achievement award

[lordmonar]

I don't trust that wing will award it either... that's the problem.  It either gets handed out like candy, or you don't get nutt'n.

Okay....what's wrong with candy?

If the tool is intended to increase the feel good of the members....here's an offical pat on the back......then what's the problem.
If the tool is intended to increase members doing something you want....everyone who is on the Encampment staff gets a CAP Acheivment......again, what's the problem?

A tool is a tool.....it can be used effectively or misused....or not used at all.

[Eclipse]

It's also been used as a "consolation gift" for Commanders who can't be bothered to submit the appropriate dec - and then the Group CC is
pressured to "just sign it" because they have more direct contact with their unit cc's then the Wing cc does.

[lordmonar]

Are we done with the OP's topic.....because I would like to discuss this further....anyone want to start a new thread?

[Eclipse]

...everyone who is on the Encampment staff gets a CAP Acheivment...

Two things from your example.

Encampment staff already get a decoration - the encampment ribbon, and an encampment is always a wing-level activity, so the Achievement is inappropriate in scale.

Also, when something becomes too easy to attain, it loses its value.

[lordmonar]

...everyone who is on the Encampment staff gets a CAP Acheivment...

Two things from your example.

Encampment staff already get a decoration - the encampment ribbon, and an encampment is always a wing-level activity, so the Achievement is inappropriate in scale.

Also, when something becomes too easy to attain, it loses its value.

Yes and no...about the scale thing.  Just because you are a wing staffer does not mean the only award you can get is a Commendation.

To use the AD USAF thought process......the awards are tied into rank.  If you do Airman work....no matter what level you are assigned...then you get a Acheivment.  If you do NCO work you get a Commendation if you do SNCO work then you get an MSM.

It does not matter what level your scope of work may entail....i.e. an Airman working in the Pentagon is still only doing airman level work....even if the project may affect the entire USAF.

Granted.....an Airman may sometimes do NCO level work and a NCO may do SNCO work.....and it is more likely for that to happen if you are assigned at higher level......but it happens at lower levels too.

And yes everyone one who goes to encampment gets the encampment ribbon......that show completetion......so you loose the ability to show those who did more than the average member (all those who just went to encampment) if you simply limit it to the encampment ribbon.

So....as a policy...everyone who is on staff will get an Acheivement and maybe the Top 3-4 leaders will get a Commendation.  Because your Encampment Director is definatley doing wing level high ranking level work...but the guys working the admin section or doing comm are doing "airman" level work.

And of course.......just because the member was on staff does not automatically garantee an Acheivment Award.  You are expected to work for it....and if you cause problems or are just not up to snuff....but don't actaully cross that line of getting asked to leave....you won't get one.

Like I said.....policies and principles are there as a tool to be used....as necessary.

As for losing it's value.....are you suggesting that encampment staff is easy?  Anyone who gives up a week for CAP to help run an encampment is already above and beyond his peers (all those other CAP members who did not even volunteer). 

[Eclipse]

As for losing it's value.....are you suggesting that encampment staff is easy?  Anyone who gives up a week for CAP to help run an encampment is already above and beyond his peers (all those other CAP members who did not even volunteer).

I don't disagree, but that doesn't mean their performance is necessarily worthy of a decoration.  The precedent in my wing has been 3-years on staff
garners a comm-comm.

[capmaj]

There is at least one Wing that gives their Encampment Cadet Commander a MSM or ESM just for serving. Yet a Senior who serves as the Deputy Commander or Exec at the same Encampment might get a Commanders Comm.

Strange.

[lordmonar]

As for losing it's value.....are you suggesting that encampment staff is easy?  Anyone who gives up a week for CAP to help run an encampment is already above and beyond his peers (all those other CAP members who did not even volunteer).

I don't disagree, but that doesn't mean their performance is necessarily worthy of a decoration.  The precedent in my wing has been 3-years on staff
garners a comm-comm.

Okay....that's for service....what about for acheivement?  All awards are either given for service (a sustained period of time) or acheivmenent....for a specific event/act/short period of service.   

I agree with your wing to say 3 years is a good working range for a service decoration.....but then you are ignoring the work of those who work hard a a specific event.  Your encampment staff leaders...work hard for up to six months getting it ready to do.  You are ignoring a big segment of the people who are making the program work.  It costs nothing.  It costs nothing.  And IMHO it does not diminish the value of the award to your wing staffers.  If they care about that sort of thing then maybe next year they will volunteer to staff the encampment.

See.  That's how the system is supposed to work.

