letter of non endorsement for New FL Wing Commander

[SARJunkie]

So I am in the process of filing a letter of non endorsement for one of the new Florida Wing Commander candidates.   Has anyone else done the same? This 'Candidate' has done great harm to the Wing.  No telling hat will happen if he gets the Wing Commander slot!

So far he has managed to run off many 'professional' ES responders in the wing, and countless others.  He will demaen you , talk down to you, and make false accusations against you to ruin your reputation.  As long as he comes out looking good, he will squash anyone he has to!

Are we going to allow this corrupt individual ruin our Wing?

[Persona non grata]

Who is it? or do we have to speculate?     

[davidsinn]

Who is it? or do we have to speculate?      

Posting a name is a very good way to get the thread nuked.

[Persona non grata]

He could have stated that he needed a sample letter of non-endorsement instead of going on about how horrible the person is.      Just saying.......

[a2capt]

If you have issues, and you have fact, and it's documentable ... write it up and submit it.

But be warned, cronyism and GoB networks go hand in hand. Unless it's particularly damming, or you're the only one voicing anything it's probably going to go nowhere.  But since you said in another thread you "told them to go pound sand", I have to imagine that this letter would not be without bias.

It would be good to get several others to sign on.

[Major Carrales]

This is one of those things that erks we about CAPTALK...using it as a place to fall people. 

[NCRblues]

So I am in the process of filing a letter of non endorsement for one of the new Florida Wing Commander candidates.   Has anyone else done the same? This 'Candidate' has done great harm to the Wing.  No telling hat will happen if he gets the Wing Commander slot!

So far he has managed to run off many 'professional' ES responders in the wing, and countless others.  He will demaen you , talk down to you, and make false accusations against you to ruin your reputation.  As long as he comes out looking good, he will squash anyone he has to!

Are we going to allow this corrupt individual ruin our Wing?

I have seen several of these type of letters sent out.

At the best they are ignored, because if someone truly did have [darn]ing evidence then they would go to the IG.

At the worst, i have seen these letters used as fodder to end the senders time with CAP....sometimes even force them out...

[Major Carrales]

So I am in the process of filing a letter of non endorsement for one of the new Florida Wing Commander candidates.   Has anyone else done the same? This 'Candidate' has done great harm to the Wing.  No telling hat will happen if he gets the Wing Commander slot!

So far he has managed to run off many 'professional' ES responders in the wing, and countless others.  He will demean you , talk down to you, and make false accusations against you to ruin your reputation.  As long as he comes out looking good, he will squash anyone he has to!

Are we going to allow this corrupt individual ruin our Wing?

I have seen several of these type of letters sent out.

At the best they are ignored, because if someone truly did have [darn]ing evidence then they would go to the IG.

At the worst, i have seen these letters used as fodder to end the senders time with CAP....sometimes even force them out...

In all honesty sending such a letter or distributing them without substantial evidence is, in my opinion, an action unbecoming a CAP Officer.  If there is true evidence then it is a matter for the system.  We don't operate via the "court of public opinion" in the Civil Air Patrol.  This is why I reject the idea that we should elect our leadership.  Imagine the hoopla and chicanery in that system.  At least in our current system such postings and rumors are just that and false statements have no direct effect on our governance...if we elected our leadership this would become a farce. 

[N Harmon]

Not to divert the topic, but what is the purpose of comment periods for command candidates if members can not speak frankly? Why send out the e-mails soliciting opinions? Are they for positive opinions only; pure votes of confidence?

I can think of plenty of reasons why a particular person would be a poor fit to be a commander yet is not grounds for an IG inquiry...

"Dear Capt Snickersnorker, I am writing you in regards to the recent candidate list for Flight Commander. I have found Lieutenant Smith a difficult person to work with and his leadership style to be non-conducive to teamwork. For example, while participating with Lieutenant Smith on a committee to develop a flight roster, Lieutenant Smith would not listen to any other committee members' ideas and instead took it upon himself to dictate how the project would turn out. This caused a number of members to disassociate with the project, and resulted in the final product taking twice as long to develop. I have concerns that similar things will happen on a broader level if Lieutenant Smith exhibits the same behavior as Flight Commander. In considering all of the candidates for this position, please pay close attention to the leadership styles and personalities that each exhibit. Thank you for considering my comment.  -- C/SSgt Stuffy"

Obviously there are good ways of getting your point across, and bad ways as well. And if you can't put your reasoning into a professional form, then perhaps you are better off staying silent.

