Time Magazine: A Time To Serve

[Capt Rivera]

I have not gotten a chance to look at this article in full and wont be able to for a few hours but after glancing it over, and looking at the "Resource Guide: [also at the following URL] I don't see mention of CAP. What gives? Why do we seem to NEVER get listed on things like this?

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1657256_1657317,00.html

[Lancer]

8. Recruit a Rapid-Response Reserve Corps
The disarray and lack of a coordinated response to 9/11 and Katrina tell us there is a role volunteers can play in responding quickly to disasters and emergencies. The new Rapid-Response Reserve Corps would consist of retired military and National Guard personnel as well as national- and community-service program alumni to focus on disaster preparedness and immediate response to local and national disasters. The program would initially train 50,000 members, who could be deployed for two-week periods in response to emergencies and serve under the guidance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

I love #8.

Umm.... hello? We already exist. Again...'America's best kept secret' strikes again...

[BlackKnight]

...I don't see mention of CAP. What gives? Why do we seem to NEVER get listed on things like this?

Why? Because our CAP PAOs get more brownie points from their commanders for getting articles published in The Volunteer or CAP News Online than they do for reaching out externally.  We are a very internally focused organization. We behave almost as a secret society most of the time.  Heck, our regular members aren't even informed of "what happened or why". Why in the world would we see any value in getting mentioned in Time Magazine?  Don't you know that would be violating OPSEC?    

[Pylon]

Of course, somebody could write a nice letter to the editor of the magazine letting him or her know that Civil Air Patrol already fills the gap noted in their article.  A well crafted letter may get published.

[RiverAux]

Uh, CAP does not fill that gap.  We do not have 50K trained volunteers ready to respond for a 2-week period.  We can do some of it, but CAP does not even come close to the goal stated.

[♠SARKID♠]

Yeah, but they dont even acknowledge the "some of it".  The shouldnt be "recruiting a Rapid-Response Reserve Corps", they should be "bolstering CAP".  Im not joking, thats why we're here!!!  We are an under appreciated resource and could easily fill that #8 if we had the internal resources to do so (MORE MEMBERS, proper training).  Perhaps that could be solved with some, oh, I dont know...advertising money?  That way we would get our resources, AND we wouldnt have TIME magazine completely passing over us without even knowing it.

*End vent*

[Major Carrales]

Perhaps that could be solved with some, oh, I dont know...advertising money?  That way we would get our resources, AND we wouldnt have TIME magazine completely passing over us without even knowing it.

Cadet,

Where do you suggest we get that ad money?  Dues?  Personal donations?

Remember, money has to come from somewhere.

[IceNine]

The tooth fairy gave me a dollar I can thrown into the pot!

[♠SARKID♠]

Membership Dues

Add on $7.50 to the yearly dues (Not that much!)

$7.50 x +56,000 members = +$420,000

That's enough for localized advertizing on lower cost mediums (newspapers, public access TV, public radio, etc.)  I know its a stretch, but isnt it better than nothing?

[Lancer]

Perhaps that could be solved with some, oh, I dont know...advertising money?  That way we would get our resources, AND we wouldnt have TIME magazine completely passing over us without even knowing it.

Cadet,

Where do you suggest we get that ad money?  Dues?  Personal donations?

Remember, money has to come from somewhere.

Probably from the same source as the money that was spent on our attempt at NASCAR sponsorship. Cut the cadet some slack Joe, at least he's contributing to the conversations around here, and intelligently for that matter. I agree with him, as I've said the same thing myself. Some well spent advertising dollars will really help.

That being said, it's apparent that NHQ realizes this. Heck Joe, you should know this as you were at the PAO Academy that I missed out on. Your going to see more of a focus on our image soon, that I'm sure of.

[Major Carrales]

Membership Dues

Add on $7.50 to the yearly dues (Not that much!)

