National membership numbers for past 10 years?

[Woodsy]

Does anyone have an average annual membership numbers for the past 10 years?  Or more?  Just curious to see if there's a trend. 

[Майор Хаткевич]

That info is in the TLC Course materials. Just saw it two weekends ago. It's been more or less static in that time period.

[FW]

Membership numbers have been "static" for the last 30 years; maybe longer... people come; people go

[Майор Хаткевич]

Membership numbers have been "static" for the last 30 years; maybe longer... people come; people go

There was that 9/11 bump. Followed by the 2003 "Why did I join again?" fall.

[Woodsy]

Membership numbers have been "static" for the last 30 years; maybe longer... people come; people go

There was that 9/11 bump. Followed by the 2003 "Why did I join again?" fall.

It seems to me that membership is down significantly vs. 10 years ago.  I haven't been around CAP nearly that long, but I've heard that from the long-time members.  I wanted to take a look at the years and see if I could attribute the drop to any significant events in those years or the year or 2 prior.  For example, an ops guy told me he thinks many members left in the year or 2 after 121.5 monitoring stopped because they got bored with the reduced mission load. 

[Stonewall]

I had stats up through early 2000s posted somewhere, maybe it was on the old CadetStuff forum site.  I have a collection of Reports to Congress from the 80s through late 90s, maybe early 2000s where they list all the stats.

Perhaps there's a link at NHQ's site to an electronic version of the Annual Report to Congress where you can compile the numbers there.

EDIT:  Google is my friend.  Click linky for RTC's through 2008.  Where did the last 4 go?

According to 2008 RTC, there are approximately 57,000 members. 

[sardak]

EDIT:  Google is my friend.  Click linky for RTC's through 2008.  Where did the last 4 go?

They stopped publishing the RTCs and replaced them with Financial Reports. Look higher up on the page for the reports for 2008 through 2011.

The actual membership numbers aren't shown in the Financial Reports, just nice round numbers. The membership numbers are in the Legislative Day Newsletters, one for each wing, so they have to be extracted and summed. Having gathtered most of the numbers for other reasons (some are here on CAP Talk, with charts) here is what I have:

2000 - 59,442
2001 - 58,090
2002 - 62,350 (the 9/11 spike)
2003 - 64,535 (continued)
2004 - 60,207 (disenchantment sets in)
2005 - 56,888
2006 - 55,889
2007 - 56,464
2008 - 54,383
2009 - "nearly 60,000" (from the financial report) February 1, 2009 was the day Sarsat stopped monitoring 121.5 MHz
2010 - 61,812 (from the legislative news letters)
2011 - 61,133 (ditto)

So why the big jump from 2008 to 2009?

Mike

[a2capt]

So why the big jump from 2008 to 2009?

Pineda got the Boot.

[Critical AOA]

So why the big jump from 2008 to 2009?

The presidential election?

[Devil Doc]

Politics? Less jobs, so people have more time to Volunteer? You think the election would boost members? Do these numbers differentiate, Active members from sponsors etc?

[FW]

The big "boost" in membership numbers from 08 to 09 may be due to counting AEM's, CSM's and, Honorary memberships. Full paid (active cadet and senior) memberships in CAP haven't really changed that significantlty from year to year. From FY 06 to FY 10, I would say no more than a few hundred members one way or another. We've been "stuck" at about 60k for years; give or take 10%...

[Private Investigator]

It seems to me that membership is down significantly vs. 10 years ago. 

Well you have to qualify that statement. National, Wing, Group or Squadron level? If you do most of your CAP experience at the Squadron level your might be in a dying Unit. In my area I have a choice of ten Units in 30 minutes driving time. One Unit has three SMs attending regularly another has 30+ SMs attending. Ten years ago it was just the opposite. 

[Devil Doc]

I can go to other units in My Area. Some of them are more active, little further drives etc. I stuck with the first one i went to, and the closest. I love my Sqaudron and love the Leadership, even if other SMs leave to other units. I stick by our Squadron Commander, and im there for him for anything, all he has to do is ask

Now back on Topic. I noticed that CAP isnt using the .GOV adress anymore, and went to .org. Now is this times showing that we are further switching over to "Corporate" instead of "Government"? If things are going how they are, or what the rumors state. I have a feeling CAP will lose members each year, just IMO.

[Pylon]

Now back on Topic. I noticed that CAP isnt using the .GOV adress anymore, and went to .org. Now is this times showing that we are further switching over to "Corporate" instead of "Government"? If things are going how they are, or what the rumors state.

