Sven's List now online

  • Published
  • From the 319th Communication Squadron
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  For many Grand Forks Airmen, volunteering their unique skills for wing projects and events is a rewarding and enjoyable experience. While many Airmen hear about opportunities from peers or supervisors, many others are still looking for ways to get involved in wing activities.

During a recent discussion with Col. John Michel, 319th Air Refueling Wing commander, several Airmen shared that while there are many wing activities that could benefit from more volunteers, there was no central place to advertise or seek volunteer opportunities.

To combat this, Colonel Michel directed the creation of Sven's List. Sven's List was built to leverage the popularity of internet-based social networking sites like Facebook and community sites like Craig's List.

Sven's List is the "Bring It" wing's own community web forum where organizers of wing-wide projects can advertise the need for assistance Some projects will come directly from Colonel Michel and will range from simple tasks like creating a poster to calls for a project manager for a wing function.

"After talking with many Airmen across the wing, I know they are fired up and ready to volunteer their unique skills and experience," Colonel Michel said. "Sven's List was built to help us connect Airmen with amazing talents and motivation to some truly interesting and one of a kind project opportunities."

To create Sven's List, Tech, Sgt. Catrina Nicolas, 319th Communications Squadron utilized Air Mobility Command's Enterprise Information Management solution. While EIM is used wing-wide for information management functions, it is capable of providing units with powerful capabilities like discussion boards, surveys and task tracking systems. Sven's List takes advantage of many of EIM's unique capabilities.

"Sven's List provides a snapshot picture of projects, volunteers and points of contact within a web spreadsheet. It also provided us an approval feature with routing which ensures the right POC is matched with the right project and skill set," Sergeant Nicolas said. "Volunteers sign up for projects within the site, and are automatically routed to the wing front office through e-mail notification."

Tools like Sven's List can be created by just about anyone with some reading of the on-line help files and a little experimentation.

Senior Master Sgt. Natalie Ord, the wing's functional manager for the information manager career field knows that Sven's List just scratches the surface of AMC's EIM system.

"One of the best features of the EIM tool is its in-line updating capability, which allows users from across the base to work on documents, make changes and save within the site without having to download or export to a hard drive," Senior Master Sgt. Ord said. "This feature allows users to contribute and coordinate information easier while eliminating the need for sending emails back and forth which made it our pick for launching the Sven's List project site."