Typical "day" for a CC

[Walkman]

Reading Dminik's thread about becoming a CC got me curious. I've not been in command yet. When people are saying they spend 15-20+ hours a week on CAP as a CC, what are they doing? Aside from weekly meetings, anyway.

I'd like to see what an average week looks like for a CC. Lots of administrivia? Meetings with higher echelons? Planning? Maybe a monthly view is better...

Just wondering.

[DMinick]

I am looking forward to reading these answers!! I think this will be a huge help in learning what I may be looking at! Thank you for starting this one!!


Debby Minick, 1st LT
Stillwater Composite Squadron
OK-103

[Майор Хаткевич]

I'm in the same boat. While I hope command doesn't come to me anytime soon, I'm really curious as to what to expect (really need to get to a UCC soon).

[SARDOC]

I enjoyed my Tour as a Squadron CC.  I would typically spend at least ten hours a week doing CAP stuff.  Membership Issues, Cadet Programs, Emergency Services, Finance, Aerospace Education, Communications, Logistics, Public Affairs, Administrative, Transportation.  Among, Many, Many others.  My minimum Ten hours was thanks to a great Cadet Programs Staff and Finance Officer, who made sure everything went off without a hitch. 

Surround yourself with good people and you'll do fine.

[ol'fido]

A lot of it is doing exactly what you are doing now. Staring at a computer screen. E-mails, eServices, Word, Excel, Dropbox, WMIRs, etc.

[jimmydeanno]

In the other thread, I noted that I had been a Deputy Commander for Cadets a few times, as well as a Squadron Commander most recently.  All three units were struggling, so that's the context that my hours were spent in. 

My first unit as a senior member, just turning 21, was on the brink of closing.  Each meeting had no more than three members, usually two cadets and a senior member.  The squadron commander had been in CAP a long time, but wasn't very personable or welcoming.  The group commander replaced her a few weeks later and left the squadron to my wife and I to save.  We had no experience in senior member stuff, but had both been cadets.

The two cadets that showed up thought they knew everything and needed to be "put in their place," so to speak.  To start, we both had to dive into the regulations and figure out what we were required to do.  We created some stuff to make sure we hit the deadlines.  The next big thing we did was organize a recruiting booth at an upcoming airshow.  The two of us staffed it for 12 hours a day for three days.  The next week, we had about 60 people sitting in a room waiting to hear about CAP. 

We got the majority of people in the room to sign up, and found ourselves with 15 new seniors and about 35 cadets to train.  I took the cadets, my wife took the seniors.  Because everyone was new, we were doing everything for a few months.  Schedules, coordination, organization, teaching, mentoring, etc.  At the time, there weren't any cool cadet materials available, so there was also a significant amount of material creation at home for things like cadet handbooks, inspection sheets, etc. 

In addition to this, there was also the requirement to supervise, and even conduct the cadet activities.  This included two color guard practices a week (2 hour, 6 hour), an all-inclusive activity three times per month (usually 8 hours).

Then there was the commander's call attendance, meetings with the group commander, taking cadets to CAC meetings, and report composition.

Add onto that the membership inquiries, parent phone calls, notification composition (e-mails about activities, etc), and the hours stack up quickly.  Those first 6 months or so, we were putting 40-50 hours a week into CAP.  It was a good thing we were young and required little sleep and had no other obligations outside of a regular job (no kids, etc).

The outcome was that the unit was "saved."  A year after being on the brink of closing, the unit had more than 90 members, had won the region color guard competition, was Squadron of Merit for the wing, and someone decided to make me a Region Cadet Programs Officer of the Year.  Today, the unit is still doing OK, and still uses many of the processes and materials that we created nearly 10 years ago now. 


The second squadron was very much the story above, so rinse and repeat.

My term as squadron commander was a little different in that I served as the recruiting/retention officer for a year prior to taking over as the Squadron Commander.  So, unlike the units above, I didn't have to be in charge and recruit everyone, just recruit.  The area was a bit different, so in a year, I was able to double the unit membership to 65 members before taking command. 

