ACC promotes Airman's Roll Call

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Russell Wicke
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. --  Leadership in Air Combat Command is promoting an Air Force internal communication program called Airman's Roll Call, designed to encourage face-to-face interaction between front-line supervisors and Airmen.

Airmen's Roll Call is a weekly list of topics highlighted by Air Force leadership and available on the Air Force Portal to be used for supervisors during their units' roll calls.

The Air Force Chief of Staff started Roll Call in January 2007 to increase interpersonal communication - mainly because digital communication is information saturated.

"In this era of constant e-mail bombardment, people just send and they figure people are informed," said Chief Master Sgt. Marc Rodriguez ACC Headquarters first sergeant. "This is a different way of taking a step back to the basics of that face-to-face communication - it's a very important communication tool."

Topics of discussion cover a number of issues such as current events, Air Force goals, leadership trends, discipline, etc. Anna Bennett, 1st Mission Support Squadron's Airman and Family Readiness Center community readiness technician, said one example of Roll Call's usefulness is how certain topics lead Airmen to make better life choices, such as finances. She said it encourages them to take advantage of services available to them. Airmen get the information via word-of-mouth - which is more personal than e-mail. Roll Call also provides a platform for two-way communication, where questions can be asked and answered.

"It highlights the topic of the week that's important to our senior leadership ... to make sure our people are kept informed as to what's important to them, what's important to their families and the Air Force," said Chief Rodriguez.

This week's Roll Call highlights the importance of healthy lifestyles and the Air Force's new slogan "Above All," among other topics.

Although Airmen's Roll Call seeks subscribers who are supervisors, Chief Rodriguez said he encourages all ranks to subscribe. "It's simply a click off the Portal," he said.

To subscribe go to http://www.af.mil/subscribe/ and select Airman's Roll Call (weekly notification) and submit. Airmen can also go straight to the Web for leadership viewpoints at http://www.af.mil/library/viewpoints/, or off the Air Force Portal main page.