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Are You Mission Capable

Started by etodd, December 16, 2021, 08:40:08 PM

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fyrfitrmedic

 In regards to being proactive and selling one's squadron: The command staff at my former and no longer extant squadron received a smackdown and a loud "stay in your lane" from Group and Wing for taking those steps. Obviously everybody's mileage will vary.
MAJ Tony Rowley CAP
Lansdowne PA USA
"The passion of rescue reveals the highest dynamic of the human soul." -- Kurt Hahn

Eclipse

Quote from: RiverAux on December 19, 2021, 04:10:06 PMAnd if many of these sorts of missions don't require days of training to perform does not that mean they aren't worth doing?  Do we have to only do stuff that requires specialized training? As was shown in an earlier post, having a well-organized group of people that are motivated to serve may be all that is needed to help a local government or agency during a disaster.

Yes - at least that's why people joined CAP historically - access to missions and resources of a type and at a scale that is not accessible locally, or to adhoc "come as you are" situations.

The shelter, food pantry, and Amazon delivery missions CAP has been getting tennis elbow from
patting itself on the back about?

Nope.  No need for CAP there.

Do those organizations need help?  Sure.

Do they need uniforms, protocols, and the administrative BS it takes just to get 4 more people?

No.

CERT does not need or want CAP, they want to train their own people and have C2 of them.

Salvation Army?  Same deal, and there's a non-secular aspect that (kinda) conflicts with CAP's secular stance.

ARC - They want CAP's mailing list, not their uniforms.

Rinse / repeat. 

(And your local church being "super-thankful" that one weekend the cadets raked the leaves
doesn't count as a mission, either locally or nationally, those types of community service activities
are why people join Scouting, not CAP.)


Your local food panty / shelter / rec center / outreach?
Again, they may need help, but it is not skilled labor, they will generally take anyone who shows up,
and depending on the area the organization is located, there may be member safety and/or cadet protection
issues, and often the uniforms are a minus.

Trying to fly under an umbrella of "the charter says we can do anything" may work with Congress,
but it fails at the practical, and it fails for retention.

CAP has had an increasingly specific lane for decades, largely self- and lawyer imposed, has been ignoring quantifying capabilities pretty much across the board both locally and nationally (I dunno do people think NOT saying what CAP does actually helps?), and has shown it isn't interested in accepting the reality of the post-911 HLS / ES landscape where contractors and vigilantes have been increasingly performing the tasks.

The above, and the failure to properly develop leadership beyond "it's Jimmy's turn to be Commander" is
the reason CAP's in the state it's in.

The already initiated slowdown / standown due to Covid for another year will just continue to exacerbate the situation.

But no one will use that downtime to plan and make the tough choices needed to keep the organization viable
when CAP has all those Crisis ribbons to hand out.

"That Others May Zoom"

RiverAux

CAP has gone as far as it can in our traditional air-focused role.  There is nothing wrong with adding new types of missions.  Maybe CAP can't always provide unique skill sets, but sometimes there are needs that don't require special skills and if random people aren't showing up out of the blue to fill that gap, I don't see why CAP couldn't.

If some random National Guard units get called up to hand out food and water or some other non-specialized task, I don't see that as a mission that CAP should refuse to look into.


Eclipse

Quote from: RiverAux on December 19, 2021, 09:25:41 PMIf some random National Guard units get called up to hand out food and water or some other non-specialized task, I don't see that as a mission that CAP should refuse to look into.

Humanitarian type roles are literally and by definition one of the reasons Guard units exist
(at least in as much as their state roles).

Not so for CAP, and Guard "membership" comes with plenty of tangible benefits, with those types
of missions and activities being only a small part of the picture.

Good luck recruiting adults into CAP if your only (or major) mission(s) is something they can do
down the street for free in shorts.

I know it would not have been something I considered 21 years ago.  There's simply no need for
the extra level of BS when I can walk to the corner on my own volition.

