OK, so I've been taking the outline from Colonel Weiss's detailed agenda (http://www.ourcap.org/questions-answers) and trying to identify old projects that I worked on that could be implemented into that. I wanted to put a bunch of those out there before the got lost in the fray of change of command stuff, transition, and the like (provided he wins this thing).
I've been extracting files from several external hard drives and I have CRAP TONS of stuff. I was thinking of making a list of what I have, but I have WAAAAY too much (I will do this as I sort it better).
I wanted to find out what sorts of resources people think they could use the most so as I sort them, I can use Col Weiss's outline and whatever else people provide me to make ranked folders of priority items.
So what sorts of things do you need? I have all sorts of stuff for all mission areas and it would appear all mission support areas....guides, templates, sample materials, class outlines, PPT stuff, spreadsheets for tracking things that you could modify, website materials, checklists, tactical plans for all sorts of offices/mission support functions, public affairs stuff...
Any ES training material you might have would be very welcome in my corner of CAP.
Thanks!
I saw you mentioning an encampment directory somewhere, and I too, thought about that many times. As well as Wing/Region/National conferences and SLS/CLC/RSC's.. to support Professional Development needs. Figuring just starting by gathering as many as I could and putting the resource out and hopefully it finds it's way around and gets more data volunteered to it.
Heh. That's a category in of itself. I have the motherload of ES stuff. For months, I've been working on updating some and preparing it for release in sets (a little at a time, as I have time). I found a whole bunch more today that I had forgot about.
Is there specific stuff you need, say, for instance exercise materials? Familiarization and Prep task training materials? One major effort of mine is trying to do a HUGE set of exercise resources. Due to a data loss some time ago, a lot of my exercise stuff is on paper, so I have to find it and make it electronic again. SOMEWHERE, I have a REALLY nice binder full of exercise scenarios that I made over the course of several years. I used to take it to exercises and pick a scenario, or throw different parts into a basic scenario (it was kind of meant to be modular like that so you could build on a situation like "uh oh! You just ran into an obstacle!" or "You just had a fall on your team!"
Other ES stuff you can think of?
To give you an idea of scale, I have
191 files in JUST the
priority Operations folder. There's a
couple thousand files of various kinds in the other few Operations folders. And that's one mission...
I'll make a list of stuff that people want and try to prioritize the material that way. Also, the stuff that I can send to Colonel Weiss based on his outline of his priorities for CAP.
Quote from: a2capt on July 14, 2011, 09:32:07 PM
I saw you mentioning an encampment directory somewhere, and I too, thought about that many times. As well as Wing/Region/National conferences and SLS/CLC/RSC's.. to support Professional Development needs. Figuring just starting by gathering as many as I could and putting the resource out and hopefully it finds it's way around and gets more data volunteered to it.
I did. I got bored at an encampment in a position that wasn't active enough for how my brain works. I sat in the admin building and developed a Wing Encampment Continuity Website, which was based on Drupal and you would log in there as an encampment person, to find a selection of different offices/functions for which there would be materials (cadets, TACs, training, leadership, command, logistics, communications, admin, finance, class outlines of all types, etc.). The idea was to build that up and then expand it to Professional Development and other wing activities (like our very own Basic Cadet Orientation Program and the Cadet NCO Academy that I founded).
All of my development of e-learning at the like was stopped. The training director for the wing didn't wish me to have any of that sort of thing based on the e-mails I got, she promised to meet with me to discuss how we'd be able to put together training and IT, and after a bunch of follow-ups, she never did. So it was stopped in its tracks there. No progress has been made on their end on that sort of resource according to other wing staff officers and I had little use for something of that scale in helping out individual squadrons, so it stopped.
I'd like it to go forward in the form of the resource depository that Colonel Weiss proposes on his website. My website was made for one wing, one general direction of the encampment, etc., so I'd need to figure out a structure that wasn't like that - allow it to be more robust to support hopefully EVERY wing's materials for encampments, ES training, cadet activities, senior member training, etc.
Quote from: a2capt on July 14, 2011, 09:32:07 PM
I saw you mentioning an encampment directory somewhere, and I too, thought about that many times. As well as Wing/Region/National conferences and SLS/CLC/RSC's.. to support Professional Development needs. Figuring just starting by gathering as many as I could and putting the resource out and hopefully it finds it's way around and gets more data volunteered to it.
This already exists, it is just pulling teeth to get anyone to update it.
Unless you have competent, committed people compressed as .zip files, I doubt there is much in your stash we should use unless it is in an official capacity
and vetted by the SME's from the respective national departments.
