The monthly meeting of the OA Users Group was held 4 April 1996 at 1400 hours, in conference room 250, Armstrong Laboratory, Human Resources Directorate Building, Brooks AFB, Texas. Elena Weber served as chair for the meeing in the absence of SqLdr John Herlihy. Those in attendance included:

Elena Weber           AFOMS/OMYX   652-5811  WeberE@mail.omsq.af.mil
Joe Bergman           AFOMS/OMYA   653-3696  BergmanJ@mail.omsq.af.mil
Larry Looper          AL/HRMJ      536-3222  Looper@alhrm.brooks.af.mil
Walter Albert         AL/HRMJ      536-3222  Albert@alhrm.brooks.af.mil
Janice Buchhorn       AL/HRTD      536-4005  Buchhorn@alhrt.brooks.af.mil
Timothy O'Neil        AFOMS/OMYX   652-5811  ONeilT@mail.omsq.af.mil
Darryl Hand           Metrica      340-8211  codap@metricanet.com
Jimmy Mitchell        IJOA         349-8525  IJOAJLM@aol.com
Patricia Waldroop     IJOA         349-8525  waldroop@worldnet.att.net
Johnny Weissmuller    Metrica/IJOA 340-8211  MPT@metricanet.com

2. Darryl Hand, Metrica, Inc., reported one program update. AUDITD was improved to list all variables not distributed, along with the reason why. The three possible reasons are: (1) it's variable V0001; (2) the variable is longer than six characters; (3) the variable is too unique. Uniqueness is determined by calculated the percentage of unique values among the first 250 cases. If this percentage exceeded 66.6, then the variable was not distributed. However, the program mistakenly incremented the count of distributed variables. This has been corrected. In addition, the maximum uniqueness percentage was raised to 80.0 at the request of OMS.

3. Mr. Hand discussed the status of CODAP on the Web. All CODAP program documentation is now available. The last two documents added were PRTVAR and VARGEN. In addition, all doc was standardized to use AIX examples rather than generic CODAP program invocations.

A historical program updates section was added. This section contains an explanation of all program changes since 1993, and the date the change was implemented on the OMS AIX platform. A CODAP user's meeting minutes section was also added. It contains the minutes from previous meetings, and indicates the date and location of the next meeting.

4. Knowledge clustering work for Bill Phalen is continuing. The initial programs for calculating and reporting task-knowledge linkages are complete and awaiting evaluation. Testing was performed for AFSC 455x2 (comm and nav systems), study 2112, using the 114 EPI items in the background section.

We have received the Canadian data (task data plus knowledge ratings), but are not ready to use it. The current system makes use of the standard CODAP FACSET file format, which has a limit of 400 knowledges (factors). This limit should probably be raised to a limit of about 500. One of the Canadian studies exceeds 400. In addition, their knowledge items are scaled (either 1-5 or 1-7), while Phalen's algorithm is based on a 0-1 rating.

5. Mr. Hand inquired whether OMS has attempted data transfer from the Sperry via former 9-track tapes. OMS is in the process of collecting a copy of the most recent task list and task data for every specialty, so that there will be a complete set of data available through the OMS RISC system. This work continues but is not yet complete.

6. Mr. Hand discussed his ongoing efforts to develop a user interface for CODAP. Progress has been limited over the last month although it was possible to set up a study directory addressable from the CODAP home page. He indicated that while it is possible to display files for some studies, it is not yet possible to run programs through this interface. He is working of the problem and will report his progress at future meetings. Mr. Hand reported that he had set up controls for accessing the data which is controlled by password and permission. Anyone who has a need to address these data bases, contact Darryl.

7. Mr. Hand inquired about the availability of TIARA inventories on the OMS VM mainframe. It appears that new task lists have not been added since October 1995. Elena Weber said she would look into this.

8. Dr. Mitchell asked about the deployment of the automated HAILS system. Tim O'Neil indicated that he had distributed the new system to all normal users; some users continue to want hard copy of the FIDO files, but most indicate that they are happy with the HAILS software.

9. The next meeting is scheduled for 1400 hours, 9 May 1996, at the Occupational Measurement Squadron, Randolph AFB, Texas.

Elena Weber
AFOMS/OMYX