Okay...
While I don't react too nicely to my ALO's when they are "late" you must all understand something.
ALO's have a timeline established for them by USAFA/RRS. This is the timeline they are required to follow.
An ALO isn't required to perform the Form 4060 interview until the candidate has accomplished a certain amount of the application process with USAFA online. Once they are past that point, the 4060 will be given to the ALO with a 45 days suspense (typically). This is when the ALO would normally start the interview process. They might interview the candidate within a day of the form being "tagged." Does that mean they'll get it done in a week and that it'll be processed by USAFA and "visible to the candidate online" that quickly?
Maybe and maybe not. And while I would say "...gee...why not just get it done and out of my hair" there is nothing wrong with the ALO taking all 45 days to perform investigation on the candidate. There's a certain amount of due diligence they should be doing, to ensure they know all they can about the candidate before they accomplish the evaluation write-up.
Now...once the evaluation is completed by the ALO and digitally signed, it is "locked" and the ALO can't do a thing more to it. It is then routed to USAFA and the Regional Director for the region that ALO is assigned within will review it. And I do mean REVIEW it! Line by line, word by word...and sometimes they will reject the evaluation and ask the ALO for clarification or other things. Trust me here...this is a GOOD thing!
I've had evaluations rejected by my RD...and it's usually with a comment like this: "Steve...I rejected this because I wanted to ask: are you sure you want to rate them XXXXX? I mean, your write-up is really awesome, this sounds like an amazing kid...are you sure you don't want to rate them higher?? Just a thought..."
ALL of this can take time.
Rest assured, the Liaison Officer Director that the ALO reports to keeps track of the status of ALL the evaluations pending, due, overdue, etc. And ALO's are constantly being "pinged" about them. If we submit one ON TIME and it's not processed into the system before the due date, WE get tagged as LATE. That's just how it is.
And the last part...and while its no excuse if the ALO is dropping the ball, realize that ALO's are all non-paid volunteers. We all have other jobs that supply our livelyhoods. Most of my ALO's are airline pilots; they're gone for a week at a time. Then they're home, doing ALO work, family, etc. And yes, I can already hear the legitimate cry of: "IF they can't do the job, they should let someone else do it." Perhaps.
But we're pretty good at this. And while I can completely understand the angst this can cause...please give the ALO the benefit of the doubt.
Send another e-mail, follow it up with a phone call. If you still have no satisfaction of a response by the ALO...then there are several options open to you.
1. Call the counselor at USAFA and explain that you aren't able to reach your ALO, that you sent "X" number of emails on the following dates, and that you called and left "Y" number of messages and haven't heard back.
That will generate a WHOLE lot of attention.
2. If you know the Liaison Officer Director for your area, you could contact them and say the same thing. This is the same as filing a complaint with the State Commander. It will also generate a lot of attention.
This could simply be a case of the ALO being buried by many things, the eval's could be at USAFA and just not processed yet, I don't know. But lets not just automatically assume its the ALO not doing their job. While that, sadly, has happened in the past, the vast majority of the @1800 of us are pretty good folk that really enjoy what we do.
Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83