As the commander, a lot of my time was spent working on community relations and fundraising.  Fortunately, I had a good staff that did their jobs well enough that the staff meetings were just check-offs that stuff was being accomplished and was on track.  I found myself talking to base personnel about moving our unit to a new building, getting the unit involved in the CFC, talking to base newcomers about our unit (two hour event twice a month), talking to local business owners for money and relationship building, and figuring out better ways to expose the unit to the community.  Some of the time was just travel and meetings.  Other time was phone calls, e-mails, and working with my staff during non-meeting hours to come up with some new plans for each area.  Where I wanted to see public affairs, logistics, finance, etc. 

The staff work became more of tweaking certain aspects of each part of the program, rather than having to run each aspect.  For example, I realized that our Cadet NCOs weren't really developing the airmen below them, so I worked with the Deputy Commander for Cadets to help shift the NCO focus.  The Senior program was starting to stagnate a little because of a lack of "meat" to the program.  Working with the Deputy Commander for Seniors, we came up with a plan to fix that and made the senior program better.

Also, when you are successful, there is also an unwritten obligation that you'd help develop that success in other units in the wing by volunteering to teach at courses like the Squadron Leadership Schools, Corporate Learning Course, Unit Commander's Course, etc. 

If I were to break it into an actual hour breakdown, I'd say a more realistic schedule is more like:

3.5 hours weekly in written communications 
3.5 hours weekly returning or initiating phone calls 
3 hours weekly for squadron meeting
4 hours weekly for other squadron activities (two 8 hour weekend events split evenly, SAREX, etc)
2 hours weekly working with outside organizations
4 hours weekly developing plans, etc.
-----
20 hours weekly*

*That's probably your typical week.  The number gets skewed when you spend an entire weekend at the Wing Conference, have to go to commander's call, have a teleconference, and have an SUI (Subordinate Unit Inspection) coming up that requires some hours getting ready for, or staff encampment.

[Майор Хаткевич]

20 hours...and a willing spouse. I have one...not sure on the other.

[Private Investigator]

A lot of it is doing exactly what you are doing now. Staring at a computer screen. E-mails, eServices, Word, Excel, Dropbox, WMIRs, etc.

Phone calls for various reasons. Fundraising, which I am not big on, but donations help. If you have a plane or vehicle, more problems to work on. 20 +/- hours a week usually. I never put off tasks. The most important thing is have fun   

[NIN]

I had a very similar experience to jimmydeano when I took over a unit with 12 active cadets and 3 senior members.

You wind up doing a LOT of scut work, especially when you have an extremely thin no senior staff, until you start finding out the things that are repeatable (and you have to learn what they are) that can benefit from some structure and process.

And of course, if you don't have a sufficient number of seniors who have the qualifications & ability to do certain staff duties, it falls to the commander.

From 1998 to 2004, I had a job where I had some flexibility in what went on during working hours.  That overlapped my time as DCP and squadron commander almost exactly.

[BillB]

For a Group CC you can add about another 50% to the hours worked by a Squadron CC. Dealing with Group activities and seven or more Squadron CC's on a regular basis is time consuming. If you have a major Wing staff position, it's double the workload of a Squadron CC to do a decent job.

[ironputts]

I have been either the deputy or commander of a squadron since I started CAP 20+ years ago. I have been in four squadrons and each was quite different from the other. As mentioned previously above the personnel there makes all the difference in the amount of time you put in as commander. Most squadrons have few senior members which makes life harder as there are so many duties and paperwork involved. With the advent of Eservices I find the work less paper intensive but there are more requirements and approvals today than there was 20 years ago when we started. This is not a dig but proof our organization has strived to be more professional and accountable in what we do. In the end we have to be organized and do the best we can.

So lets break it down from my experience:

Organizational Structure - this is a constant task to review the staff (senior and cadets) you have and get all that needs to be done on a weekly basis. This is a volunteer organization and people have other interests and dont always show up. Some like to show up but rather sit and watch. So you find yourself depending on those that do come to work. You need to put the right people for the right jobs and the sad part is you can easily burn out yourself and those you depend on. How much time this takes depends on your time management skills and reading others. The senior staff and cadet staff operate differently as their roles are different. As commander you need to realize this and coordinate their abilities. In the end you do the best you can as you find you can spend all the hours in the week to get things done and it still might not be enough.

