Cadets: A Sincere Question For You

[Jaison009]

The PDO arranges and facilitates the mentor relationship; however, they should not be a mentor unless it is to someone in PD.

The question was "Does each squadron have 'mentors?" .... and apparently not. I haven't heard of any in my squadron.

Membership applications require that the Commander certify he has assigned a mentor to the new member.

Is that the same as a PDO?  I was told who that was. But he hasn't attended a meeting in at least 12 months and I've never met him. Got an email from him in the beginning telling me to look through eServices. Hence my wondering if Mentors were different than PDOs.

[754837]

Still waiting for a cadet to answer the question.....

[Майор Хаткевич]

*crickets*

[LSThiker]

Still waiting for a cadet to answer the question.....

And probably won't except for 1.  Most people on here are senior members as most cadets do not stick around the forums.  Also, would you want to responsd to the question as there is a high possibility that the response will get jumped on by others? 

[NIN]

Still waiting for a cadet to answer the question.....

Here's a hint: CAP-Talk scares cadets away.

Cadet: "I have a question about shoulder cords.."
The Masses: "ASK YOUR CHAIN OF COMMAND|READ THE REGS|SEARCH BEFORE YOU ASK|WHAT ARE YOU, LAZY?"
Cadet: "But, I just had a.."
The Masses: "Go away! Leave us to our arguments about the relative merits of uniforms and the minute placement of insignia."

[Chappie]

Still waiting for a cadet to answer the question.....

Here's a hint: CAP-Talk scares cadets away.

Cadet: "I have a question about shoulder cords.."
The Masses: "ASK YOUR CHAIN OF COMMAND|READ THE REGS|SEARCH BEFORE YOU ASK|WHAT ARE YOU, LAZY?"
Cadet: "But, I just had a.."
The Masses: "Go away! Leave us to our arguments about the relative merits of uniforms and the minute placement of insignia."

"And your use of grammar is pathetic - 7 misspelled words....9 misuses of punctuation...."

[Майор Хаткевич]

To be fair, the adults get the same treatment. Nothing wrong with encouraging cadets to use the CoC and search functions of the internet/forum/etc.

[DakRadz]

To be fair, the adults get the same treatment. Nothing wrong with encouraging cadets to use the CoC and search functions of the internet/forum/etc.

What NIN posted was neither inaccurate nor encouraging.

Think about it.......

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[ProdigalJim]

Yep, Darin is right. Still hoped for at least a couple of cadets though...

[thebeggerpie]

 Cadet here.

I can say for certain that in my younger cadet years(between the age of 12 and 16), I was never told where to find the regs or that they were online. The Senior Members spoke of the regs like they were some holy guide and us mere cadets couldn't understand them. They never quoted the regs directly, but used the overpowering phase of "In the regs, it says that..." and it was suddenly law.

Not blaming all senior members here, but the ones I had for a while never shared the regs with us.

[Pace]

I agree with NIN. I'm going to pre-empt this one. Do not attack this or any other cadet who responds on this thread. If a cadet gets out of line, file a mod complaint, and we will handle it. The question was intended to get honest answers from cadets. If the truth hurts a few feelings, take it as a potential learning opportunity from a different perspective.

Move along; move along.

[Chappie]

Cadet here.

I can say for certain that in my younger cadet years(between the age of 12 and 16), I was never told where to find the regs or that they were online. The Senior Members spoke of the regs like they were some holy guide and us mere cadets couldn't understand them. They never quoted the regs directly, but used the overpowering phase of "In the regs, it says that..." and it was suddenly law.

Not blaming all senior members here, but the ones I had for a while never shared the regs with us.

Not an isolated case for cadets only...happens to Sr. Members as well.   A few years ago  -- make that a decade or so before the regs were converted to .pdf and posted on-line -- I was mentoring a chaplain in a neighboring squadron.   I asked to see the regs -- at that time they were in large blue "officially stamped with the CAP seal" binders.  None of the key staff were there as of yet, and I was told that the regs were locked away in a filing cabinet and one of the key staff (CC, Deputy, or Admin Officer) would need to unlock the cabinet to access the regs.   What a pain.  Thankfully, things have changed and mere mortals can access the regs on-line and even use the "knowledge base".   There is even a forum called "CapTalk"...never mind

[Briank]

I'm especially interested in hearing from cadets (rather than the rest of us who might have pet theories about why cadets turn here first before checking references).

I'm going to jump in anyways (not being a cadet) because I've seen the same thing elsewhere (with people of all ages).

