Is CAP Failing Miserably?

[M.S.]

perhaps its only my perspective on things but to me it seems that everyday CAP gets more and more incompetent at performing its missions, further behind the curve, and more entrenched in petty internal politics, arguing over petty uniform issues, and less able to performs its ''missions for america!''

i see a "civil air patrol" where senior members are becoming increasingly aged with absolutely no young persons joining the senior member corps. the cadets we do train rarely want to come back to CAP and be a senior member and the few that do come back get overburdened with heavy loads of work and numerous duty assignments and subsequently we burn them out.  we have less and less ambitious people in the organization, more people willing to ignore the regs when it befits them, and more and more now i see fellow senior members who don't even know how to operate computers.

having been in CAP about a decade, i'm almost ready to give up on the organization.  i find that many of my fellow "officers" rarely wish to contribute their time in any significant way.  a large portion of them simply are in CAP for the perceived "flying benefits" and others im not even sure why they are in CAP.

recruiting numbers are down all across the board.  way down.  and those already in the organization who take on a number of duties (because there's a lack of people to perform them) are becoming burnt out. i see it all the time.  even our former national vice commander is seeing the effects of the overburdening of workload on the few and became burnt out.

i often wonder how much longer this organization will continue to uphold its outer facade of "look at us! we can do all these important things for the country and all of our 60,000 members (that we don't have anymore) are very prepared to serve!"  its smoke and mirrors from what i see around me and it makes me wonder if its the same across the rest of the country too.

[Eclipse]

Recruiting and attitude begin at home. Forget about the follies at NHQ, Region, Wing, & Group and just concentrate on making your home unit all it can be.

If numbers are down in your unit, its because not enough, or not the right recruiting is being done.

Recruit from AOPA &  Silver Wings, and what you get are well intentioned pilots and seniors who may not be interested in doing CAP "all the way" - especially if the the main recruiting point was "come and fly for free".

Recruit from recently former and current military, ES workers, and successful professionals, and you will see a drastic change in your unit quickly.  Set their expectations properly and let them kknow the will be the catalyst for change and
you will be amazed what can happen.

[AlphaSigOU]

I don't think so.

Like any organization, CAP is suffering from the syndrome of "(insert number of years) of tradition unhampered by progress". Too many are entrenched in the mindset of "that's the way we've done things, and that's it!" Unfortunately I've also seen this mindset in the Masons, of which I am also a member.

I recently rejoined CAP after a 17-year break in membership. I started as a cadet in 1977 and converted to senior member when I got burned out and let my membership lapse in 1988. When I left CAP that time, nothing was done online and all wore Air Force blue; coming back I see newer technologies that were but just a gleam in someone's eye back WIWAC. The Air Force is stricter now on CAP members wearing the uniform. Many mundane paperwork chores can now be done online.

Perhaps it's now time to start looking at change. Change is inevitable, and the older members will find resistance to it. But if we don't change, we'll begin to stagnate and die out. Today's demographics and work ethics keep many people from becoming involved in activities other than work or home.

[thefischNX01]

I'm at a college that has no ROTC program, and theres a growing underground movement to get one.  I've offered CAP to a few people here and theres a growing interest. 

Since I'm 19, I cater to the younger generation, and there are many that want to go into the service, but aren't sure how well they'd do.  In my old Squadron up in NJ, there was a strong adherance to Military protocol and discipline (althought I don't find that at my current squadron in MD).  I would try to bring those in who were thinking about the Military and advertise us as a way to "test thier feet" in the military lifestyle.  Here at college, I'm recruiting from the group of people that want an ROTC on campus, as well as the new group of people interested in ES. 

Over the summer, I worked a recruiting stand at a local airshow, and got an unusual mixture of people who were saying "Yeah! Thanks for serving!" and "What are you doing here?".  (I was in BDU's and was constantly being mistook for the Army, again, because people don't know who we are).  The people that came up to us and asked us what we were about sounded impressed, and many a time I heard people saying they wished they had known about this years ago, because they were interested.  How honest were they? I don't know, but the mere remark "I wish I knew about this years ago" shows how well we're known.  Nobody knows who we are. 

