Training/Exercise Notifcation and Planning

[Stonewall]

As a CC & DCC, I have always produced 6 month calendars that include both squadron meetings and weekend activities, especially ES activities.  For instance, the last meeting in December would have been when I hand out the calendar from January to June 2009.  You may not know what the FTX/SAR-EX/SARCAP will include, but you will know that on 7-8 Feb there is an ES training opportunity, or a one day GES/ROA course being offered the third Saturday in March.

How far in advance do most of you recieve an operations order or concept of operations?

My standard has been one month prior, usually at a squadron meeting with follow ups and changes via email.

Does anyone solely rely on WIMRS as a means to notify people of training missions?  Should it be an individual's responsibility to check WIMRS to see when training missions will take place? 

Just curious what the standard is, if any.  I'm a huge proponent of advanced notification so people can plan to attend and participate as much as possible.  Especially for cadets; parental notificaiton is key to their cadets attendance.

[Timbo]

Does anyone solely rely on WIMRS as a means to notify people of training missions?  Should it be an individual's responsibility to check WIMRS to see when training missions will take place? 

Unfortunately some people do not have a computer.  Until CAP gives every new member a laptop, then making it the members responsibility to access a network they may not have access to is not an option. 

I believe one month out is enough time to notify members. 

[LtCol057]

One month is normally ok, but for somethings more is needed. For example, I have to put in my vacation request for the year by 15Dec the previous year.  That's for the weeklong vacations. But if something else comes up during the year, I have to put in on the 10th the previous month. 

I try to make out the quarterly calendar for the cadet's parents, just so they know when something is planned.  I let them know things change sometimes at the last minute. I also mail the calendar to the parents because last few times I gave them to cadets, most were left at the squadron building.

[brasda91]

Unfortunately some people do not have a computer.  Until CAP gives every new member a laptop, then making it the members responsibility to access a network they may not have access to is not an option. 

Can they get to the local library and use the computer there?  If not, they can use the buddy system and call their fellow cadets.

[jimmydeanno]

Unfortunately some people do not have a computer.  Until CAP gives every new member a laptop, then making it the members responsibility to access a network they may not have access to is not an option. 

Timbo, you realize it isn't 1982 anymore right?  According to the US Census Bureau as of June 2008, 72.5% of the entire population of the US has internet access, with more than half of them with broadband.  Eliminate those who are too young to have or use internet (small children, etc) and those who choose not to use the internet (extremely elderly) and you're probably into the 90% range. 

From there, how many of those ~10% do you think are CAP members, have no access to internet at school or the library or a friends house. 

The "I don't have a computer" argument just doesn't hold water anymore, the amount is so few that you can't base your entire organization around the few that don't.

[NIN]

The "I don't have a computer" argument just doesn't hold water anymore, the amount is so few that you can't base your entire organization around the few that don't.

Having a computer and internet access != using it for the intended purpose and using it correctly.

For example, most of my cadets now have email addresses.

A quick survey shows that 30% of the cadets with email addresses really don't have "their own" email, its mom or dad's email.

Another quick survey bears out that less than 1/2 of my cadets who do have their own email address actually *check* said email address on something more than a "per millennium" basis.  Questions like "Did you get my email last week?" are followed by blank looks and phrases like "Oh, I never check that" or "My computer is broken."

(and telling them to go to the library or check at school is usually met with "Can I do that?")

I ran the IT department at a college for 4 years.   The concept that today's kids are "more computer savvy than we are" is a myth.  If its not Instant Messenger or Facebook, iTunes or maybe MS Word, then its foreign to them.  If I had a buck for every kid that came into my help desk absolutely clueless about things like antivirus, spyware, defragging, etc, I could buy CAP-Talk lunch.

As an over-connected adult, I think its unrealistic to abandon more traditional forms of communication (phone, for example, or even the mail) for something that only has a 75-90% penetration rate.

I imagine someone had this same conversation around 1947:

Homer McCadet: "How do you get alerted for a mission, Sergeant?"
Mortimer Flightcap: "Sergeant Smith pedals his bike over to my house and rings my door bell."
Homer McCadet: "Why doesn't he just use the telephone?"
Mortimer Flightcap: "We don't have one where we live. The wires aren't there yet."

[Timbo]

^ +1

I know three Cadets in my unit that although "have" the internet, their Parent(s) will not allow them unsupervised access to it, and won't even ponder the question as to allowing an email account. 

I honestly do not know many 13 or 14 year olds who check email even on a weekly basis.

However, I was leaning more toward some Senior Members when I made the computer comment.  We (unfortunately) are "elder-heavy".  We have many senior citizen eligible individuals, who choose not to become computer users.

Phone and email, in conjunction with old fashioned word of mouth is the best way to make members aware of training opportunities.  I feel if a member was not timely informed of a training exercise, it was a breakdown in communication and only the Commander is responsible. 

[arajca]

There is only so much hand-holding you can do. There comes a time when the member has to take some responsibility for keeping themselves informed.

I have seen members notified via email, meeting anouncements, and snail-mail of activities and still complain they were not informed about the activity. This is still and all-too-common scenario. Sorry, that break-down is NOT the commander's fault.

The unit I meet with is planning a GT boiviac for May/Jun timeframe. Heads-up announcements have already been made, with the details to follow caveat.

