Expansion of gocivilairpatrol.com

[FlexCoder]

Eclipse, your response is typical of the "old mindset" that only stagnates CAP.   Social networks work despite what you may think.  Not suggesting to clone MySpace, Facebook, etc....CAP would benefit with  a social site specifically designed and developed for CAP members in mind.   Stay in your cave if you don't want to partake in one.   The new generations of CAP members are very tech oriented and a bad presence on the net tends to give CAP a bad image. 

[RiverAux]

I'm a fairly frequent critic of CAP web pages, though based more on appearance and stale content than how they were put together, but would probably agree with flexcoder about the oddity of some of our biggest wings having some of the worst sites.

However, I'm not surprised that gocivilairpatrol doesn't have a lot of repeat visitors.  Until this month it was supposed to be a recruiting site and you would not expect many people to return to it numerous times. 

[Eclipse]

Yes, I forgot "new" = "good", my mistake.

You're reading this on all the "social network" CAP needs - our goal should be to try and get our people OFF the computer and outside, not encourage more LOLCATZ.

What people tend to forget is that we are looking for physical participation during the exact time that these social networking sites consume our members - nights and weekends.

I'm not "old mindset", what I am is sad to see the pinnacle of human technology turned into a place for people to show off their bad behavior, abandon what little grammar understanding they may have assimilated, and update their "friends" on what they are having for lunch.

[D2SK]

Blow us away with your l33t hax0r skills and give us a URL of a website you developed.  With such criticism, you must be one heck of a webmaster.  So... show us, great one.

In review of the gocivilairpatrol.com site, it has a very confusing interface, weak top banner, bad navigation, sloppy code and looks like a grade schooler put it together for his or her school project.     On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being best, gocap is a 2-3 rank.  According to Quantcast, 92% of the traffic is passer-bys; only 1% are addicts (gee, I wonder why!)    It is a complete waste of money in regard to the latest free technologies available today.   With that being said, I spent this week screen capturing every CAP Wing, Region & National website & will post the good vs the bad soon.   None of them are good actually.  The conclusion is the fact that 99% of the sites have outdated interfaces, horrific graphics, default language phrases, bad fonts, use of frames, security exploits, mispelled words, old contact info, deprecated code, general info that relates to National but not to the member & lots of worthless info/links, lots of legal disclaimers that nobody ever reads, no features that are useful to the member (meaning blogs, forum, etc)  and few discuss what there personal unit is all about.   And I saw quite a few Squadron websites with purple & pink backgrounds; what is there deal, the Civil Femme Patrol!  No offense to females - pink, purple colors can be worthy if used properly though.   If "Joe" wants to read about the 3 missions of CAP, he can go to National site; Joe wants to know what YOUR unit is all about and what YOUR unit does locally.   CAP websites would convey to the average "joe" that this organization is not with it, not an innovator & is a mess.

The absolute worst CAP Sites are Montana Wing, Oklahoma Wing; the rest are quite bad as well.  Pennsylvania Wing was good with it's simple, clean interface and had useful info but needs many improvements as well.   If anyone has an IT badge for Montana or Oklahoma Wing, it's only fair if you turn your badge in until these sites are vastly improved.   Why, because the developers of those two wing sites should be tarred and feathered (j/k)...they don't deserve to wear the IT badge, period!  I was surprised to see Wing websites such as California, Texas, New York, Georgia & other Wings with lots of resources, members and funds, appear to be quite bad too.  Georgia site is awful with a terrible outdated interface; California has some cool features but the design and graphics are typical 1990's era.   Texas should be ashamed; New York, well, your just as bad as Texas too.  As for other Wing, Region sites specifically not mentioned, your not out of the woods, there terrible too.  Too many to list....

Most CAP sites tend to use Joomla (#1), Drupal, DotNetNuke, WYSIWYG Templates, WordPress & other newb CMS systems.   All of these CMS systems have lots of free, better templates.  Why don't you get your cadets to select the website interface or template.  In fact, let the cadets develop the sites instead because the majority of the IT's in CAP are terrible!  The Internet Technology Officer Guide for Dummies....mostly worthless jargon unrelated to web development (ex. 7. mentoring cadets with concepts of IT - who wrote this ****).

