Correspondence Course Review

[atmahan]

Has anyone called PERS-9 or PERS-93 about that note at the bottom of the NRTC worksheet on the 25Oct2015 Authorized Reserve Retirement Point Listing that says:

"For courses that list ratings, only the ratings listed may obtain Retirement Points for course completion."?

Does this means that NRTC courses are now for Enlisted Reservists only (except for the ones where the Field of Study column is blank)?

If not, I'll call them.

Thanks.

 

[shift_DAWG]

Does this means that NRTC courses are now for Enlisted Reservists only (except for the ones where the Field of Study column is blank)?

It may mean that to them, but here's the rub:

COMNAVRESFOR msg 191101Z AUG 14 (which started this whole mess) clearly states:

"Awarding authorities will ensure the course of instruction is included on the list of authorized courses and provides such military value that it will enhance the individual RC Sailor's professional development through:
a. Broadening their qualifications for duties to which they may be expected to perform upon mobilization, or b. Broadening their knowledge of the qualifications of those whose work they may supervise. "

That clearly means that Aviation officers and Chiefs ought to be able to complete and be credited for any of the Aviation rates' courses, SWOs and surface Chiefs likewise for shipboard rates, etc.

I'd also argue that Officers and CPOs ought to be able to be credited for *any* of the Admin courses (evals, awards, messages, etc.) since that is a big "general" part of the khaki job, outside and regardless of specialty/community.

 

[N4Life]

At the same time COMNAVRESFOR msg 191101Z AUG 14 (which started this whole mess) clearly states: " c. Sailors currently enrolled in correspondence courses not meeting the above criteria will have until 1 October 2014 to complete the course and receive credit. Such courses completed after 1 October 2014 will not be honored."

However -912 refused to approve my MarineNet courses completed and submitted to NPC in June 2014 stating it doesn't matter what the instruction says, MarineNet is not on the Oct 2014 list and was never an approved source. While simultaneously stating that before the Oct 2014 list all sources were authorized .

But I do agree with the general comment that there are a lot of courses that would be useful at higher ranks. When you take in the supervisor role it covers many ratings across disciplines. When I was the Material Control Officer at a squadron, I had 50 Sailors and Marines working for me. It's suppose to be a supply division but there was only 1 supply Sailor, the rest were various aviation and two seabees.

 

[atmahan]

However -912 refused to approve my MarineNet courses completed and submitted to NPC in June 2014 stating it doesn't matter what the instruction says, MarineNet is not on the Oct 2014 list and was never an approved source. While simultaneously stating that before the Oct 2014 list all sources were authorized .

N4Life,

In March 2015, I submitted NRTC courses to NPC that I completed prior to Oct 2014 and they were accepted.

In my letter I clearly stated that these courses were completed prior to the message taking effect.

I received points (and a "Good" Year) for these courses.


Also, I called PERs-912 regarding the statement and the Customer Support person did not know anything about it.

I was referred to NAVRESFORCOM but I haven't called them.

I really want to talk to the office/individual that actually inputs the points.

Does anyone know who that is?

 

[N4Life]

NAVRESFORCOM N7 office: (757-322-6613). As of April '15, N7 stated they are only in charge of creating the list; Pers-912 is in charge of actually recording of points.

I'm glad you got your points, for me it was fruitless multiple calls, email, letter situation through Pers-912 (including the head of the dept) and CNRF N7. The end result was we know the courses were completed prior to the Oct list, but we are not going to issue the points. Best of Luck

 

[Randy Daytona]

Knocked out Public Affairs and Policy. Time Consuming. Note - save your work! If you leave one answer blank, it says go back to answer the question. When you do as directed, you lose all of your answers. When the exam in 93 questions long, you can imagine this is quite painful. That said, another 15 points in the bank - 27 more to go.

Speaking of massive pain, avoid the Chaplain series unless you have plentyyyyy of time on your hands. It is long, very long, mind-numbing long.

 

[Sam I am]

The chaplain series has been mentioned before as pretty interesting...I signed up for the first 4...perhaps that was a mistake. I'll let you know how it shakes out.

 

[lostSeaBee]

I did History of the Chaplain Corps Part 1. It was alright, but I agree with Randy it was very long. I'd rather do 15 courses under JKO for 1 point each, than 15 points for one part of the Chaplain Corps.

