Reddit killed the forum format. 

And the forum here is outdated and missing basic things like "google sign in". 

This is the first year I can remember that they sent out conference updates each day via PROPS, but unfortunately it was just to highlight a couple of PR type announcements. I do wish they published summaries of each session for those that can't make it to the conference.

Although there was no announcement at the conference, I did see the last PROPS email did say something about seeing everyone in Orlando next year, although no dates were listed.

Excellent recap.

Sadly the same tired talking points with a few different acronyms from the last 30 years.

Some more notes:

--- FRIDAY ---
Aye extended for one year
12K cadets to encampment this summer
27K O-Rides (down a bit due to the govt shutdown)
83% CPT 88% CPT (Non-000)
NRAT shoutout for 4 saves of blackhawk helicopter
CAP Strategic Plan, developed by the BOG

whatiscap.org - new recruiting website, includes a new unit locator, online quiz to find your role in CAP. Want to reach 100K members. Partnering with AOPA on recruiting. Sam Elckhom "influencer" and his 2.5 million followers.

Youth development
Scouting, JROTC, Air Canda, Sea Cadets partnerships on cadet protection.

Graduated nearly 550 cadets from wings

AUX
Re-writing Cooperative Agreement (CA)/Statement of Objectives (SOO) *with* the air force (which is a new process)
RPP
Chaplain corps increase AUX participation
IG program enhancements
Aerospace Competition and Economic Security (ACES)

ES
WMIRS being replaced by Pegasus
Ops quals updates
Alignment of terminology and tasks
Catalog missions and seek new opportunities

Aerospace
NASA missions and internships
High altitude balloon challenge
AEO school and Virtual AEO school
Model Rocketry Materials Updates
ACE Materials moved to Absorb

Membership
New retention officer speciality
Speciality tracks moving online from paper

Unmatched operational excellence
Focused on systems and processes
Workday for Financial Management
Publication Updates - 900% increase of publications, shortening them, making them more readable
ServiceNow (workflow)
Contracting Process Improvements
CAPNET
Maintenance Information System (MIS) - PlaneLogix
Vehicle Management System

Philanthropy
Diversified funding, for when the grant is not available and for items the grant doesn't cover.
Nearly 7M, goal is 12M.

Commander's Intent - To build and sustain a CAP worthy of the trust places in us through disciplined execution, exceptional stewardship, and an unwavering commitment to our stake holders.

We need a strong CAP, not just a larger CAP.

Comes down to trust - trusted by the public, USAF, ES professionals, aerospace industry, members, business partners, donors & congress

A few stories that highlighted CAP success stories, such as:
Trust that we develop cadets by upholding standards with compassion (story of previous CAP-USAF/CC)

Trust for mission relevance + Readiness, shared story of former CAP memeber and current AF CD who got the help of a CAP chaplain.

Trust and Change
Change is Good
Improvements in progress across the enterprise
The future is bright

AFNORTH Commander's Award - Lt Gen Luke Ahmann
The general spoke for quite a while and did a great job explaining what AFNORTH does and his appreciation of CAP. Award went to an aircrew that shutdown a plane that had smoke coming from the engine while taxiing to take photos of a flood.

-- SATURDAY --
Inspections being completely re-written, new checklists, new process. Current Yes/No checklists aren't providing value to commanders after the inspection is completed. Want commanders to identify weak areas for inspectors to focus on.

None of the goodies that folks have been putting in planes have any documented approval, just NHQ saying "sure". Working to get that paperwork pushed out. Starlink has not been approved and can't be in the planes.

Changing ES to match FEMA type matching, "Land SAR" vs "Ground Team", getting the requirements and terminology to match up.

