NEC Meeting, PAID Wing Administrators

Started by abysmal, May 25, 2005, 12:55:25 AM

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abysmal

COPIED FROM
http://capblog.typepad.com/capblog/2005/05/from_the_recent.html#more

The National Executive Committee met recently (13 & 14 May) in Cincinnati, OH.   

Out of this, a few nuggets have emerged from the minutes that I thought were interesting and informative about the inner workings of Civil Air Patrol and our national governance structure.  Its sometimes difficult for our newer members to understand how our organization is organized and run at the echelons above reality.

(Note: these are not the official minutes, but gleaned from notes taken during the meeting. There was more, but these are some of the more interesting points...)

Wing Administrators

"The NHQ Director of Human Resources & Col Glass (MER/CC) briefed the hiring plan for Wing Administrators.   The administrators will be civilian employees of the CAP corporation assigned to provide admin and program support to the wing commander.   Each wing will have an Administrator. Funding has been made available for 12 Wing Administrators in July and 13 in August 2005.  The remainder will be hired during the first fiscal quarter of FY06.  We will end up with 52 Wing Administrators, 35 full-time and 17-part time."

:: I have mixed feelings on this.  Overall, I think its a good thing. But we have to use caution not to fall victim to the old "2nd Wing Commander" trick.  It would be better if the administrators were not also CAP members, so that more clear lines of authority exist on the volunteer side of the house. 

It would also help, now that every wing will have a paid administrator, if Civil Air Patrol would, nationally, more clearly define the roles, responsibilities, and most importantly, limits of authority, of the paid administrators.  Else the opportunity for a lot of hard feelings among the volunteer members will exist.

2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Pylon

Quote from: abysmal on May 25, 2005, 12:55:25 AM
COPIED FROM
http://capblog.typepad.com/capblog/2005/05/from_the_recent.html#more

The National Executive Committee met recently (13 & 14 May) in Cincinnati, OH.   

Out of this, a few nuggets have emerged from the minutes that I thought were interesting and informative about the inner workings of Civil Air Patrol and our national governance structure.  Its sometimes difficult for our newer members to understand how our organization is organized and run at the echelons above reality.

(Note: these are not the official minutes, but gleaned from notes taken during the meeting. There was more, but these are some of the more interesting points...)

Wing Administrators

"The NHQ Director of Human Resources & Col Glass (MER/CC) briefed the hiring plan for Wing Administrators.   The administrators will be civilian employees of the CAP corporation assigned to provide admin and program support to the wing commander.   Each wing will have an Administrator. Funding has been made available for 12 Wing Administrators in July and 13 in August 2005.  The remainder will be hired during the first fiscal quarter of FY06.  We will end up with 52 Wing Administrators, 35 full-time and 17-part time."

:: I have mixed feelings on this.  Overall, I think its a good thing. But we have to use caution not to fall victim to the old "2nd Wing Commander" trick.  It would be better if the administrators were not also CAP members, so that more clear lines of authority exist on the volunteer side of the house. 

It would also help, now that every wing will have a paid administrator, if Civil Air Patrol would, nationally, more clearly define the roles, responsibilities, and most importantly, limits of authority, of the paid administrators.  Else the opportunity for a lot of hard feelings among the volunteer members will exist.



Eh!  Bad!

I do not like this idea.

The title administrator immediately means they have authority and control over something.  This automatically destroys the idea of unity of command (which CAP already has issues with).  Bad idea.

Two ideas I think are better, are:  either rename the position of the paid corporate employee to something such as "Wing-level Corporate Facilitator" or "Corporate Wing Assistant" or something of that nature.  The title of the position should not imply any authority in the Wing, if the position is not designed to do so.

The other idea, pay the Wing Commander!   It's a [darn] stressful job, that would be furthered by being done by someone who can dedicate their full attention and efforts to the position.  Wing Commanders probably put in a good 20 to 40 hours a week of CAP-related work, plus most of them have to support themselves with their normal work.  Why not take this incredible burden off the Wing King's, offer corporate salaries, or at least part-time stipends, so that they don't necessarily have to work basically two full-time jobs:  one for money and one for CAP.

Michael F. Kieloch, Maj, CAP

abysmal

You raise a really interesting idea.
I wonder just HOW many of our Wing Commanders are still working a full time job, and how many of them are retired and able to devote full time to CAP?

Would make for an interesting Cadet project to mail out and contact all of them for a little polling information.

As for the paid position.
Considering that we are SO BROKE that our wing had to cancell all remaining wing activities for the fiscal year, it seems mighty surprising that national thinks there is now going to be enough money in the pipeline to not only fund ALL of the current operations amidst an ongoing downsizing in membership, but also fund 50+ paid employees..

I wonder if this will really come to pass???
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

arajca

I think CAP managed to get the AF to fund these positions. Basically, they are doing what, in the past, has been done by the LNCO(Liasion NCO)/DSD(Deputy State Director). At one time, the AF actually assigned an officer (Maj or Lt Col) and/or a NCO (TSgt or higher) to each wing to provide admin, logistic, and program support. During some military downsizing, the LO/LNCO positions were converted to AF civilian positions (State Director and Deputy State Director). Then a couple years ago the DSD positions were axed. Several wings had both positions and came out ok - not great, but ok. However, several smaller wings only had a DSD and lost that support. SD from another wing had to support the smaller wing as well as their primary wing.

So, now the AF realizes (crossing fingers) that they can't cut admin support and expect to have volunteers cover everything. I mean, all of us give alot, but very few can volunteer full time to be in an office year-round to push papers and get stuff.

Although with Colorado, the state provides an administrative assistant to work with CAP under the Dept. of Military Affairs. It will be interesting to see how that dynamic works out.

I believe most CAP paid staff are not members, but I could be mistaken. Several years ago, the FLRB ruled that paid employees cannot volunteer to work in their company/organization. The company has to pay them. This affected combination fire depts. (FD's that have career and volunteer fire fighters).

Mac

From my understanding talking with my wing CC is that this is to basically be the wing admin officer so to speak. They are to work for the wing CC and handle the paperwork that goes to wing HQ and such. We here in ND already have a position like this, funded by the National Guard. Our wind admin officer is paid by the National Guard and works down at the guard HQ in ND (which also happens to be our wing HQ office). He manages to keep our wing running nice and smooth and gets all the reports processed and sent up the line well ahead of required times (assuming the Sq's get them turned in.)

I like the idea of national fund this job as it will free up some money in our wing budget that we get from the state. And so long as the wing CC and wing admin guy get along it does help keep the wing running smoothly.
Derk MacPherson, Lt Col, CAP
Vice Commander
Alaska Wing, PCR-AK-001