Senior Member Activities

[TheSkyHornet]

Well, we saw the post down in the Cadet Programs sections about how to get cadets involved more. How about Seniors?

My squadron is a composite squadron, but it's very heavily cadet oriented. All of the activities we do are to incorporate training and fundraising via the cadets, from aerospace education to emergency services to squadron open houses and parking lot duty (harrumph). But we really don't have a Senior component in regard to Senior member training aside from Professional Development weekends (vary rare) and the eServices goodies. I've been hanging around another local squadron to start CAP pilot training, which is a composite squadron as well, but they're Senior component is exceptionally independent of the cadet side, with a continuously-running comms station set up and regular flight operations (although having an aircraft makes that a lot easier I suppose).

Right now, we're about 15 active cadets in our squadron and 6 Senior members, which include Commander, AE, ES, PA, Chaplain/Safety, and myself taking on the cadet leadership role(s).

I'm just looking to get some insight as to how some of the other squadrons, small or big, act as composite squadrons and not so much cadet squadrons. I love working with my cadets, for sure, but I'd also like to see a lot more senior activity as well, especially considering that we're supposed to operate as a composite, not just a cadet squadron.

Thoughts?

[catrulz]

In my opinion, you best serve the the unit, your cadets, and yourself by performing the Professional Development required to become a well rounded CAP officer.  After Level I, get into your specialty track.  If the unit didn't assign you a mentor, make sure you find someone that can answer your questions concerning your specialty and the specialty track pamphlet.

Then get enrolled in the next available Squadron Leadership Course.  If you are a cadet programs officer, find a Training Leaders of Cadets course and enroll in that.  Attend your wing conference and participate in seminars that interest you.

Unfortunately, many cadet focused units, overly focus on cadets, and ignore senior member development.  Eventually this catches up with individuals and units.  I believe we serve the organization, the cadets and our fellow senior members best by being as prepared and competent as we can make ourselves. 

There are other activities as well such as host IACE cadets from other countries, do an ES camp out, have a SM unit night at a diner to discuss unit activities and issues. 

[A.Member]

Simple...and this applies to both seniors and cadets:

Ensure we are doing things that meaningful and don't waste our volunteers time

As an organization, we seemingly forget this on a constant basis, as evidenced by our overabundance of regulations and skewed focus/attention to SUIs.  Some of this is nothing more than "busy work" for the sake of saying we did something - it's not value added.  And if it's not value added, we shouldn't do it.  This requires a change to our culture from the top down (note: recent changes in re: Safety, even as slight as they are, provide a slight ray of hope).

[AirAux]

It seems that with so much of CAP being on line now that we have lost the mentor phase some what and expect our senior members to get on line and do the program.  That seems to work with some, but not all.  Some people are just not incentivized by following prompts on a screen or attempting to discover "What's next".  This, in my eyes, is very unfortunate as we are losing some of our potentially best people because they are not motivated to respond to computers.  I prefer a pat on the back and a joke once in a while to keep me moving.  My computer lacks in those skills.  We must remember that some people are joining for social reasons and do not know how or necessarily want to know how to jump through all of the hoops by themselves on a computer.  I personally miss the camaraderie of our classes working on various skills and levels.  The new orientation online is a turn off for me.  We used to do a slide strip or VHR on Saturday with coffee and donuts and discussion.  A newby felt like they were part of the team immediately.  JMHO.   

[vorteks]

I prefer a pat on the back and a joke once in a while to keep me moving.  My computer lacks in those skills.

Time to upgrade. 

[TheSkyHornet]

In my opinion, you best serve the the unit, your cadets, and yourself by performing the Professional Development required to become a well rounded CAP officer.  After Level I, get into your specialty track.  If the unit didn't assign you a mentor, make sure you find someone that can answer your questions concerning your specialty and the specialty track pamphlet.

Then get enrolled in the next available Squadron Leadership Course.  If you are a cadet programs officer, find a Training Leaders of Cadets course and enroll in that.  Attend your wing conference and participate in seminars that interest you.

Unfortunately, many cadet focused units, overly focus on cadets, and ignore senior member development.  Eventually this catches up with individuals and units.  I believe we serve the organization, the cadets and our fellow senior members best by being as prepared and competent as we can make ourselves. 

There are other activities as well such as host IACE cadets from other countries, do an ES camp out, have a SM unit night at a diner to discuss unit activities and issues.