Land SAR - capable of 3 day deployments in the field, physical fitness test (2 mi hike with 25lbs pack in 30 min).
Disaster Relief - staying at facility each night (like an armory) but working during the day. Physical fitness test (1 mi hike, no pack, 16 min).
Radio Direction Finding - No PT test.
Disaster Support - No PT test. POD support, etc

ForeFlight is billed to the Air Force and they only will pay for current pilots. Culling the lists of folks who have expired Form 5s.

sUAS - Looking for new platforms. It's a high priority for the Air Force and FEMA. Adding a night qual. It is critical to keep ORMS updated. Looking to create a sustainable program, previous approach was CAP spent a bunch of money all at once and now all those platforms are either ineligible or too old to use.

Susie Parker was inducted to the CAP Hall of Honor. The rules were that only members could be inducted, so the rules were changed. Ms. Parker's children were in attendance for the ceremony. She was the second longest serving employee in CAP's history and was known as "The Oracle of Maxwell".

Part deux:

Command Q&A
000 units - being looked at, looking at restrictions. Can't get rid of it, families that PCS, some wings use it as a membership flow due to local youth protection laws. Want to see units with "active" personnel for accurate reporting on actual members. Instead of moving, denote as "inactive". Could be activity based, if certain training was completed within the past x months, mark as active.

COO stated that national staff not responding to emails or phone calls will change. He stated that will be communicated as "unacceptable"

O365 is 50% funded by appropriations. Have to evaluate how the system is being used, if it's used for more appropriated funded reasons, then more appropriated funds could be used (or less if it's not being used for enough appropriated stuff). CEO said BOG said to use O365. BOG clarified no, we identified a problem and said fix it, CAP said O365 is the fix.

8800 applications for NCSAs, 1800 slots. Looking at USAF and job market needs and build NCSAs around that. Things that can be replicated by region to reduce travel, create more seats. Public Affairs academy, sUAS school, etc.

OPS/ES Breakout (interim CAP/DO)
-Relevance
Equipment adequate for purpose (emerging technology: Starlink for infilght use). Need to ensure we are compliance with the rules, one wing breaks a rule and it could impact the entire organization.
Industry Standards (standerdized terms, ICSS FEMA position task guides + CAP Specific, Ground Team: Land SAR + CAP Specific). We're not getting called because we lack some standardized things other organizations require.
-Publications
Everything getting renumbered, ES broken out into smaller specific regulations (70 series)
70-1 Operational Missions (final coordination right now)

Placeholder/proposed:
70-10 Flight Operations
70-20 Mission Aircrew Operations
70-30 Ground SAR, Disaster Relief & Support
70-40 Uncrewed Air Systems
70-50 Communications
70-60 Incident Command Operations
70-70 Counterdrug
70-80 Member Movement via Military Aircraft
70-90 Payment for mission support

Reformatting specialty track to use same style as professional levels. Still have paper forms for use when needed. Direct upload of documents. Greater visibility for everyone, no more lost checklists. Auto updates loaded from other parts of eservices.

Who will approve: Tech (Wing), Senior (Region), Master (NHQ)

SQTRs - same treatment as specialty track

Existing software written by Terry Redmond

sUAS - Lost half the fleet overnight, but program is not going anywhere. High priority for USAF & FEMA. ORMS needs to be correct - critical to know where equipment is. New night qualification standard. Was not treated like a program at first, just given a bucket of money and go buy stuff, was not sustainable. New night qual is coming.

Repeaters (Alan Altis)
Repeaters are about 25 years old and starting to fail. They are starting to be replaced. how to best spend the little money we have. About $24 million to replace all of them. No parts anymore for our current repeaters. Prioritizing repeaters for replacement. 78% of repeaters are linked to ReadyOp. How to better utilize the $28K portable repeaters in aircraft or on the ground. How many repeaters does a wing have vs how many do they need.
Using starlink on an aircraft requires authorization from NHQ. One guy with a good idea for an airplane could get every airplane in CAP grounded without coordination.

