Senior Member Activities

[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.