What do you think of possible CAP budget cuts by DoD?

[iowacap]

I know this is going to effect the whole united states I had recently read from a letter from our national commander that in conjunction of enlisted, officer, and civillian cuts and mostly to effect the CAP wings is the proposed budget cuts. This is going to require everyone to re-think how they spend their money for training and ect. to get every bang they can for the buck. From what I understand its like a $3.66 million in proposed cuts and the whole CAP program is going to be organized to be more efficient in money spent. This includes possible cuts of cadet programs or restructure of them to make them more cost effective but this does not only effect cadets it effects everyone. I know this sounds like it could be bad but lets not get hasty and start writing angry letters to represenitives or to CAP leaders about this because its not only affecting CAP its the whole Air Force too. I just wanted to give everyone an open ear to this so no rumors start flying and lets not let this effect on how we do our job lets still perform it as we did before and show we can still do it with flying colors even when faced with a hurdle to overcome! Below is the letter that I received and wanted to get an idea what all you other CAP members thought if you have not heard yet.


~~Letter~~



National Board members,

To ensure accurate and timely information goes to our members, I am sending this notification.  Please caution our volunteers to not react emotionally to this funding cut because next year's budget across DoD is going to be greatly reduced and as both Civil Air Patrol and the Air Force Auxiliary, we must act in a responsible and professional manner. We must also ensure our message is consistent and that it stays focused so we don't become our own worst enemy by sending disjointed, noncoherent messages to Congress or to the Air Force leadership.  This detailed information is being provided to you with those thoughts in mind and to inform you, not cause alarm.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) recently issued a budget decision that cut deeply into many existing Air Force programs and making sweeping manpower cuts to AF officer, enlisted and civilian end strength.   As a result of the decision, Civil Air Patrol's funding for FY07 is proposed for a nearly 15% cut - a reduction of $3.667M to our Ops & Maintenance (O&M) line.  Originally, we were programmed to receive $24.968M.   We hope that our efforts to work with senior AF leaders and Congressional leaders will reduce this funding cut, but we know CAP will most likely take some level of funding cut and it will be significant! Working within the system, we fight to restore as much funding as possible, but CAP will come out of this "transformed" -- our focus will be on core missions, to eliminate any function or program that does not directly support our core missions, but at the same time, realizing our core missions will require a new focus.

If CAP is faced with this reduced budget, our National Board will need to make policy decisions on the priorities of this organization. What follows are some initial thoughts as CAP can not absorb this magnitude of funding reduction with out adjusting both National Hq employees and national programs.  Here are the facts:

- NHQ has 122 funded personnel positions at Maxwell AFB
- We have 52 Wing Administrators; 35 full time; 17 part time
- You could expect a 25 - 30% reduction in Maxwell staffing and potentially ALL Wing Administrators will have to be part time

As for programmatic cuts:
- Outreach programs of AE, special programs that affect a small audience (IACE) will be severely reduced
- NHQ support and conduct of cadet special activities will be significantly curtailed
- Since first year cadet attrition is 50%, expect the uniform program to be appropriately resized
- The O-flight program will be reduced, but not eliminated
- Other non-core programs and support by NHQ employees will be curtailed or eliminated outright
- We will not be able to sustain the current level of support received from NHQ; many functions will truly have to become volunteer lead

You could expect our aircraft fleet to be resized to actual requirement, but surprisingly, we may continue to see Congressional plus-ups in procurement allowing us to replace older, more maintenance intensive C-172s, 182s with the modern, glass cockpit C-182

Overall our 15% reduction is right in line with other cuts across Air University -- we not unfairly singled out, but we continue to work with in established procedures to mitigate our cut.  We promise to explore and implement greater efficiencies, both at NHQ and across CAP to better utilize the funding we do receive, BUT the direction of CAP will change, that's inevitable.  All options are being explored - please share your thoughts, but I ask for a spirit of cooperation.  Now is not the time to hunker down and strike out at the Air Force, just to achieve our ends!

With a consolidated, joint position, we will weather this budget storm the best we can. 

