More upates on the PAO changes coming... of course you have to hunt for it...

[Holding Pattern]

From the CAP PAO group, where the reception was so bad they closed commenting...

Brandon Lunsford
Admin
Greetings @everyone. To be clear, there is not a current release date for the new Marketing and Communications Officer Specialty Track. When the new program is released, there will be a 6-month phase-in date for new MACOs to acquire their technician ratings before the PAO specialty track is retired. PAOs will keep previously awarded PAO ratings on their personnel record. Once ratings are earned, they don't disappear, even if the specialty track is no longer active. Please understand that the MACO program is an entirely new approach. That being said, time spent on a current PAO rating will not transfer to the new MACO specialty track. Everyone who elects to progress in the new specialty track will have to begin with earning the technician rating, including members of the MAC national volunteer staff.
To address the specific question from [redacted] about whether he'll be able to get to his master rating, which requires 18 months of service as a senior-rated PAO, your national MAC volunteer staff certainly hopes that the answer is "no." Why? Because we're expecting the new specialty track to be released long before that. So, in Matt's case, he'll have the senior PA rating, then will start anew in the MACO specialty track when it's released.
To avoid speculation, please direct any questions you have regarding this process to me or the MAC team.

Bold mine.

Never mind that people might have their E&T plans halted by YEARS if they get their way!

They pulled this exact same maneuver with the swap from PD to E&T, so it is honestly unsurprising, but still disappointing.

Based on this, it makes literally zero sense for anyone to bother at this time doing any PA work as it won't actually "count" towards their progression needed to advance to higher grades or E&T levels.

[Holding Pattern]

Also, my favorite comment from him was in response to this question:

Can you give some idea of what types of training, skills, experience, etc., will be required for the new specialty track? What is this "entirely new approach?" It seems pretty drastic to abolish a specialty track, force everyone to start over from scratch, and not even give credit for time served in the old one. Is expertise and experience in media relations now considered irrelevant and unimportant?

He responds:

Great question [redacted]. In recent years, we've been transitioning at the HQ level from a Public Affairs focus that is very internally focused to a Marketing and Strategic Communications focus that puts more emphasis on communicating externally to support recruiting, sponsorship, and donor acquisition. Instead of mostly talking to ourselves about ourselves, we're trying to get away from the notion that CAP is "America's best-kept secret." We are building a directorate that plays a major role in increasing the overall capacity of the organization's marketing.
The new MACO specialty track is an omnichannel approach that will encourage wings to develop a centralized MAC team with members who possess a wide range of skill sets. No longer will a single individual be expected to be the end-all know-all of the role. Wings will have the opportunity to include multiple people on the MAC team who specialize in specific skills – photographers and videographers, media relations specialists, graphic designers, social media content developers, etc. MACOs with these specialized skills will have multiple training opportunities to advance their rating. For example, a photographer can focus on their craft rather than having to write a certain number of press releases to progress in the specialty track.
Hope that helps. More will come when we release the details. Keep in mind that the current public affairs program was developed at a time when news releases were mailed or faxed, photographers used film, and printed marketing materials were the standard. That doesn't reflect the current tactics that are being used in marketing today.

(again bold mine)
I'm just gonna say it: If they thought they were in any way "internally focused" they are as usual, completely disconnected from the boots on the ground in squadrons, groups, and wings.

[Holding Pattern]

Also: the reason I posted this here?

After people brought up concerns, the admins locked the thread to prevent any dissenting discussion.

So much for this being a member driven program.

[Fubar]

This highlights fairly well one of the issues CAP has with training. The idea being that CAP will train you to perform a specific duty position where the training will be tracked via three levels of competency to hopefully help, over a period of years, create a member who can serve a unit, group, or wing in a specific role in a professional manner. Unfortunately it devolved into getting assigned a duty position and waiting for time-in-service to pass so the check-the-box specialty track can be completed which then triggers a promotion that was waiting for the new specialty track level to be achieved.

It was a good idea, but just couldn't overcome a couple of big obstacles. First, tying promotions to specialty tracks makes sense, but the lack of accurate skills evaluation lead to pencil-whipping specialty tracks for members who are impatient for promotions. Second, CAP has specialty tracks for professional careers that take years of training, certifications, and schooling that CAP is trying to squeeze into a 20 page pamphlet and declare someone a "master" in just a couple of years (or less).

Another thing that happens in CAP is that you get some actual professionals who enjoy doing their day job for free for CAP. They immediately recognize our specialty track training provides a false sense of expertise and they band together to try and create a new program from scratch that recognizes their career knowledge while trying to force out the less capable. Like most things in a volunteer organization, anything that gets actual traction is often personality driven, once that small group leaves the old ways creep back in.

Other organizations our size provide check lists for limited tasks for locals to perform while kicking anything of importance to higher echelons. The local person who volunteers in a group that's a half a mile from nowhere isn't expected to develop a marketing plan, instead they're provided one that takes limited training or expertise to execute. It does appear the MAC folks are headed that direction.

