COVID - Your Wing/Unit Status, how have you done this year of COVID and what ...

Started by JohhnyD, March 05, 2021, 02:00:58 AM

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etodd

Zoom meetings are no fun.  (Although you can tilt your camera up so only your face shows and wear anything or nothing.)

We need face to face for retention and recruiting, is one very obvious lesson.

"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

Eclipse

Quote from: JohhnyD on March 05, 2021, 02:00:58 AM...lessons have we all learned?

That people think they "know better" and can't follow simple rules and common sense when they conflict with their
world view.

"That Others May Zoom"

JohhnyD

Quote from: Eclipse on March 05, 2021, 03:05:45 AM
Quote from: JohhnyD on March 05, 2021, 02:00:58 AM...lessons have we all learned?

That people think the "know better" and can't follow simple rules and common when they conflict with their
world view.
Such as?

Fubar

That during a pandemic that requires us to remain home unless absolutely necessary means all the things about CAP I don't like, the bureaucracy, leadership issues, drama, and inspections got to continue while the stuff I do like, such as hanging with awesome people, working on fun projects together, and working through hands on training all stopped. VolU had the opportunity of launching at the perfect time, but fell to MIA instructors, buggy software, confusing requirements, and downright chaos at times.

I'm not sure what CAP could have done differently. CAP is by no means essential, so following CDC guidance was the smart move. The pandemic certainly highlighted what has been said here many times, we have a retention problem not a recruiting problem. Once we were forced to essentially stop recruiting, the record departures revealed an ugly truth that has been ignored for too long.

TheSkyHornet

We were completely mistaken that we couldn't hold effective staff meetings online rather than our prior philosophy that only in-person discussions were effective. I'm specifically referring to a staff meeting, not hands-on training classes. Now, I'm able to take quite a bit of that back and take pieces of what we were able to do virtually and apply to a face-to-face meeting. But, it's functional online.

Another item we had never even considered was virtual Training Leaders of Cadets. It's been so much more effective for us to get on a call with members from across the country and share different ideas rather than being restricted to local culture in a 250 x 250-mile state. I am now completely sold that "in-person is not always better than virtual." In this case, having that outreach and that involvement from across multiple wings has been so beneficial.

I will say that I have really come to learn to appreciate how reduced my workload was when everything was in person. With being in hybrid status, it's been twice the work to manage. So I'm very much looking forward to having everyone back in one room or at one training site.

JohhnyD

Quote from: etodd on March 05, 2021, 03:03:13 AMZoom meetings are no fun.  (Although you can tilt your camera up so only your face shows and wear anything or nothing.)

We need face to face for retention and recruiting, is one very obvious lesson.


We retained and grew our membership during the year of COVID.

CAP9907

Quote from: JohhnyD on March 05, 2021, 05:22:33 PM
Quote from: etodd on March 05, 2021, 03:03:13 AMZoom meetings are no fun.  (Although you can tilt your camera up so only your face shows and wear anything or nothing.)

We need face to face for retention and recruiting, is one very obvious lesson.


We retained and grew our membership during the year of COVID.

What Unit is that? Since we can all see the statistics and trends in a search, should be easy to verify.

I'd like to know what your Local Unit did better to stem the bleeding of Members; what are your best practices and advice to other Units?

~9907
21 yrs of service

Our Members Code of Conduct can be found here:   http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=13.0

JohhnyD

Quote from: CAP9907 on March 06, 2021, 01:12:58 AM
Quote from: JohhnyD on March 05, 2021, 05:22:33 PM
Quote from: etodd on March 05, 2021, 03:03:13 AMZoom meetings are no fun.  (Although you can tilt your camera up so only your face shows and wear anything or nothing.)

We need face to face for retention and recruiting, is one very obvious lesson.


We retained and grew our membership during the year of COVID.

What Unit is that? Since we can all see the statistics and trends in a search, should be easy to verify.