 

[Sam I am]

I did History of the Chaplain Corps Part 1. It was alright, but I agree with Randy it was very long. I'd rather do 15 courses under JKO for 1 point each, than 15 points for one part of the Chaplain Corps.

I started chapter 3 of Course I...interesting stuff, but daaaaaaaaaaaamn, it's long.

 

[rob00000]

Something to share:

I talked to "Fontaine" at NRTC today. Many of you know who she is. She's super cool, always friendly, and is pretty knowledgeable on the Non Resident Courses stuff. (A great lady. PERIOD!)

I won't bore you with all the details of our conversation. Anyway, at one point we discussed how the points on our spreadsheet are lower then the points listed at the NRTC website. For instance, the 14219A Public Affairs course that you guys have recently discussed here is 20 points at the NRTC website & 15 points on our spreadsheet. Looking at other courses it appears they are all lower on our list. All the ones I checked were lower.

Here's the deal. She says she spoke to a supervisor at PERS 912 who insisted we would be given credit for the NRTC courses according to the points listed at the NRTC website, NOT the points listed on our spreadsheet. He was adamant about it. If he's correct then 14219A will get you 20 points not 15, etc.

Of course, this may not be true. You guys all know the drill by now. We have to search for answers till we know for sure what's up.

I trust Fontaine BUT she has been given wrong information in the past. I once made a comment to her a while back saying how I just wished they would tell us the truth about the NRTC courses whether they were coming back or not & she said something like "yeah, I know, we get it over here too."

So, she's trying to be helpful & give correct information but it's hard to do that when she can't trust her sources 100%.

If anyone can verify this information somehow or disprove it, please share it here with the rest of us.

Thanks! Rob

 

[N4Life]

Atmahan (or anyone), Did you receive any response about taking courses of those supervised from CNRF N7 or Pers-912?

 

[atmahan]

N4Life,

I haven't called N7, only Pers-912. Pers-912 only knew that the new list is out, but that's it, they were not aware of any newer policies regarding the list.

Since you stated earlier that N7 generates the list but Pers-912 inputs the points, plus that incident where they took my points but not yours (because some policy changed between March and April), I figured the guidance/intent from N7 regarding NRTC courses has not been propagated down from N7 to Pers-912 yet (surprise, surprise). So I will just wait and call Pers-912 later.

For now, I am just playing it safe and taking the non-ratings courses plus MarineNet courses.

There are plenty of points there for me to get to the finish line

I just finished:

14210 Security Manual - You have to download 2 separate Instructions from somewhere else (but the All Knowing Internet has it in several locations), a lot of the questions are outdated, and it jumps around. It is a very frustrating course to take (I would recommend it for the more experienced NRTC course takers only).

I am currently taking:

14142 Math, Introduction to Statistics - simply put, some sick mind's version of hell on earth.

When I submit them, I will let you guys know how many points I get for them.

On the MarineNet side, the foreign language courses are a breeze, just time consuming.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Just finished Chaplain Corps #1. 9 points down, 18 more to go for the year. I like history, but it is a slog.

 

[Sam I am]

Just finished Chaplain Corps #1. 9 points down, 18 more to go for the year. I like history, but it is a slog.

Whole heartedly agree... "slog" is the word. I just finished Chaplains Corp #1 and if that trend holds true for the remaining 4 Chaplains courses, I will probably have more time invested in the Chaplains courses than JMO at NWC...no lie.

 

[ChopChick]

Has anyone received points credit for the newly-reinstated NRTC courses? I have to do some courses in hurry and want to make sure I'm getting points that count.

Back in July I completed an NKO course that was listed on the (then-current) points list as worth 12 points. My completion certificate showed it was only 15 instructional hours (even though in reality is was MUCH longer than that. This was a true 12-point course), so I was concerned I might only be awarded 3 points. Figured I'd wait until I got the point credit to see if I needed more courses. Four months later, I still don't have credit (I called NPC and they did receive my cert). The new points list has this course at only 3 points, so I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get my 12.

Now I need to earn 9 more points in a hurry (my anniversary is in three weeks) just-in-case. In my experience NRTC courses (even de-valued at one point per four instructional hours instead of three) are the most expeditious way to do so, but I want to verify they will really count!