The Ceremonies School - New Model for Honor Guard Training

[KSWG Ceremonies School]

Kansas Wing has held an Honor Guard Academy in conjunction with their Winter Encampment for the past 4 years. This year KSWG is using a new model of training. Instead of trying to accomplish everything in one week, we now have multiple courses to select from and includes school that specialize in teaching only Cadet Color Guard Competition skill to teaching only advanced Honor Guard exhibition drill. There are Prerequisites and Minimum Physical Capability Standards set for each course. This year we will only use full weight replica drill rifles for the Honor Guard School, (we currently have 28 Drill America M1's, 2 Drill America 1903's, and about 18 Daisy 1903's and we can get more if we need to and since we traditionally have had cadets form all over the county fly into our school we don't give you the drill rifle to fly home with [the TSA gets upset about minors with dangerous looking things in the luggage], but at least we are a lot less expensive than the NHGA was.)

Additionally, we have two courses that are just for Senior Members. See link below for more info.

We have done our best to get an "all star" staff for this activity and our members currently include:
1 Current USAF Academy Cadet Honor Guard Drill Team Member (Class of 2015)
1 Active Duty USAF Base Honor Guardsmen
1 Retired USAF Base Honor Guardsmen
1 Former USAF Reserve Base Honor Guardsmen
1 Former Pershing Rifles Drill Team member
2 Spaatz cadets
2 Region Cadet Competition Winners

But we are still looking for more. (by random chance, just about all of the cadet staff for the HGA section of the KSWG Ceremonies School have ended up having to drop out, mostly due to not getting the time off of work they needed.)
   We are looking to bring several more Cadets that can teach Honor Guard and an Honor Guard C/CC
   We also want to have a robust PAO staff to capture all of the action.
   And we are looking for some superb leaders to help fill some of the Operation Officer positions.
Please get the word passed around. While we can go with minimum cadet staff, due to our high number of Subject Matter Experts on our Senior Member Staff, I would hate for this opportunity to work alongside these members to be missed.

Emails with questions or resumes can be sent to either CeremoniesSchool@KSWG.CAP.Gov or we can also respond to inquires on the Facebook Page. We are not accepting student applications until mid October.

Here are some links where you can find more information, pictures and videos:
Ceremonies School Facebook – Be sure to "Like" and "Follow" the page and to "Share" the posts with all of your CAP buddies.
https://www.facebook.com/KansasWingCeremoniesSchool

Ceremonies School Overview
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qXw57oB_MO6tENMMN8LeHqmD7larlIfIXbyWLwtmkUU/edit#slide=id.p

Ceremonies School Course Guide
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12fdj6WVNdf_dtGo4ZmDeiztBHZyqCgi5cNAMdxK4ovY/edit#slide=id.g4754edf0b_00

Thank you

[KSWG Ceremonies School]

I just wanted to post some updates:

1. Our Website is finally up and running you can visit it at: http://www.kswgcap.com/ceremonies-school. until today we only had our Facebook page, which some of you may want to check out as we have posted some great content recently: https://www.facebook.com/KansasWingCeremoniesSchool

2. Prices have been published... and we are the most affordable place you can go this holiday season.
Application Fee (through 1 November):
Students: $150
Cadet Staff: $125
Senior Staff: $100

3. We are still taking student application for all of our courses. I am very pleased that we have had a great turn out in Senior Member application, which allows us to support a larger cadet student body. The reason for this is our 11 cadet to 1 SM ratio model.  So there are plenty of student slots still available,

4. We are still taking cadet staff applications. While the SM staff turn out has been great, the Cadet staff can still use some AI's (Assistant Instructors) in Honor Guard and the Standard Drill courses. Applicants may be bumped up to Primary Instructors or School Operations Officers if they enough experience.    *   We also want to have the ultimate PAO staff this year. Currently we don't have as many PAO cadets as we would like. If you are a PAO or just like taking picture please come out. We have great opportunities for some of the best pictures in CAP, but we can't capture those moments without you.

5. Senior Member Students:   Yes. We have courses for Senior Members to take and brush up on their Drill and Leadership skills. Check out the bottom pages on our course guide for more information on what SM's can expect at the Ceremonies School. You will note that there are photos of cadets, doing drill and having fun, on all of the other pages but there are no pictures of SM's on the pages that describe the SM courses... That because no SM has ever been photographed having fun while doing drill... until now. Come out to the Ceremonies School and find out how much fun you can have while learning to be a better leader of cadets. (Course Guide found here: https://docs.google.com/a/kswg.cap.gov/presentation/d/12fdj6WVNdf_dtGo4ZmDeiztBHZyqCgi5cNAMdxK4ovY/edit)

6. We need Female Senior Members to sign up. Currently, there is only one Female SM in the Ceremonies School (including staff and students). While technically this is acceptable, we want to make sure that there is no doubt that we have proper oversight given how spread out Ceremonies School will be... the Ceremonies School consists of two different Academies that will be training in two different locations, during the day, but will share dinning and dorm facilities. Please, tell your female SM's that they too can have a great time and become a better leader of cadets by either joining our staff or by coming as a student.

Thank you for your time, I know my post can be long.

Timothy Thornton, Capt, CAP
Ceremonies School CC
Email: CeremoniesSchool@kswg.cap.gov
Website: www.kswgcap.com/Ceremonies-School
Facebook: www.facebook.com/KansasWingCeremoniesSchool