CAP member surveys

[RiverAux]

NHQ recently sent out an email with links to the results of three surveys of current CAP cadets and former cadets and senior members:

1.  A new cadet survey - sent to all cadets who joined from 12 months to 6 months ago.  We had 759 responses out of 4602 surveys sent.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=v_2bzFsXpUeMVr7NIFa2LAJHXOMCJrqyWfvatQnKvS_2bvY_3d

2.  A cadet exit survey- 181 responses out  2042  http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=JieAGI_2b7drcyZpPth_2bJpKPFEeM1V5cn0OF_2fcc_2bsb9bI_3d

3.  A senior exit survey - 219 responses out of  1379   http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=pCXXaDqbMg6D9f0kEIXmSU5DvurkMuTtwzimiAAjfYk_3d

Some interesting points:
1.  48% of cadets that left said that their squadron didn't have enough activities.
2.  Physical fitness was the most disliked activity among former cadets (39%) followed by AE (33%).
3.  58% of former cadets wanted more family involvement in CAP.

4.  Among the reasons cadets left (multiple responses allowed):
46% unable to attend meetings
28% poor squadron leadership

5.  Among the reasons seniors left (multiple responses allowed):
30% my expectations weren't met
28% time committment too great
23% lack of activity (try to square this with the one above!)
19% not enough flying time (note that 55% of those that left had joined because they were interested in volunteer flying)

6.  37% of seniors who left thought administrative requirements were too high.

7.  69% of seniors who left said they would consider rejoining in the future.  I think there is some sampling bias here -- those who wouldn't consider it would probably be much less likely to answer the survey in the first place.

8.  Oddly enough they didn't offer an option to say that the senior left because of poor squadron leadership like they did in the cadet survey.  However, if you read the comments it appears that this would have gotten a lot of votes.

9. And speaking of the former senior comments -- some were probably on target, but then some were just whiners (I volunteer my time, so shouldn't have to pay a membership fee and NHQ should provide squadrons with buildings).

10.  Among current cadets, 69% joined to learn how to fly.  If that is what they're expecting from CAP, we're not explaining the program very well since actuall flight training is rare for cadets in CAP. 

11.  75% of current cadets are interested in joining the military someday. 

12. When asked what was the first thing that happened in CAP after joining that made it worth it, 32% of current cadets said "getting my first stripe" and 29% said wearing the uniform.  It may be a cliche here, but cadets really do care about the uniform. 

[Stonewall]

Looking at some of the written responses from seniors that got out were very interesting. 

1. I made 2nd LT that is great BUT getting flight time is very bad in two years that I have spent with CAP I have flown two (2) times only. in the meeting I met a new comer and by the next meeting he was all ready flying got 7 hrs of flight time I asked the CAPT. MAG. AND COR. IT,S HARD TO GET FLIGHT TIME AND SED THIS NOT A FLIGHT SCHOOL well that did it for me not happy with CAP.  Mon, 4/21/08 1:36 PM 

4. Politics, Personalities and Paradigms- Too much gap between older retired military members and newer, younger members who want to take intitiative to make change  Sun, 4/20/08 10:19 AM 

8. complete lack of local leadership ablility, cadets secondary to "flying club" menality  Sat, 4/19/08 4:53 PM 

20. Wing HQ with their Unreasonable changing rules all the time, Much of which were outright stupid and lacking in real value  Fri, 4/18/08 8:11 PM 

23. Change of command to someone I did not trust my daughter or any other cadet with. My daughter decided rather than moving to a new sqaudron to get out and persue other interests (sports) Majority of the original squadron as moved to other squadrons.  Fri, 4/18/08 5:47 PM

And these just came from a quick look at the first 25 responses.

[Stonewall]

Wonder why in the "what activities did you enjoy the most" section, why they didn't include Emergency Services as an option.  Some former cadets commented in the "other" section, and most were about ES, but it's kind of funny that they didn't include ES as an option.

[dwb]

From the cadet exit survey:

The senior staff could have taught us lessons in the subjects we needed to know instead of counting on me to come up with a lesson plan and to teach the squadron.

Nothing gets me going more than senior members that just "let the cadets run the program", when the cadets clearly don't possess the training and experience to do so.  It is the job of the senior members that manage cadet programs to tailor their involvement based on the maturity of their cadets.

It's Situational Leadership 101, and seniors that throw the cadet staff to the sharks while they sit in the office and drink coffee are doing a great disservice as leaders and mentors.

Arrgh!

[Stonewall]

+1 DWB.  Some will actually argue that letting the cadets just run their program IS the best way to run a cadet program....grrrr....burns me up.

[dwb]

When I was actively involved in a squadron, I had cadets that I could delegate a fair amount of work to.  I could say "gee, it'd be nice if we could run activity X in the fall", and the next week, there would be a plan in place to do so.