Roles and Responsibilities - I know this is tough for many that join CAP that there are so many jobs and title names different from the civilian world. Every job though can be compared to the civilian world you just have to deal with all of the acronyms. There are key positions in the squadron and as always I caveat this is my opinion. As commander you may feel differently but that doesnt make you or I wrong in our perspectives. I have visited many squadrons in my many years and found each quite different from the other because of the personalities, location, and attitude which makes each special. It is essential to provide each person including cadets a role and responsbility when they join the organization. As a commander you will find people will leave if they dont have a purpose. Many come with an intent and you need to find out what it is. In any organization you must create structure of some kind to succeed. That structure needs guidance and purpose and fortunately CAP has created many great programs to teach this. We just need to keep the cadets and seniors long enough to let them experience it.

Calendar - this is a very important tool you need to update every week. You need to organize your meetings and provide a consistent schedule for members to follow. Any good organization needs activities to keep the interest of members going. I like training activities and CAP has many programs for this. Our squadron breaks down our monthly meeting like this:

1st meeting: Wear: Blues uniforms Activities: Inspection, Testing, Review Board, Promotions
2nd meeting: Wear BDU Activities: Inspection, Leadership activity, Cadet presentations, Drill
3rd meeting: Wear BDU Activities: Inspection, Aerospace activity, Drill
4th meeting: Wear PT gear Activities: PT, Moral Leadersip, Monthly Safety discussion
5th meeting: Sometimes a combination of above or movie night

Supplies - this is critical to portray a unified organization. We must all dress the same so uniform supplies along with all other items for the uniform have to be stocked or purchased. We have had many discussions on CP about this but in my persoective with cadets the seniors must wear the same uniform or alternate due to weight/gromming standards. Consistencies and enforcement is diffcult but must be dealt with each week. The commander must lead by example and deal with those who cant follow our regulations with tact and professionalism. I believe most members want to conform and need guidance and assistance in looking and acting as a member of CAP. Then there is computers, vehicles, aircraft, radio equipment, ES equipment, and all other I havent mentioned. Lots of stuff to store and maintain.

Activities - this is what keeps everyone coming. There are squadron, wing, regional and national activities. Plenty all over the country and something is happening every weekend. So with meetings and activities you will keep your members busy. You just have to notify them when and where they are and coordinate how to get them there. You have to provide them paperwork and for local activies outside the squadron you need permission from your chain of command. Communication is imperative as a commander and you should always talk to your next chain letting them know how you are doing. They can also help you with resources and anything else you communiate to them. Then again maybe they wont and that is another story. Provide activities to your members and they will come. Of course they also say they will come and they dont show. As in all things in life you do th best you can and move on.

Website - this is an important tool and have seen many squadrons with websites. Our wing allows us to put our web content on their server. I have seen others get their own website url. In the end this is a great communication tool and as commander you need it. The hard part is keeping the content up on a weekly basis.

Contacts - networking in CAP is essential as a commander to coordinate activities with others. Networking outside CAP can bring new members in and fill the important roles you have. We participate in our local community and provide color guard when they need it. Exposure brings support and recognition our organization desperatly needs. One of the first things I did in my new squadron was to create a large banner with our squadron name with CIVIL AIR PATROL in big letters. People still say "There goes the Air Force." Many parents say they never heard of us. So recruiting drives and fund drives keep you plenty busy.

Professional Development - this organization is built on distinctive milestones for both seniors and cadets. As commander you need to keep them motivated to achieve those milestones to then go to the next milestone.

Motiviation/Retention i- In the end in order to motivate and retain our members you have to do all of the above and keep their interest. With so many people with so many different interests that can be challenging. I have learned to find my inner zen and take small breaks from CAP. This allows me to relax and come back strong. So for th past 7 years our squadron takes the summer off for two months na dhten start back in September. We found most of our cadets werent coming because they are on vacation or other activities. In the end as commnader you have to help others but the way to do that is take care of yourself. To have commanders time set to a certain time period is important. It allows other opportunity for the position and the curerent commander can take on another role.

