CAP Professional Development - Problems and Solutions

[Майор Хаткевич]

I agree with Ned, but it just goes to show that it's a pita requirement with dubious benefit in terms of PD.

Everything I was listening to in SLS I knew from being an Earhart cadet and being in my unit for a few months. TLC for a former cadet was a joke as well. OBC...a lot of wasted time clicking things online. UCC was great, and haven't had a chance to get to a CLC yet.

But at the same time, how do you judge who "knows it" and who "needs it"? You simply can't.

But conferences? There's no punch cards, or tracking of who was in what seminar. There's ample opportunity to spend the whole time in a room/bar/sight seeing, and getting credit (or in my cadet time, no credit, and not even my name on the list of attendees, even after submitting email proof, o-flight with two pilots who are on the list on the way back home, and email " vouching" from two bottle cap officers who drove me down there/supervised me).

Am I bitter? Maybe a little. Plenty of cadets on that list were able to use the attendance for their SM PD. Can I get to 2 more? Sure, but there's a cost to it. I have a life outside of CAP, a wife. She actually still likes to have me around, so if I  go to weekend activity X, chances are I'll decline weekend activity Y that comes up a few weekends later.

[lordmonar]

+1

On the surface I agree that networking, seeing the rest of the world, and going to seminars is a good thing from a PD point of view.

However.....practically speaking......I can do most of that at a CLC or at one of my wing's bi-annual face-to-face staff meetings.

Likewise....you can go to to a conference...sign in and never leave your hotel room (or spend the entire time taking in the sights or visiting friends, or what ever)....but you still get credit.

Also....if we say that two conferences are important for Level III.....why not a Regional one (or two) for Level IV?  Why not at least one national conference for Level V?

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

But conferences? There's no punch cards, or tracking of who was in what seminar. There's ample opportunity to spend the whole time in a room/bar/sight seeing, and getting credit (or in my cadet time, no credit, and not even my name on the list of attendees, even after submitting email proof, o-flight with two pilots who are on the list on the way back home, and email " vouching" from two bottle cap officers who drove me down there/supervised me).

This, I think, is a great injustice, because I know what it's like, as I stated in an earlier post.

I got the hosting WING COMMANDER to write a letter on WING STATIONERY stating that, yes, I attended the Region Conference hosted by his Wing, that I was on the roster, and my signature was on the sign-in sheet.

The PDO in my Wing still wouldn't accept that.  All this person would accept was a "meal ticket" proving I had been to the BANQUET.

Neither my Wing or Squadron CC's would go to bat for me.

That was the primary reason I left CAP in 2001.

[Майор Хаткевич]

But conferences? There's no punch cards, or tracking of who was in what seminar. There's ample opportunity to spend the whole time in a room/bar/sight seeing, and getting credit (or in my cadet time, no credit, and not even my name on the list of attendees, even after submitting email proof, o-flight with two pilots who are on the list on the way back home, and email " vouching" from two bottle cap officers who drove me down there/supervised me).

This, I think, is a great injustice, because I know what it's like, as I stated in an earlier post.

I got the hosting WING COMMANDER to write a letter on WING STATIONERY stating that, yes, I attended the Region Conference hosted by his Wing, that I was on the roster, and my signature was on the sign-in sheet.

The PDO in my Wing still wouldn't accept that.  All this person would accept was a "meal ticket" proving I had been to the BANQUET.

Neither my Wing or Squadron CC's would go to bat for me.

That was the primary reason I left CAP in 2001.

Which...in and of itself...why would I pay for another rubber chicken meal? Save the $30 bucks and go to a semi-non-fast-food restaurant.

[JeffDG]

The PDO in my Wing still wouldn't accept that.  All this person would accept was a "meal ticket" proving I had been to the BANQUET.

I'd have asked "Where does the regulation require me to go to the banquet?"