However, again, this seems very Cadet-oriented. I'm not opposed to serving the cadet corps whatsoever, and that's exactly why I joined this particular squadron. But there's more to a composite squadron than just the cadet component, otherwise it would be a cadet squadron (which is structured to have Senior Member oversight anyway).

It seems like every time we discuss activities, it's about how we can get the cadets to participate in an activity, or how to get the Seniors to work better with the cadets (usually, they get intertwined). Our squadron has a pilot, who I will not acknowledge as active since he doesn't show face at our meetings, ever. The only time he shows up is to conduct the O-Flights, and that's it, and he has to borrow the aircraft from another squadron anyway since we don't have a plane. It doesn't seem like our Senior component has a significant role in the volunteer service area or aerospace education outside of the cadet program. Everything we do revolves around that. It's a great way to recruit more cadets, but not Senior Members. All of our Seniors were either once a cadet or have kids in the program.

I was working on arranging a leadership exercise on an obstacle course at the local university. This was something I did back when I was in ROTC. The school was hesitant about accepting people under the age of 14 due to their concerns over maturity, but they agreed to offer us a slot on their schedule at a monetary cost, not a huge deal. I even suggested it as a sole-Senior activity to keep the cost down and benefit the teamwork between Senior Members and improve the cohesion among us. It was heavily shot down by the commander as non-beneficial to the entire squadron. I even offered to pay for everyone out of my own pocket ($200 for the entire squadron, or like $100 for the Seniors). Our PAO, soon-to-be commander in February, agreed with me and thought it would be a great activity.

I'm not looking for agreement on every suggestion. That's the whole point of discussing it, but it seems like we have zero Senior-based operations unless we have to include the cadets in everything, even if it's a meeting to talk about the cadet program's activities.

We're starting to see some Seniors break out and do some training on their own accord, such as myself. When I first joined the squadron, before I even had my membership sent out, my commander said she would talk to the flying squadron to get me some contacts and help scheduling my training. I had to just get out there and do it myself. A couple of us wanted to give Flight Line Marshall training a go, and we've come to the point where we're just going to go to another unit on our own one of these days and do it ourselves, rather than leaving the option open for the entire squadron.

We've consistently come to the conclusion, at staff meetings, that "we have too much going on" to schedule additional activities. It's really frustrating when this stubborn leadership coming right out of the people who are supposed to be the guidance for the Seniors, and even the cadets pick up on it.

This may be more of a rant than anything at this point, and we might just have to hurry up and standby for the Change of Command come 2016.

Some of this is nothing more than "busy work" for the sake of saying we did something - it's not value added.  And if it's not value added, we shouldn't do it.

I absolutely agree with and love this statement. The busy work not only wastes time and equipment resources, but money and morale.

[Holding Pattern]

I'm just looking to get some insight as to how some of the other squadrons, small or big, act as composite squadrons and not so much cadet squadrons. I love working with my cadets, for sure, but I'd also like to see a lot more senior activity as well, especially considering that we're supposed to operate as a composite, not just a cadet squadron.

Thoughts?

One thing our squadron did for a bit (15 senior members at the time) is go over each block of the OBC with the person teaching being rotated each week. We had a short period where senior attendance got low due to summer, and now with the ramp up the three things we are pushing are the AE ribbon, CyberPatriot (Seniors teaching cadets, but the material is diverse and useful enough to engage SMs as well), and PD in the form of FEMA/AED/Radio courses.

[THRAWN]

There's lots to do....

-AEPSM
-FEMA IS 100, 200, 700, 800
-Leadership labs (guest speakers on military and civic leadership and management topics)
-Small unit SAREX (L/MPS, ELT DF, Land nav, basic survival)
-FAA WINGS courses and discussions
-Discussions about and enrollment in USAF AU DL courses (enroll everybody at once and have weekly "study sessions"
-Intro to drill (and do it right...nothing like having 3 guys teaching drill and getting 3 different ways to do a left face...have somebody that knows what they're doing teach it...)

That's in addition to specialty track mentoring sessions with group and wing staffers, stuff at group, stuff at wing, etc.

One things that I did when I was a squadron commander was a "book of the month" club, so to speak. It was something that I had taken part in when I was in management at UPS. We picked a book on leadership or management (something inexpensive, but valuable...) and discussed the content chapter by chapter. It was a good way to reinforce some of the concepts that we learned in training and seminars and kept the management team all on the same sheet of music. Some of books sounded stupid at first (Managing from the Heart comes to mind...yeeech!) but turned out that they laid the groundwork for methods that I still use nearly 20 years later. There's a lot of sources these days (halfpricedbooks.com, Amazon, eBay) and you can get the titles for under a buck. I used halfpriced for a course that I just wrapped up and the cost for all 4 required books was under $20. Use your imagination.

