CAP Public Trust Task Force

[RiverAux]

This announcement has been on CAP News Online and was also distributed through the chain of command (at least I got one copy that way):

Col. Russell E. Chazell, Civil Air Patrol national chief of staff, has issued the following call for volunteers:

As an organization that receives support from both public and private sources, Civil Air Patrol must maintain the highest standards of public trust and accountability. High public trust standards must encompass all aspects of Civil Air Patrol's organizational business practices and procedures.

To that end, the national commander has directed me to establish a "Public Trust Task Force." This task force will consider issues of organizational accountability, organizational transparency and review of organizational processes that bear upon public trust issues.

From the national commander, the task force will be assigned issues of importance to the concept of public trust and, after thoughtful research,
review and consideration, will make recommendations to the commander for
possible consideration by the policy makers of Civil Air Patrol — the National Board, the National Executive Committee or the Board of Governors, as appropriate.

The Public Trust Task Force will be comprised of CAP members selected by the
national commander. A chairperson will also be selected by the national
commander. The task force will work with the commander, through the national
chief of staff, on relevant public trust issues assigned to it.

Those CAP members in good standing wishing to participate as members of the
Public Trust Task Force may self-nominate by sending a letter of intent, CAP resume and professional resume to Susie Parker at sparker@capnhq.gov. '
Members with experience in corporate governance, corporate law or service as corporate board members are preferred, but any member is welcome to apply.

Applications are due by Jan. 31.

What do you think about this?

[Timbo]

^ We all ready have this "task force".  Public law mandates a Board of Governors.....for this same purpose??

So we need civilian corporate fat cats advising the CAP Commander how to run the business better.  I am curious to see what characteristics they are looking for in those selected to be on this task force.  Do they need to be successfull business owners that make over 5 million a year?  Can they be the shift manager at a McDonald's. 

This and the Organizational Excellence track make me wonder what could be going on.  Perhaps the AF or Law Makers paid our Commander a visit and told her to "clean up" the mess left by Pineda??!?! 

[arajca]

Given these two items, and a couple seemingly minor things, I think it is clean-up time. The source of the clean-up initiative, however, I'm not sure is external (i.e. AF or congress-critters). Given all the reports I've heard about the CAP/CC, she may be driving this herself to prevent the AF or Congress from getting involved.

This next NB will be interesting. I foresee much discussion about the direction of CAP and how it operates. I'm also counting on the CAPTalk standard play-by-play coverage, since I have that work thingie going on during the NB, and won't be able to listen in to the whole thing. 

[RiverAux]

So we need civilian corporate fat cats advising the CAP Commander how to run the business better.

Only CAP members are apparently eligible for membership.

[Timbo]

So we need civilian corporate fat cats advising the CAP Commander how to run the business better.

Only CAP members are apparently eligible for membership.

But....when I really read this

Members with experience in corporate governance, corporate law or service as corporate board members are preferred, but any member is welcome to apply.

It makes me think she will only select Business professionals, just like in the OE specialty track, where you get credit for being a corporate dog. 

[Senior]

My first impression is that all members are eligible, BUT you will be more
eligible if you are high up in a corporation.  I see the reason for their preference.
Can you imagine all the blah blah going on in that first meeting--seeing who is going to be the alpha male and all that.
It sounds like CAP may have a problem that hasn't or won't get out to the
public.  CAP is going to start a board to covers all the bases regarding the
publice trust (where is the money going?).
I say this because most legitimate Christian organizations now are
members of the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability, ECFA.
These Christian organizations had to create a 3rd party as an oversite
to cover themselves from the fallout from the Bakers in the '80's.
This is just my first impression

[FlexCoder]

Members narcing on other members, how does that create trust, Sounds like a Witch Hunt! 

[Major Carrales]

Members narcing on other members, how does that create trust, Sounds like a Witch Hunt!

Naw, I don' t think it is that.  If I'm readling this right (my interp) it is an attempt to gather a group of interested CAP Officers to really "get the word out" about CAP as being an organization worthy of the Public Trust.

[FlexCoder]

I hope your right Major Carrales.  According to the FBI definition, Public Trust Task Force's are usually designed to aggressively investigate and successfully prosecute allegations of public corruption within an organization that has betrayed the publics trust.  If that is the case, a third unbiased party should be appointed or members investigating other members will result in utter chaos!

[Timbo]

............  If that is the case, a third unbiased party should be appointed or members investigating other members will result in utter chaos!

How about the GAO......Government Accountability Office.  We use money appropriated through Congress.  Maybe we need the FED taking a more active role in accounting for where the money actually goes.

That is what this is about.  Making it known where our money from the tax payers is going. 

Maybe I am being too simple minded, but I don't think a new task force, or group needs to be created.  We got along fine without a group like this for 65+ years?!?!?!?

[arajca]

It's also not uncommon for a corporation to run its own public trust task force to find issues before they become matters for the Feds to investigate. IIRC, there were alot of these run following the Enron collapse.