Some Solutions:  Social Network Sites are the hottest trend on the net today and CAP should take advantage of it.  CAP Members need a site where they can congregate, meet friends, have personal blogs, discuss things in a forum, spotlight top members , rave new promotions & recognition, have updated news, open community involvment, light censorship and so forth.   Big sites are like a dominoe effect, once the community gets active and meaningful, they get bigger and bigger over time especially if the site has open source API resources available to the members to develop sites on their own to promote CAP and their units as well as create new features, widgets, etc.    CAP needs a teamwork environment that promotes awareness, recruiting & retention. 

Think of America's Army Social Community site that the US Army started in 2002; that in itself has created a massive worldwide community with a strong following to this day.    America's Army is very well organized, has more of a horizontal chain of command and has a very large active comminty with lots of features and current events.    Give the member a genuine sense of belonging and it will grow a thousand fold quickly!

Why pay for it when one can get it for free..... in order to get the IT Badge, the trainee must develop, maintain a unit website with certain requirements that must be met, many colleges require their students to develop a website in order to graduate, lots of members in CAP are very good at new technologies in regard to front end, back end & graphics (utilize the membership - give members a sense of belonging & light recognition & you'd be surprised in what they would do w/out costing CAP a dime), offer incentives such as a medal or ribbon for cadets, seniors, have a contest (I'll even supply the prizes),  member reward leaderboards on site, promote the worthy IT's as site moderators and so on.  Just dont require coders, graphics members to have college degrees & certifications because I have found among the great minds of today, that the best coders in the world do not possess or care about any of those things.     

And, any good PAO knows that 90% of Advertising, Marketing is free.  CAP doesn't need to spend millions of dollars on this & that.   Drug reduction program is one example of wasteful spending.   Seniors praise the program but kids rebel!  Instill core values, accountability, mentoring and drugs are not an issue.    Today, most kids and young adults are very tech savoy and the CAP websites tend to push them away but we need to exploit this technology today.   If CAP wants to spend money, hire the Google guys not some old line IBM workers....

Why do we need good websites?  Simple fact, the world buys 85% of their goods on the net today.  140 million+ Americans play online games and communicate via the web mostly on cells, myspace, social sites, etc.  Most everything we do today is connected to technology, the internet, communication, etc.   Either get with the times, or fade out like most programs that never or rarely innovative.    CAP has been hovering around the 50,000 to 65,000 members for the past 20+ years.  Obvoiusly, something is not working (most likely 'old timers' manning the PAO at the Nat/Region/Wing Levels) because growth has been little to nothing.   And most people think CAP died in the WWII era or have never heard about us which gives us little to no credibility in regard to missions especially with EMA's and other gov't heads because they don't know what CAP is.   

More members equal more manpower, more resources, more funds, more equipment, more awareness & retention, more benefits and so on.   CAP needs a 21st century mindset or it will seize to exist in the future.  Everyone in CAP would benefit from better websites and positive awareness , from the tactical mindset guys training the basics, logistics/comm. adding new tech with the large influx of money coming in, and so on.   Everyone has a role, we just need to stop talking, and start doing.  And as for the CAP websites at the Region & Wing levels, there is no excuse to have such pathetic sites up.  Just my three cents worth....

[A.Member]

...CAP does NOT need to wade into the time wasting cesspool of social networking.

Amen!  They serve a purpose and have a place but not in this organization and not on our servers!

And FlexCoder, if you're going to criticize spelling and grammar on Wing sites, the least you could do is use spell check.  It too is free - just click the button.

[FlexCoder]

Eclipse, you are "old mindset" with that attitude....I wish you luck on trying to get a typical kid away from his xbox to go drill or hump a ruck through the woods!    It's unfortunate that the majority of youth are glued to those activities but why not exploit those areas and then you can take them out in the field and  teach them the lessons of the land.  Our society today spends most of their time on the internet, communicating with cells, congregating at social sites and so on.  I am not suggesting that we should take away the physical activities of CAP which are a very important part of CAP but that is only a part of CAP and CAP needs better awareness and more members as well.   And the social network idea is not what CAP only needs....a lot more to it then that.   I have been fortunate to be around some of the great minds & coders that have created some of the top sites that we take for granted today and once you've been around that crowd, you'd understand more of what I am talking about.   In the very near future everything will be connected via the internet and if CAP focuses on the opposite,and does not innovate,  it will most likely be too late later and as a result, be extinct!  However, CAP needs people like you that have a mindset to get them off their butts and out in the field too.  Everyone has a role, from the ground pounders to the IT folks!