[TheSkyHornet]

I'm just looking to get some insight as to how some of the other squadrons, small or big, act as composite squadrons and not so much cadet squadrons. I love working with my cadets, for sure, but I'd also like to see a lot more senior activity as well, especially considering that we're supposed to operate as a composite, not just a cadet squadron.

Thoughts?

One thing our squadron did for a bit (15 senior members at the time) is go over each block of the OBC with the person teaching being rotated each week. We had a short period where senior attendance got low due to summer, and now with the ramp up the three things we are pushing are the AE ribbon, CyberPatriot (Seniors teaching cadets, but the material is diverse and useful enough to engage SMs as well), and PD in the form of FEMA/AED/Radio courses.

We have 6 Seniors that regularly attend meetings. By "regularly" I mean at least once or twice a month...

Lately, we've had 4 Seniors at each meeting. Summer doesn't usually help so much with the weather being nice and people trying to use this time for family events, vaca, etc. A lot of cadets end up at the will of their parents, especially when they can't yet drive themselves. We have about 15 active cadets right now, probably 9 showing up regularly in the past month.

Our squadron meetings are Sunday afternoons. I'm not sure where this time came from. I know of a squadron that has their meetings every Tuesday at 7pm and they go until 10pm during the summer, with 40+ people showing up.

The overall participation in our squadron is on the low side lately, but the Senior-specific activity is non-existent outside of staff meetings, held an hour before the squadron meeting once a month.

All our Senior Membership does at this point is work to serve the cadet program, with no direction to serving the Senior component of the squadron. And we really don't have the mentor thing going. Obviously this comes from a leadership problem in which someone higher up than those with a grievance does not accept feedback very well. If it wasn't for their kids in the squadron, I think the other Seniors would just drop off the roster. I guess I'm the anomaly with no personal investment in the unit in respect to not having been a prior cadet in our squadron nor having a child in the cadet program. 

[THRAWN]

I'm just looking to get some insight as to how some of the other squadrons, small or big, act as composite squadrons and not so much cadet squadrons. I love working with my cadets, for sure, but I'd also like to see a lot more senior activity as well, especially considering that we're supposed to operate as a composite, not just a cadet squadron.

Thoughts?

One thing our squadron did for a bit (15 senior members at the time) is go over each block of the OBC with the person teaching being rotated each week. We had a short period where senior attendance got low due to summer, and now with the ramp up the three things we are pushing are the AE ribbon, CyberPatriot (Seniors teaching cadets, but the material is diverse and useful enough to engage SMs as well), and PD in the form of FEMA/AED/Radio courses.

We have 6 Seniors that regularly attend meetings. By "regularly" I mean at least once or twice a month...

Lately, we've had 4 Seniors at each meeting. Summer doesn't usually help so much with the weather being nice and people trying to use this time for family events, vaca, etc. A lot of cadets end up at the will of their parents, especially when they can't yet drive themselves. We have about 15 active cadets right now, probably 9 showing up regularly in the past month.

Our squadron meetings are Sunday afternoons. I'm not sure where this time came from. I know of a squadron that has their meetings every Tuesday at 7pm and they go until 10pm during the summer, with 40+ people showing up.

The overall participation in our squadron is on the low side lately, but the Senior-specific activity is non-existent outside of staff meetings, held an hour before the squadron meeting once a month.

All our Senior Membership does at this point is work to serve the cadet program, with no direction to serving the Senior component of the squadron. And we really don't have the mentor thing going. Obviously this comes from a leadership problem in which someone higher up than those with a grievance does not accept feedback very well. If it wasn't for their kids in the squadron, I think the other Seniors would just drop off the roster. I guess I'm the anomaly with no personal investment in the unit in respect to not having been a prior cadet in our squadron nor having a child in the cadet program.

Give people something worthwhile to do and they will come.

[A.Member]

Our squadron meetings are Sunday afternoons.

That's a pretty crappy meeting time.  I'd look to change that ASAP.

[THRAWN]

Our squadron meetings are Sunday afternoons.

That's a pretty crappy meeting time.  I'd look to change that ASAP.

