Why is CAP the "best kept secret"? - Conferences

[KyCAP]

OK... So prior to being the Comm Dude.. I served a dual hat as the wing PAO.  I must admit that it's interesting to be in a couple of positions of CAP to "see it from the other guys seat".

Because of that experience one of the things that I came to realize.   Many of our "peer" public safety ES organizations in our wing like Fire, Emergency Management, Rescue, etc etc have several annual "state wide" conferences. 

For some reason or another (like being paid to go to conferences) these conferences are during the working week.   Our Wing leadership and general members like the rest of you have jobs OTHER than CAP.

I would submit for discussion that CAP is hindered greatly in the Public Relations side because of this "extra" requirement for us to be able to attend conferences during working hours that might be unrelated to our day jobs and make it difficult to get to those, etc.

So, HOW does your wing do it?   Our peers don't see us at these events and the "networking" that leads to "understanding" is basically a missed opportunity.

[RiverAux]

I think every Wing could probably come up with speakers or attendees at these sorts of conferences (after all we've got plenty of retirees) if they knew about them and made it a priority.

I think the bigger, but very closely related issue, is doing the day to day networking with the applicable officials (sheriff, county government leaders, etc) who also primarily work during the week. 

For CAP squadrons in more rural states this can be a major problem.  Consider that they may have a 5-15 county "service area" with maybe 3-4 people in each county who they should be meeting with at least once a year.  On a squadron level it should be your ES officer or commander doing these meetings and that just isn't realistic to do, even with a retiree with lots of time on their hands. 

Obviously, being in attendence at the big conferences will at least make these folks aware of CAP, but you need that one-on-one time to really make the sale. 

One possible way to address this would be to send out some sort of annual report to the local officials (along with one of the CAPabilities handbooks and the CAP national annual report (if they print it again)) that shows them what you've been up to. 

[mikeylikey]

In PAWG we have a paid Executive Director on HQ staff.  We also have paid ES and School Enrichment Officers.  They do the networking for the Wing Membership, or at least are supposed to.  

Some members take vacation time to go to conferences hosted by other agencies for PAWG.  They then come back and relay that info at staff meetings and weekend activities, for those that do have a 9-5 job.

I attended a few FEMA sponsored activities and brought back some valuable info.  PAWG and FEMA have a good working relationship, and the wing usually lets FEMA use CAP facilities in the Wing to host their own training.  Nothing better than having your SQD building double as a FEMA classroom for 6 weeks out of the year, better able to "sit-in" on some valuable classes.  

[bosshawk]

Just to keep the discussion going: here are a couple of things that CAWG has going.  One, the state has a SAR Coordinators meeting every two months in Sacramento: attended by a CAP officer who provides input at each meeting.  Two, our CD program sent an officer to the National DEA marijuana program conference last January and he gave an hour presentation to reps from every DEA office in the country about the CAP capabilities to support DEA and local law enforcement agencies.

We also support DEA and LE efforts at training law enforcement officers to spot "illegal agricultural activities" from fixed wing aircraft.

[RiverAux]

A SAR meeting every two MONTHS?  That seems a little excessive...

[Eclipse]

Both of the SAR councils I sit on (county-level) meet once a month.