That doesn't mean you don't have great resources, but the last thing we need is another repository of unofficial anything to cause more fights about which form, process, or system to use. I've got some cool stuff too, proven resources and systems that have resulted in acknowledged and decorated excellence in ES and cadet activities, and I can't even get people in my wing to look at them because of "not invented here".
I thought you had been an encampment commander, Bob?
and I am really kind of unsure what you are saying, exactly...
Quote from: JC004 on July 14, 2011, 11:10:12 PM
I thought you had been an encampment commander, Bob?
I was ((*sniff*)), and as most people who have ever done an activity on that level know, it operated in almost total vacuum from anything
else in the Wing or Region.
Quote from: JC004 on July 14, 2011, 11:10:12 PM
and I am really kind of unsure what you are saying, exactly...
Well with that said, I guess I'm sure what you are offering. You're discussing a resource repository, and what I'm saying is that building something like that without it first being vetted by the people who get a say in those things just risks more arguments when people try to use them.
BTDT.
Yes, but what? I have a mass of resources that I am sorting and preparing, updating, etc. It is my hope that if Col Weiss is elected, and he sets up a working group to get some of the IT things set up, that the resource depository would be one of them and I would be able to put things like my Public Affairs Course in there.
For now, I want to see what people need/want and sort those into ranked folders according to what is popular or important, then try to prep the stuff and get them out to people. I've given you an idea of what's in there. There's PPT presentations - for example, a GES one (that needs updated), an overview of CAP for outside organizations, one for UDF topics, etc., etc., etc. There should be a couple PPT presentations on gear and a load of other resources for teaching gear classes. There's checklists, there's local certificates (see list above).
Are you saying there is an existing problem with best practice materials out there on the National or wing sites now? That they cause conflict rather than do good? If they are best practices materials or self-uploaded continuity resource sets for your wing's encampment, who requires anyone to look at them or use them? Some could suck, some good not. So set up a star rating system and the ability to rate with comments.
I don't know about you, but if I'm running a 3-day major exercise, I'd love to have more Controller materials without needing to spend many hours developing materials for the Controllers. Maybe you don't. Or maybe you think it'll be people trying to use 20 of their own version of the ICS form 211 (which should never happen).
If I'm doing encampment or RCLS training officer stuff like I did before, I'd love to have best practice materials (and I did). I loved having continuity stuff too.
It would seem to me that (let's take encampment as an example), a few people on your training team come up with 3 or 4 sample schedules from a best practices website. You take a look at them, decide what elements you might want them to combine or use, what you don't want them to, and make your Excel spreadsheet. Maybe it has a great use of Excel formatting that you couldn't do by yourself because you weren't much into Excel. Now you've got a nice schedule and you go about your encampment. I don't see people showing up at encampment on the day before, all waving 50 different schedule versions, arguing over which one to use. I don't see the world ending because you got some samples to work with.
I don't know about you, but I've had a lot of people be very thankful for my Operations Order format. People across the wing still use that thing and have for years. I haven't updated it MYSELF in years, so some things like mentioning a certain reg item had to be changed by the local units or activity commanders (and they are). People love that format that I made because it's clear, pretty simple, covers all the bases, is easy to change, and is a HELL of a lot better than the one that Wing HQ prepared.
If you were a wing PAO and wanted to do a weekend training for your PAOs, wouldn't you rather have a sample course to revise that has been developed with months of work from several people, rather than just starting from scratch yourself? What if you're the only wing Public Affairs person in a small wing, just got the job, and there's lots of work to do. Wouldn't that make your life easier? A CRAP TON of work from A LOT of talented people went into my public affairs course. I'd happily stack it up against anything National could throw at me.
If they can't be vetted, add a disclaimer. NHQ loves those. Have something that says "THESE MATERIALS ARE NOT REQUIRED, NOR ARE THEY REVIEWED ENTIRELY FOR USE. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH CAP REGULATIONS AND LOCAL POLICIES." Then, maybe you can have a set that IS vetted and has a special mark as being like an "Editor's Choice" kind of thing.
I see no problem in offering materials that are not official if you make it clear they aren't required and that it the responsibility of the commander, staff officer, or designee to update anything that applies to them.
FEMA has a dedicated best practices website. Do you have an account there? It's pretty neat and I've spent a lot of time on it. There are items submitted for us to check out, evaluate on our own, and use if we want. But they make our jobs easier, and THAT'S THE POINT of best practices and samples.
Hate to keep beating the same old drum here, but...
The one resource I would like to see is a fully fleshed out Ground Team training manual that goes more in depth than the task guide. The task guide could still be the testing and certification guide but we have to many(here's that drum I was talking about) to many people who train just enough to get the GT certification as it's laid out in the task guide and then they say, "Done!". There's more to GT than what's in the task guide, folks.