I wish that we were able to have a weekend time. Leaving work, getting to the squadron, skipping third mess all to meet an 1800 start time on a week night was terrible.

[TheSkyHornet]

That's a pretty crappy meeting time.  I'd look to change that ASAP.

Personally, I agree because it's inconvenient for people who have weekend plans, and if we want to have an event on Sunday, we lose the meeting to actually discuss things. I'm not a fan of a 3:00-5:30pm meeting on Sunday.

I guess the logic was "My kid has to be in school the next day, so we can't do it on a weekday evening." I think we'd see a bigger turnout and a better chance to plan events around weekends rather than plan around the meeting schedule.

I wish that we were able to have a weekend time. Leaving work, getting to the squadron, skipping third mess all to meet an 1800 start time on a week night was terrible.

The squadron where I'm doing my flight training at meets Tuesday at 7pm until 9:30 on school days and 10:00 during the summer. It's a bit late for us working folk when I have a half-hour drive, but it's actually a very nice meeting time and the turnout is ridiculously heavy.

[Holding Pattern]

I'll throw out there that the FEMA Professional Development series is a rather useful item to throw on the agenda for SMs.

http://training.fema.gov/is/searchis.aspx?search=pds

I personally think CAP should incorporate these courses into the ES track.

[Paul Creed III]

Ohio Wing will hosting the Fall 2015 Great Lakes Region Training Weekend in October.

https://goo.gl/6hvBeK

The training weekend draws at least 100 people and I have seen training weekends pushing 175 or more people.

[EMT-83]

Our squadron has a pilot, who I will not acknowledge as active since he doesn't show face at our meetings, ever. The only time he shows up is to conduct the O-Flights, and that's it, and he has to borrow the aircraft from another squadron anyway since we don't have a plane.

Don't be so short-sighted. There are many cadets who have never seen a CAP aircraft, never mind flying in one. Your one pilot has to schedule and retrieve a plane from another unit and fly your O-flights. He might not be Member of the Year material, but he has to jump through hoops to make that happen.

[THRAWN]

I'll throw out there that the FEMA Professional Development series is a rather useful item to throw on the agenda for SMs.

http://training.fema.gov/is/searchis.aspx?search=pds

I personally think CAP should incorporate these courses into the ES track.

Ditto. This is a great block that takes very little time to do and is valuable.

[Alaric]

I'll throw out there that the FEMA Professional Development series is a rather useful item to throw on the agenda for SMs.

http://training.fema.gov/is/searchis.aspx?search=pds

I personally think CAP should incorporate these courses into the ES track.

Ditto. This is a great block that takes very little time to do and is valuable.

I've completed those and think they're great, but not as a group activity. 

[TheSkyHornet]

I'll throw out there that the FEMA Professional Development series is a rather useful item to throw on the agenda for SMs.

http://training.fema.gov/is/searchis.aspx?search=pds

I personally think CAP should incorporate these courses into the ES track.

That's actually really interesting. I might take a look into that.
I'm not our squadron's ES Officer, but it's definitely something to read up on and see what we can make of it.

Ohio Wing will hosting the Fall 2015 Great Lakes Region Training Weekend in October.

https://goo.gl/6hvBeK

The training weekend draws at least 100 people and I have seen training weekends pushing 175 or more people.

At the moment, I do plan on this; however, I'm not sure some if the other Seniors will be attending from our squadron. I think I'm the only one my commander requested to attend. I might be traveling for work around then, so I need to hold off on my registration until later in September.

Don't be so short-sighted. There are many cadets who have never seen a CAP aircraft, never mind flying in one. Your one pilot has to schedule and retrieve a plane from another unit and fly your O-flights. He might not be Member of the Year material, but he has to jump through hoops to make that happen.

I wasn't being "short-sighted" on this. I was just saying we have an additional Senior in our unit who isn't really an active member in regard to the Senior component for the squadron. He's closer with the cadet side in a sense of providing them with their O-Flights; although, he's not the only one we use. Like most people, he has a full-time job elsewhere and can't always dedicate his free time to CAP, which is very understandable as I have that situation myself, especially with my paying job.

What I'd like to see are more Senior Member training events like those listed above, but perhaps something we can incorporate at the squadron level, not necessarily a travel-to activity only when Wing is hosting it.

I've completed those and think they're great, but not as a group activity.

That's more what I'm getting at: a group activity/training event.