I'll answer with "Nowhere"  Never been to a Wing Banquet.  Been to 3 or 4 wing conferences, always as a presenter...can't stand formal banquets

[Ned]

I think we pretty much agree that

• Conferences should be professionally rewarding and worth the time and treasure for all the attendees.  We should never waste a volunteer's time or money.
  
  
• Some / much of the value for some members comes from the informal networking that goes on between formal sessions.  And, yes, perhaps even in the bar at the end of the day.
  
  
• Some instructors are better than others.
  
  
• Generally speaking, things offered at conferences should be better and / or different that what we could get at the local level. 
  
  That said, conference attendance performs a couple of PD functions.  In addition to the obvious one of improving our CAP job skills in our specialities by attending classes or breakouts related to our specialties and taught by members more knowledgeable and experienced than we are, we also gain "non-speciality dependent" skills and increase our general CAP fluency by listening to the leadership outline vision, goals, and objectives.  We get exposed to useful concepts and ideas from outside of our particular interests.  A lot of that is hard to quantify, but still represents a significant reason to attend a conference every now and then.
  
  

  
  But conferences? There's no punch cards, or tracking of who was in what seminar. There's ample opportunity to spend the whole time in a room/bar/sight seeing, and getting credit.
  

  
  Absolutely true.  One can register for a conference, pick up your packet at the registration desk, and promptly retire to the nearest watering hole and watch a football game or two.  PD requirement indisputably checked off, with no concomitant increase in CAP knowledge or abilities.
  
  But this absolutely one of those "be careful what you ask for" things.  In this day and age, it would not be very hard for the conference organizers to track specific class attendance and even assess your participation.  Undoubtedly somewhere in the app store is something that could record whether you physically attended the session and then require you to take and pass some sort of assessment for each class before allowing you to get conference credit.  This appears to be one of the rare instances when members are asking NHQ to impose additional record-keeping requirements.  I'll note that and see what I can do.   
  
  Or, we could have a little faith in our members to actually attend the things they have registered, paid for, and arrived at.
  
  But we can certainly get smarter about recording conference attendance.  That should be easy.

[JeffDG]

Or, we could have a little faith in our members to actually attend the things they have registered, paid for, and arrived at.

If I had presented the evidence cited above for conference attendance, and had the Wing Director of PD say "Nope", I would have handed him a stack of CAPF 2Bs and said "You either accept the evidence, or you're questioning not only my, but these other folks, integrity, and if you truly believe we are lying, you should move to have our memberships terminated.  Your call."

There are some very unhinged 'crats in CAP.  Such actions question other member's integrity, and at the same time make a mockery of a second Core Value:  Respect.

[SarDragon]

That said, conference attendance performs a couple of PD functions.  In addition to the obvious one of improving our CAP job skills in our specialities by attending classes or breakouts related to our specialties and taught by members more knowledgeable and experienced than we are, we also gain "non-speciality dependent" skills and increase our general CAP fluency by listening to the leadership outline vision, goals, and objectives.  We get exposed to useful concepts and ideas from outside of our particular interests. A lot of that is hard to quantify, but still represents a significant reason to attend a conference every now and then.

This is my primary interest when attending conferences, aside from the networking. Most of the seminars I attend are outside my assigned squadron jobs, where I get a better understanding of "the rest of CAP" that I don't directly participate in.

Conferences, like the rest of CAP, are what you make them. I do agree that we probably shouldn't have to work as hard to gain benefit from conferences, but I've never gone away dissatisfied, myself.

[RiverAux]

In addition to the obvious one of improving our CAP job skills in our specialities by attending classes or breakouts related to our specialties and taught by members more knowledgeable and experienced than we are, we also gain "non-speciality dependent" skills and increase our general CAP fluency by listening to the leadership outline vision, goals, and objectives.  We get exposed to useful concepts and ideas from outside of our particular interests.  A lot of that is hard to quantify, but still represents a significant reason to attend a conference every now and then.