NESA has an aircrew guide that runs about 140 some odd pages that fleshes out the training that's listed in the task guide. They need something like that for ground teams. I've seen the power point slides for GSAR from NESA. There is some good stuff there. The rest...Well, what wasn't plagiarized from old Field Manuals is pretty much "See Spot Run" stuff. Put a more in depth guide for GTs out there and we wouldn't be arguing about NESA v. HMRS v. NBB because the standard would be out there for all to see and emulate.
Drums are good - then I know how to rank this stuff. That's my major problem. There's a lot of stuff that I'd like to do because I'd really enjoy getting some people together and doing the project like the Squadron Commander's Guide, but is it wanted/needed enough?
Is this not sufficient for what you mean? http://www.nesa.cap.gov/curriculum_material/GSAR/GTRT.pdf
I have a lot of supplemental materials that we used locally for GT and UDFT training, as well as Mission Base Staff.
If people have duplicate requests, please DO tell me so that I know what the heck is most important. Here is fine, PM is fine...got a Facebook message about it a little while ago - that's fine too. E-mail a complete list, whatever. I've started ranking stuff based on my gut, but if I can get better answers from people, I can try prioritizing it based on that, update the stuff, get some people to help with revisions/additional ideas, and get it out to the field. I can't make promises to get you everything you all need in the format and timeframe you all need it, but I can try to prioritize what I have, get it updated, get help, and get it out ASAP.
That's a start but like I said it just needs some fleshing out. Plus the chapter on COMPTERS in SAR needs some edits. No, I didn't misspell computers. That's how the manual has it. Plus it talks about the need to prepare for Y2K.
That logo on the front page needs to die, too. It was wrong then, it's more wrongier now.
Quote from: ol'fido on July 15, 2011, 02:16:02 AM
That's a start but like I said it just needs some fleshing out. Plus the chapter on COMPTERS in SAR needs some edits. No, I didn't misspell computers. That's how the manual has it. Plus it talks about the need to prepare for Y2K.
PICKY PICKY! Y2K was only over a decade ago. It's not like it was TWO decades ago.
Actually, this seems like exactly the kind of thing that could benefit from the wiki concept further down on the Colonel's list. In other words (as I see it - it isn't specified here, but I think he'd consider my suggestion for it), for example, you'd have this manual divided up on a wiki that is the responsibility of a working group on ES curriculum (or even specifically on these supplemental training materials). Member could submit changes like MUCH better graphics, awesome content, and a new cover so the hair stops standing up on Eclipse's neck (and everyone else's, since it violates CAPR 900-2). It'd get worked on by the members and have a roadmap like the development of software (example, Firefox: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Features/Release_Tracking#Firefox_6 - some have dates too and that'd be good). Its pieces get
cut-offs like you see on the software roadmap,
submitted to the working group, possibly
tested in the field, then
sent from the working group to the National approval authority.
Quote from: Eclipse on July 15, 2011, 02:23:11 AM
That logo on the front page needs to die, too. It was wrong then, it's more wrongier now.
It's so unusual for CAP to randomly use logos with reckless abandon that we could let this one go. It is rare, right? Right? Rare? Unusual? Doesn't happen often? crap.
Quote from: JC004 on July 15, 2011, 02:43:21 AMIt's so unusual for CAP to randomly use logos with reckless abandon that we could let this one go. It is rare, right? Right? Rare? Unusual? Doesn't happen often? crap.
So rare as to be statistically zero. ((*sigh*))
Maybe we can add something about "compression artifacts" and "proper scaling" to the list of IT things...
I'l mea culpa on my initial response and add to your pile.
We need a standard definition for digitized personnel files.
100% paperless, authorized by regulation, and defined as to structure.
I'll kill the triangle thingie for you with fire if you can make that happen.
Disclaimer: I have no idea where the triangle thingie lives, and a court order precludes me from possessing fire. Offer void where prohibited by law.
Quote from: Eclipse on July 15, 2011, 03:02:46 AM
I'l mea culpa on my initial response and add to your pile.
We need a standard definition for digitized personnel files.
100% paperless, authorized by regulation, and defined as to structure.
I'll kill the triangle thing for you and kill it with fire if you can make that happen.
Disclaimer: I have no idea where the triangle thingie lives, and a court order precludes me from possessing fire. Offer void where prohibited by law.
All stored at NHQ I'm assuming with a "Master Record" printout that can be retained by the member for posterity I'm guessing?
Quote from: Spaceman3750 on July 15, 2011, 03:05:08 AM
Quote from: Eclipse on July 15, 2011, 03:02:46 AM
I'l mea culpa on my initial response and add to your pile.
We need a standard definition for digitized personnel files.
100% paperless, authorized by regulation, and defined as to structure.