$7.50 x +56,000 members = +$420,000

That's enough for localized advertizing on lower cost mediums (newspapers, public access TV, public radio, etc.)  I know its a stretch, but isnt it better than nothing?

Better yet, let local folks advertize in their local area as was discussed at the PAO academy.

[IceNine]

Its not that much when mommy and daddy are paying to add it onto the 35 dollars that cadets pay. 

But add that to my already 65 dollar a year dues, and it becomes pretty significant.  Especially considering that a majority of the senior here will spend hundreds a year in things like GAS to take you youngins to encampment,  and the REQUIRED conferences (hotel, conference cost, banquet, ect... $400 easy) that we have to go to for promotion, and SLS,CLC,UCC Also required $25 bucks a pop.  Those are just the required things let alone all the stuff we do just because.

So, adding anything to my yearly dues is not a good idea

Nice try though.

[Major Carrales]

That being said, it's apparent that NHQ realizes this. Heck Joe, you should know this as you were at the PAO Academy that I missed out on. Your going to see more of a focus on our image soon, that I'm sure of.

One of the first thing discussed at the PAO Academy was that national advertizing...Television, Radio et cetera...would cost MILLIONS.  Millions we do not have.

The National Marketing plan is along the lines of a unified message administered at the local level.  Building realtionships with the community and media...speading a unified message.  Lots of good tips were exchanged...including one I have been looking at called "CAP PAO on the Cheap."

As for the cadet...it is a service to a young person to introduce them to the "economics of reality" at a young age.  Money...does it not...has to come from somewhere.  I give much more than my dues to insure my squadron works.

Now, he applied a solution to my question...which was great...addition of some $7.50.  But as I pointed out the "$420,000" is not enough.

As for NASCAR, you hammer me with that as if I had anything to do with it.  Please...do not assume CAR out of CARrales.

[♠SARKID♠]

So, adding anything to my yearly dues is not a good idea

Nice try though.

What's to stop the squadrons from having a simple fund raiser to cover/lessen the extra cost?  If everybody pulls their share, the funds could cover the extra cost and then some.  Not to mention having a fund raiser is advertising in itself.

[IceNine]

As for NASCAR, you hammer me with that as if I had anything to do with it.  Please...do not assume CAR out of CARrales.

I knew it was a big conspiracy.   

OK now for something completely different (seriousness)

It is an unfortunate reality that we must live with that we don't have the means as an organization to launch a national recruiting campaign.  We could however do a better job a using the means we have available to draw people to CAP.

For instance, Our parent service, all other branches, and CGAUX all have dedicated recruiting websites that are in existence for the sole purpose of teaching the general public what they need to know about said organization, in 10 pages or less.

They then have a more in depth website where people can answer their own questions in more depth.

Nationals has the means (PA Toolkit) to design posters, Public addresses for radio, a video for local TV etc. 

Providing a standardized and CHANGING set of announcements etc and letting us figure out how to use them is not a bad idea but, trying to produce one of these can cost some serious dough that we as members don't have, but nationals as one entity does.

We have Tools on a national level that are being used out of balance to try and keep our members.  There needs to be a balance of Retention (our current focus) and Recruiting (a more worthy cause).

Things like sponsoring a NASCAR only work if people have heard about the sponsoring agency.

Everyone (that doesn't live in a hole) has heard of all the other sponsors.  Pepsi, valvoline, interstate battery, etc.

We need to focus our attention on becoming a household name THEN we can focus on our image in the public eye.

[Lancer]

One of the first thing discussed at the PAO Academy was that national advertizing...Television, Radio et cetera...would cost MILLIONS.  Millions we do not have.

The National Marketing plan is along the lines of a unified message administered at the local level.  Building realtionships with the community and media...speading a unified message.  Lots of good tips were exchanged...including one I have been looking at called "CAP PAO on the Cheap."

I have no problem with 'local level' because that is where you and I are at. But we have to be given 'some' tools to do this, and it requires 'some' money to do it. It won't cost MILLIONS to put up some carefully placed billboards and generate some radio or TV PSA's. I know we have the talent in house to produce the latter.