Perhaps we should be requiring a bit more from the member in terms of the conference rather than just making them submit some proof that they attended. 

All of the benefits above are going to be available most of the time, but are we making any effort to guide our members in regards to exactly what we expect them to get out of the conference?  We tell them they need to show up in order to get promoted, but we don't really take the next step and turn it into a real learning experience by telling them what they should be getting out of it and making sure that they did. 

Perhaps we should be asking them to submit some sort of essay outlining the major take-home messages that they got from the different aspects of the conference?  Perhaps a paragraph on each seminar they attended? 

[Eclipse]

The conferences are done in the same horse/cart way as many other CAP things.

CAP has conferences because it always did, and if it didn't it wouldn't.

Critical initial or recurrent training that cannot be presented elsewhere because of economies of scale or access to unique resources?

No.

Vendors who cannot showcase their wares or services because of the economies of scale or access to unique resources or personnel?

No.

As someone who works in the tradeshow and conference industry, those are really the only reasons to >have< a conference, especially
considering the cost and hassle of travel and lodging these days.  That's the reason the industry is shrinking, because the Internet has negated
all but the "band camp" mentality shows - those industries that either need to >look< big, can't showcase their wares in any venue other then
a large show (or need to be in the room with the big boys to catch their toaster leavins), or those industries like pharma, finance, and heavy equipment
which are still wildly profitable and treat the shows as annual "thank yous" to their employees and clients, and in those cases, the employer
almost always pays all or most of the expenses (thankfully for me).


CAP is none of those.

So every year or two the Wing CC says "we must conference" - the planners stumble for 6-months to a year stretching for topics
and tangentially related vendors they can convince will make a few bucks selling chotskies and logowear to people who
already have a trunk of stuff they never use, or a blank space on their cubicle carpeting, and then the presenters (who almost always have to
pay for the privilege) spend a weekend repeating 6-month old information to people more informed then they are and
presenting "of-the-year-only one nominated" awards at the dinner which were primarily ginned-up for the conference itself and consist of a paper "shake and take".

The important stuff is happening at the units, SARexs, encampments, and weekend localized training.

What's left that's worth driving 3-5 hours, or flying across the country to stay in a conference center you wouldn't consider
booking for a vacation otherwise?

As cred, if it means anything, I've served on the staff or planning committee for at least 3 wing conferences and one region conference.
The most fun (honestly) was the one where the main POC quit in a typical CAP huff a few days before the event and I wound up voluntold
to help.  It was actually a great conference AFAIWC, but only because we were so busy we never looked up to even notice the participants.
The most "fun" was the one where I dragged my whole CAP closet 4 hours away to give a uniform wear lecture to a room full of sharp-dressed
field-grade officers, while those who actually needed the information were in other classes that conflicted because no one
bothered to consider their class demos.  "Oh, was your class at the same time as 'x'?  Why did they do that?  I really wanted to be there." ((*sigh*))

[lordmonar]

Like I said before....we need to clearly define what a "conference" is and why we expenct our members to attend two to be Level III.

Because we don't have a true definition.  CAWG puts on a "cadet programs conference" every year.....does it count?   NVWG has two face-to-face staff meetings every year that everyone is encourage to attend, they have break out seminars, we usually offer a TLC, SLS, UCC, or some such course, a commander's call, CAC meeting, and we have a big dinner on Saturday night.  Exactly what we do for our annual wing conference.    Does that count?   

Since we don't have a good definition, we don't have a consistent standards of acceptance across the wings.  We need a standardized way of logging attendance so we don't have any problems cross wing with proving if you attended.   

Finally we need to get the ground truth if attendance as a cadet counts....and to fight that battle if need be. 

[PHall]

Like I said before....we need to clearly define what a "conference" is and why we expenct our members to attend two to be Level III.