So this is just my tidbit and I didnt place any times or percentages of time spent here. I find every week it is different and in the end it is how much time you can give to CAP. I find the most active people are those that retired and have the time to put into this great organization. Those people are great resources. I didnt mention funding much but you will find that is a major headqache also. Our acronym of CAP meaning come and pay is a reality especially to smaller squadrons. Finding a funding resource or just have the parents contribute on an annual basis is another task the commader must deal with. It is a great opportunity to be chosen as a commander. Serving CAP is a great volunteer activity! For all of you I want to thank you for your service you have done or will do in the future in leading this organization forward.

[Майор Хаткевич]

So for th past 7 years our squadron takes the summer off for two months na dhten start back in September. We found most of our cadets werent coming because they are on vacation or other activities.

We all experience the paradox of more free time = less cadets show up, but I've never heard of anyone actually not having meetings for two months because of that. How do you address safety currency? The SM program? How big is this unit? Those cadets that want to participate in the summer? WIWAC, I missed maybe 5 meetings in my first four years in CAP. Cancelling it for 2 months for someone like me would probably risk loosing that cadet to another unit or even completely.

[Eclipse]

^ This might seem like a good idea, and probably avoids uncomfortable conversations, but it's not helping anyone.

When I assumed command, the previous commander basically shut down from mid-November through the first of the year, and
this was in a unit that was only meeting twice a month as it was.   One of the first things I did was move to weekly meetings
and made sure the lights were on every week, regardless of the "season".

Summer is tough because of encampments, academies, etc., but the unit should be open for business year-round, because
our contact hours are too low as it already is, and to give up months at a time just reduces that even further.

People not around?

Get more people.

Getting back to the OP, and the related one about being a new commander.

One thing commanders have to do, and its been alluded to above, is realize that the experience of the membership comes before their own.
I've had to deal with a number of situations where a CC was off "playing CAP" for his own PD, ES missions, some large activity,
and left the unit to its own devices or worse.

A commander has to be allowed to enjoy his time, and being active outside the unit sets a good example, and further
those activities are likely going to be complimentary, but in cases of a tie, or where the unit has needs, the CC has to insure
those are handled before doing his own thing.

[jeders]

One thing commanders have to do, and its been alluded to above, is realize that the experience of the membership comes before their own.
I've had to deal with a number of situations where a CC was off "playing CAP" for his own PD, ES missions, some large activity,
and left the unit to its own devices or worse.

A commander has to be allowed to enjoy his time, and being active outside the unit sets a good example, and further
those activities are likely going to be complimentary, but in cases of a tie, or where the unit has needs, the CC has to insure
those are handled before doing his own thing.

This right here needs to be briefed to every squadron commander on a regular basis. This is why I'd like to see a change to the regs that bars a squadron commander from participating on staff at any higher level. As has been stated many times, as you go up the chain, your hours committed goes up as well; a commander must put the unit first and cannot do that if they are spending all of their time as a group/wing staff member.

[Tim Medeiros]

For me there is no such thing as a typical day.  Some things I tend to do frequently however include constant dialoge with my CDC and CDS throughout the week (easier with my CDC since we have access to office communicator during the day); constant monitoring of eServices/capmembers.com to stay up to date on items.  I'll also have conference calls with wing/group staff members, individual chats with my group commander, etc throughout the week.  Not to mention the email traffic.  Additionally I'll keep in touch with my CAP-USAF Liaison have periodic chats with the facility manager of the building my unit meets in.

[johnnyb47]

Read emails.... Like a boss.
Approve minutes.... Like a boss.
Check eservices.... Like a boss.
Answer Group Inquiries... Like a boss.
Alert Ground Teams... Like a boss........

[Майор Хаткевич]

Read emails.... Like a boss.
Approve minutes.... Like a boss.
Check eservices.... Like a boss.
Answer Group Inquiries... Like a boss.
Alert Ground Teams... Like a boss........

Bomb the Germans...

[NIN]

Bomb the Germans...

Zee Germans?

[Phil Hirons, Jr.]

Germans? Pearl Harbor?

Leave him alone, he's rolling.