Where is the annual financial report?

[FlyerJosh]

But the spikes are the point of a fixed renewal. 
In the past I've said that pipelining doesn't work, but the more I think about it, one or two national join dates would allow for a concentrated effort of recruiting, including media buys, etc., and allow units to better plan for recruiting pushes and training cycles.

That doesn't mean we don't accept new members or run a booth at the air show, but the members can't actually join until the in-process dates.

If you limit joining to only two inprocess dates, then you significantly limit the ability of CAP to recruit (and more importantly) utilize talent.

Imagine if you had an experienced pilot, former military, and significant general aviation and SAR experience want to join, but had just missed the supposed cut off date. What are you going to do?

"Gee, sorry sir, but you are going to have to wait until 5 months from now to pay dues and get started with the organization." Not a very valid situation.

There's nothing that prevents CAP from having specific targeted recruiting periods and concentrated media buys in addition to year round recruiting and retention efforts. Nor does year round recruiting mean that units can specifically target a particular timeframe (such as the start of summer or the school year) to do targeted recruiting.

[Eclipse]

Imagine if you had an experienced pilot, former military, and significant general aviation and SAR experience want to join, but had just missed the supposed cut off date. What are you going to do?

You have him submit his application, and he waits.  Then when the time comes the unit is ready to accept him and train him properly, along with a group of his peers, instead of coming into the unit and bumping into walls for the same amount of time trying to figure out how things work.

This also aids in the planning process in that the unit knows they have "x" members scheduled for in-process on "y" date, and can prepare the necessary resources, including trainers, to be ready for the newbs when they arrive.

This is how most FD/LE and the military do it.

Would we miss out on some members?  Probably.  But we lose plenty of people today because of start-up issues, anyway, and this would make the experience a lot better for everyone involved.

[RADIOMAN015]

What are they trying to hide? 

Nothing, of course.

I suppose reasonable minds can differ over whether or not to inlcude memberships stats in a finance report,

Anonymously sharp-shooting audited financial data on the internet is problematic for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the well-poisoning effect on potential donors and customers.

If you have genuine questions or concerns feel free to post them.  Better yet, ask your local or wing commander who might actually be able to answer the question and put your mind at ease.

But dramatic rhetorical questions publicly launched on the net will not achieve any reasonable goal of increased financial transparency.  They just cloud the waters and scare away donors.  And that hurts our membership.

Ned Lee

Ned is correct about the sniping and that NHQ has nothing to hide. It does nothing but hurt us.

If you have any comments (good or bad) or suggestions to make the Financial Report better please post them here or send them to me at al.pabon@mncap.org

I will consolidate them and take your suggestions to the decision makers (volunteer and NHQ) and make sure they get a fair hearing.

Thanks and have a great day.

Here it goes:
*I didn't see any Asian Americans in any of the pictures.
*Perhaps 1 cadet minority member (black) in uniform  in 1 picture.  Lots of white people in CAP uniforms.
*Didn't see much of CAP distinctive uniform wear -- Didn't see any Blue BDU's or Blue Flight suits in any of the pictures.  Perhaps 1 white shirt/grey pants combination.
*At least one picture appeared to have a member wearing an AF style uniform and was not/or very close to non  compliance with AF grooming standards. 
*I thought the community services pictures & narratives failed to display what typical CAP units do to support their communities.   IF you want community support you've got to show what is done FOR the LOCAL COMMUNITY.   

I think you need to work up a "Report to America" that statisically closes on the same day of the financial report and post it to the website.  Provide very significant statistical information (covering every aspect of all our programs), down to the wing level.  I would also require from every wing for the same period to show what their major accomplishments were.    This way ANYONE can compare the costs of CAP with at least what quantity of program services were provided & what were the major accomplishments. 

When the report is done I would let all the PAO's know and we could email ALL our media sources and perhaps put a local spin to those statistics.   I think it also serves as a great historical document that can be kept for many years IF the same format is utilized every year.

Until we do that CAP will remain America's "Best Kept Secret", but pehaps there are some in the organization that would just as well keep it that way :angel:
RM 
       

[PHall]

Radioman, why are you still in CAP? You're obviously not happy because all you seem to do, at least here on CAPTalk, is complain about everything CAP.

[RADIOMAN015]

Radioman, why are you still in CAP? You're obviously not happy because all you seem to do, at least here on CAPTalk, is complain about everything CAP.

Actually I'm a very productive member in CAP, contributing to a few areas both at the squadron and also help at the wing level.

Sometimes, I like to take a contra approach just to see what others will say.   As you see some folks seem to get very upset.

BTW for the record, I am happly CAP got an unqualified audit.  I sincerely hope it will get the organization more funding sources that will help ALL subordinate units. :angel:
RM 

[PHall]

Sometimes, I like to take a contra approach just to see what others will say.   As you see some folks seem to get very upset.
RM

Yeah, there's a word for that.  TROLL

They're usually not welcome on most boards.

[Short Field]

This is how most FD/LE and the military do it.

LOL  I walked into the recruiting station after 1500 on a Wednesday many years ago.  I took the written tests and that night I was on the bus to the induction center for my medical (four hours away).  The following Wednesday, I reported into Basic Training.