Budget
80% to wings/region at start of FY - managed by regions
High use vs low use - commanders make the call
Managed by Region CC/CD/DO/ES/IG
Process underway several regions already directing changes
Greater awareness of what funding is available
Monthly meetings with the wing and region DOs

Mission Support / NOC
1 full time person, three people who review receipts
Make an entry into WMIRS when you start planning
Request in writing from the customer (if appropriate)
Notify the NOC if there is a MIPR / Funding Source
Upload OPlan, signed by CAP and CAP-USAF
Sorties need to be entered in time for the ATO, 1 week prior
What quals are needed / do you have qualified personnel
When in doubt, call the NOC

Sharing Best Practices
Maryland Wing - Created Quality Senior Unit Award, composite squadrons were acting like cadet squadrons. Just like QCUA, but with senior goals. Criteria can change, just like cadet. Comes with a streamer. Criteria: Lvl 1, Lvl 2, Yeager, GES 116, TLC basic, ORM basic, number with at least 1 ops qual, tech rating, having at least 1 Vol U instructor. QCUA winners did poorly with initial QSUA data. Senior squadrons wanted to dress up their guidons. Competition between units started to heat up. Changes for 25-26, removed level 1, any TLC in 36 months, added CERT or PODs training. Initially it was a challenge to get units to participate. Pulling timely reports, manually crunching data. Cost of the streamers.

North Carolina Wing - Relationship with NC Emergency Management. Trust and complete cooperation takes years to build and can be lost in a day. Have regular presence at incidents and functions. When working with a partner agency, be humble, credible, and approachable. 3 C's: Communication, Credibility, Common Language

Georgia Wing - Advancing Tech in the CAP Emergency Response Toolbox - Why: Got needs from customers, found members with expertise and enabled them. Found vendors. Got the T-Mobile "FirstNet" competitor. Working with TAK, super easy to use. Bought Kraken SDR systems, cadets can build them as a STEM project. Developed vICP mission management to tie it all together.

Retention Update - Lt Col Todd Parsons National Retention Office
Retention is not about keeping members on the roster longer, it's about making the experience worth staying. A renewal notice will not solve 12 months of frustration. Recruiting and retention are partners, but with different missions. From 2000-2022 averaged about 6,600 new members a year, adult membership only raised about 1,000 in that period. In AZWG, 32% of 124 adults that joined in 2022 did not renew. Members are not asking for less purpose. they are asking for less friction between their willingness to serve an their ability to contribute. Retention is no longer an activity, it is becoming an enterprise capability. It's not just something to do at renewal time. Retain by design, not by accident.

Marketing & Strategic Communications Update - Brad Nolan
Is a member of CAP, was a SQ/CC 12 months ago. Want "America's best kept secret" to go away. Marketing is a transfer of enthusiasm. The three Cs: Connection (do I belong?), Competence (Can I do this?), Confidence (I know I can). Last 12 months: cap.news refresh, digital asset manager, unit locator modernization (the car is not about the car, it's about the website on the car) - which includes a survey that shows you what you can do in CAP, social media management system, podcast and revenue model infrastructure, brand dashboard, modernization of report to congress, reduced costs by eliminating digital and technology debt, implementation of media-tested project management method, a few more things that the slide went away faster than I could type.

Next 90 days- fill priority roles, finalize intake/prioritization model, stabilize internal communications rhythm, identify top enterprise communication risks, release regulations, launch ad campaign testing. 6 months: Launch or mature digital modernization priorities, implement updated regulations, expand field support resources, establish dashboard reporting. 12 months: fully separate public storytelling from internal.member coordination, embed brand and communication standards across major initiatives, demonstrate measurable improvements in reach, sentiment, conversion, and stakeholder satisfaction.

In MAC, no difference between paid staff & volunteers. Seemless team. Please stop using AI on social media. Please focus on the "Flying V" and not other logos. He did make a joke about Reddit, so I'd say he looks at the CAP subreddit. Doesn't like the "billboards" running around right now (CAP vehicles), looking to get flying V stickers for vehicles.