I think our squadron is in a creative fix right now, and we don't have a lot of dieas being thrown around lately. In fact, some of the cadets stopped offering suggesting because they felt that they weren't being heard on the cadet side. Since then, we've changed leadership up a bit, including the Deputy Commander for Cadets, and I'm working on bettering the cadet program, but that takes time.

[THRAWN]

I'll throw out there that the FEMA Professional Development series is a rather useful item to throw on the agenda for SMs.

http://training.fema.gov/is/searchis.aspx?search=pds

I personally think CAP should incorporate these courses into the ES track.

Ditto. This is a great block that takes very little time to do and is valuable.

I've completed those and think they're great, but not as a group activity.

Why? Take them chapter by chapter. It beats self study CBT. You get a lot of practical discussion on the topics that reinforce the dry concepts in the course.

[Alaric]

I'll throw out there that the FEMA Professional Development series is a rather useful item to throw on the agenda for SMs.

http://training.fema.gov/is/searchis.aspx?search=pds

I personally think CAP should incorporate these courses into the ES track.

Ditto. This is a great block that takes very little time to do and is valuable.

I've completed those and think they're great, but not as a group activity.

Why? Take them chapter by chapter. It beats self study CBT. You get a lot of practical discussion on the topics that reinforce the dry concepts in the course.

For some, I prefer self study CBT as it allows me to do these things at my own pace and time

[TheSkyHornet]

I'll throw out there that the FEMA Professional Development series is a rather useful item to throw on the agenda for SMs.

http://training.fema.gov/is/searchis.aspx?search=pds

I personally think CAP should incorporate these courses into the ES track.

Ditto. This is a great block that takes very little time to do and is valuable.

I've completed those and think they're great, but not as a group activity.

Why? Take them chapter by chapter. It beats self study CBT. You get a lot of practical discussion on the topics that reinforce the dry concepts in the course.

Personally, I'm very heavy on discussing what we're learning as we're learning it. Not only does it allow the ability to provide massive amounts on clarity when not everyone may understand the subject matter, but it also serves as an opportunity for feedback and different perspectives on the subject as well as the course being taught. But that's my preference.

I think something our squadron lacks is also equipment. We have someone who is supposed to be responsible for communications, but we don't really have a lot of education our way on that and we don't get into long-distance radio ops. I got a tour of another unit's communications center that they have set up in their personal hangar, which is about the size of a small office area. It's actually pretty neat to see. Makes you go "Why don't we have something like this?"

Manpower is one thing, but I feel that in order to get the manpower to increase activity, you need to provide some activity to start with as the incentive to bring in more.

Just yesterday, I was forwarded an email from our PAO about an inquiring potential 25-year-old Senior Member who wants to come to our meeting this weekend and see how we operate, since he doesn't know a lot about CAP but really wants to get involved in volunteer service and some interesting aerospace opportunities. I talked with my commander to take the initiative on this one since we went to the same college (don't know each other), are both pilots, and we're basically the same age. I know I can find out his interests and help guide him into CAP to where he would need to start and roadmap his career path as a new member, but I'm increasingly concerned that he's going to hang around for a few meetings and become increasingly bored with how we conduct ourselves.

Even our PAO and I have agreed in the past that this squadron has become excessively dull, and the only reason we have both stuck it out thus far is to try and improve things over time and make it exciting not just for ourselves, but for everyone, including future members. It takes a lot of time, but we're still in the race, although it's been very challenging.

[Alaric]

I'll throw out there that the FEMA Professional Development series is a rather useful item to throw on the agenda for SMs.

http://training.fema.gov/is/searchis.aspx?search=pds

I personally think CAP should incorporate these courses into the ES track.

Ditto. This is a great block that takes very little time to do and is valuable.

I've completed those and think they're great, but not as a group activity.

Why? Take them chapter by chapter. It beats self study CBT. You get a lot of practical discussion on the topics that reinforce the dry concepts in the course.

Personally, I'm very heavy on discussing what we're learning as we're learning it. Not only does it allow the ability to provide massive amounts on clarity when not everyone may understand the subject matter, but it also serves as an opportunity for feedback and different perspectives on the subject as well as the course being taught. But that's my preference.

I think something our squadron lacks is also equipment. We have someone who is supposed to be responsible for communications, but we don't really have a lot of education our way on that and we don't get into long-distance radio ops. I got a tour of another unit's communications center that they have set up in their personal hangar, which is about the size of a small office area. It's actually pretty neat to see. Makes you go "Why don't we have something like this?"

