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Army Reserve Family Program Web portal begins operations |
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| By Staff Sgt. Chris Farley, Triad Contributor SAN DIEGO, CA. -- A portal functions as a gateway. Its existence is a vein to the servitude of something greater from where it begins, and for a Web portal the knowledge is extensive.
By simply typing www.ARFP.org on a computer keyboard then pressing the enter button or by a click of a mouse, users now can instantly be connected to the new Army Reserve Family Program's (ARFP) Web portal. In an effort to leave no family behind during a Soldier's mobilization and keeping with ARFP's mission to teach families and Soldiers to be self-reliant, the ARFP portal has been designed to connect not only Soldiers, families and ARFP volunteers, but also employers of Army Reserve Soldiers with timely information, news, benefits and much more. "It will be kind of like the Yahoo to the Army Reserve," said Michael Sick, DefenseWeb marketing and business development consultant on the ARFP Web portal as he compared the Yahoo Web search engine to the ARFP Web portal. "The portal will serve as a 'one-stop-knowledge-center' for all Soldiers, families, ARFP volunteers and other customers on information related to the Army Reserve," said Michael J. Evans, Army Reserve regional family programs manager and project manager on the Web portal. Imagine an online Web portal that directly links families to essential Web sites that can help answer important questions on TRICARE health insurance, find coping strategies in dealing with the stress of a deployment, or simply find out the amount direct deposited for pay. ARFP users can record messages on any camcorder, upload the videos on the ARFP portal, and then send the video as if it were just like any e-mail. The video message is sent to the recipient in the form of an e-mail with a hyperlink to a Web address that streams the video message. Sick said the video messaging can be done anywhere as long as a Soldier can check and read e-mail. Employers can find information on the Army Reserve to better understand their Citizen-Soldier's commitment and learn about Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. But giving the important answers to the bewildering questions just touches on the fringes of all the applications in the portal. The portal will help ARFP manage volunteers and units. By registering, ARFP can reach out to that user by address, phone number or e-mail and provide them with additional information, Evans said. "If the user just wants to come in and check out the site and they don't want to register that's fine. We (ARFP) aren't going to force them. We are just going to highly encourage them because that gives us another tool to reach out and connect with them," he said. "Just to know that we can go to an accurate centralized up to date source is going to completely revitalize this trend we've had five years plus and try to become automated. I'm really excited about this new Web portal training and where it's going to take us," said Maj. Gilbert M. Martin, 63rd Regional Readiness Command family readiness operations officer.
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