Because we don't have a true definition.  CAWG puts on a "cadet programs conference" every year.....does it count?   NVWG has two face-to-face staff meetings every year that everyone is encourage to attend, they have break out seminars, we usually offer a TLC, SLS, UCC, or some such course, a commander's call, CAC meeting, and we have a big dinner on Saturday night.  Exactly what we do for our annual wing conference.    Does that count?   

Since we don't have a good definition, we don't have a consistent standards of acceptance across the wings.  We need a standardized way of logging attendance so we don't have any problems cross wing with proving if you attended.   

Finally we need to get the ground truth if attendance as a cadet counts....and to fight that battle if need be.

The Cadet Programs Conference does not count for Senior Member PD. It's been requested, more then once, but no dice.

[AlphaSigOU]

As a current wing director of PD, here's my criteria for conference attendance:

Personnel authorization listing attendees at the conference. Merely paying the fee isn't sufficient proof; one must check into the conference. Alabama Wing generally does this; I'll be sure to contact the conference director and make sure I get a list just in case.

If you attended a wing conference outside your home wing or a regional or national conference, if a personnel authorization or list of conference attendees is not available, I will accept a registration receipt for the conference or a hotel room receipt. A letter or email from the wing commander/DPD is acceptable.

Word of mouth claims usually are a no-go for me unless I can get another attendee's verification stating the person did attend. Written verification is preferred but I trust the member's integrity.

Senior member attendance at a cadet programs conference should count, especially if it includes TLC training.

[lordmonar]

Like I said before....we need to clearly define what a "conference" is and why we expenct our members to attend two to be Level III.

Because we don't have a true definition.  CAWG puts on a "cadet programs conference" every year.....does it count?   NVWG has two face-to-face staff meetings every year that everyone is encourage to attend, they have break out seminars, we usually offer a TLC, SLS, UCC, or some such course, a commander's call, CAC meeting, and we have a big dinner on Saturday night.  Exactly what we do for our annual wing conference.    Does that count?   

Since we don't have a good definition, we don't have a consistent standards of acceptance across the wings.  We need a standardized way of logging attendance so we don't have any problems cross wing with proving if you attended.   

Finally we need to get the ground truth if attendance as a cadet counts....and to fight that battle if need be.

The Cadet Programs Conference does not count for Senior Member PD. It's been requested, more then once, but no dice.

But the AE conference does.    Which brings me back to my original statement about "what is a conference".

[EMT-83]

Senior member attendance at a cadet programs conference should count, especially if it includes TLC training.

Why? I'll argue that if you spent the entire weekend attending TLC, you didn't do anything else at the conference.

[lordmonar]

Senior member attendance at a cadet programs conference should count, especially if it includes TLC training.

Why? I'll argue that if you spent the entire weekend attending TLC, you didn't do anything else at the conference.

If you spend the entire weekend drinking coffee in the lobby you didn't do anything else at the conference.....but that counts.

[Luis R. Ramos]

What about spending all the time at the hotel's restaurant bar? Does it also counts?

[Eclipse]

What about spending all the time at the hotel's restaurant bar? Does it also counts?

It sure does - counts for ending a lot of CAP careers.  BTDT.

[PHall]

What about spending all the time at the hotel's restaurant bar? Does it also counts?

It sure does - counts for ending a lot of CAP careers.  BTDT.

I've also seen it enhance many CAP careers too. Some quality face time with the "right" people can work wonders.

[Eclipse]

What about spending all the time at the hotel's restaurant bar? Does it also counts?

It sure does - counts for ending a lot of CAP careers.  BTDT.

I've also seen it enhance many CAP careers too. Some quality face time with the "right" people can work wonders.

Fair enough, sadly there are a fair amount of CAP people who have faulty common sense filters.

It's an odd phenomenon that people who don't travel much seem to find it necessary to reach for "stupid"
the minute they are out of eye-shot of their spouse, etc.

The poorly supervised unescorted cadets with nothing to do are another issue.