California Cadet Programs Conference

[abdsp51]

Ok can you honestly say it's broken and needs to be fixed if you have not been?

[Noah Chun]

No, but I believe the suggestion I gave will help CPC to be better (refer back to the first post).

[abdsp51]

IMO you should not try to suggest something is broken and how to fix it if you have not had the experience.   I do not know if that sentiment is shared and I am going to leave it at that.

[Noah Chun]

The only thing I want anyone to take from this is that, in California, it would be better to have a weekend long seminar for Color Guard so that those that want to start a Color Guard back at their squadron will have a firmer ground to start on rather than the short and extremely general Color Guard seminar.

[Eclipse]

^ Then say that.

Impuning another activity that you have no direct knowledge of because it doesn't focus on one subject is not a good way to go about it, and while it
may be 8-hours away for you, it's in the back yard for others, such is the reality of large states with small memberships (as all of our wings are). Further,
the nature and purpose of wing-level conferences is to expose the participants to a wide-range of topics at a fairly superficial level so that your interest is
peaked and you have enough information to take back home and get started locally.

How about running your own Color Guard seminar in your area and fixing the problem?

[BillB]

Several years ago Capt (later Major) David Leali started the Florida Wing Color Guard Academy. It must have worked since Florida Wing Color Guard teams have won National CG Comp I believe 5 times in seven years.

[PA Guy]

C/Capt Chun,

You need to get out more and gather some facts instead of relying on second/third hand info and war stories.

[PHall]

This years CPC is under totally different management. There will be some changes from what has happened in the last few years.
So most of the "war stories" that date from the last few years are obsolete.
So come on down, take a look at what's happening and tell us what we did right and what we need to improve.

[excellenceiawd]

I have been to CPC before, but I did not think it was worth my weekend. The cadets that attended did not have respect that a cadet should. There were no senior members present inside the whole barracks. I hope this problem changes this year. About the seminars, I've recently found out that there will be a zombie survival seminar along with other seminars this year. Will the cadets really need this in the future? Or is this just a funny idea from today's games.
I hope that there will be better classes that cadets who attend could use in the squadron when they return, and teach others the new, useful tips that will guide them.

[Extremepredjudice]

The military has a guide book on zombie survival

[Eclipse]

^ Yes, and generally they are tongue-in-cheek presentations that cloak general disaster survival and preparedness information
within an the humorous context of a zombie Apocalypse.

[Extremepredjudice]

No, it was more of the serious survival type books. Basically it was wilderness survival, with a few other things tossed in.

[NCRblues]

That sounds like an amazing time!!

CAP and zombie invasion survival!!

[Extremepredjudice]

I wonder how many ELTs would be going off during a zombie apocalypse...?

[NCRblues]

I wonder how many ELTs would be going off during a zombie apocalypse...?

Well, if we want to get a little zombie geeky here...

If you take the recent Resident Evil movie as an example....

When the female main character arrives in Alaska looking for "arcadia" and finds a field full of A/C, you have to assume there are a lot of "pilots" that did not make it. Flying from the lower 48 up into Canada then on into Alaska with no weather/GPS/ATC would be VERY hard for many pilots....so assume a 1 in 5 shot of actually making it to Alaska (safety if you will) and you have a LOT of ELTs....

[a2capt]

Zombie Jamboree
Zombie Jamboree-Harry Belafonte

[Ron1319]

I went two years ago and even helped instruct a couple of classes.  You have to ask yourself what you expect to get out of the activity and what would make it worthwhile to you.  If you want a color guard training, CPC is not the event for you.  It's a conference.  There are seminars and classes and social time.  A couple of our cadets put together a long list of things that they would have changed about the event. 

I found the lining up of the NCO guys outside of the banquet hall and the parading of the girls and their dates to be not in line with what I expect from CAP.  A couple of the girls who I drove to the hall said that they found it disrespectful and uncomfortable. 

I did not note any seniors who drank too much when I was there.  Some of us did have a beer in the bar before the banquet started.

Hopefully the new management will improve the activity.

What have you heard about CAC?

[Eclipse]

I found the lining up of the NCO guys outside of the banquet hall and the parading of the girls and their dates to be not in line with what I expect from CAP.  A couple of the girls who I drove to the hall said that they found it disrespectful and uncomfortable. 

From 50K that's sounds a little mini-Tailhook, and gets into the question of "Where were the seniors?" which always comes up when these "questionable"
idea come up.

[Ron1319]

I have no idea what a tail hook is other than something on the back of a fighter plane.  I think you're confusing institutionalized CAWG tradition with the action of an unsupervised cadet staff.  Don't worry, I've made the same mistake.

[Eclipse]

An institutionalized tradition that violates common sense and borders on harassment is no more legit than something unsupervised cadets do.