Squadron Color Guard

[yolo]

Is there a way to convince my squadron to create a color guard?

[Spam]

So, once upon a time,

An aviation technician went to his doctor, complaining of horrible peeling skin on his hands. The doc gave him cream, pills, shots... nothing worked. The doc sent him to specialist after specialist, who tried every medical trick in the book to cure his horrible affliction. Finally, the doctors confronted him about his nasty skin condition and asked him what he was doing that could cause it.  He replied, "I am an aviation tech, and one of my jobs on the ramp at the airport is to empty out the caustic blue crap from the lavs on the jets, and when I do so sometimes I spill some on my hands, even when I wear gloves".  The horrified doctor immediately said that he should get out of that job, that was horrible.  The man replied, "What? And give up my promising and rewarding career in aerospace"?


Lesson: job satisfaction and prestige is all in the attitude. If you can "sell" color guard as a Cool Thing, a top shelf, cream of the crop activity where you will invest many hours of practice making the "show" look perfect, with the job satisfaction of honoring the nation in doing so, then you'll have no problems recruiting and maintaining a good team. The very first place to start is with your unit leadership; if your desires conflict with existing unit goals, you'll get no where. If you can "sell" color guard as a means to the ends of providing the required Activities element, you're on the way.


Then, in practical terms, my advice is to seek out and find a mentor from the best possible existing color guard team (no matter if it isn't CAP) and ask them to help, since hands on experience is invaluable as "seed corn" to set a high bar at the beginning.  Finally, consider attending a relevant NCSA next summer, such as the MER or NER honor academies, to learn from experienced cadre, and bring those lessons home.

See: http://www.ncsas.com/. Application deadlines are approaching.


Good luck,
Spam