Standardizing Cadet Leadership Schools

[PhoenixRisen]

I'm not sure if the idea's been brought up here (I'm sure it has in CAP), but has anyone ever come up with an idea to standardize the wealth of locally-run (wing and below) into one nation-wide model?

This idea popped into my head after reading in the "Show Yourself" thread that TXWG has an OTS.  Given that I don't know what's out there in the rest of the wings, I vote for using California Wing's Integrated Leadership Program (ILP) as a model.  For those not familiar, the CAWG ILP is a combination of training schools designed to train Cadets as the various stages of their Cadet career.  The schools are:

Basic Cadet School (BCS)
Airman Training School (ATS)
Non-Commissioned Officer School (NCOS)
Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Academy (SNCOA)
Cadet Officer Basic Course (COBC)
Advanced Cadet Staff Seminar (ACSS)

If this was proposal was submitted properly, I think it would be a great thing to get going nationwide.

What do you think?

[FW]

CAWG is the 2nd largest in CAP with just over 3000 members.  It has a great wing staff and good support from around the state.  It is relatively easy, logistically, to hold a series of leadership schools there.  

That being said.  All encampments and CLS's are supposed to have the same basic curriculum.  The State Director is supposed to insure the basic encampments meet the standards.  CLS's should have approval from the region DCS/CP for cadets to receive credit.  All other "local" schools, I think,  do not meet promotion requirements and, the curriculum are not standardized and, have not been vetted by NHQ.

CAWG's ILP sound good to me.  However, for this to become the "standard",  CAP/CP would have to study it, see how it fits in with the current goals of the program and then test it out in other wings of varying sizes.  
The first step would be for the wing/cc to make the proposal to the NB.  He has until
the the end of this month to make it for the summer NB meeting in Orlando.  

[kpetersen]

California Wing does have an excellent program set up.  For the COBC, they have the staff available, given the size of the wing, and the cadets willing to attend a week long school.  NEWG has a single weekend set up, and we still have a hard time getting over 10 cadets to show up.  For CAWG's weekend schools, they also have the staff to host it in multiple areas of the state, to allow for more cadets to show with less driving.

Rather than having National with its mere 3 person CP staff work on developing the curriculum, wings that have the membership and the staff available to teach the schools can adjust programs as necessary to adapt to the way their wing is organized.  At most, my wing would be able to host 3 schools, and those only a weekend long. 

The wing level schools don't do anything for promotion or development as required by the program.  They're not national, so they would just be an extra piece of paper in the file.  It's basically for more work that either won't be supported because its not mandatory, or it will overtax the already swamped resources of some wings.

[DC]

If having the resources to run them in smaller wings is an issue then why can't several wings band together to run a program. This is already done for encampment in some areas. Heck, for simplified logistics you could even run these courses concurrent with encampment. I have seen this done with RCLS before and it seemed to work well.

[FW]

The CP shop at NHQ would only review the existing program; not develop a new one.

Having  regional or combined schools are a great idea.  Also, there is no reason CAWG could just send out the curriculum to any wing/region that requests it.  After all, "imitation is the best form of flattery".

[mikeylikey]

^ PAWG had a good CLS about 11 years ago.  Since then it has turned to crap.  Encampment in PA Wing has also gone downhill. 

[lordmonar]

Now I am all for good training and all.....but why do we need a national standard for a set of courses that are nationally required?

There are a lot of good courses out there....but unless there were some need for national standardization....I think it would waste a lot of CP guys time.

[lordmonar]

^ PAWG had a good CLS about 11 years ago.  Since then it has turned to crap.  Encampment in PA Wing has also gone downhill. 

You are getting as bad as CCSE sir. 

[PHall]

^ PAWG had a good CLS about 11 years ago.  Since then it has turned to crap.  Encampment in PA Wing has also gone downhill. 

So what are YOU doing to help fix it?  And whining about it on an internet chat room isn't fixing it.

[FW]

Now I am all for good training and all.....but why do we need a national standard for a set of courses that are nationally required?

There are a lot of good courses out there....but unless there were some need for national standardization....I think it would waste a lot of CP guys time.

Right now there is no recognized need for any additional cadet leadership training programs.  The standards for encampment and, I think, COS are "standardized" because they are required for advancement in the cadet program.

My point is if CAWG thinks they're on to something that needs to be expanded, they can go through "official" channels or just export it "unofficially"; kind of like how the ranger program spread.  

[mikeylikey]

^ PAWG had a good CLS about 11 years ago.  Since then it has turned to crap.  Encampment in PA Wing has also gone downhill. 

You are getting as bad as CCSE sir. 

Since he left us today....someone has to take his place   

So what are YOU doing to help fix it?  And whining about it on an internet chat room isn't fixing it.

I didn't think I was whining, just bad mouthing it.  I tried to help a few years back, but seemed to have trouble getting to the schools when I was either invading another country, occupying said country, building infrastructure in Afghanistan or sitting at Fort Knox for three months babysitting ROTC Cadets.   

I would love to help them out, but career takes precedence