[Eclipse]

I have seen members notified via email, meeting announcements, and snail-mail of activities and still complain they were not informed about the activity. This is still and all-too-common scenario. Sorry, that break-down is NOT the commander's fault.

Ditto - I've encouraged those who are not connected to buddy up with a mentor, etc., to insure they are notified and kept informed, seems like a pretty simple idea, people nod their heads in the meetings, and then it doesn't happen, anyway.

Bottom line, people do what they:

A) Want to.

B) Feel is important to them.

We're never going to change that.

Every year I have cadets who are uber-eager to be on encampment staff calling and emailing me weekly as to when the app process, etc., will start, and then its a run to see who gets theirs in first.  On the other hand I have Unit CC's telling me we had no idea there even was an encampment, despite the fact that this particular activity has been run consecutively for 17+ years.

And then, of course, there are those who simply want the universe fed to them on one of those little baby spoons with the rubber cover.

"When is the deadline for applications?"
"All the details, including application deadlines, are on the website.  Have you downloaded the application?  Its right there on the first page."
"Yes, I have the application right here, but I wanted to ask you to be sure."
(Mind you, the dates are in bold-faced, red letters, underlined).

I've been trying to get my units to input their plans into a Group-level consolidated calendar for about 3 years - you'd think
I was asking them to perform self root canal - then every time there is a resources conflict we have the same conversation.

This also touches on meeting frequency.  If you have a well-connected group of members and a coherent information management strategy, then maybe weekly meetings aren't as important - IM, Groupware, Skype, etc., can keep people very well connected.

However if you're meeting once a month, and you have a large contingent of disconnected members, you're going to spend a lot of time on the phone trying to deconflict resources and activities.

When Al Gore Bob Kahn, Vincent Cerf, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet they provided us with tools to alleviate most of the pain of running a squadron.  Its less social (to some), but more efficient.

As NIN mentioned, we've been having these conversations since day 1, especially as it pertains to the last CAP information underclass - the radio haves and have-nots.

[SarDragon]

When Al Gore Bob Kahn, Vincent Cerf, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet they provided us with tools to alleviate most of the pain of running a squadron. 

Any relation to this guy - Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf?

[Stonewall]

I started this thread based on a recent experience, but didn't want to say exactly what happened, who is responsible, and be seen as a whiner.

11 years years ago I wrote a paper called Personal Views and Experiences in Creating a Successful Composite Squadron.

In "step 6" it says...

Communicate and distribute all information. E-mail is the best way to communicate today. People forget about a phone call, and they forget about email too. But the next time they open up their email account it will hopefully still be sitting there and remind them they were supposed to call their cadets. Always put out information multiple times. By multiple, I mean every chance you get. Don't tell your cadets about the air show coming up in May back in April and have that be the last time you talk about it. Mention it in every e-mail you send and at every meeting. Even if you don't have all the information, simply remind them that their support will be needed and we'll get the information to them ASAP.

Weekly email. I started this the week I got my first computer. I got the address of everyone in the squadron that had e-mail and sent out an email every Monday to keep them on track for what was to come at the next meeting and up to a month in advance for weekend activities. I started with about nine addresses and got up to sixty, which included cadets and seniors. This e-mail is very important and shouldn't be done unless it's done right. Don't confuse people with a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, keep it simple and to the point. Talk about what's coming up at the next meeting and include the uniform of the day. Then talk about past actions where you can recognize people for doing a good job. Finally, list all activities for the next 4 or 5 weeks. When you do this just don't put "Orientation Flights", put down all the information about the orientation flights and include where, when, how long, the uniform, and when to be picked up.

Email was cool back then, not a nuisance like it is can be now.  Cadet leadership in my squadron have their own website, different from the "official" squadro website that has a schedule on it.  Not a single phone call is made, ever.  Emails aren't sent out and the senior side doesn't communicate with the cadet side.

I hope to fix this.

Here is how I think things like ES exercises should be planned (at the squadron level).

1.  Use a 6 month schedule and have your weekends/dates identified for ES training.

2.  Assign a project officer/cadet for that activity.

3.  Two months out, begin planning.

4.  One month out, issue OPORD and announce this activity "officially" at the meeting.  Follow up with the cadets' weekly call-downs.  Weekly or bi-weekly emails and even on the squadron website, which I don't do because I believe in having low maintenance squadron websites.  Not to mention twice a year everyone gets a copy of the 6 month calendar.

Last week, at 20:55, 5 minutes before COB, I hear cadets getting excited about something so I inquire.  I learned, 36 hours before the fact, that there was a funded training exercise for both air and ground crews at our squadron.  This was the first I heard about it.  Granted I haven't been too active but I have always been on the squadron email distribution list.  But when I asked the cadet XO when he learned about it, he said "just now".

When I inquired when this was announced, I was told exactly this "just now, it's on the board".  Then I asked, how does one learn about these things in advance for future use (I'm genuinely asking here, not being confrontational), and I was told "check WIMRS".  I learned that it was authorized 2 months prior, but this was the first the cadets had heard about it.

I definitely don't want to make waves, but this is definitely an area that needs improving.  I'll work to make information available to the cadets in the future.

[Duke Dillio]

So going back to the original post, my squadron's officers meet the second week of January (tomorrow night in fact) to create the annual training calender.  We plan training for the whole year with backups and other gizmos built in (i.e. weather related changes, etc.)  We then publish the calender on the wall in our building, on the squadron website, and announce training a couple of weeks before.