Most LE and all the military pay their membership.  A large number of FDs pay their members as well (in our area - very very well).  The processing time for new members varies so they end up waiting anyway.  Why tell them they can't attend meetings until the magic date rolls around that we accept members?  We don't have a problem grouping new people for training.  We do have a problem getting all the new members to complete Level I in the same length of time.  Some members knock it out ASAP, others drag it out for a few months.  But they pay US for attending meetings, we don't pay them.

[FW]

I just discovered we have posted "annual wing newsletters to congress" on the CAP Website.

52 identical newsletters save for the first page which includes a brief summary of the wing's activities, saves, appropriations, etc. 

Very interesting....

[RADIOMAN015]

I just discovered we have posted "annual wing newsletters to congress" on the CAP Website.

52 identical newsletters save for the first page which includes a brief summary of the wing's activities, saves, appropriations, etc. 

Very interesting....

Ahh, found it at:
http://www.capmembers.com/media/cms/All_Stares_Leg_Day_Brochures_72_42AD867B0D0EA.pdf   :clap:
RM

[RADIOMAN015]

I just discovered we have posted "annual wing newsletters to congress" on the CAP Website.

52 identical newsletters save for the first page which includes a brief summary of the wing's activities, saves, appropriations, etc. 

Very interesting....

Ahh, found it at:
http://www.capmembers.com/media/cms/All_Stares_Leg_Day_Brochures_72_42AD867B0D0EA.pdf   :clap:
RM

What I find interesting is each wing has a item in their report "Value of Wing's Volunteer Hours", generally showing millions of dollars.  Of course I'm wondering HOW that was calculated.  Anyone know how each wing came up with that figure?
RM   

[Eclipse]

What I find interesting is each wing has a item in their report "Value of Wing's Volunteer Hours", generally showing millions of dollars.  Of course I'm wondering HOW that was calculated.  Anyone know how each wing came up with that figure? 

My guess would be multiplication.

[RiverAux]

But multiplying what?  CAP has no progam that collects information on the amount of time members contribute to the organization. 

[FlyTiger77]

What I find interesting is each wing has a item in their report "Value of Wing's Volunteer Hours", generally showing millions of dollars.  Of course I'm wondering HOW that was calculated.  Anyone know how each wing came up with that figure?
RM   

Having numerous more important things to do, but always loving a chance to make another spreadsheet, I did some back of the envelope calculations based on the data from the 52 newsletters.

The aggregate of the Value of Volunteer Hours is: $122,930,064.00 (although there is an error in the newsletter data as TN and SD have identical values)
Assuming federal minimum wage ($7.25/hr) leads to an average of 300.2 hours/member. (This strikes me as high merely because the 'ghost' squadrons are not factored out, so the active members would have to contribute much more.)

It is also interesting to note that states fund CAP at an average rate of $64.67/member (even with 14 wings not receiving ' state' funding) with AK providing the most generous funding of $538/member.

AK also has the greatest aircraft density (acft/member).

If anyone wants the spreadsheet, shoot me an e-mail. It provides some interesting insights and statistics.

[FlyTiger77]

My guess would be multiplication.

My guess would be the "Left Hand Extraction" method, which is slightly less precise than a WAG, which, of course, is not quite as accurate as a SWAG. But, I could be wrong.

[Eclipse]

But multiplying what?  CAP has no progam that collects information on the amount of time members contribute to the organization.

Whole numbers.

Government agencies estimate this kind of stuff all the time.  Heck, all you have to do is take your state's minimum wage times a couple hours a week times your members and you get a good number walking in.

Logic dictates that the vast majority of our services rendered are worth 10x's that (see Flytiger's #'s above).

[RiverAux]

You're missing the point....CAP has absolutely no idea how many hours its members contribute, so there is no firm basis upon which to make an estimate of their value.  The average CAP member could be contributing 50 hours a year or 500.  Theres no way to know. 

[Eclipse]

We have WMIRS, we have calendars, we know where the meetings are and all the activities.

You, apparently have no idea on our members' activities, or no one has involved you in the math, that doesn't mean others don't.

[RiverAux]

WMIRS counts flight hours.  Does not account for how many people were actually in the plane (though with a lot of work you could probably figure it out, but it doesn't show up in a report anywhere).  Does not account for hours of ground team members or mission staff.
No one reports meeting attendence to anyone.

If this information is so available, please tell me exactly how many total member hours your squadron devoted to CAP activities in 2009. 

The CG Aux has a system which attempts to comprehensively tracks member time, but even it is vulnerable to the fact that many don't bother reporting a lot of time.  But, they can at least come up with an accurate account of the minimum amount of time that their members have spent in any given, week, month, or year.

The best CAP can do is tell you that at a minimum members spent X number of hours in planes (total flight hours x 1 - since there had to be at least a pilot). 

[Eclipse]

If this information is so available, please tell me exactly how many total member hours your squadron devoted to CAP activities in 2009.

Actually, if I felt like it, I could - my units all complete an activity report after all meetings and activities - I'd just have to run the numbers.

Sadly, my IQ has dropped so low from today's conversations here that I can no longer remember my password...

[FW]

Flight man hours are easily figured out by the CAPF 99's submitted every month. It includes pilot/crew.

Other volunteer man hours are determined by sign in sheets and length of meetings, missions, conferences, etc.   

If I remember correctly, the "multiplier" is the current Federal GS4 hourly wage rate.