Manpower is one thing, but I feel that in order to get the manpower to increase activity, you need to provide some activity to start with as the incentive to bring in more.

Just yesterday, I was forwarded an email from our PAO about an inquiring potential 25-year-old Senior Member who wants to come to our meeting this weekend and see how we operate, since he doesn't know a lot about CAP but really wants to get involved in volunteer service and some interesting aerospace opportunities. I talked with my commander to take the initiative on this one since we went to the same college (don't know each other), are both pilots, and we're basically the same age. I know I can find out his interests and help guide him into CAP to where he would need to start and roadmap his career path as a new member, but I'm increasingly concerned that he's going to hang around for a few meetings and become increasingly bored with how we conduct ourselves.

Even our PAO and I have agreed in the past that this squadron has become excessively dull, and the only reason we have both stuck it out thus far is to try and improve things over time and make it exciting not just for ourselves, but for everyone, including future members. It takes a lot of time, but we're still in the race, although it's been very challenging.

I don't understand the need for excitement?  Usefulness, interesting sure, but exciting?  Meetings are by their nature fairly boring things, they have set agendas, and tend to be repetitive.  They are necessary, I can't say that I am excited when we have a finance committee meeting, or when we do Comms training, but it is necessary and serves a useful purpose.

[TheSkyHornet]

I don't understand the need for excitement?  Usefulness, interesting sure, but exciting?  Meetings are by their nature fairly boring things, they have set agendas, and tend to be repetitive.  They are necessary, I can't say that I am excited when we have a finance committee meeting, or when we do Comms training, but it is necessary and serves a useful purpose.

A meeting is a meeting. But in a CAP sense, "meetings" are also activities, not just a group of people sitting around a table for 2-3 hours.
I feel your statement is distinguishing a committee-style meeting or classroom session and actual hands-on training activities scheduled during a squadron's normal meeting time, as part of the agenda.

Most squadrons, as far as I know, don't hold a "meeting" meeting on a given day for everyone, and then use a second day for interactive training. Meetings, especially in a composite squadron, include cadets conducting drills, an aerospace officer educating the cadets, while the Seniors discuss their own agendas or engage in something to benefit the schedule of that day. In the case of our squadron, we have a staff meeting to discuss policy, planning, and finance separate from the actual squadron meeting, and that's entirely Senior Members-only.

But in our squadron's case, hence my concern, is that this is the only time we actually engage in a Senior Member activity---during a 1-2 hour period to discuss the squadron's progress, once a month, and then each squadron-wide meeting consists of the Seniors either sitting off to the site to continue discussions from the Senior staff meeting, or engaging with the cadet component. There's no bi-weekly gathering to discuss training operations or staff PD, anything to better the Senior component as a whole. It seems very non-cohesive. We're running a composite squadron as if it was solely a cadet squadron. We don't really have an Operations Officer. That role, for us, somewhat sits with the commander who keeps tabs on all that stuff, and almost becomes the sole planner for events unless someone tries to organize something on-the-side and then bring it to the attention of the CDR/DCDR once the ball is rolling.

It's a leadership issue, for sure.

[Alaric]

I don't understand the need for excitement?  Usefulness, interesting sure, but exciting?  Meetings are by their nature fairly boring things, they have set agendas, and tend to be repetitive.  They are necessary, I can't say that I am excited when we have a finance committee meeting, or when we do Comms training, but it is necessary and serves a useful purpose.

A meeting is a meeting. But in a CAP sense, "meetings" are also activities, not just a group of people sitting around a table for 2-3 hours.
I feel your statement is distinguishing a committee-style meeting or classroom session and actual hands-on training activities scheduled during a squadron's normal meeting time, as part of the agenda.

Most squadrons, as far as I know, don't hold a "meeting" meeting on a given day for everyone, and then use a second day for interactive training. Meetings, especially in a composite squadron, include cadets conducting drills, an aerospace officer educating the cadets, while the Seniors discuss their own agendas or engage in something to benefit the schedule of that day. In the case of our squadron, we have a staff meeting to discuss policy, planning, and finance separate from the actual squadron meeting, and that's entirely Senior Members-only.