This isn't a movement to switch anything.  CAP isn't an agency within the federal government; it was founded as and continues to legally exist as a private, non-profit organization recognized by the IRS with a 501(c)(3) non-profit designation.  The .org domain is more appropriate given our legal status, especially because it will assist with our need to reach out to grant-makers, corporate sponsors, foundations, and means of external support as our congressionally-provided dollars have already and most likely will continue to dwindle.  People and foundations donate money to and volunteer with benevolent organizations because they believe in their mission; people and foundations generally don't want to donate extra money to the federal government.

The .gov TLD also comes with many restrictions that limit CAP whereas the .org does not. 

I have a feeling CAP will lose members each year, just IMO.

The statistics posted above don't reflect that.

[Ned]

Now back on Topic. I noticed that CAP isnt using the .GOV adress anymore, and went to .org. Now is this times showing that we are further switching over to "Corporate" instead of "Government"? If things are going how they are, or what the rumors state. I have a feeling CAP will lose members each year, just IMO.

CAP uses both .org and .gov domains, depending on the needs of the particular system.  There are significant restrictions on the use of the .gov domain, and sometimes we need to do stuff in the .org world.

The "Corporate vs. AF Aux" meme is largely the creation of folks here on CAPTalk and has little connection to events at NHQ or the Air Force.  Congress made CAP a corporation over 50 years ago.  Some people here make it sound like it happened just recently.  I'd like to think Congress got it right, but I suppose reasonable minds could differ.

You can find countless threads here fussing over whether CAP is moving "toward" or "away" from the AF, or whether the AF "values" us less now than they did X number of years ago.  I think it is our second-most favorite thing to discuss.  (After uniforms, of course.)

I spend a lot of time in meetings with AF senior officers, and I have never, ever, heard anything like that mentioned, let alone discussed.  It is simply not an issue.  I'm deadly serious on this.  I have spent a fair amount of time alone discussing CAP matters with the AF Vice Chief of Staff and he was as solidly supportive of us as he could be.  I have met countless times one-on-one with the last three or four CAP-USAF commanders, and it simply never came up.

And it is not just the brass that is supportive.  I grew up working the the CP world, and during the course of 50 or so encampments, NCSAs, and region cadet leadership schools held on AF bases I dealt with a lot of low to mid-level AF members.  I cannot ever recall them mentioning anything about "distancing" or a "corporate mentality."  They were just highly professional NCOs and officers supporting our activities, almost always happily.

This being CAPTalk, someone is bound to point out that this is just anecdotal evidence and doesn't reflect their reality.  And that may be true, of course.  I can't be everywhere, and I certainly have not spoken to everyone in the AF. 

But I submit it is pretty good anecdotal evidence.  My suggestion is to take "us versus them" discussions with a grain of salt, as with most things on the interwebs.

Thank you for your service.  It is truly appreciated.

Ned Lee
CAP Enthusiast

[Devil Doc]

Thanks for letting me know about the switch from .GOV to .ORG. I like how you explained this to me, which makes more since now. I cannot explain the decline or increase in CAP Members. I love this organization and will stand by it regardless. I just know this is a discussion and im glad it was cleared up.

Has there been eviedence of reason fro decline or increase in CAP Members. We all can come up with reasons. I figured there would be some kind of study for the recruitment efforts? Maybe?

[Woodsy]

Well it seems that national numbers are actually up in this time period, not down as I had thought...

Now, to figure out why my wing is down down 20% from 5K to 4K in this same period...

[Eclipse]

Does anyone have an average annual membership numbers for the past 10 years?  Or more?  Just curious to see if there's a trend.

Easy answer.

The membership has been essentially static for at least the last decade to 15 years.

Some join, some leave, no growth, no shrinkage.  Occasionally someone tweaks how the numbers are counted and things
looks like they are up, down or sideways that month / year, but never with more then a +/- 5000 members either way.
Which sounds like a big number, but in the grande scheme really isn't.

[Private Investigator]

Well it seems that national numbers are actually up in this time period, not down as I had thought...

Now, to figure out why my wing is down down 20% from 5K to 4K in this same period...

Same reason some Squadrons are down 50% +/- in the same period. They are not doing anything. Some Squadrons always get new Senior and Cadet members because they are on GA airport, military base or affulent communities. No recruiting require, you will get people to come but they need to retain them. Other areas has Units that is held together my a few people but eventually they die or move into a nursing home. Units come and go as do people.