[Pylon]

And for the love of whatever Lord you hold dear, CAP does NOT need to wade into the time wasting cesspool of social networking.

Yeah, God forbid Civil Air Patrol goes and markets to our potential members (particularly cadets) where they are already hanging out.  Facebook, with 100 million active users, and it's advertising system allowing geotargeting, profile keyword targeting, age and gender targeting, etc., is by far an untapped tool.  

Marketing 101 -- advertise where your target audience already is hanging out/reading/spending time/etc.  Social networking is where America's youth (and surprisingly also, the fastest growing segment, 30 to 45-year-olds) is spending time.  We wouldn't want to "wade into the that cesspool" of potential!  

[Major Carrales]

Some here would have CAP spend 100,000s to millions on such things (ad space, companies to "clever us up," "cool" websites et al), when such amounts could provide several more aircraft, update COMM equipment and/or countless other "necessary" items to people like me who institute the tactical implementation of CAP's missions.

High ideals are great, but the realities of the tactical implementation of CAP come to a head when, instead of resources, all I'm given to offer CAP Officers in my area is "A NEW DIRECTION for CAP" a stack of papers, a "niffty" tagline and a website.

Maj Corrales,

Believe it or not in order to make money you need to spend money.  What matters is that the money that you invest is returned plus some on your investment.  If that spiffy new tagline or website makes people aware of who we are and what we do, chances are donations, etc will follow.  Spending thousands of dollars on an advertisement may intially tie up that money, but if the advertisement causes some company to become one of our corporate partners the investment is well worth it.

There is a reason that non-profit organizations spend HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars every year to fundraising agencies and marketing agencies.  The Southern Poverty Law Center, for example, spends millions of dollars a year on advertising and fundraising - for which they recieve much more in return.

If advertisments weren't that important, why is half of my TV show and magazine full of them?

You know, your right (sarcastic)  The commericial for CSX and Northfolk Southern I saw earlier today makes me just want to ship a load of cargo across the nation.  PLUS, I can also ask my doctor about LIPITOR or whatever because AD people know more about my medical problems that I or my doctor ever could.

Why couldn't I have seen this sooner!!!

[Major Carrales]

And for the love of whatever Lord you hold dear, CAP does NOT need to wade into the time wasting cesspool of social networking.

Yeah, God forbid Civil Air Patrol goes and markets to our potential members (particularly cadets) where they are already hanging out.  Facebook, with 100 million active users, and it's advertising system allowing geotargeting, profile keyword targeting, age and gender targeting, etc., is by far an untapped tool.  

Marketing 101 -- advertise where your target audience already is hanging out/reading/spending time/etc.  Social networking is where America's youth (and surprisingly also, the fastest growing segment, 30 to 45-year-olds) is spending time.  We wouldn't want to "wade into the that cesspool" of potential!  

Perhaps that the Marketing class that was across the road from the ECONOMICS CLASS of those responsible for the latest collapses in the Economy.

First of all, the fine yound website "goCAP" is mostly blocked by our school's filering system.

[A.Member]

And for the love of whatever Lord you hold dear, CAP does NOT need to wade into the time wasting cesspool of social networking.

Yeah, God forbid Civil Air Patrol goes and markets to our potential members (particularly cadets) where they are already hanging out.  Facebook, with 100 million active users, and it's advertising system allowing geotargeting, profile keyword targeting, age and gender targeting, etc., is by far an untapped tool.  

Marketing 101 -- advertise where your target audience already is hanging out/reading/spending time/etc.  Social networking is where America's youth (and surprisingly also, the fastest growing segment, 30 to 45-year-olds) is spending time.  We wouldn't want to "wade into the that cesspool" of potential!  

Marketing/advertising is one thing.  Hosting is something altogether different.  That is what FlexCoder was suggesting. 

Much of the discussion thus far was around the idea that we need to refocus the organization.  Social networking and the proposed idea from FlexCoder, if utilized, would only add to the issue.   What's more, is that truly our target market?  You'd need some solid evidence to convince me.