[FW]

............  If that is the case, a third unbiased party should be appointed or members investigating other members will result in utter chaos!

How about the GAO......Government Accountability Office.  We use money appropriated through Congress.  Maybe we need the FED taking a more active role in accounting for where the money actually goes.

That is what this is about.  Making it known where our money from the tax payers is going. 

Maybe I am being too simple minded, but I don't think a new task force, or group needs to be created.  We got along fine without a group like this for 65+ years?!?!?!?

Nah.  Our money from the "taxpayer fund" is well accounted and we have multiple layers of oversight and, no one on the volunteer side has any real means to cause a major "FWA" problem.  However, with the "membership fund".  There could be a real problem with FWA issues.  However, I don't think it is just the money which is driving this "task force".  I think it is more of a "governance" issue.  IMHO, the leadership of CAP, at all levels, needs to understand how to work within the "public trust".  Having a committee to work on this can be very beneficial.

[Timbo]

...It's also not uncommon for a corporation to run its own public trust task force to find issues before they become matters for the Feds to investigate....

Yes.....but how many corporations are directly funded by Federal Tax Dollars??

[CAPLAW]

What a joke!    What the #!%@ are our core values for if we need this kind of garbage.

[CAP_truth]

The Public Trust Task Force will be comprised of CAP members selected by the
national commander. A chairperson will also be selected by the national
commander. The task force will work with the commander, through the national
chief of staff, on relevant public trust issues assigned to it.

For those that apply notice that selections are made by national cc, chairperson selected by national cc and works with national cc

[Pylon]

...It's also not uncommon for a corporation to run its own public trust task force to find issues before they become matters for the Feds to investigate....

Yes.....but how many corporations are directly funded by Federal Tax Dollars??

Private corporations and non-profits?   Uh... thousands. 

[PHall]

...It's also not uncommon for a corporation to run its own public trust task force to find issues before they become matters for the Feds to investigate....

Yes.....but how many corporations are directly funded by Federal Tax Dollars??

Private corporations and non-profits?   Uh... thousands. 

After the financial services bailout from Congress, about half of Wall Street!

[RiverAux]

Is it a good idea to have a group within CAP whose sole purpose is to ask the question "Is this a good use of public funds?" a good idea?  Yes. 

However, the difficult part is that the group is going to need to have extraordinary access to all sorts of documents that are normally not really available to the SM Snuffy Smith such as detailed financial records.  I would assume that such access would be granted.

Perhaps this group would be the one asking some of the tough questions that have been discussed here recently such as:
1.  Is the DDR program actually making a difference in how many kids and CAP cadets are using drugs?

2.  Do we have some tangible statistics showing that the cadet program is meeting both the formal goals set for it? 

3.  What is CAP's plan for meeting one of the goals of our organization set by Congress that is ignored by CAP --- fostering civil aviation in our local communities

4.  Demanding rigorous evaluation of test programs such as whatever the Junior Cadet program is called now, including publishing reports documenting these evaluations. 

To me, the tough part is going to be the relationship between this group and the CAP Inspector Generals. 

[Timbo]

1.  Is the DDR program actually making a difference in how many kids and CAP cadets are using drugs?

Not apparent unless we start drug testing our Cadets?? 

2.  Do we have some tangible statistics showing that the cadet program is meeting both the formal goals set for it? 

What goals??  Those in the Cadet Program Manual?  I have a Doctorate and can't even differentiate between some of them!  How many Spaatz cadets we have?  The turnover rate?  How many go one to college??  What is the goal.......build better citizens?  How are we supposed to monitor that?  See how many previous Cadets wind up in jail?

3.  What is Cap's plan for meeting one of the goals of our organization set by Congress that is ignored by CAP --- fostering civil aviation in our local communities

hmmm.......not apparent either.  I have flown for 15 years and never once saw anything aerospace related coming from CAP in my community.   

4.  Demanding rigorous evaluation of test programs such as whatever the Junior Cadet program is called now, including publishing reports documenting these evaluations. 

Last report on the School Initiative was in 2006.  PAWG shut down some Initiative school programs, and they were a strong leader in the field, so probably not going well. 

There is no way to see how well the CAP program is running.  Do we base it on membership numbers?  I can't see any way to do it.  Everything is subjective anyway.  Some units are better off financially than others, that is a big factor!  Some meet in a rural airport while some meet on an Air Force Base that supports the heck out of them. 

I think this task force is only going to be used by our Commander to say "hey AF/ Congress, look we have an internal audit group and they say everything is fine".  It is seemingly a ploy to get more Federal Funds, and there is nothing wrong with that.......

[RiverAux]

Well, thanks for going into more depth on the issues I raised that might be appropriate for the task force to look at. 

Probably the most important thing is that it needs to be TOTALLY transparent.  If they keep things hidden behind the curtain like the IG system does, then it will not be trusted.  The minutes of all their meetings need to be made public as well as any reports that they write.  And by "public", I mean posted on the public portion of the web site and available to everybody and not just CAP members.