Thank you for your reasoned and calm support during what promises to be a turbulent period.  Rest assured, your National senior leadership is working this problem hard and will keep you advised.

Tony

Tony Pineda

[groundpounder]

I agree with the General, it is not time to hunker down and fight. This is an opportunity to look within ourselves and reorganize our operations, both on the National and Local levels.

For some time I have felt that CAP serves too many masters, with three different core missions. I would explore the possibility of eliminating the funding of all external Aerospace Education operations, get rid of paid Wing administrators, and put a full court press on finding local sources of funds (states, counties etc.)

Wing administrators cannot be controlled by NHQ and will only end up being buddies of the Wing CC with little to do and no way to measure performance. Instead of having 52 part timers, get a few full timers at NHQ to support several wings each. Before that happens, take a step back to see why the Wings have so much paperwork, and what could be done to eliminate it.

There are way too many people working at NHQ for the size of this organization. Compare us to any mid size corporation and you will see what I mean. Don't be fooled into thinking that we are equivalent to a corp with 50,000 employees. We do not have anywhere near the overhead required for an operation that has 50,000 people coming to work every day, getting paid, producing products, processing medical claims etc., there is no comparison.

Get some good business people in there to look around and this cut will end up being a surplus after the real cuts are made.

[JAFO78]

Yes this is the time not to panic. Anyone who has worked for any company or school, should know that budget cuts happen.

We need to be calm cool, and stick together. Tighten the belt and look for additional funding.

[flyguy06]

Wher ecan I find a copy of this letter onthe official CAP website?

I think we should focus more on aviation

[Eclipse]

Frankly, I think that anyone considering cutting our already bare-bones budget is being very short-sighted and naive about its effect.  I was similiarly frustrated when we had to cough up for the "war-tax" at the start of the war.  Our total budget is likely less than the cost of dessert and coffee for one day in the sandbox. 

I think we would be better served trying to find the receipt for the G8 Airvans and seeing if we can still return them. As slick as they are, they are more hassle than worth, and there are so few pilots who can fly them its not funny. Trade them in on some 182's and get the rest on a gift card if we can't find the receipts.

With that said, I think the effects to the rank and file will be negligible.  My comments with respect to how I think this will effect IL :

- NHQ has 122 funded personnel positions at Maxwell AFB
     No comment except that this is news to me and they should back fill w/ volunteers
- We have 52 Wing Administrators; 35 full time; 17 part time
     Illinois doesn't have one, don't care, no impact.
- You could expect a 25 - 30% reduction in Maxwell staffing and potentially ALL Wing Administrators will have to be part time
    See above.

As for programmatic cuts:
- Outreach programs of AE, special programs that affect a small audience (IACE) will be severely reduced
     Other than IACE, my unit gets 0 for outreach. IACE is used as a recruiting sidebar,
     but few cadets actually go. 

- NHQ support and conduct of cadet special activities will be significantly curtailed
     No support of any activities in IL that I am aware of.

- Since first year cadet attrition is 50%, expect the uniform program to be appropriately resized
    Have had cadets back since August, no uniforms yet, didn't expect them, got them all    dressed through DRMO and donations.

- The O-flight program will be reduced, but not eliminated
   Unforutnate, but many cadets never even see an airplane anyway.

- Other non-core programs and support by NHQ employees will be curtailed or eliminated outright
     Would be curious what this means, but likely little impact (prob no ID cards from NHQ)
- We will not be able to sustain the current level of support received from NHQ; many functions will truly have to become volunteer lead
     If anyone can show me what NHQ does to support us at the local level in IL, I would
     be very interested to hear it.   We get some money for gas, and the planes are already
     paid for.  Other than that what?

[Eclipse]

Wher ecan I find a copy of this letter onthe official CAP website?

I think we should focus more on aviation

I doubt you'll find one - looks to me like this was a confidential internal message to the board which has leaked.

Discusisons I just had locally confirm at least the issue, if not the numbers, and that most believed this was being handled quietly.

I agree this is not panic time, just reality.  Take note, but move on.

