What is the role of the ARNG Officer Strength Manager? After doing some research online, I couldn’t find a specific job description, so I will explain the role, duties and responsibilities of the Officer Strength Manager (OSM) to the best of my abilities.
Primary Duties & Responsibilities of ARNG Officer Strength Manager
- To help officers enter the ARNG. The Officer Strength Manager works with officers in the IRR, other states, and officers who have resigned from the military but want to come back in. They help the officers complete their packets and oversee the entire process.
- To monitor officers leaving the ARNG. The OSM monitors officers leaving the ARNG, sometimes doing exit interviews and helping officers transition out of the military, into the IRR or doing an inter-state transfer.
- To evaluate trends and keep Commanders informed. The OSM evaluates trends and shortfalls in the officer ranks. They look for patterns and report this information to G1 or to the TAG. They also prepare reports and work closely with the G1 Office.
- Normally the Officer Strength Manager is an AGR or Technician in the rank of 1LT thru Major.
Officer Strength Manager Course
New Officer Strength Managers attend the OSM Course at the Professional Education Center at Camp Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas. The course is designed to teach new OSMs everything they need to know to fulfill their duties as an OSM. The course is approximately 2 weeks long.
Final Thoughts
On a side note, if you have experience working as an Officer Strength Manager, I would love to hear from you. There just isn’t much information about this job in the Army, so if you will please help those reading understand the position better, we would appreciate it. Please share some of your job duties and responsibilities with the rest of our community. Just leave a comment to this post to do so. Also, if you have any questions that I may be able to help you with, you can ask below. Thank you for visiting.
Chuck Holmes
Former Army Major (resigned)
Publisher, Part-Time-Commander.com
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
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I took the OSM course at PEC and it really just firehosed regs at us and everyone did a presentation on one officer branch. The most reg important stands alone – AR 600-100. As an OSM you are bound to endless changes in the PPOM, SMOM, ALARACT that make it very difficult to process the cream of the crop IF they need a waiver. What’s sad is some states only focus on #’s and will take anybody if they meet the requirements. This bothers me beyond words, candidates need to be interviewed and observed prior to shipping them off to OCS. It is ok to tell someone “NO.” I do it all that time. Leadership is not for everyone, and being an officer is a spotlight position with an endless list of demands that include; meetings, reports, presentations, off the cuff non-emergencies, etc. Anyway, you’re right, being an OSM is a delicate responsibility that needs to be treated as such. There’s nothing worse than a crappy LT. Also, there are both enlisted and commissioned OSM’s, the majority are LT’s and on ADOS/ADSW, very few are AGR.It isn’t just IST’s, the position is mostly involved with ROTC, Officer Candidates, Early Commissioning Program cadets (these kids get lost in the sauce all the time), Prior Service, Active Duty component (officers and enlisted) Soldiers transitioning, other services (Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, etc.) but only the Marines and Army do not have to attend basic training. Unless they were Navy special operations or Air Force security.
Great points, Sheila. It is a tough job. And I definitely agree with you that it is very important to screen people before letting them “join” the National Guard. You want people with heart, a good attitude, a basic skill set and most importantly the DESIRE to serve. Hopefully, a good OSM can help screen some of these folks and get rid of the dead weight.
I find it odd that there is not a decent description of the duties of an Officer Strength Manager, but not beyond belief. This seems to be a vital duty with in the National Guard, as well as other branches. That’s a large amount of responsibility and data tracking for one person.
The Officer Strength Manager is a common position in the National Guard. Every state has one. I created this job description and list of duties for anyone new to the position, or interested in the position. Thanks for the comment.
Chuck
It’s strange that there’s no specific job description available for the ARNG Officer Strength Manager. So that makes this post much more valuable as a summary of the main duties and responsibilities. I’ve heard very good things about that course in Little Rock – I think they cover a lot of ground in just 2 weeks.
I’ve searched all over the internet and didn’t find any job descriptions for the ARNG Officer Strength Manager. Fortunately, if you get selected for that position, there’s a good chance your supervisor will have the job description that goes on your OER Support Form and OER. And if that doesn’t work, you could always contact an ARNG Officer Strength Manager in a different state and get it from them.
Given the much larger headcount on the enlisted side, there is an entire agency–the Enlisted Personnel Management Division of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command–managing enlisted progression and retention. It is the EPMD that oversees the Qualitative Service Program and Qualitative Management Program. In brief, the QMP addresses senior NCOs (E7 to E9) and the QSP addresses everyone else (though there are some slightly more complex subtleties. These are the programs that evaluate soldiers to determine whether their past performance indicates the potential for future career progression. The Qualitative Management Boards have the ability to mandate involuntary separation, and in the case of QSP even involuntary early separation. In general keeping your nose clean and staying fit will keep you clear of QMP, but the program is there to prune the deadwood, so to speak.
This Enlisted Personnel Management Division is much bigger than the Officer Branch. That makes perfect sense considering the size of the enlisted force.
Thanks for the extra information you provided about it.
Chuck
Being a OSM is crucial for any member of the military. They help build up your core strength to ensure you can get back in the military. This is particularly helpful if you had served and retired, but want to come back and defend your country some more!
The Officer Strength Manager has a very important job: filling the ranks with qualified officers. This includes new Officers and prior service officers.
Chuck