As for the cadet...it is a service to a young person to introduce them to the "economics of reality" at a young age.  Money...does it not...has to come from somewhere.  I give much more than my dues to insure my squadron works.

Now, he applied a solution to my question...which was great...addition of some $7.50.  But as I pointed out the "$420,000" is not enough.

Well...you just seemed to dismiss him without so much as a 'hey...thats a good idea, thanks'. We'll never get cadets to post here more frequently with that attitude.

As for NASCAR, you hammer me with that as if I had anything to do with it.  Please...do not assume CAR out of CARrales.

Hammer you for NASCAR? lol How did you get that idea? I'd rather hammer you for not using spellcheck. 

[IceNine]

So, adding anything to my yearly dues is not a good idea

Nice try though.

What's to stop the squadrons from having a simple fund raiser to cover/lessen the extra cost?  If everybody pulls their share, the funds could cover the extra cost and then some.  Not to mention having a fund raiser is advertising in itself.

So, we fund raise to earn money that gets sent off to nationals, instead of used to buffer the cost of running a squadron that are already underfunded?

I like the idea of a budget for advertising but think there are loose ends to cut before asking for more money from my pocket

[BillB]

What National PA office has missed out on is distribution of decent radio and TV spot announcements. Radio and TV stations are required by the FCC to carry a percentage of time for public service announcements. At one time National distributed to Squadrons audio tapes that squadrons could take to their local radio station(s) after the squadron added local phone numbers to call. Video tapes were sent directly to TV stations since most TV stations cover a geographical area of several to many Squadrons.
I have done radio audio tapes for local radio stations with local information, and they were used, on a regular basis by the stations. To many PAOs depend on National for materials and never consider what they could do to get the free advertising. No-cost advertising is available, but no one seems to try to get it. Even National seems to have overlooked this in the past few years.

[♠SARKID♠]

Thank you BillB for bringing that up.  I was going to mention the free public service announcements but I didn't think that CAP ads would count.  Can you still get those tapes from Nationals?

[JC004]

Thank you BillB for bringing that up.  I was going to mention the free public service announcements but I didn't think that CAP ads would count.  Can you still get those tapes from Nationals?

It depends on what the media outlet's priorities are in PSAs.  You can download it in MP3. 

ftp://ftp.iqstorage.com/CAP%20PAO%20Toolkit/Radio%20PSAs

[BillB]

SARKID,  The video downloads from CAP CHANNEL, are not broadcast quality according to three TV stations I took them to. They are OK for computer monitor screens, but when shown on a 27 inch TV set are pretty poor. As far as any tapes being available from National, I haven't heard of any lately. A CD with TV spots was available a couple of years ago. In 2002 CAP did a combined recruiting Public TV CD/DVD that barely met broadcast quality and it ran 11 minutes which could be used by public TV stations as a fill.

[IceNine]

I know they exist, but you said it yourself.

They are NOT broadcast quality.  I already talked with insight in my area they are willing run a well formatted PSA for 2 months at a time. They require new commercials after 2 months, and they only want 100 a year.

I cannot put together a broadcast quality commercial and they get an extra KiloBuck to tape it for you.

[JC004]

...
I cannot put together a broadcast quality commercial and they get an extra KiloBuck to tape it for you.

Sure you can, spotrunner.com, just probably not about CAP   

[MidwaySix]

 from the Time Magazine piece...

"I addressed a group of recruiters last year and I asked them if they'd prefer to have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush join the Army. They unanimously chose the Jenna option. If you get privileged youth serving," he adds, "it makes recruiting a lot easier."

Let's recruit, train, and deploy some famous people... when it comes to just pilots you have...

• Angelina Jolie
• Michael Dorn
• Tom Cruise
• John Travolta
• Hugh Downs
• David Lee Roth (who btw, just became an EMT)
• Zach Braff

Putting CAP money into advertising is not the way to go.