[Pylon]

Marketing 101 -- advertise where your target audience already is hanging out/reading/spending time/etc.  Social networking is where America's youth (and surprisingly also, the fastest growing segment, 30 to 45-year-olds) is spending time.  We wouldn't want to "wade into the that cesspool" of potential!  

Perhaps that the Marketing class that was across the road from the ECONOMICS CLASS of those responsible for the latest collapses in the Economy.

What crack do you smoke?  I gotta remember to stay away from whatever that stuff is...   

[Major Carrales]

Some here would have CAP spend 100,000s to millions on such things (ad space, companies to "clever us up," "cool" websites et al), when such amounts could provide several more aircraft, update COMM equipment and/or countless other "necessary" items to people like me who institute the tactical implementation of CAP's missions.

And which missions are you referring to?  The soon to be virtually non-existent SAR mission?  Or some new, yet-to-be-defined mission?   If you don't know what the mission is, how do you know what you resources are needed? 

You don't act tactically without a strategic plan.  This is basic stuff.

OK, let hear your plan...were waiting?  

We have three missions; need I quote them here?  ES, AE & CP. We know what the missions are.   "Cookie cutter" plans drafted in Alabama or outsourced (to where would you outsource?  China?) aren't going to work in a reality where 52 Wings have very different local needs.

You cannot implement a strategic plan without factoring in the tactical ability.

[Eclipse]

Marketing 101 -- advertise where your target audience already is hanging out/reading/spending time/etc.  Social networking is where America's youth (and surprisingly also, the fastest growing segment, 30 to 45-year-olds) is spending time.  We wouldn't want to "wade into the that cesspool" of potential! 

100 million active users?  Actually, its more like 132 Million, however thats worldwide.

In the US its about 32 Million for Facebook and 72 Million for MySpace.

You want to buy some ad words on Google, knock yourself out, but building a "community"? No thanks.
FB and MS are not "communities" - they are 1-liner update sites for people with too much time on their hands who think everyone needs to know what everyone else is doing.

Its a place for people who believe having drama in their personal lives is a good thing, and anyone cares what kind of "semi-automatic weapon you are..."  Where the number of people in your "friends" list somehow increases your worth as a person.  (so sad).

"'Sup DAWG? Online 2nite?  A Shout our at cha girlyfriend to all my HOMIES in the hood"!

[Pylon]

You cannot implement a strategic plan without factoring in the tactical ability.

The Wings are responsible for taking the strategic vision of where Civil Air Patrol is going as an organization, and create a localized strategic and semi-tactical plan for how that implements in their neck of the woods.  Yes, that will vary greatly.  For example, some Wings serve as their states primary SAR agency, some states never call CAP.  Squadrons take it further and, being fully "tactical" implement their own plans at the rubber-meets-road level, on how they will accomplish CAP's three missions and ultimate vision given the resources and challenges they have to work with, in their particular situation.

Doesn't mean that National strategic planning in all fields in unimportant.  It still guides the tactical planning that will occur at lower echelons.  And it must be in place, otherwise the tactical plans will be fractured, pulling in 100 different directions, for 200 different reasons, and creating divisions, additional hurdles, and dis-unity to name a few issues.  

Executive management is not the same as local leadership - it has its own set of unique problems to deal with.

[A.Member]

You cannot implement a strategic plan without factoring in the tactical ability.

With all due respect, the discussion is going no where constructive.  It's clear you do not understand the concept.  Aside from offering the suggestion to enroll in an independent (outside of CAP) course on planning and management, I don't know what other constructive advice I could offer.  

[Major Carrales]

Marketing 101 -- advertise where your target audience already is hanging out/reading/spending time/etc.  Social networking is where America's youth (and surprisingly also, the fastest growing segment, 30 to 45-year-olds) is spending time.  We wouldn't want to "wade into the that cesspool" of potential!  

Perhaps that the Marketing class that was across the road from the ECONOMICS CLASS of those responsible for the latest collapses in the Economy.

What crack do you smoke?  I gotta remember to stay away from whatever that stuff is...   

I would suggest (strongly) that you delete that last statement, I had assumed you could a professional about things here.  I find your statement insulting and childish.  

