parent Committee

[Tim Day]

Seeing both sides of this it seems like the op's intent was to have more parental involvement, however as many have stated there is no need for a sq to have a parent committee.  If parents want to be active within the unit by all means join as a full member or join as a sponsor member.  If parents have an issue talk to the CC or the CDC if your in a composite sq and work it.

Most committees I have seen tend to think they can do more than they can and think they are able to make decisions and such when they can't.  Not saying all committees are bad just a good chunk of them.

If the goal is parental involvement, here's a suggestion. I hold a parents' night every quarter or so (5th week meetings are convenient for this). I brief the CAP 101 slide deck, modified to suit my squadron, and have a slide on support we need from parents. Introducing CAP to the parents really helps keep them involved and aware of the bigger picture into which the CP fits.

First bullet of the "how you can help" slide is always "Please keep doing what you're doing: bringing your cadet to meetings and buying their uniforms. THANK YOU."

I go over the schedule for the next few months and talk about any big issues (we have a new policy that requires us to have male and female adult supervision at our overnight activity, so I need some dads to join...)

[Garibaldi]

Seeing both sides of this it seems like the op's intent was to have more parental involvement, however as many have stated there is no need for a sq to have a parent committee.  If parents want to be active within the unit by all means join as a full member or join as a sponsor member.  If parents have an issue talk to the CC or the CDC if your in a composite sq and work it.

Most committees I have seen tend to think they can do more than they can and think they are able to make decisions and such when they can't.  Not saying all committees are bad just a good chunk of them.

If the goal is parental involvement, here's a suggestion. I hold a parents' night every quarter or so (5th week meetings are convenient for this). I brief the CAP 101 slide deck, modified to suit my squadron, and have a slide on support we need from parents. Introducing CAP to the parents really helps keep them involved and aware of the bigger picture into which the CP fits.

First bullet of the "how you can help" slide is always "Please keep doing what you're doing: bringing your cadet to meetings and buying their uniforms. THANK YOU."

I go over the schedule for the next few months and talk about any big issues (we have a new policy that requires us to have male and female adult supervision at our overnight activity, so I need some dads to join...)

Stealing this.

[Brit_in_CAP]

Booster clubs are a different animal, intended specifically for fund raising and barred from input in the unit.

No idea how anyone thinks it's a good idea or worth the effort - anything you should be doing for
CAP fundraising, you should do as a member, anything else is probably either "iffy" or "Wing ain't gittin' their
fingers on me gold!" nonsense.

I've seen the boosters around my children's school sports teams....which is why I would not participate!

Not something I ever want to see around my squadron, either.  I recall with horror how the soccer boosters overrode the coaching staff time and again....  
Coaching staff failure but there it was.

Keep the fundraising within the membership, keep your own hands of the money and get it properly banked ASAP!

[Anthony@CAP]

I've never posted before, but I felt this one deserved some good news from someone whose seen it work well. As a squadron commander I have found having a Parent Committee to be both beneficial for the parents and myself. And I successfully did it without any of the control issues that have been brought up thus far. I think any good squadron should have some sort of connection with parents whether its called a "committee", "association", or "club." The formal connection helps to keep parents involved, which can be key to keeping cadets involved, and adds to word of mouth recruitment among parents.

Despite the "horror stories" and speculation about possibilities in previous posts, as long as the goal and restrictions are laid out clearly it shouldn't be a problem. I would have the parent committee meet monthly, I would sit down with them for about 15-30 minutes and go over past and upcoming events and changes, answer any questions they had, and then let them know what kind of assistance I could use from them. Then I would leave them alone to network and talk almost themselves, and if I had asked them for assistance for them to figure out how to help.

Most of the time the only things I asked from them were assistance in award banquets or a pot luck dinner. Yes I had a staff member would run the event - but parents were a great asset in organizing food or providing extra labor for set up and clean up. Sometime they would run a subset of the event, such as organizing which parents was bring what to the pot luck - which was far more successful then the first time I tried to do it and relied on emails and cadets.

Occasionally I would ask them for assistance making a contact for some special purpose such as fundraising or in the local community - not once did I have an issue. They also often had connection for things such as signs, banners, shirts, etc... that I could take advantage of.

I think it all comes down to how you set it up. Eclipse pointed out the worst case scenario for a committee, I would say if you run into that situation I would place the blame solely on the squadron commander for not framing the committee correctly in the first place and not controlling it as it moved along. Essentially it should be used to keep parents involved and fulfill ad-hoc needs and connections. Having a formal group helps to keep the resources open and parents connected back to the organization (which is key to retention as parents have  a large say in their cadet's lives). The squadron commander just needs to provide a little direction and reminders, and the effort that goes in will far out-weigh the time needed to control it.

I'm sure I'll get blasted for supporting it as a good idea, unfortunately we let the worst case scenario control our decisions - even if it's easily mitigated.

[Grumpy]

I agree 100% Anthony.   :clap:

[Eclipse]

Anthony - I think one thing that doesn't happen here is people don't get "blasted", unless "disagreeing=blasting".

I don't doubt you've had a good experience, and like just about everything else in CAP, with strong, knowledgeable, and
appropriate leadership, you can make just about anything work.

The trouble is that on the mean, most of the unit CC's that are going to reach towards a parent's committee are going to
be the understaffed, overburdened, and inexperienced ones who will accept the help gladly and then "let things happen"
until they are out of control, and bad feelings, or worse, are available all around.

There's very little in CAP that a "steering word" or some "clarification" won't fix, unfortunately neither of those
is abundant in our structure, which is why member attitudes tend to be digital - either "I love this place and devote my
every waking hour" or "!@#$% all of you, I'm gone..."

I would also contend that everything you have parents help with is appropriate and needed, but requires no formal
structure of a "committee" to accomplish - as soon as you have a "committee", there has to be a "committee chair",
and that's things can start South.

[Storm Chaser]

Anthony, welcome to CAP Talk. I'm glad you've been able to make the Parent Committee work in your squadron. Parent Committees, if organized and managed correctly, can be very effective and useful.

[Slim]

BITD, when my unit was formed, the first commander set up a family readiness group type of deal for parents.  Granted, he was a senior enlisted adviser for a ANG fighter group at the time, and had had dealings with their FRG.  His implementation was similar to Lt Col Day's and Anthony's.

Once a quarter, he'd have a parents support group meeting where he could sit down with the parents, go over scheduling and activities, areas where we could use some help with specific things that didn't necessarily require a member to do, like car pooling to activities, newsletter support (photos, publishing, distribution, etc).  He also engaged the parents in setting up a phone recall roster for anything that might need it (mind you, this was back when cell phones were carried in bags or hardwired into the car, not on every every belt of every member of the squadron).  Unit's on a bivouac and is running late getting back, no problemo.  Call whomever in the PSG was willing or up for it that time, tell them we're running behind and to be at the squadron at 4:00 instead of 3:00, and they would disburse it to the rest of the parents.  Time spent making one quick phone call vs. making 15-20 phone calls to each individual parent, time that could be better spent getting the cadets back to the unit and not being more late than we already were.

It was a time to sit down with the parents and not only thank them for their support of their cadet(s) in the program.  But, more importantly, it was a time for the parents to get to know him and the rest of the seniors on a more personal level.  I always thought it created a level of comfort in that the parents knew who he was, had his phone number, and that he/we were going to take care of their cadets.