You want our media budget competing with national brands?

PR and PSAs are the way to go here...

...but for crying out loud.... why haven't I seen us featured just ONCE on the Military Channel?

I could go on...

- M6

[JC004]

^^ Midway Six is on my Public Affairs team for when I assume control of National

[IceNine]

PR works itself out in Hostile takeovers...

[Major Carrales]

Well...you just seemed to dismiss him without so much as a 'hey...thats a good idea, thanks'. We'll never get cadets to post here more frequently with that attitude.

Ha!  Give the Cadet a chance to make his own points.  The idea is for them to learn mental strength for within...my points were valid, I was not insulting...it was the cadet's turn to make a point.

 

[RogueLeader]

didn't we pay like $5 million for a nascar ad, that would make great leaps and bounds for national PA.

[flyerthom]

didn't we pay like $5 million for a nascar ad, that would make great leaps and bounds for national PA.

Would have helped if maybe the car would have won a race.

[A.Member]

from the Time Magazine piece...

"I addressed a group of recruiters last year and I asked them if they'd prefer to have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush join the Army. They unanimously chose the Jenna option. If you get privileged youth serving," he adds, "it makes recruiting a lot easier."

Let's recruit, train, and deploy some famous people... when it comes to just pilots you have...

• Angelina Jolie
• Michael Dorn
• Tom Cruise
• John Travolta
• Hugh Downs
• David Lee Roth (who btw, just became an EMT)
• Zach Braff

Putting CAP money into advertising is not the way to go.

You want our media budget competing with national brands?

PR and PSAs are the way to go here...

...but for crying out loud.... why haven't I seen us featured just ONCE on the Military Channel?

I could go on...

- M6

As much as I'd like to her throw her down, Angelina wouldn't exactly make a good "poster child" for this organization.  And who is Zach Braff?!  But I do understand your point.  PSA's and a good, solid PR campaign is what's need most.  However, we must do some advertising. 

We should have some exposure on The Military Channel.  But we don't.  We should have a nationally coordinated program for distribution on local access cable television.  But we don't.  Even something like sponsoring banner ads on Airliners.net, Avweb.com, Aviationweek.com, etc. may provide benefit. 

As for paying for the advertising (and other things), we could cancel the Cessna order for 182's and sell off our GA-8's and Archer systems - the second biggest CAP boondoogle in history next to the NASCAR deal.  I'm serious.  We never should've gone with the 182's for a number of reasons.  We should've stuck with steam-gauge 172's at a savings of ~$100K per aircraft.   This however is another post.

[RiverAux]

Hugh Downs?  At least he fits the image of CAP as being made up of people over 75. 

BTW Zach Braff is the lead guy on "Scrubs"

[♠SARKID♠]

Hugh Downs?  At least he fits the image of CAP as being made up of people over 75. 

It's a shame Lloyd Bridges isnt alive.  (See!  I may be young, but I know the classics!)  We have a pilot in our squadron who looks EXACTLY like Bridges!

[Major Carrales]

Hugh Downs?  At least he fits the image of CAP as being made up of people over 75. 

It's a shame Lloyd Bridges isnt alive.  (See!  I may be young, but I know the classics!)  We have a pilot in our squadron who looks EXACTLY like Bridges!

You are much as I was...I grew up with older folks in that I played violin in a church choir with my Granddad.  The result was I knew things most people my age did not.

I hope you don't think I was trying to flame you before...

[♠SARKID♠]

No no no! Totally fine!  I should have put a smiley in there   

[Matt]

I hope you don't think I was trying to flame you before...

You need any lighter fluid? 

[JohnKachenmeister]

from the Time Magazine piece...

"I addressed a group of recruiters last year and I asked them if they'd prefer to have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush join the Army. They unanimously chose the Jenna option. If you get privileged youth serving," he adds, "it makes recruiting a lot easier."