But those cadets are few and far between, and they need to be nurtured to get to that point.

When the senior member leadership in a cadet squadron has only a tenuous grasp on the program requirements, and is expecting the cadets to just pick up the slack, that's never a good situation.

I guess I just don't understand the mentality sometimes.  When I became a deputy commander for cadets, I read 52-16 from front to back.  I read the first few chapters of the drill manual, and some other supporting CP-related pubs as well.  It doesn't take long to do all that reading.

When I became an Assistant IG, the first thing I did was download the 123-series regulations, and the SUI guide, and read them all cover to cover.  Up to that point, I had only a broad understanding of what IGs did.

It's not just CAP stuff, either.  When I joined the project I'm on at work, the first thing I did was gather all the material I could and read through it: contract summaries, CONOPs, specifications, even looking through existing source code.  Like CAP, the quality of the documentation wasn't always all that great, but at least I wasn't walking in blind.



I'm sorry, what were we talking about again...? 

[jimmydeanno]

I enjoyed reading these because they give good feedback on what we're doing "wrong."

A few overwhelming themes that I found:

1) Poor leadership at the local level.
2) We sell them Key West and deliver a chemical plant in New Jersey.
3) Not enough local activities.
4) Cadets are left to figure stuff out on their own (see #1).

That about summed it up for me, and fortunatley I can say that our squadron doesn't do anything like the above.

On a retention standpoint, I found out that NH has the highest retention rate in CAP   So we must be doing something right - although you wouldn't think so looking around

[RiverAux]

where did you get the retention stat from?

[jimmydeanno]

where did you get the retention stat from?

No where in the surveys, personal contact.

[star1151]

Two questions:

Will anyone actually act on this (rather fascinating) information?

And huh?  "Many cadets not loyal to Constitution..tended to disregard nation's sovereignty."

[RiverAux]

While interesting, I'm not sure the surveys provided me with much information that I could personally use.....

So, what questions should have been asked that would help those at the local level address retention and recruitment issues?

[skippytim]

Did anyone catch this yet:

18. What are your reasons for not renewing your membership? (check all that apply)

One person responded with Other;

"This Cadet is deceased, The parent of this cadet is very disturbed by this survey."

#37, I'm not joking. WTF.  :clap:

[Eagle400]

I really believe that CAP is a great program. Unfortunately, individual squadrons can make or break the program.

Some of the senior members need to realize this isnt the real airforce, were just kids if we mess up one time they dont need to bust our chops about it. one senior member made me command a squad in a moch SAR exercise at a local forest i did one thing wrong and he was swaring at me and said terrible things about me behind my back to a friend. Lt Col. Richard levit 143rd composite squadron CT wing if he was a little more nice I BELIEVE I would still be in CAP its a great program and i used to love it until our senior members became jerks

i wish that my experience was better. I think that if I was at another group it would have been different. i think the program is probably better than what is avialable in my area. bummer

if there was no staffing change the program would still be thriving. the squadron should consider putting back the way the other leaders were running it and not just listen to one biased senior member that thinks that things only work her way and behind the scene destroyed the program grand rapids had going for her selfish reasons. i would go back to cap if things were changed for the better. all i know is that about 6 seniors quit and a bunch of active cadets left. in a short period of time.

These responses highlight one of the biggest and most systemic problems in CAP: poor quality assurance.  Somehow, despite the IG system and CAP/CAP-USAF inspections, many >many< squadrons are not held accountable as they should be.

I know when I was a cadet, I had to travel 30 minutes to attend a squadron that was decent; the unit that was 10 minutes away from me had problems with cadet abuse and hazing, among other inexcusable acts of commission.  The hazing and abuse did not start overnight; these were problems that grew as a result of months of failed leadership and incredible ignorance on the part of the CC, CD, and DCC, among others.  

I understand that no organization is perfect, but why can't CAP hold folks more accountable?  Is it because of the "I'm just a volunteer" mindset, or are people just plain stupid?  

[jpnelson82]

No surprise to me. CAP has problems. Is CAP an ES organization and nothing else or is it JROTC and nothing else.  Some squadrons are very military and care about military stuff, and only give curt nods to ES. others are all about ES and only give curt nods to AE and the cadet program. We have seniors who are both good and bad, we also have seniors who want CAP to be like it was when they were cadets. CAP is kinda like NASA, an organization charged with doing everything at the same time and the budget and specialists to do ONE thing really well. Every squadron is different, only way to fix that is to up the requirements to join. Cadets are different from what they were when I was cadet major, mine weren't playing cello,guitar, football, chess, and taking Pre-Calculus and AP Physics, it's crazy. My fellow cadets were all about CAP, it wasn't just an entry on the college application. CAP needs some more activities to keep morale up as well.