The biggest problem is that CAP doesn't have a recruiting campaign as large as the Military branches and even the Coast Guard Auxiliary (yes, they have a recruiting campaign, see a lot of advertising in the local town).  What we need is a comercial that would attract people who want to help their fellow man in crisis.  I made one in my video class last year, but it's since vanished into oblivion.  Even just a few billboards along a major highway in a few major cities might do the trick.  Catering to those who are already pilots is a good thing, but we should also cater to people like me: The 9/11 generation who feel the need and desire to serve but can't for various reasons.  (Okay, so maybe not ALL of us, but a good portion at least).

anyway...just my $0.02 

[PhoenixRisen]

One of the things that get's me is that we put more emphasis on the our name just being the Civil Air Patrol. Pretty much everyone has no clue what that is. Lots of people know what the Coast Guard Auxiliary is, because they are the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and call themselves that. We on the other hand, are the Air Force Auxiliary, but(and yes, I know it's our name) we go more with the name Civil Air Patrol. When most people hear "Civil Air Patrol" instead of "Air Force Auxiliary", they think, oh, it's just a little group of people trying to help out by flying their planes and such. Just my .02 cents.

[AlphaSigOU]

One of the things that get's me is that we put more emphasis on the our name just being the Civil Air Patrol. Pretty much everyone has no clue what that is. Lots of people know what the Coast Guard Auxiliary is, because they are the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and call themselves that. We on the other hand, are the Air Force Auxiliary, but(and yes, I know it's our name) we go more with the name Civil Air Patrol. When most people hear "Civil Air Patrol" instead of "Air Force Auxiliary", they think, oh, it's just a little group of people trying to help out by flying their planes and such. Just my .02 cents.

I remember back in my days WIWAC the CAP seal had "CIVIL AIR PATROL - AUXILIARY UNITED STATES AIR FORCE"; in 1983 the seal changed to the current "UNITED STATES AIR FORCE AUXILIARY - CIVIL AIR PATROL". Supposedly it was in an effort to make us stand out as the Air Force's auxiliary, but I don't remember exactly the reason for the change.

"CAP? Civil Air Patrol? Whuzzat?" - And then we proceed to explain to the goggle-eyed masses what we do... 

[thefischNX01]

Always fun...

[fyrfitrmedic]

 The "America's Best Kept Secret" thing stopped being cute long before I joined.

CAP markets itself very poorly. The stock-car sponsorship was just one example of this.

The 'it's up to the folks at the local level' argument is flimsy at best.

Perhaps we should look at the CGAux [just to cite an example] so see what they're doing right?

[thefischNX01]

All they really do is have the local unit put up posters at local establishments.  Sounds simple, but if half the units in the nation did it...

you can get recruiting posters off of E-Services, I'm thinking of getting a new batch to put up on campus. 

[Pylon]

All they really do is have the local unit put up posters at local establishments.  Sounds simple, but if half the units in the nation did it...

you can get recruiting posters off of E-Services, I'm thinking of getting a new batch to put up on campus. 

It is most certainly not as simple as you make it sound.  The answer to all of CAP's problems is not to merely "have the local unit put up posters at local establishments."  That won't even solve the recruiting problem.

Take for example a recent Open House I put together for a local unit struggling to get even 4 to 5 members to attend on a given night.  We plastered the local area with literally several hundred (if not close to a thousand) full-color glossy flyers advertising CAP, the Open House, along with date/time and even a map to the airport.  We also put out full-color large posters with the same information, sent press releases to all the local papers, TV, and radio stations and invited the media.  We had these full-color glossy flyers in all sorts of local places -- stores, restaurants, the airport, EAA, schools, colleges, with teachers, bulletein boards, everywhere. We had members promoting it by word-of-mouth for well over a month.  We even had booths with recruiting material and uniformed cadets and SMs at the local schools during lunch periods trying to promote CAP and the open house.  We were on community calendars, the information did appear in local newspapers, and we had a handful of 5' high double-sided wooden sidewalk signs announcing the Open House throughout the local city on high-traffic corners.

You know what all of that, plus tons of recruiting materials and excellent speakers at the open house got us?  Two cadets!   Two families showed up.  Even current members of the unit started leaving after that.

It has very little to do with the local unit and a lot to do with National Civil Air Patrol failing the small guys in the field and leaving us to fend for ourselves.  People don't know what Civil Air Patrol is on a nation-wide basis.  The good Major above is absolutely right -- the whole "nation's best kept secret" thing is not cute at all; it's downright embarassing.

*shrug*

But we can keep pretending that the local units can change all these problems with a little bit of effort...

[thefischNX01]

I'm not saying it would solve all problems, but it is certainly a start.  I agree that on some level NHQ is responsible for the lack of recruiting, but the local units can certainly try to advertise on the local level. 

What we really need is a gigantic advertising campaign like the actual military.  It would involve commercials, billboards, posters and maybe even an actual recruiting center in major cities.  Granted that can become expensive, but we have some halfway decent commercials, we just need to air them.  Back in NJ, Patriot Media had a CAP officer on one time shortly after I joined.  The sad thing is that I knew more about the organization than he did, but still. 