Let's recruit, train, and deploy some famous people... when it comes to just pilots you have...

• Angelina Jolie
• Michael Dorn
• Tom Cruise
• John Travolta
• Hugh Downs
• David Lee Roth (who btw, just became an EMT)
• Zach Braff

Putting CAP money into advertising is not the way to go.

You want our media budget competing with national brands?

PR and PSAs are the way to go here...

...but for crying out loud.... why haven't I seen us featured just ONCE on the Military Channel?

I could go on...

- M6

Hugh Downs is still alive?

[Lancer]

You need any lighter fluid? 

Is that how you light a fire under your cadets Lt? 

[JohnKachenmeister]

OK, my dream CAP PR/Advertising adventure:

1.  Paid advertising.  There should be a good CAP ad in every aviation interest magazine.  Tailor the ads for:

    Pilots:  AOPA Pilot, Flying, Private Pilot, Plane and Pilot, etc.
    Non-pilots:  Aviation History, Warbird Classics, etc.

Goal:  To recruit pilots, and to recruit non-pilots who have a strong interest in aviation and who would like to fly, but who don't make enough money at "Frankie's Glisten n Gleam Car Wash" to take flying lessons.  The non-pilot ads should emphasize opportunities to fly as an observer.

2.  Targeting the youth:  MTV, VH1, and high school and junior high magazines.  The ads should be hip and feature cool teenagers in service dress blue and in BDU involved in ES tasks.   A good idea would be to produce mini-profiles of our cadets, like the "I'm the NRA" series of ads.  DO NOT use cherry-cheek pre-teens in advertising like NHQ always wants to do.  If I find that guy who puts cute little kids in BDU in CAP recruiting literature I will run him down with a loser NASCAR racer.  Even if a kid IS a cherry-cheeked pre-teen, he DESPERATELY wants to be a cool teenager.  Don't they know that the target audience of "High School Musical" is NOT high school kids?

3.  PSA's:  How hard would these be...

    Picture a takeoff of a Blanik L-23 climbing into a sunny sky behind a CAP C-182, with inviting fair-weather cumulus clouds dotting the sky.  Then, a professional announcer (with well-modulated masculine intonation) begins reading "High Flight" while the sailplane, with "Civil Air Patrol" emblazoned on its fuselage, does a series of graceful maneuvers in the air.  At the end, characters come on the screen "Brought to you as a Public Service by your Civil Air Patrol,"  and add the website for a visit.

    Continue the mini-profiles of both cadets and officers, with 30-second insights into their lives.  Switch images every 5-7 seconds, with voiceover.  Message theme:  "Gawd, but we are all so dang good-lookin' and succesful."

4.  Feature-length material.  Anti-Submarine operations are a great untold story.  So is inland SAR.  Do we have any assets in-house that could produce a half-hour series to air on the Military Channel?  I'll bet we do if we look hard enough.

4.  A CAP movie.  Harrison Ford as a former barnstormer at the start of World War II who gets rejected from the Air Corps as too old, but who joins CAP and flies to Glory and Honor attacking German submarines.  And he gets the hot girl, who was the CAP radio operator who heard his distress call after joining the "Duck Club."

[Skyray]

Hugh Downs is still alive?

He has an advanced degree in gerontology from Hunter College, which probaly why he is still going strong at 86.

[Matt]

You need any lighter fluid? 

Is that how you light a fire under your cadets Lt? 

I provide the fluid... they provide the fire... a handful are/were scouts... and, therefore by definition are pyros...

[Matt]

[...]
2.  Targeting the youth:  MTV, VH1, and high school and junior high magazines.
[...]

Hadn't thought of those... definitely would look good in Teen People or the like... the catch is convincing NHQ to actually follow through with it...  Perhaps would make too much sense?

[♠SARKID♠]

Advertising: Ask and we shall receive
http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=2935.0

Best hopes for Fosset!