Education & Training Update - Col John Knowles
We are a customer service organization. We want to reduce the burden on our members. Posted a slide with his resume, then a slide with senior staff, then a slide with an org chart nobody can read. Focus items: Communications, continuous improvement, well defined processes, makit it easier for members, inclusive - not just E&T/VolU staff, updated curriculum, marketing E&T to all out members, update to CAPR 40-1.

Need help: E&T is a commander's tool to provide well training officers and NCOs to staff and lead, need to encourage members to participate.

Aircraft Distribution - Mike Valdez
Working group that included ops, region commanders, and CAP-USAF worked on this. 539 total aircraft. 91% are 172/182. 540-545 is the target range. Bought 15 last year (7-172, 8-182). Looking at another 15 for upcoming buy (1 206, 7 182, 2 T182T, 5 172). Distribution process (by CAP/LG) Fleet Planning->Procurement->Distribution Model & Planning->CSAG Review & Validation (adjustments)->Distribute

The "old" decision making process used 7 weighted factors that are dumped into a PowerBi setup that makes the recommendation - goes to CSAG for final distribution.

Problem: LG owned, not volunteer-informed, disconnected from operational requirements, does not ensure regions are properly equipped or re-equipped to meet mission demands.

SME group formed, focused on CAP as a whole, no tribal agendas.

New model: Focused on Training & Proficiency, Missions, Cadet Density (for o-flights), geography. No percentages. Last two serve as "base" that drives minimum requirements. Maintenance downtime is also a factor. Creates a more ready, mission-capable fleet that strengthens CAP. The next aircraft buy will be distributed using this new model. If we get to 100K members, we will need more aircraft.

Safety Update - Damen Therkidsen
New director of safety. Integrating paid staff & volunteers as they were silo'd before. Moving away from the blame and shame that we had in the past. Just Culture = Learning  Accountability.

Human Error = Console
At-Risk Choice = Coach
Reckless Action = Hold accountable

Need commanders to encourage reporting, reinforce standards, close the loop (tell emembers what changed, who owns it, and whether the mitigation worked), share the lesson, stay personally engaged.

Next 90 days: Complete IT testing, refine CAPSIS and establish consistant review langage with guides and videos. NSOC curriculum, monthly training to be pushed to safety directors they can use, OSH+SMS (integrate HR requirements and advance CA/SOO coordination with CAP-USAF).

Question: How are you going to get monthly safety compliance? It is a requirement that safety training be offered monthly. Members can get training in Absorb.

Question: The lessons learned from all the data collected doesn't always make it back to the membership. The suggestion was to make those lessons learned to the membership in some sort of library.

National command team, region/wing commanders & SEL, legal went into a closed session.

These are rushed notes and I'm no court stenographer. Typos and poor grammar is all my own.

This is from the morning session of the Command Council where the CEO, COO, and CIO gave updates.

CEO update:

Membership remaining fairly steady, retention officer has been broken out from recruiting. Want to exceed 100K members. Cadet membership is growing faster than adults, which could lead to a problem. Recruit everywhere.

O-Flights are a bit down due to the govt shutdown. Plea for pilots to fly cadets.

CPT at about 87%. Never be 100 thanks to continual new members and folks in -000 (working on 000 issue now).

7M in endowments, BOG goal of 12M. Since 2019, 1M in scholarships.

One CAP, one plan: America's most trusted youth leadership program, integrated AF aux (hopes CAP-USAF is the best place to work in the AF). Premiere nationwide community partner in ES, engaged, impactful aerospace centric leadership development.

Working with youth marines, sea cadets in a cadet protection council.

Expanding tools: CAPNET, logistics, vehicle management, airplane maint, finance management, servicenow (workflow management)

Looking for more sustained funding outside of the grant that comes through the AF to make CAP more resilient, especially during govt shutdowns.

Lots of change going on. Building trust through change. Transparency, follow-through. Hopes members feel NHQ is listening and responsive. Increasing communication (more emails from CEO to org). Trying to eliminate communication issues where they are found.