"That Others May Zoom"

Jester

Quote from: Eclipse on December 19, 2021, 09:42:42 PM
Quote from: RiverAux on December 19, 2021, 09:25:41 PMIf some random National Guard units get called up to hand out food and water or some other non-specialized task, I don't see that as a mission that CAP should refuse to look into.

Humanitarian type roles are literally and by definition one of the reasons Guard units exist
(at least in as much as their state roles).

Not so for CAP, and Guard "membership" comes with plenty of tangible benefits, with those types
of missions and activities being only a small part of the picture.

Good luck recruiting adults into CAP if your only (or major) mission(s) is something they can do
down the street for free in shorts.

I know it would not have been something I considered 21 years ago.  There's simply no need for
the extra level of BS when I can walk to the corner on my own volition.

Duuuuuuuuude, why do you even stay in CAP?  What are you doing in your sphere of influence to make the organization better, at least what you consider better in your opinion backed by decades of experience?

All I hear is "can't, can't can't".

Eclipse

#25
Quote from: Jester on December 19, 2021, 11:40:57 PMDuuuuuuuuude, why do you even stay in CAP?

Mostly sunk cost, which I would hazard is why a lot of people still wrote a check this year.

Quote from: Jester on December 19, 2021, 11:40:57 PMWhat are you doing in your sphere of influence to make the organization better, at least what you consider better in your opinion backed by decades of experience?

That's funny right there. It's explicitly because I have spent two decades trying my
best to make things better that I have the right to informed complaint.

Also, perhaps a review of the Flat Tire Axiom is in order:
http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=23638.msg423339

Quote from: Jester on December 19, 2021, 11:40:57 PMAll I hear is "can't, can't can't".

Listen close, you're not hearing can't, you're hearing won't.

At the high level the fixes are simple.  The effort is herculean, and that assumes
member buy-in, but the necessary steps are relatively simple to convey.

Its starts with leadership who are more concerned with viability then popularity.

"That Others May Zoom"

Garibaldi

Quote from: Eclipse on December 20, 2021, 12:48:08 AM
Quote from: Jester on December 19, 2021, 11:40:57 PMDuuuuuuuuude, why do you even stay in CAP?

Mostly sunk cost, which I would hazard is why a lot of people still wrote a check this year.

Quote from: Jester on December 19, 2021, 11:40:57 PMWhat are you doing in your sphere of influence to make the organization better, at least what you consider better in your opinion backed by decades of experience?

That's funny right there. It's explicitly because I have spent two decades trying my
best to make things better that I have the right to informed complaint.

Also, perhaps a review of the Flat Tire Axiom is in order:
http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=23638.msg423339

Quote from: Jester on December 19, 2021, 11:40:57 PMAll I hear is "can't, can't can't".

Listen close, you're not hearing can't, you're hearing won't.

At the high level the fixes are simple.  The effort is herculean, and that assumes
member buy-in, but the necessary steps are relatively simple to convey.

Its starts with leadership who are more concerned with viability then popularity.

Eh, I've learned that the esteemed Eclipse, while opinionated, does raise valid points and causes some of us to think. And on occasion he's incited me to try and make some things better, at least locally.
Still a major after all these years.
ES dude, leadership ossifer, publik affaires
Opinionated and wrong 99% of the time about all things

etodd

Quote from: Garibaldi on August 03, 2022, 11:40:48 PMEh, I've learned that the esteemed Eclipse, while opinionated, does raise valid points and causes some of us to think. And on occasion he's incited me to try and make some things better, at least locally.

You waited 8 months to chime in?  ;)
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

Garibaldi

Quote from: etodd on August 04, 2022, 12:29:42 AM
Quote from: Garibaldi on August 03, 2022, 11:40:48 PMEh, I've learned that the esteemed Eclipse, while opinionated, does raise valid points and causes some of us to think. And on occasion he's incited me to try and make some things better, at least locally.

You waited 8 months to chime in?  ;)

Well the thread was still open, I just returned from self-imposed exile...
Still a major after all these years.
ES dude, leadership ossifer, publik affaires
Opinionated and wrong 99% of the time about all things