California Wing Conference/New National Commander

[SoCalCAPOfficer]

Just a quick note from the California Wing Conference.  The Conference was great and I had the pleasure to meet General Courter our Interim National Commander as well as our new Wing Commander Col Parris.   Both are going to do good things for CAP and the California Wing.

I was especially impressed with General Courter.  She is knowledgable, well spoken and has a great sense of humor.  She is open and  is actually interested in listening to the members.  I certainly hope that she is voted in as the National Commander next year, she has what this organization needs at this time.   

Our new Wing Commander Col Parris also impressed me with the way he interacted with the members.  He has a great background and seems to be on top of what our wing needs.   Things are looking good in CAP again.

[mikeylikey]

What is the background of the New CAWG CC?  What ideas did he mention that he will implement in the Wing?  What are his goals for the Wing?

Difference between an impression from listening to someone speak for 10 minutes and actually getting usefull info is the biggest thing here! 

[bosshawk]

Mikeylikey: just to get started, Col Parris has been in CAP 29 years: started as a cadet.  He has been a Sq CC, a Group CC and the Wing Vice Commander, to just name a few.  He graduated from UC-Berkeley as a scholarship ROTC student, served four years as an Infantry Officer in the Army.  In the civilian world, he is a Lt in the Oakland, Ca Police Department: the head of the department admin division.  He is a pilot and a scanner.

He enumerated a set of 10 goals which he has as his vision for the Wing and it is too wordy for me to present here.  AS far as I can determine from having just attended the Wing Conference, he has struck a series of responsive chords with most of the folks that I talked to in the past two days.

I agree with Dan about the impressions of General Courter: I had the unique opportunity yesterday morning to sit with her while we both ate breakfast.  I had met and talked to Gen Penada when he was the Vice and the difference is startling. 

All in all, a pretty optomistic Conference.  Now comes the hard part: putting it all to work.  However, that said, I sense a readiness on the part of those Wing members that I know to get on with making this outfit a real going concern.

I did have the opportunity to meet and chat with several Captalk contributers: SAR Dragon, a2Cpt, Ned Lee, but didn't get to talk to Dan.  It was great to put some faces with the familiar names.  Of course, Ned isn't a new face to me: he MCd the banquet and, as always, was a hoot.

[mikeylikey]

^ Thank you Colonel!

[SarDragon]

I can echo the comments of both bosshawk and SoCalCAPOfficer. Both new commanders are friendly, articulate, passionate about CAP, and have a great sense of humour. They each have a vision and goals for their respective parts of CAP, and seem to have the support of the members of CAWG.

I, too, had a chat with Gen, Courter, and as I asked the two questions I had, she was taking notes. Those two Qs were:

Q. What is the future of the various uniform changes that have occurred in the last couple of years?

A. These will be looked at by the Board, and either implemented formally into the 39-1 or cancelled. The U.S. addition to the various aspects of CAP, including the uniforms is likely gone.

Q. What is the status of any formal instructor training in CAP?

A. It is pretty low on the priority list right now, but will be receiving attention when some of the other more prominent items facing the Board have been resolved.

In addition, during her various presentations, she addressed other issues like Wing Banking, and aging equipment, and her responses were met with enthusiasm by the listeners.

[edit]

Oh, yeah, there was a third Q!

What's your opinion of "Officer" vs. "Senior Member"?

A. She doesn't like "Officer" either, since it does not accurately refer to all of the adult members of CAP, but she is aware of the stigma of the word senior. That will have some attention in the next few months, too. It is not one of the more pressing current problems, though.

[PHall]

The strongest impression that I got from meeting Brig Gen Courter was that she looks and acts like a REAL General Officer.
A true professional in every way.