But in our squadron's case, hence my concern, is that this is the only time we actually engage in a Senior Member activity---during a 1-2 hour period to discuss the squadron's progress, once a month, and then each squadron-wide meeting consists of the Seniors either sitting off to the site to continue discussions from the Senior staff meeting, or engaging with the cadet component. There's no bi-weekly gathering to discuss training operations or staff PD, anything to better the Senior component as a whole. It seems very non-cohesive. We're running a composite squadron as if it was solely a cadet squadron. We don't really have an Operations Officer. That role, for us, somewhat sits with the commander who keeps tabs on all that stuff, and almost becomes the sole planner for events unless someone tries to organize something on-the-side and then bring it to the attention of the CDR/DCDR once the ball is rolling.

It's a leadership issue, for sure.

Ah that's a squadron specific thing, we use the third weekend of the month for training (ES, Comms, etc)

[TheSkyHornet]

I don't understand the need for excitement?  Usefulness, interesting sure, but exciting?  Meetings are by their nature fairly boring things, they have set agendas, and tend to be repetitive.  They are necessary, I can't say that I am excited when we have a finance committee meeting, or when we do Comms training, but it is necessary and serves a useful purpose.

A meeting is a meeting. But in a CAP sense, "meetings" are also activities, not just a group of people sitting around a table for 2-3 hours.
I feel your statement is distinguishing a committee-style meeting or classroom session and actual hands-on training activities scheduled during a squadron's normal meeting time, as part of the agenda.

Most squadrons, as far as I know, don't hold a "meeting" meeting on a given day for everyone, and then use a second day for interactive training. Meetings, especially in a composite squadron, include cadets conducting drills, an aerospace officer educating the cadets, while the Seniors discuss their own agendas or engage in something to benefit the schedule of that day. In the case of our squadron, we have a staff meeting to discuss policy, planning, and finance separate from the actual squadron meeting, and that's entirely Senior Members-only.

But in our squadron's case, hence my concern, is that this is the only time we actually engage in a Senior Member activity---during a 1-2 hour period to discuss the squadron's progress, once a month, and then each squadron-wide meeting consists of the Seniors either sitting off to the site to continue discussions from the Senior staff meeting, or engaging with the cadet component. There's no bi-weekly gathering to discuss training operations or staff PD, anything to better the Senior component as a whole. It seems very non-cohesive. We're running a composite squadron as if it was solely a cadet squadron. We don't really have an Operations Officer. That role, for us, somewhat sits with the commander who keeps tabs on all that stuff, and almost becomes the sole planner for events unless someone tries to organize something on-the-side and then bring it to the attention of the CDR/DCDR once the ball is rolling.

It's a leadership issue, for sure.

Ah that's a squadron specific thing, we use the third weekend of the month for training (ES, Comms, etc)

And THAT'S what I'm getting at, that type of stuff. But we really don't do much of it.

The squadron meets every Sunday (generally 4 times a month). The first Sunday of every month, we have an hour staff meeting with the Senior Members to discuss planning, finances, recruiting, that type of stuff. This is conducted that day at 2pm. At 3pm, we start the squadron meeting, which is the same time every Sunday, and run it until 5:30pm.

Each Sunday usually goes like this, with some slight variation here and there:
Cadets drill. Seniors talk about planning.
Cadets conduct aerospace/safety/character development. Seniors talk about planning.
Some cadets and some seniors conduct promotion boards. Other cadets hang out. Seniors plan and work on individual tasks.
A presentation to the cadets on emergency services. Seniors talk about planning.
Awards are presented in front of the squadron. Everyone pays attention.
Announcements by cadets to the squadron. Announcements by seniors to the squadron.
Everyone leaves. See you next Sunday.

In May, a squadron-wide trip to the NASA hangar.
In June, a squadron-wide trip to the local Air Force Reserve base but during the middle of a work day, so not a huge turnout.
In July, a squadron-wide recruiting event to bring in new cadets. Also an air fair at the local airport during which we provide parking detail. No meeting due to the activity.
In August, a squadron-wide bivouac during which we provide parking detail. Maybe 10 people show up max. No meeting due to the activity.

One Senior told me that he feels like there's an absolutely terrible cohesion between the other Seniors. Everything seems to be oriented to either conducting a field trip with the cadets, recruiting cadets, or trying to employ the cadets into parking duty for little or no pay to the squadron, and the Seniors always get roped into assisting with parking because very few people show up.