Need regions to share info with wings, need wings to share with squadrons. Reiterate NHQ's priorities (strategic plan). Region/wing leaders should be able to recite the plan verbatim.  Members judge organizational change by the actions of the commander.

Strengthing relevance through partnerships. Fire mission in Washington state, coordination with FEMA and state EMA - all required strong partnerships. Weekly meetings with CAP-USAF leadership. ALso talking outside of CAP-USAF, such as recruiting to make CAP better known. Wings need to work with their DET commander, air national guard, engage community leaders (missions come locally), look for opportunties to solve problems. NHQ can help, once you've located opportunities.

Building the bench. More depth is necessary in all roles. Need good commanders, a strong squadron is a strong CAP. Reduces organizational risk having succession plans. Encourage people to progress through Vol U (like completing level 3 before SQ/CC). Setup mentoring programs for leadership, roles, ops quals, etc. Assign mentors to new members and new commanders.

Too few people are doing too much work. Growing administrative burden. Frustration with processes and communication. Losting CAP/Life balance. Probably won't recognize CAP in 18 months based on the improved systems. Clarifying regulations. 900% increase in publication updates. Build teams, not heros: There are people who will push that rock up the hill, instead get a team to push that rock. Help those people with 9 jobs at squadron and 3 more at wing.

Systems and process: M365, ServiceNow workflow, Workday FMS, Contracting cleanip, publication updates, new unit locator page & new landing page (new vehicle wrap has the link), RAMS, PlaneLogix, Vehicle management system.

New pubs: 30-1, 39-1, 50-1, 60-2 ICL, 70-1, 70-10, 120-1, 130-1, 140-1
About a dozen new pamphlets

Regoin/wing leaders should communication about 10x more than they think (and then, a bit more). Ensure all volunteers feel included and are recognized.

What we're hearing from region/wing commanders:
Why so many updates
Why didn't I now that, why didn't I know it sooner
How to I recruit in urban areas
What are some good recruiting tactics
How do I keep members
How do I know my units are healthy (QCUA is a great metric)

The future
2035: strong, relevant, trusted, ready, resilient

One CAP, One Plan
Our priorities:
Growth
Readiness
Volunteer Experience
Relevance (have to continue to find new missions and new ways to serve.)
Stewardship
Resilience
Trust

The shift we must make (from COO)
From activities to outcomes - having impact, knowing what that impact is
from local optimization to enterprise alignment - supporting local units through enterprise support (take as much admin burden away as possible)
From good intentions to disciplined execution - having a consistant experience across the org

What's different this time (from COO)
Priorities are identified (BOG have identified these, new COO appreciates having this well defined)
Outcomes will be measured
Resources will be aligned
Progress will be reviewed
Adjustments will be made

What changes are happening at headquarters? (from COO)
Philosophy - HQ is to support the local units in accomplishing their missions
Structure
Staffing
Prioritization

What we know commanders need (from COO - list comes from commanders)
Better communication
Better technology (everyone else is talking about how to integrate AI, CAP doesn't even have systems that support AI)
Better processes
Better support
Better coordination

Publications Updates (back to CEO)
Compliance adjustments
Format changes for readability upcoming
Reducing confusion
Overdue for revision
Conflicting guidance
Directive versus non-directive (Hear me the CEO from the stage: pamphlets are non-directive. We started putting stuff in pamphlets, will be more disciplined moving forward)

Focus on langage
Region not regional
Capitalize wing and region when it is specific, not general ("Minnesota Wing" vs "our wing")
CAP/XXX not NHQ/XXX
Better discipline on duty position abbreviations
Leadership developing, not "do you want to be" - changing language (dark side, come and pay)
AGAIN: no wills, shalls, or musts in non-directive publications

What we need from commanders
Communicate often and early
Use the chain of command
align and support priorities
Build leaders
Strengthen units
Execute the plan locally
Provide quality feedback

