses.

Anyway.  Please excuse me if I'm a little curt.  Close of registration always gets on my nerves a little because I have to deal with so much of the same-o, same-o.

Worse, there are a lot of bureaucratic problems that I can't do anything about.

For example.  Because of accessibility compliance issues, all of my paper registration forms that you used to be able to obtain on the OPME website, www.opme.forces.gc.ca/, have  been moved to DNDLearn.  The forms were not compliant, so RMC decided to hide them all.  That means that for every withdrawal request, I have to manually send out a form.  Nothing I can do, it just shovels more work onto my plate.

Worse.  DNDLearn has a limited number of licenses for users, so CDA has to routinely deactivate users, sometimes after as little as a few weeks of inactivity.  It'd be nice if they could just buy more licenses, but no, they have to build a brand-new delivery system instead.  In the meantime, I have to reactivate and resend passwords for my OPME students because apparently CDA isn't going to adopt the solution I proposed make sure that approved registrations would automatically have their accounts turned back on when they get course loaded in DNDLearn.  More work for me!

The OPME portal, an overly-simplistic problematic database, but good enough to get the job done.  Has to be DWAN only, becaues of security issues, nothing I can do.  Everybody who's OUTCAN, or doesn't have DWAN access, such as CIC, now COATS or something, needs to be manually sent a registration form.  More work for me.

JAVA issues, a perenial problem with an easy fix (for a change...) but most people don't know about it.  Some are just too lazy to try it - they  they demand a registration form, apparently thinking that a form is just as good (it isn't!!).  We also had an issue this semester when the fix I was sending to people stopped working abruptly because of Windows registry issues on the DWAN that I only found out about ~1.5 weeks ago, forcing us to go back to the old, slightly more difficult fix.  More work for me.  Thankfully, I caught this one about a month ago, and was able to adapt BEFORE I got the official word which saved some hassel.

A lot of these problems go away, or are reduced when I can reach a wider audience, rather than doing every single thing one-on-one.  When you understand how the sausage machine works, I get less phone calls, which translates into a more efficient system for you, and a better product over all.  Especially when I'm doing all the work that used to be done by four people...

So you can call me lazy if you like, I'll call myself lazy if you don't.  ;D  But on the other hand to be fair to myself, I really do care about the people I'm tasked with serving.  I see some value in the job I do, so, yes, I do take it seriously, and I've been known to bend a rule or two when I know that I can get away with it.    Sadly, that just doesn't happen very often anymore.