[groundpounder]

I think we would be better served trying to find the receipt for the G8 Airvans and seeing if we can still return them. As slick as they are, they are more hassle than worth, and there are so few pilots who can fly them its not funny. Trade them in on some 182's and get the rest on a gift card if we can't find the receipts.


Might be too early to make a call on the Airvans - I hope that they don't end up to be as foolish as the CAP race car was...

I have always thought that the ARCHER program would be better suited for a full time agency with lots of $$ to spend.

Wing administrators - well that is just a bad idea no matter how you cut it. They should be NHQ staff that can be kept an eye on.

Want to spend some $ that will have a huge impact on the program - create some real DVD based traning programs to teach air and ground crew subject matter so the volunteers do not have to spend countless hours teaching what could be learned in the comfor of ones living room. Then the time in the air would be productive practice, not basic training. Most of the good people that we lose quit because it takes too long to become trained.

[smj58501]

I also agree this is not the time to drop our gloves on the ice and square off. Defense funding has ups and downs... I am full time in the Army National Guard, and we are in a down year this FY as well. The Cdr is right to say we need to re-look our priorities and make some hard decisions.

With that said, I do have a question for discussion. We in CAP, although volunteers, do consider ourselves as a professional organization. Most professions/ professional organizations have a seperate association (I stress seperate since they are not an official arm of the organization represented, and they are supported voluntarily by dues-paying members) whose role in some way shape or form is to promote the profession and lobby congress. The military is no different. The National Guard has the National Guard Association of the US (covers both the Army and Air Guard), and the Army has the Association of the US Army. I am sure the Air Force has one as well, but I can't think of the name.

Does CAP have a seperate lobbying organizatation? If so, what is it and how do we support it? If not, maybe we need to start one. I can speak to the success of NGAUS for the National Guard... they have been very influential in ensuring the Guard has a voice in congress, and extremely successful in ensuring the Guard does not get the short end of the stick from DoD and their "mother services".

The time to organize such a group for CAP is not after several years of budget cuts and continually dwindling resources. Maybe the time is now. As stated earlier, I agree we need to ride the wave of overall defense budget cuts this year. But at the same time, we need to be organized and resourced to fight for our survival before that fight comes. We can be organized by forming an "Association of the Civil Air Patrol" that speaks with one voice to represent our priorities, and that association can be resourced through dues paid voluntary members. Corporate sponsors (e.g. Cessna) could help through contributions, since a well-supported CAP is in their best interest as well.

Its just a thought... we need to be team players with the other DoD elements, but at the same time we need to be prepared to fight for our existance. We can fight professionally through an association whose sole purpose is to influence congress on our behalf.

[JAFO78]

Major, You are correct in what you said about a CAP Association, but shouldn't this  be the job of National HQ?

Yes I think it is, but I also think this is the time we need to go around HQ and set up a CAP Association.

I would support such an effort.

We may get our 6 in a sling, but we need to do what we need to do.

[smj58501]

Natl HQ's can only do so much to influence policy, since they are part of "the mother ship". They still need to be team players with the Air Force, as do we as members in our official CAP capacity. The reason the associations exist for other military entities is they really can't get away with lobbying congress in their official capacity.

The beauty of a CAP Association or Association of the CAP (whatever it would be called if formed) is it has no official tie to CAP or the USAF. It would be a seperate group of people who share a common bond of CAP membership, with a purpose of watching out for the "official" CAP. Natl HQ's should not really care if it is formed, since one of the interests we are watching out for is them too. The Cdr can't really prevent us from forming such an association, so long as we do so on our own, and without using "official" CAP resources to do so (this forum, by the way, could be a good start since it is not an "official" CAP resource). I believe we would be protected by the 1st Amendment in the regard... and we could even hire a lobbyist if we have enough resources to do so.

[Eclipse]

So...you'd set up a 501c(3) to support the existence and promotion of another 501c(3)?

Why would you believe that we could get professional, committed lobbyists to support an organization that can't get professional, committed >members<?