My point was that so called "experts" are often not so.  Ya'll seem to think that making some "grand plan" or spending umpteen thousand dollars on some plan devised by "experts" will be the salvation of CAP.

The solution is found in the volunteers.  Those of quality like you and myself.  Fancy websites, arcane plans and cheese catch phrases are not going to get the missions flown.  Once you step aside from the blinding  lantern of your professional and come to realize that if certain Northeastern CAP Officers and Cadets that shovel snow aren't valued over things like "More than meets the Sky" then the priorities are askew!!!

[Major Carrales]

You cannot implement a strategic plan without factoring in the tactical ability.

With all due respect, the discussion is going no where constructive.  It's clear you do not understand the concept.  Aside from offering the suggestion to enroll in an independent (outside of CAP) course on planning and management, I don't know what other constructive advice I could offer.  

Insufficient!  I suggest that someone who is so vocal about the PLAN (and its Messianic Prowess to SAVE CAP) have more to offer than "pass the buck to some AD AGENCY."

[A.Member]

You cannot implement a strategic plan without factoring in the tactical ability.

With all due respect, the discussion is going no where constructive.  It's clear you do not understand the concept.  Aside from offering the suggestion to enroll in an independent (outside of CAP) course on planning and management, I don't know what other constructive advice I could offer.  

Insufficient!  I suggest that someone who is so vocal about the PLAN (and its Messianic Prowess to SAVE CAP) have more to offer than "pass the buck to some AD AGENCY."

Call it whatever you want.  Again, the conversation has lost any constructive value at this point.  You can lead a horse to water...  I wish you well.

p.s. I was sincere in the suggestion that you take some classes on planning and management.  It would serve you well if you were able to grasp some of the core concepts.

[Major Carrales]

You cannot implement a strategic plan without factoring in the tactical ability.

With all due respect, the discussion is going no where constructive.  It's clear you do not understand the concept.  Aside from offering the suggestion to enroll in an independent (outside of CAP) course on planning and management, I don't know what other constructive advice I could offer.  

Insufficient!  I suggest that someone who is so vocal about the PLAN (and its Messianic Prowess to SAVE CAP) have more to offer than "pass the buck to some AD AGENCY."

Again, the conversation has lost any constructive value at this point.  You can lead a horse to water...  I wish you well.

You are correct, once I asked you for "substance" you simply "took your game ball home and didn't want to play anymore."

You, from my perspective have been insulting and patronizing to me.  This is somewhat distastful when it is clear you lack the fact about my personal educations and motives. 

We are at an end with this, nothing further will be written en re the matter.  I look forward to reaching some consensus on some matter with you sometime.

P.S. As for classes, commanding a resource starved CAP unit for two years (with continued growth every year) is enough education in these matters.

[Pylon]

FB and MS are not "communities" - they are 1-liner update sites for people with too much time on their hands who think everyone needs to know what everyone else is doing.

Its a place for people who believe having drama in their personal lives is a good thing, and anyone cares what kind of "semi-automatic weapon you are..."  Where the number of people in your "friends" list somehow increases your worth as a person.  (so sad).

As sad as you think Facebook and Myspace are, our current cadets spend time on there and our future cadets do. Just because we think "kids waste too much time there!" or "them glitter GIFs are silly!" doesn't mitigate the fact that a ton of potential cadets (good ones, even) are spending time on these sites.   And we can reach more of them by engaging them there.  Doesn't mean we need to spend inordinate amounts of time or resources to do it.

I put together a Facebook page for my squadron.  I use targeted ads that only get shown to kids 13 to 18 in my geographic region, and only those with certain keywords/interests listed in their profiles.  By constantly showing my ads to the teenagers most likely to join a program like CAP, I can surmise that my marketing will be more effective (than advertising to a non-targeted audience).  A couple of those targeted teenagers, from my geographical area, view our page each day.  That's more than I can say for most unit websites. Took me one evening to set-up our page, upload photos and videos, set-up the facebook ads and it runs itself.  I just login to check stats from time to time, and make sure any potential leads are followed-up with.  Somehow, miraculously, I'm not sucked in to making glittering animated GIFs and LOLZCATS and whatever else you're afraid of associating yourself with.