Information Technology Briefing - Mr. Joe Hall, Ms. Katrina Jackson
Portfolio Overview
14 active initiatives. 5 reporting areas.
Reporting & Accountability Management System (RAMS) Aug 2026
Pegasus (replacing WMIRS) Oct 2026
Professional Levels (Specialty Track Integration) ? 2026
Enterprise WOrkflow Management - ServiceNow Nov 2026 (travel reimbursement, helpdesk, document revision tracking)
M365 (in planning) Huge game changer. 1 Oct starting implementation.
Enterprise Data & Analytics
CAPR 120-1 Revisions
IT Specialty Track Revision
Enterprise AI governance
Technology Infrastructure & Field SUpport (FY26 field computer buy 110 computers, org phone tree transition, SQL server 2019 to 2025 migration, SSRS report documentation)
Also coming up:
MIS integration - Phase II (CAPSIS, enhanced reporting, maint)
IG Application Controls Enhancement (enhanced system controls that provide non-ig personnel with read-only access within inspection modules)
Workflow Mangement - Phase II (expansion of ServiceNow after go-live)

IT goals: Protecting our members, operational efficiency, making CAP easier to operate

Questions:

Wanted clarification on roll out- starting with some small wings/units for testing, then move to the rest of the org.

Only wing commanders see approvals for specialty tracks, not the E&T folks. - Thank you for the feedback, this is what IT is looking for. Will bring this back to the team.

Access control needs to be granular and commanders need to be able to manage those permissions.-Thank you for the feedback, hear you loud and clear.

What will email addresses become, will NHQ handle google migrations - looking to move to a .org domain name to focus on our non-profit status with some .gov use for those that have specific use cases. Google migration will be handled by NHQ as part of the project

CAP/CS - mentioned 30 years ago, Gen Anderson had to use a fax machine to get information out to the entire org

Breakout session rules of engagement by Gen Bailey - No drama, no disrespect, no complaining without a solution, no gossip, have fun.

Hi All

 So yeah, after 3 years, we're seriously reattacking moving CAPTalk to a new host.
 
 Unlike 3 years ago, the forum is a lot quieter so the chances of losing something ongoing in the transition are much smaller. We're not in the midst of several multi-threaded discussions where we might lose a bunch of things because the database snapshot was from today but the site didn't migrate until Saturday.

 So bear with the team as we get the site moved. We might lose a little in the transition, but I hope not.

 Following the move to a new host, we expect to be better able to accept new members with CAPTCHA to keep the spammers sort of at bay, do two-factor login security, notify people via email of messages, etc, which is something we struggle with today.

Thanks!

--NIN

I think that's a flawed conclusion.

I would not consider the lack of activity as a measure of interest as much as it is a measure of accessibility. In its current state, new users cannot join, existing members cannot
change their passwords if they forgot them, the site throws scary warning about the lack of security (passwords in plain http), and more than half the time the site just doesn't load at all.

It's like concluding that there's no interest in classic ford trucks because no one is driving the rusted out F100 on blocks in the back yard.
There are a number of very active message boards still around, and while I don't expect that captalk will overtake reddit or facebook in popularity, I think it could absolutely offer an alternative for members who want to
discuss CAP without all the social media bagage.

I purposely refrained from responding for some time to demonstrate that I think that there is really no longer any need or interest. This forum was a really good idea for the time, but tech has marched on and so have the members. We are now just an archive of historical information that is very dated.

Quote from: Pylon on July 29, 2026, 04:13:55 PM

Quote from: Adam B (again) on May 20, 2026, 12:22:08 PMSo, who actually runs this?

Hi. 🙋🏻

Hello sir! 
So, is there anything that I (or maybe a few of us?) can do to help support this site?

Like I said earlier, I don't have any experience with the forums/message board side of things, but I've configured mx records, managed ssl certs, and other general web-admin-type tasks and would be interested in helping out if needed.