You ask people to do a job and then you reward them with the right amount of candy.  If the reward is too small for the amount of work involved....then your system does not do what it is intended to do.

[James Shaw]

You ask people to do a job and then you reward them with the right amount of candy.  If the reward is too small for the amount of work involved....then your system does not do what it is intended to do.

Is this a big miss that can be addressed from a local level or a National focus?

[Eclipse]

You ask people to do a job and then you reward them with the right amount of candy.  If the reward is too small for the amount of work involved....then your system does not do what it is intended to do.

Is this a big miss that can be addressed from a local level or a National focus?

The only way NHQ could help this would be with better, more consistent guidance on how and when to approve these decorations.
We have wings where members gets decs so often they've stopped updating their racks, and others where nothing short of
saving the President's life would get you a Certificate of Appreciation.

We're a national organization and it should be somewhat consistent.  Heck, it took writ of reg just to clarify the common sense idea that
UC's were not awarded to everyone just for joining a unit.

[lordmonar]

You ask people to do a job and then you reward them with the right amount of candy.  If the reward is too small for the amount of work involved....then your system does not do what it is intended to do.

Is this a big miss that can be addressed from a local level or a National focus?

The only way NHQ could help this would be with better, more consistent guidance on how and when to approve these decorations.
We have wings where members gets decs so often they've stopped updating their racks, and others where nothing short of
saving the President's life would get you a Certificate of Appreciation.

We're a national organization and it should be somewhat consistent.  Heck, it took writ of reg just to clarify the common sense idea that
UC's were not awarded to everyone just for joining a unit.

+1
The USAF does a pretty good job of training their leaders about what and when a decoration is appropriat.  For large operations they set up central boards to make sure the standards are being followed.

CAP seems to just ignore it.

Either local commanders don't know about decorations or they are hit or miss because of uneven application of the no existant standards.

IIWKFAD (If I were king for a day) I would write a pamplet outlineing the guidelines of when someone should be considered for an award and what the standards are for each award.

Standards such as how long should staff service before being considered?
How far do we take the concepts of "Just doing your job" or "doing your job well" or "doing your job well above and beyond".
Since rank in CAP does not really denote span of control or scope of work like it does in the military how do we define those concepts that make real sense......i.e. an opertions officer in a 100 member squadron with a plane, 10 active pilots, 10 active ground teams may be a doing more work then some group or wing operations officers or staffers. 

I would also change some of the rules and names of the decorations to more closely match USAF parlance.

CAP Acheivment Medal (squadron level staff service)
CAP Commendation Medal (instead of the commander's commendation)(Group level staff service)
CAP Meritorius Service Medal (Wing level staff service)
CAP Superiot Service Medal (Regional level staff service)
CAP Distinguished Service Medal (National level staff service)

Eliminate the Stars form the CCMedal based on who awarded it.

[Eclipse]

I agree that the Comm Comm should be a lower award - if a "Commander" feels you are worthy of note, then his signature, at whatever level
he's a CC, should be enough.  As it stands today, these things are vetted 1-2 times on top of the initiator.

The scope and initiator is important - take Katrina, we had national presenting decs, and wings, and regions, and units, and sometimes
to the same person, and with no real consistency.  Whatever the highest echelon is that presents the award, that should be the sole initiator.

[JeffDG]

I don't think the awards should be based upon the echelon of service, but more echelon of the activity meriting decoration.

Take the ES side of things for example.  You could be a local squadron guy who gets pulled as IC, OSC or PSC a wing-level or even regional level mission.  You're not on the Region staff, but your service could well meet the criteria for an ESA now (just had one awarded last month as a matter of fact)

[Eclipse]

I don't think the awards should be based upon the echelon of service, but more echelon of the activity meriting decoration.

Agreed, that's what I meant - the scope of whatever you're being decorated for.

[lordmonar]

The scope and initiator is important - take Katrina, we had national presenting decs, and wings, and regions, and units, and sometimes
to the same person, and with no real consistency.  Whatever the highest echelon is that presents the award, that should be the sole initiator.

I disagree that the level of the approver/initatior is important.  It should not matter if your squadron commander saw you doing something good or the National Commander.

The approver is only important to the level of the award....obvoiusly a squadron commander should not approve a national level award....it is outside of his scope....but he could initiate it.  But it the national commander initiates and approves a member for a doing squadron/wing/regional level work they should not be getting a special doo-dad on their ribbon.

I do agree that for special operation then someone at that level takes control of it.  The USAF does this with Iraq and Afganistan....and Kosovo and Bosnia in the past...to make sure that only one award is being give for their operation.

