A Fort Hood Army spouse is teaming up with an Air Force spouse in Virginia to create something special for military families.
Called the My Ultimate PCS app, creators Maria Reed and Moni Jefferson want to help families put all preparations in one place.
"It's not just packing up your house and moving. There are moving out procedures that have to be followed and letting different organizations know you're moving and leaving the area. And because of that, it gets a little chaotic," said co-creator Moni Jefferson.
PCS means permanent change of station and some families are picking up and moving every couple of years. PCS moves can be more complicated than a move for civilians, especially when families are working with the military directly to move their belongings, and sometimes they have to be prepared to live in a hotel for months before families get housing.
The creators are hoping to launch it by Friday this week, but we got a sneak peek of the beta version. They call it a labor of love.
"Maybe because we're on our 11th beta. You know, when you go into an idea, you have a shiny object syndrome and you're all excited about this great idea. You know it's gonna work and you know people are going to want it because it's just gonna be amazing," said Jefferson.
Families can create checklists for three months out, two months out and all the way up to the final days before the move. They can also link to their phone calendars and set reminders.
"Once I've done something like discuss with family, I click it and I'm done," said Reed.
There is also an inventory section for families looking to take pictures of everything before items are loaded up into a truck and luggage.
"I also want to add to that inventory where I purchased it, a copy of the receipt, if it had any damage to it already because if that were to get lost or damaged during the PCS, I would have to be able to reference all of that. And instead of having 10,000 pieces of paper, and trying to find all that, I have it in one place," Reed said.
Reed and Jefferson want feedback.
"We want to hear back from the community, as features that they would like to see, things that they would love to have, things they don't like. This app is not about Maria and I creating something that's gonna take off for no reason. The app is so that the community can give us feedback so we can make it better," co-creator Jefferson said.
Reed and Jefferson are working to debug any issues before the launch.
My Ultimate PCS app creators would like to hear feedback and any suggestions military families might have about what they would like to see. Check out more here. You can email them at info@myultimatepcs.com.