The best thing we could do to insure our existence is to use the money we have left
for new light saber batteries and start chopping deadweight.  Efficient, inexpensive operations should be the mantra.  Try and solicit a few people with a management clue.  I don't know...maybe ex military and active police and fire people?

Every sortie flown by a once-a year ROMEO who can't work the radios is a waste of money.

Spend a year cleaning house, getting rid of the GOBN bottlenecks and reestablishing our core mission and outside relationships.  Market it as a stand-up.  Leave Archer in the box, and mothball the new planes, and spend the money shaking hands and making deals.

Active units doing a lot of real work will have new members (and $$$) beating down the doors.

Any state who is presented with an essentially "free" asset like CAP >could be< will be happy to cough up some dough to help out - best money they ever spent.

We go knocking today, when it takes months just to decide who knocks and how many times, and we'll be laughed out of the office.

[MIKE]

The best thing we could do to insure our existence is to use the money we have left
for new light saber batteries and start chopping deadweight.

You must have an early model... The ones we got issued are rechargeable. 

[iowacap]

Well it is not a letter that leaked or confidential it was issued so that rumors that may start to go around are suppressed and everyone is informed of the issue so that we dont hear different things and get the rumor mill going in all the wings. I saw some talk about an "association" or something of the sort for wings to take things to like the state government and the best thing for this is like what we do have a legislative liason to take all the concerns from squadrons and wing to lobby the state for in this case so that we dont have a bunch of people with different info going to the state where we can have the info come from one person and lobby that way and seems to work very well.

[capchiro]

Just wanted to add my two cents worth.  I don't think we should be tqalking about getting rid of wing administrators.  We have one, I believe she is part-time.  She is the best source in the state for what is going on in the state.  She has been in the position for many years and is necessary.  the Wing Commanders come and go, but she is the concrete that holds the state together.  She is the only consistency that we have... and she sure isn't overpaid...  She tried to retire and few years ago and things went to h**l in a hurry.  We begged her to return.  Having someone at NHQ will not get anything done in the state.  Having someone at NHQ will only insure that their allegiance is to NHQ.  NHQ doesn't have a clue half of the time as to what we need/want or do.  Our Wing Administrator is probably the most important person in our state.  If your wing administrator isn't doing the job, get a new one, but don't try to take ours from us.     

[Eclipse]

Lt. Col. Siegrist,

I am confused. Unless your state has been paying an administrator out of its own budget, or she is a volunteer, I don't understand how she has been around for years.

As I understand it, the paid administrator program has only been in place for about a year, and many states have not yet even hired one.

[Pylon]

I started a new thread to discuss the idea of the Civil Air Patrol Association.  This way we can keep that topic slightly separate, and discuss the merits and demerits of such an idea separate from the discussion on the budgetary cuts.

Right then... carry on.    

[capchiro]

Capt. Williams,

I am probably the confused one.  If the Wing Administrator position has only been around a year, I think I must have our wing secretary confused with it.  All I know is that she knows where the skeletons are buried, what forms are needed when, and anything else we squadron commanders in the field need to know.  Having admitted my confusion, I must ask what a Wing Administrator is?  Surely no one could do more than our secretary?

[Eclipse]

Wing Administrator is a paid position created by NHQ about a year ago as an effort to
assist swamped volunteers.  You will note below that IL, IN, & MA (among others) are still looking for theirs.

CAP members (at least unit CC's) are not allowed to apply.

Essentially they need an experience office manager types and are paying for entry-level clerical.

http://level2.cap.gov/visitors/employment/wing_administrator/

[BlueLakes1]

Although it's not posted, I have not seen or heard of a Wing Administrator being hired here in KYWG. They say all the wings have them, but how many positions are still vacant?

I thought about applying for it but decided against it. Personally, while I'm sure they're nice to have around, I think we could do without them for awhile and divert the budget money elsewhere.

[Eclipse]

I'm not privy to how many are open, but thr original plan authorized one for each Wing.

Unit CC's are not allowed to even apply, and any active member taking the job is problematic at best, expecially for any member who has financial authority at any level.