"PAO SHOUT OUT!!! If you're a PAO" or "RECRUITING OFFICER lets it be known!!!"

[manfredvonrichthofen]

Unit Recruiting Officer.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

On a side note -- I work in public affairs for my day job, I don't in CAP; I like to do anything else when not at work to stay sane.

To be straight up, I think this is one thing that drives people away from us. There are people that express interest, we ask them what they do, and then try to sell them on doing the same job for us.

I always have annoyed my various commanders by asking visitors "What would you like to do for us? We have a variety of specialty tracks available."

Those commanders kept telling me that I should ask what skills they can bring to us, and try to use them accordingly. I look at it as we need to ask what interests they can serve with us. It's a better sale when we give them something.

I have to completely agree with this.  I have an accounting degree and work with government accounting every day.  BUT, I don't want to do this for CAP.

If the someone wants to work the same type of job in CAP, that's great, but we shouldn't "force" them to do so.  Even if they are working another job, their expertise is still there for advice.

All true. A few months ago, I left the public affairs director job in CAP's largest wing (Florida). And I'm a working journalist (not to be confused with public affairs, since the two are only remotely related even though they have much the same skill set). CAP public affairs could benefit from having media professionals and public relations professionals step up and get involved, especially since many times folks with good intentions and not much else wind up in PA positions, even at the wing level. These are the folks who many times are the public face of CAP. We need to ensure we put our best foot forward off the bat, and not trip over ourselves. But I can see and feel the frustration of being in a career field and declining to do that job in CAP. Right now, I'm as far away from public affairs as I can be, and I don't feel too much heartburn over it (mostly because of a few former wing staff colleagues who don't understand the role of public affairs in a changing media environment), but it sometimes frustrates me to see the quality of news releases, online stories, photos, even the Volunteer.