There's a market, I just met a guy not 3 hours ago who was interested and had "No idea an organization like that existed".  I had just met him and he was my roomates father, so I didn't give him a recruiting speech, but I am now even more convinced that there is a very large market. 

Putting posters up is a start, but a commercial would be even better. 

[BillB]

Years ago, CAP had large 8 panel roadside billboard posters available to units. No more.
Years ago, there were 20x14" Posters available telling about CAP. No More.
Now what we get is a poster of the history of aviation.
A limited number of cadet or senior or Chaplain brochures per year.
No TV spot announcements. No radio tapes.
All of that is now up to the local unit with no assistance from National.
Does National supply any equipment to PAO's in the field?  
So you're right the failure in CAP recruiting starts at the top. It's hard for a Squadron to recruit when there is nothing to offer prospective members, or a method to recruit effectively.

[thefischNX01]

Under "recruiting Materials" in e-services, you can order a large quantity of brochures and such every 60 days.  In it they have a tape that contains several information video's that can be used for recruiting, or even an introduction. 

Maybe everyone should ask R. Lee Ermey of "Mail Call" what CAP is and see if he does a segment.  I know the History Channel did something a while back concerning this on "Tactical to Practical", as well as a CNN segment a while ago.  But since the History Channel took T2P off the air, I haven't seen that segment in a while (Short of downloading it off of CAPBlog). 

It's really too bad we couldn't get Harrison Ford and/or Richard Dean Anderson (an Honorary Air Force General) to do a commercial for us...

[Chris Jacobs]

We need to get some big names in our ranks.  Harrison Ford is the president of EAA right?  My mom knew that and she dosn't even care about him or air planes.  if we were able to get some big celebrities (well behaved good ones) that would promote us, that would help. 

[John Bryan]

The post above asking why the USCG AUX has no other name.....well it is a matter of history....the U.S. Coast Guard was created in 1790 and the USCG AUX in 1939....there was a Coast Guard to form an AUX around.

CAP was formed in 1941....the US Air Force was created in 1947, and we became the USAF AUX in 1948.....we have history before we became the USAF AUX and thats were the name and the prop and triangle come from.

Also the USCG AUX has only missions in support of the USCG , NO state missions, no local missions, none of the extra things we do under the CAP banner.

[JaL5597]

It is most certainly not as simple as you make it sound.  The answer to all of CAP's problems is not to merely "have the local unit put up posters at local establishments."  That won't even solve the recruiting problem.

Take for example a recent Open House I put together for a local unit struggling to get even 4 to 5 members to attend on a given night.  We plastered the local area with literally several hundred (if not close to a thousand) full-color glossy flyers advertising CAP, the Open House, along with date/time and even a map to the airport.  We also put out full-color large posters with the same information, sent press releases to all the local papers, TV, and radio stations and invited the media.  We had these full-color glossy flyers in all sorts of local places -- stores, restaurants, the airport, EAA, schools, colleges, with teachers, bulletein boards, everywhere. We had members promoting it by word-of-mouth for well over a month.  We even had booths with recruiting material and uniformed cadets and SMs at the local schools during lunch periods trying to promote CAP and the open house.  We were on community calendars, the information did appear in local newspapers, and we had a handful of 5' high double-sided wooden sidewalk signs announcing the Open House throughout the local city on high-traffic corners.

You know what all of that, plus tons of recruiting materials and excellent speakers at the open house got us?  Two cadets!   Two families showed up.  Even current members of the unit started leaving after that.

It has very little to do with the local unit and a lot to do with National Civil Air Patrol failing the small guys in the field and leaving us to fend for ourselves.  People don't know what Civil Air Patrol is on a nation-wide basis.  The good Major above is absolutely right -- the whole "nation's best kept secret" thing is not cute at all; it's downright embarassing.

*shrug*

But we can keep pretending that the local units can change all these problems with a little bit of effort...

It must be the area.  One of the squadrons I visited recently had an open house the week before.  They had 16 recruits there the night I visited.

Maybe all this is why there is a Recruitment and Retention Senior Member Specialty Track?

[Pylon]

It is most certainly not as simple as you make it sound.  The answer to all of CAP's problems is not to merely "have the local unit put up posters at local establishments."  That won't even solve the recruiting problem.