So if a wing commander gets a medal package and it is all about Katrian it would have to be forwarded to Region/National even if it was just an Acheivement medal.

[JeffDG]

So if a wing commander gets a medal package and it is all about Katrian it would have to be forwarded to Region/National even if it was just an Acheivement medal.

I don't think so.

I'm on Wing Staff.  When I submitted people for an achievement award, I submitted to those individual's squadron commanders (or if they were squadron/ccs to group commanders, or other wing staffers, to the Wing/cc) and the approval chain then goes to the Group/cc (or Wing/cc for the Wing staffers).  Just because the person submitting the award is a Wing person doesn't cut the unit and/or group approvals out of the chain.

If Gen. Carr notices someone doing something that merits and Achievement Award, that award should be submitted by Gen. Carr to that individual's unit commander, and approved by the Group commander.

[lordmonar]

I don't think the awards should be based upon the echelon of service, but more echelon of the activity meriting decoration.

Take the ES side of things for example.  You could be a local squadron guy who gets pulled as IC, OSC or PSC a wing-level or even regional level mission.  You're not on the Region staff, but your service could well meet the criteria for an ESA now (just had one awarded last month as a matter of fact)

Absolutely!

In my mind the "level" of service is just a bench mark to start from. 
So if you say "3 yeas as a squadron staffer....gets you a CAP acheivment award" then amount of work you do and the scope and impact of the duty is XX.
If you staff a large SAR that only lasted a week.......but you did the level and quality of work as a squadron staff officer then you should be looking at an acheivement....even if you personally are assigned to Wing or Regional Staff.

Likewise if you are at Regional Staff as some assistant to the assitant deputy deirctor.....then maybe you would only get a Comendation or acheivment...even though our level assignem was region.

The IC for Deepwater Horizon may be up for an Exceptional or Meritorous because of the scope of that operation.

[lordmonar]

So if a wing commander gets a medal package and it is all about Katrian it would have to be forwarded to Region/National even if it was just an Acheivement medal.

I don't think so.

I'm on Wing Staff.  When I submitted people for an achievement award, I submitted to those individual's squadron commanders (or if they were squadron/ccs to group commanders, or other wing staffers, to the Wing/cc) and the approval chain then goes to the Group/cc (or Wing/cc for the Wing staffers).  Just because the person submitting the award is a Wing person doesn't cut the unit and/or group approvals out of the chain.

If Gen. Carr notices someone doing something that merits and Achievement Award, that award should be submitted by Gen. Carr to that individual's unit commander, and approved by the Group commander.

No...you mis-read what I was saying.....it would still go through the chain....but an Acheivement would normally stop at Group for Approval.......but in this case (and operation/campaign) ALL decorations would have to go to the central board no matter initiated them or for what level.

The USAF does not usually do this for acheivment medals....but anything above this ususally has to go the cental board for approval.  That way the can control who is getting what and keep it level.  Otherwise you would have a wing commander who is really impressed by our work in the 'Stan and give you the Bronze Star while another commander disapproves a similar medal because of different standards.

So in a CAP context.....following a Katrina/Fosset Search/Deepwater type operations NHQ would direct all or some decoration be sent to the central board for approval.

[lordmonar]

If Gen. Carr notices someone doing something that merits and Achievement Award, that award should be submitted by Gen. Carr to that individual's unit commander, and approved by the Group commander.

No.

If I'm the wing king...I don't have to ask my group commander to approve anything....I tell him!

[coudano]

So I have proposed before in a different venue, a centralized (i.e. e-services) awards nomination function.
Online CAPF 120.

And a single, national, "awards approval board" (kind of like a CAP personnel center, sort of) to go or no-go award recommendation packages based upon criteria, and formatting (with some more clearly defined criteria .  This board could potentially "reclassify" a recommendation to another award as written, or "kick back" the recommendation to the initiator, for re-submission.  It would also have QC over one member receiving only one decoration per action.

Awards that were given the "go" from this process will be forwarded to the appropriate command chain for simple yes/no approval.  When the appropriate commander approves, an automatic award cite gets generated and sent to the appropriate presenting authority (and shows in a "VMPF" in e-services)



Members of this board should be volunteers perhaps for term of 1 year, perhaps one or two per region, rotating on a staggered basis.  They will do their work collaboratively through an online system of queued awards in a workflow something along the lines of pending / under review / approve-disapprove format&apropo / final disposition (reject with reason, or approve -with or without changes).  Probably good practice for members of the board to recuse themselves of package reviews on members with whom may pose a professional or personal conflict of interest.