I'd like to know what your Local Unit did better to stem the bleeding of Members; what are your best practices and advice to other Units?

~9907
RMR-ID-083 We are at 117 today with over half a dozen submitted apps sitting at NHQ for a total of 123. We started in March of last year with 121 members. We also have almost a dozen prospective members coming to meetings.

Best advice - have an engaged leadership team that cares. We have the least ego-driven, most mission-driven command staff I have encountered ever. That includes a three-member NCO corps that absolutely ROCKS.

Best practices - engagement matters, keep people engaged, be innovative and stay involved in the community. See https://cdapress.com/news/2020/apr/22/civil-air-patrol-helps-emergency-operations-5/ for an example of that. Service matters and we serve our community well.

None of this is rocket science, but it takes a LOT of dedicated, hard work and builds on five decades of really incredible people whose backs we get to stand on. No silver bullets. Just mission driven, ego-free service.

JohhnyD

Quote from: TheSkyHornet on March 05, 2021, 05:06:51 PMI am now completely sold that "in-person is not always better than virtual." In this case, having that outreach and that involvement from across multiple wings has been so beneficial.

Indeed. Well said.

jeders

Thread pruned, leave the personal attacks out of it or else.
If you are confident in you abilities and experience, whether someone else is impressed is irrelevant. - Eclipse

Toad1168

In Missouri, I found and was not shocked, that the units with a thriving and well rounded program easily adapted and either stayed the same or actually grew.  Units that were struggling prior, have had significant losses and in some cases may not recover. Losses were obviously most prevalent in the cadet ranks.

It has really reinforced the need for units to be putting forth a robust and well rounded program.  Focus on retention of existing members and use social media to recruit.
Toad

JohhnyD

Quote from: Toad1168 on March 09, 2021, 07:29:38 PMIn Missouri, I found and was not shocked, that the units with a thriving and well rounded program easily adapted and either stayed the same or actually grew.  Units that were struggling prior, have had significant losses and in some cases may not recover. Losses were obviously most prevalent in the cadet ranks.

It has really reinforced the need for units to be putting forth a robust and well rounded program.  Focus on retention of existing members and use social media to recruit.
We get a steady stream of interested prospects via FB Jobs. Probably a dozen or more per year, and a fair join and stay rate.

Holding Pattern

Every person that I know that took SLS, CLC, RSC, and TLC online were ecstatic about how well those classes ran barring the initial speedbumps of "how do I videoconference" and audio/video discipline.

Every person I know that has partaken of the volunteer university has likened the experience to the worst product rollout ever, especially in the face of the fact that instead of creating this byzantine program we could have just said "Do SLS/CLC/RSC/TLC, but online."

Jester

Quote from: Holding Pattern on March 10, 2021, 12:38:15 AMEvery person that I know that took SLS, CLC, RSC, and TLC online were ecstatic about how well those classes ran barring the initial speedbumps of "how do I videoconference" and audio/video discipline.

Every person I know that has partaken of the volunteer university has likened the experience to the worst product rollout ever, especially in the face of the fact that instead of creating this byzantine program we could have just said "Do SLS/CLC/RSC/TLC, but online."

I ran 4-6 TLC (half basic, half intermediate) over last spring and summer and I got good feedback overall about the format.  Also it was early lockdown and people hadn't reached tracer burnout yet with virtual training, so that may impact the perspective.  I did a couple of RSCs and one was spectacular and the other had some issues, all in the implementation.

I think you're on to something that they could have created a "package" of modules that would equate to SLS/CLC/RSC/NSC and you could either take the entire package in one hit like the old days, or work your way through one module at a time.

I teach a couple of modules a week virtually and see a big issue with newer members understanding the system, which is a problem because I barely understand the system.  Especially with Level 2 and its track system which confuses people about what they need, what they don't, what track they're in, etc.

Another issue is people thinking AXIS is a training record system, when the actual Professional Levels module in eServices tracks module completion.