[Larry Mangum]

"Dear Capt Snickersnorker, I am writing you in regards to the recent candidate list for Flight Commander. I have found Lieutenant Smith a difficult person to work with and his leadership style to be non-conducive to teamwork. For example, while participating with Lieutenant Smith on a committee to develop a flight roster, Lieutenant Smith would not listen to any other committee members' ideas and instead took it upon himself to dictate how the project would turn out. This caused a number of members to disassociate with the project, and resulted in the final product taking twice as long to develop. I have concerns that similar things will happen on a broader level if Lieutenant Smith exhibits the same behavior as Flight Commander. In considering all of the candidates for this position, please pay close attention to the leadership styles and personalities that each exhibit. Thank you for considering my comment.  -- C/SSgt Stuffy"

Your example is a good example of how one should probably be written, versus how the original poster commented.

[Major Lord]

I am glad that you have enough confidence in the system to believe that a strongly worded letter will have an effect on what is probably a foregone conclusion! If your misgivings are warranted, at least you will have powerful  "told-you-so" rights.....Besides your home-grown Florida boy, Lord Voldemort, (HWSRN) there have been quite a number of serious errors in selecting leadership at the Corporate level. If you are convinced that you are right, write a strongly worded but polite non-concurrence letter using simple declarative sentences. Avoid ad hominem attacks, emotional invectives, and crepuscular obfuscation; These will leave your letter on the floor of a bird cage. I believe that one of the failings of CAP in command appointments is not just that CAP may or may not have conducted a proper due-diligence investigation, but that the candidates personal attributes were not made known to the membership at large before the appointment. ( Think how wonderful it would be to find that you have a communist or an Amway salesman in your chain of command)

Major Lord

[BillB]

Florida Wing members have no knowledge of the candidates "personal attributes". The reason, the names have not been released. So members may know negative or positive attributes of someone, but not know they are a cadidate for Wing Commander. A lack of transparency.

[Major Lord]

Well, apparently SARjunkie knows the identity of an applicant, so perhaps its not all that airtight.....I agree that there is a tremendous lack of transparency.

Major Lord

[NCRblues]

Florida Wing members have no knowledge of the candidates "personal attributes". The reason, the names have not been released. So members may know negative or positive attributes of someone, but not know they are a cadidate for Wing Commander. A lack of transparency.

The CAP process for selection of wing commanders should be the dictionary's definition of "lack of transparency".

No one is told who the candidates are. They (sometimes) have a selection board, but it's recommendations hold no weight and if fact i have seen the boards recommendations be ignored on multiple occasions.

Announcements are made on wing websites (again sometimes) that are not updated on a regular basis (at least in my little section of the world) and many people in the wing don't even know there is a new wing king/queen until the change of command.

Change needs to come...sooner rather than later I'm afraid...

[Major Lord]

Sparky "OK" Carrales is right in my opinion that just electing Wing Commanders would be a bad idea. ( Although at one point in American history Officers were selected precisely so) I think that what would be more useful is a "Recall" option, allowing members to put a stop to what may be a slow-motion train wreck. Of course, I believe that democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner......Personally, I like Constitutional Republicanism.....it keeps the mob from running away with your system. A bit more of that in CAP might be just the thing.

Major Lord

[SARJunkie]

Well when the Wing 'Top 3' staffers blatantly put  down one of their own staff members  in a public forum it is a big  problem!

Its an even bigger issue when the Region IG snuffs it off, and tells you that they were probably blowing off steam, and not to worry about it!

This isn't the first time the Wing Command staff have told members point blank 'If you were to leave the organization today, it would benefit the Wing'  because they didn't see eye to eye with them.

  Over the past few years the membership has lost many professional responders, that have been told they are idiots.  So whats left now?  a bunch of incompetent 'good old boys' and friends of the commander who are running the Wing into the ground!  the IG system is supposed to protect its members, now they just look out for their buddy's in command positions.

It is extremely disheartening when the Wing used to have an amazing ES Team made up of FEMA IC's, Fire Service Battalion Chiefs, Professional Emergency Managers.  Only to have them run off so the Wing Commander can put his buddy's in charge.   

[Major Carrales]

Ex CAP guy? Curious?!?

[SARJunkie]

you read it right! 

[lordmonar]

So why do you care?

[SARJunkie]

Thats a [darn] good question...