I can definitely try to fix the cadet side, especially since that's my responsibility to begin with. I've got no problems trying to arrange activities for them, and helping to build up their knowledge and skills. ES comes a little hard since our ES officer isn't around as often these days (college, newly-wed, and the cadets have voiced their opinions off-the-record that they don't care for him too much). But the Senior Member side comes with a greater struggle, especially when our meetings may have to be cancelled if we schedule an outside event on that same day.

I think the overall attitude, squadron-wide, is that things are boring, the training is so dumbed down and minimal that nobody really wants to participate, the Seniors aren't well-trained in a skill area, and the leadership has been vocally supporting but not very schedule-supportive when it comes to actually trying to plan something. Plus, we have an extremely bad habit of trying to schedule so everyone can be there, and when one person says they can't make it, suddenly it's "Well, let's see if we can do a different date....oh, well I can't make it that day either."

The motivation seems to be there to want to improve, but not so much the ability to actually take that leap. I said previously that it's coming to the point where we can't even get the support to bring someone to the unit to train a group of people, and instead, a few of us are looking to go to another unit and just do it on our own as a side project between 3 of us. We don't want to leave the squadron whatsoever, but it gets very difficult when it seems like the top few people in command really don't have the back of the entire squadron, especially the Seniors who are requesting more to do.

Excuse the novel. If you haven't learn by now, sometimes I have an incredibly slow period at work 

[MSG Mac]

Theproblem at my home unit, is that it revolves around the Cadets. PD for Seniors is an afterthought. I am in the process of starting classes for those who are not involved in CP on how to advance, news on what's changing and how the changes effect our individual members, etc. Maybe even start a joint class on the OBC and Yeager exams.

[TheSkyHornet]

Theproblem at my home unit, is that it revolves around the Cadets. PD for Seniors is an afterthought. I am in the process of starting classes for those who are not involved in CP on how to advance, news on what's changing and how the changes effect our individual members, etc. Maybe even start a joint class on the OBC and Yeager exams.

The issue with our squadron is similar to that; however, it stems up into the Senior component.
According to CAPR 20-1, you should have a cadet component under the oversight of the CDC, trailing up to the squadron commander, and you should have a Senior component branched out to meet all three missions of CAP.

In our squadron, it's almost like we try to direct all three missions of CAP through the cadet component, and use the Seniors to all guide the cadets to accomplish those missions. PD ends up being a "How can you become a better leader in the squadron to work with cadets." My response would be saying: okay, but why aren't the Seniors taking the initiative to conduct ES qualifications and operate a radio hut, or getting the Seniors to participate in Air Operations? It seems like some of the Senior Members are so cadet-oriented that they want to use all Senior to train, educate, and support the cadet program as the most important initiative of the squadron. My point being, this is a composite squadron, not a cadet squadron. And it should either operate as a squadron with a cadet program and a Senior Member program, or it should operate solely as a cadet program with Senior oversight and convert from a composite squadron to become solely a cadet squadron.

It's very interesting that you brought up the joint classes. I'm a huge advocate of that. But it comes down to "Who will teach it?" "When can we all get together outside of the usual meeting?" Our commander almost makes it a point to say "Go ahead and get on eServices sometime and take the test" and that's it. It's all on you, and it's your responsibility to learn the material, take the test, and we'll get you your ribbon.

Oddly enough, when I first went to the squadron, it was to work with the cadets, but the commander asked me what my interests were and what skills I could bring to the program. I have a B.S. in Aviation Management. I have an M.Tech in Aeronautics. I work for an airline in safety and regulatory compliance auditing. I've been a private pilot since high school. The response I got was "Well, we already have an Aerospace Education Officer, so that job is taken, but maybe you can help him sometimes." She asked me if I could be the Professional Development Officer. When I met with the AEO, who is also the squadron Deputy Commander, for my interview before signing, he asked me what skills I could bring to the program. I said I work for an airline in safety, I studied safety and security in college, and I have my degrees in aeronautics. He said "Maybe you could be Safety Officer, since you have this knowledge and experience that can be applied." I ended up on the Cadet Programs track. I don't regret cadet programs, because I really do like working with my cadets, but there's more than just that I feel I can bring to the squadron than my willingness to do that one job.

Some of the Seniors seem to want more than what they're getting, but the top-level leadership is so locked in on their way of doing things, they can't get their ideas past offering them up and being shoved aside. And the only reason they haven't left the squadron is because they're kids are in the program and they don't want to yank their kids away from their friends over an adult matter.

It may just need to wait until our Change of Command in February when our new commander takes over who is very much on-board with changing the way things have been done in the past.