It used to be that racing regulations were all in book form, which you were required to have.  New people showing up unprepared was pretty rare.  Then all of a sudden it seemed like nobody new was following the regulations anymore and the level of "silly questions" (thing easily answered in the regs with about 5 seconds of effort) escalated dramatically.  What changed at that time?  Regulations went from a printed book to being on-line...  My theory is that it actually became *too* easy to get the information, to the point where people no longer think it's important.  Or, the human race suddenly got a lot lazier at exactly that time.  :-)

[Storm Chaser]

I recently purchased all required C/2d Lt grade insignias for my son, a C/CMSgt soon to earn his Mitchell Award. When the insignias arrived from Vanguard, he proceeded to ask me about correct placement of insignias, etc. My response? "You know where the regs are online; look it up. You're a C/CMSgt soon to be C/2d Lt and should know this by now."

He didn't like my answer, but I felt it was the only way he was going to learn. I think we need to do a better job of not only teaching our cadets, but also holding them accountable as they progress in the program.

[HGjunkie]

To be fair, the adults get the same treatment. Nothing wrong with encouraging cadets to use the CoC and search functions of the internet/forum/etc.

Not nearly in the same manner as the Cadets get it. Typically, for Cadoodles it ends up being like what NIN said, but with other posters it becomes more of a discussion where the answers might be given and a specific reg referenced. Just a generalization from what I've seen over the years here.

[Storm Chaser]

The thing is that everything is available online now a days. I don't think the issue is that we're not teaching our cadets where to find the regs or how to read them, although I'm sure there a little bit of that, but that cadets have all these resources available and yet many choose not to take advantage of them. I have been working with cadets for many years and at times is like pulling teeth. Many just want to choose the path of least resistance.

[Garibaldi]

I call it lazy brain. A lot of kids are used to everything to be hand-fed to them. And when they are directed to the regs, they get mad. "Well, can't you just TELL me?"

Yes, I'm TELLING you where the information is, so in case you have other related questions, you can find the answers you seek.

"But I need the answer noooowwwwwww."

You could have found the answer in the time it took to find me and whine.

"Youre no help."

Hey, I HELPED you find out where you can find the information.  Now, you have the tool you need for the knowledge you seek. It's up to you to make use of it.

[SPS]

Cadet here - 1 yr left in the program.

Nature of questions here are revealing: from what I have seen questions are usually asked while tied to something cadets, young to the program, want to share - activities, promotions, insignia etc.

Cadets may be submitting CAPF2a for each of the items it applies and that should be used pretty often in the first year of the program - that requires looking at the regs.

Regs, manuals, pamphlets don't require any changes; mentoring (as someone mentioned), an occasional jeopardy to introduce topics may help.

Fear of asking a 'dumb' question may be a factor experienced cadets and SMs can fix.

[Garibaldi]

Cadet here - 1 yr left in the program.

Nature of questions here are revealing: from what I have seen questions are usually asked while tied to something cadets, young to the program, want to share - activities, promotions, insignia etc.

Cadets may be submitting CAPF2a for each of the items it applies and that should be used pretty often in the first year of the program - that requires looking at the regs.

Regs, manuals, pamphlets don't require any changes; mentoring (as someone mentioned), an occasional jeopardy to introduce topics may help.

Fear of asking a 'dumb' question may be a factor experienced cadets and SMs can fix.

In the cadet program, every question is a dumb question. Dumb, because they don't know the answer and don't know HOW to find out, for the most part. From "how do I tie my boots" to "which side do my ribbons go on", every question seems dumb to us, because we've answered it eleventy times over the years.

We give them the tools to use to find the answers, and 9 times out of 10, it's easier to find someone and ask rather than research the question and find the answer because "I need to know nooooowwwwww", because it's 10 minutes before inspection and no one told him where to look to find out what kind of socks he needs to wear.  I've had cadets ask me some real "dumb" questions over the years, and have had experienced cadets facepalm because they screwed something elementary up. Like my new Mitchell cadet who walked up to me, all smiles until I pointed out that her ribbon rack was upside down. "No it's not," she said, looking down and pulling it up to look....and five seconds later, realized that she should not be seeing her ribbons like that. She turned beet red and headed for the restroom with another female in tow to fix it.

It happens to all of us. Even me. Dumb questions are par for the course, but not knowing how to find the answer or not being willing to find out...more the rule than the exception.

[SarDragon]

I have always subscribed to the idea that there are no dumb questions, but only poorly thought out questions.

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