[etodd]

No longer will a single individual be expected to be the end-all know-all of the role. Wings will have the opportunity to include multiple people on the MAC team who specialize in specific skills – photographers and videographers, media relations specialists, graphic designers, social media content developers, etc. MACOs with these specialized skills will have multiple training opportunities to advance their rating. For example, a photographer can focus on their craft rather than having to write a certain number of press releases to progress in the specialty track.

I get that. And in big markets where you have huge numbers of people interested, it 'might' could work. But in smaller Wings, it can often be hard to find volunteers for PAO, and now when they want to divide the work amongst multiple people ... who will they be?  And what if the photographer, videographer, writer, graphic designer, etc., all live 200 miles away from each other? They cannot always attend the same events. Hence, having people that are "jack of all trades" makes better practical sense.

[heliodoc]

Hmmmm

With all the requirements, CAP might have to start paying $5-$15 per "fire call" like volunteer FDs. Like etodd said, hard to get everyone together when they are 200 miles from each other...maybe thank God for TEAMS...we know how much everyone hates virtual....buts it's here....

[RiverAux]

I seem to recall that the PAO track got a revamping not all that many years ago. 

I don't think that the previous track was the cause of one person doing everything PA-related, it is just that very few people want to do anything PA related in the first place. So, the ones that do, get forced into being a jack-of-all-trades because there isn't anyone else to do it -- not unlike many of the specialty tracks when it gets right down to it. 

I worked the Wing PAO job hard in a small wing for about 5 years before burning out because there are so many things that can and probably should be done. 

There is a legit argument about spending time on internal vs external public affairs.  I think internal PA is pretty vital to keeping up morale by showing that even if you might not have done anything fun or interesting lately, at least someone has.  Prying news out of many squadrons to share across the Wing was a major chore, but I felt pretty good about the results. 

Did I think spending more time doing non-mission related external PA would have been valuable?  Yes, but I judged it a lower priority.  If there was more than me in the Wing shop, thats probably where I would have tried to aim them. 

[jeders]

I'm just gonna say it: If they thought they were in any way "internally focused" they are as usual, completely disconnected from the boots on the ground in squadrons, groups, and wings.

I'm gonna have to disagree. If you're seeing good externally focused PA materials coming from squadrons in your area, then that's great. But the majority of what I've seen is squadrons putting messages out for external audiences that were written as if for internal audiences. Too much focus on minutiae that our customers and partners don't care about or too many references that require insider knowledge.

If nothing else, the new system will (hopefully) prevent the unknowing pretenders from going out in public and spreading misinformation about what CAP actually is. If I never hear another "Lt Col" referring to the cadet program as "Air Force Academy Prep" or saying "you have to be a pilot in order to join as an adult" it will be too soon.

[Holding Pattern]

I'm just gonna say it: If they thought they were in any way "internally focused" they are as usual, completely disconnected from the boots on the ground in squadrons, groups, and wings.

I'm gonna have to disagree. If you're seeing good externally focused PA materials coming from squadrons in your area, then that's great. But the majority of what I've seen is squadrons putting messages out for external audiences that were written as if for internal audiences. Too much focus on minutiae that our customers and partners don't care about or too many references that require insider knowledge.

We had good training in my area. Never really had a problem at the local level, most issues crop up from wing and higher.

If nothing else, the new system will (hopefully) prevent the unknowing pretenders from going out in public and spreading misinformation about what CAP actually is. If I never hear another "Lt Col" referring to the cadet program as "Air Force Academy Prep" or saying "you have to be a pilot in order to join as an adult" it will be too soon.

I uh... wow.

I know I'm "new" at this being only a decade or so in but I can confidently say that I've never seen anything like that within 500 miles of my location.

Yikes.

[PHall]

I uh... wow.

I know I'm "new" at this being only a decade or so in but I can confidently say that I've never seen anything like that within 500 miles of my location.

Yikes.

You've been lucky then.

[Eclipse]

I uh... wow.

I know I'm "new" at this being only a decade or so in but I can confidently say that I've never seen anything like that within 500 miles of my location.

Yikes.

You've been lucky then.

Really lucky...

[ML07]

If I never hear another "Lt Col" referring to the cadet program as "Air Force Academy Prep" or saying "you have to be a pilot in order to join as an adult" it will be too soon.

Why Lt Col in quotes? Are you referring to those to those who made it there without doing to much during the old PD program?

[jeders]

If I never hear another "Lt Col" referring to the cadet program as "Air Force Academy Prep" or saying "you have to be a pilot in order to join as an adult" it will be too soon.

Why Lt Col in quotes? Are you referring to those to those who made it there without doing to much during the old PD program?

I'm actually referring to those who think that CAP rank in and of itself somehow makes them an expert at something that they otherwise have no experience with, regardless of where the rank came from or how they obtained it.

[ML07]

If I never hear another "Lt Col" referring to the cadet program as "Air Force Academy Prep" or saying "you have to be a pilot in order to join as an adult" it will be too soon.

Why Lt Col in quotes? Are you referring to those to those who made it there without doing to much during the old PD program?

I'm actually referring to those who think that CAP rank in and of itself somehow makes them an expert at something that they otherwise have no experience with, regardless of where the rank came from or how they obtained it.

Ah...