Take for example a recent Open House I put together for a local unit struggling to get even 4 to 5 members to attend on a given night.  We plastered the local area with literally several hundred (if not close to a thousand) full-color glossy flyers advertising CAP, the Open House, along with date/time and even a map to the airport.  We also put out full-color large posters with the same information, sent press releases to all the local papers, TV, and radio stations and invited the media.  We had these full-color glossy flyers in all sorts of local places -- stores, restaurants, the airport, EAA, schools, colleges, with teachers, bulletein boards, everywhere. We had members promoting it by word-of-mouth for well over a month.  We even had booths with recruiting material and uniformed cadets and SMs at the local schools during lunch periods trying to promote CAP and the open house.  We were on community calendars, the information did appear in local newspapers, and we had a handful of 5' high double-sided wooden sidewalk signs announcing the Open House throughout the local city on high-traffic corners.

You know what all of that, plus tons of recruiting materials and excellent speakers at the open house got us?  Two cadets!   Two families showed up.  Even current members of the unit started leaving after that.

It has very little to do with the local unit and a lot to do with National Civil Air Patrol failing the small guys in the field and leaving us to fend for ourselves.  People don't know what Civil Air Patrol is on a nation-wide basis.  The good Major above is absolutely right -- the whole "nation's best kept secret" thing is not cute at all; it's downright embarassing.

*shrug*

But we can keep pretending that the local units can change all these problems with a little bit of effort...

It must be the area.  One of the squadrons I visited recently had an open house the week before.  They had 16 recruits there the night I visited.

Wow -- that's great.  Wish we had that luck up here.

Maybe all this is why there is a Recruitment and Retention Senior Member Specialty Track?

Perhaps.  But of course, you need a dedicated individual to fill the position.  Sounds like similar to M.S's problem at the start of the thread -- just warm bodies won't do it, especially for something as important as recruiting/retention.  And even then, I'd still say it can't all be done at the unit level. 

Free brochures from NHQ doesn't make an effective recruiting campaign.  Re-read my example above about the Open House.  It's not just all flyers and brochures -- a good deal is going to have to be nation-wide public exposure to CAP and its various missions and what good we could do for the communities that we are in.  If the general public doesn't see this light, then we're forever doomed to scrape a few souls here and there into the organization, with huge-effort open houses, all based on local-squadron efforts.

[Chris Jacobs]

I think you can recruit all you want but if you don't have a strong program what are you going to offer a new recruit.  When i took over as C/CC i realized this so i focused on making the best program possible.  low and behold a few months latter we would have several new people a week.  my first night in comand there was 8 cadets at the meeting.  within a few months there were 20+ cadets at every meeting.  a while ago we had a record turn out of 35 cadets (the best i can remember).  we are to the point that we are running out of tables and chairs. of course the week that we only had 8 was in the summer and low numbers can be expected but over all our squadron has doubled its numbers and not because of some recruiting drive.

[flyguy06]

First of alll, Harrison Ford is "NOT" the president of EAA. Secondly, it must be a regioanl thing, because I had never heard of the Coast Guard Aux unti a CAP memner who is a dual member told me about it.

The biggest problem with vol8uneteers is what was said earlier and its not just in CAP. In my fraternity you have two groups of strong volunteers. College students and retired people. Folks in their mid 20's to mid 40's have careers and jobs and families to support. When I was a cadet, I was heavily involved in CAP. I didi something CAP related at least three days a week and three out of four weekends. But as an adult, I just have the time to devote like I used to although I really wish I could.

I agree that we need more younger Senior Members, but thwey have jobs and families and cant always devote the time unless they are one of the few that own theor own business or have a good deal of cash and dont have to work a 9 to 5. But none the less, I agree, we need more younger SM's to reach and identiufy with the cadets.

Also,  loacl units can market themselves not just by putting up recruiting posters but getting involved in the community. The retired members can go into high schools and talk to groups with an interest in aviation. Talk to JROTC groups. Put up aviation displys in school. Start explorer posts. There are many avenues.



First of all, Servants of all, Transcending all

[Eclipse]

An EXCELLENT point.

Make the unit productive and >FUN<, and new members will come to you.

Speak well of the organization, look sharp in public, and don't waste your members' time.

Their cups should overflow on Monday morning.

Jim: Hey, wha'dya do this weekend?

Joe: Eh, sat around and watched the game.

John: I got 1billion on Space Munchies for X-Box!

Jane: Well, I pre-soloed in a glider, and learned how to do land navigation.

Jack: And I spent most of Saturday running high-bird comms for a big search and rescue excercise, and then on Sunday I helped find a missing kid!

Ask your current members WHY they are coming to your meetings and continue participation.  If the answers don't sync w/ the CC's plans, or they have no idea, roll up your sleeves and figure out how to get things done.

word of mouth is the best recruiter.