I'll kill the triangle thing for you and kill it with fire if you can make that happen.
Disclaimer: I have no idea where the triangle thingie lives, and a court order precludes me from possessing fire. Offer void where prohibited by law.
All stored at NHQ I'm assuming with a "Master Record" printout that can be retained by the member for posterity I'm guessing?
Works for me, and I could think of a few simple ways to do it within the existing eservices system, though I can also think of an awesome,
free, groupware system that would be fully capable of managing digitized records in a professional environment.
Did I mention it was free?
((*cough*))
Apps for Education ((*cough*))
Adoption of that nationwide would fix about 50% of our IT issues day 1.
And / or eliminate local personnel records altogether. For the most part they are redundant, unnecessary, and tied to 30-year old assumptions
about record needs that pre-date personal computers.
Quote from: Eclipse on July 15, 2011, 03:18:01 AM
Quote from: Spaceman3750 on July 15, 2011, 03:05:08 AM
Quote from: Eclipse on July 15, 2011, 03:02:46 AM
I'l mea culpa on my initial response and add to your pile.
We need a standard definition for digitized personnel files.
100% paperless, authorized by regulation, and defined as to structure.
I'll kill the triangle thing for you and kill it with fire if you can make that happen.
Disclaimer: I have no idea where the triangle thingie lives, and a court order precludes me from possessing fire. Offer void where prohibited by law.
All stored at NHQ I'm assuming with a "Master Record" printout that can be retained by the member for posterity I'm guessing?
Works for me, and I could think of a few simple ways to do it within the existing eservices system, though I can also think of an awesome,
free, groupware system that would be fully capable of managing digitized records in a professional environment.
Did I mention it was free?
((*cough*)) Apps for Education ((*cough*))
Adoption of that nationwide would fix about 50% of our IT issues day 1.
And / or eliminate local personnel records altogether. For the most part they are redundant, unnecessary, and tied to 30-year old assumptions
about record needs that pre-date personal computers.
I would prefer eServices to Apps for Education simply because eServices is specialized to our needs and the Goog is not. Also, many seniors have issues working with eServices let alone adding something else in. I also remember seeing something awhile back that NHQ wanted to go this direction but they were working with the sheer cost of redundantly storing all that data.
The data storage needs are one of the reasons to go with AFE, though with the right system and tweaking of the regs, most of the paper and forms that
CAP loves so much could go away. Email for all, file storage, shared doc space, photo libraries, everything. I mentioned it would be free, right? For all 60,000 members?
And no servers, disk space, backups, or machines sitting under some guy's desk at his real job stealing bandwidth.
Join CAP, you get a cap.gov email address, that is the only one you are allowed to use for CAP business, you >must< use it (just like the military with .mil), and CAP controls all info end-to-end for OPSEC, virus issues, inappropriate content, and all the mailing lists.
Why do we need hard-copy 120's? A Google form could potentially provide the same information and be passed to the appropriate parties as needed, then once the dec is approved, it is recorded at NHQ and no paper is needed. The citation can be read from your tablet at the dinner and no trees were killed to give the guys a ribbon (which I still say should be an OLED panel on you shirt that changes as you get awards).
Or a variation on the above.
Too bad we can't just crack off a small piece of DEERS.
Quote from: Eclipse on July 15, 2011, 03:02:46 AM
I'l mea culpa on my initial response and add to your pile.
We need a standard definition for digitized personnel files.
100% paperless, authorized by regulation, and defined as to structure.
I'll kill the triangle thingie for you with fire if you can make that happen.
Disclaimer: I have no idea where the triangle thingie lives, and a court order precludes me from possessing fire. Offer void where prohibited by law.
I don't know that I get to have my way, but if I do, this will be the future of CAP's logo information - a little information center like this:
http://www.trademark.af.mil/symbol/specifications/index.asp
http://www.trademark.af.mil/downloads/mediagallery.asp?galleryID=6588
http://www.trademark.af.mil/questions/index.asp
http://www.trademark.af.mil/symbol/displaying/index.asp
That's the way I see it.
I already spoke with Colonel Weiss about Google Apps for Education as a possible thing. I also sent him some board-specific collaboration software that would be helpful to the National Board in getting stuff done between their two meetings per year and keeping track of it all. I use Apps for Education at my organization as part of our overall Staff Portal/intranet strategy. I've also poisoned the minds of young/impressionable non-profit leaders (whilst teaching about non-profit technology) to be biased towards using Apps over things like non-profit leaders get pitched to them. Of course, I did this at one of the
largest, wealthiest non-profits in the United States who can afford such PAAAID solutions, but
guess which one this particular prestigious university
uses THEMSELVES?
Basically ALL of the posts, e-mails, and messages say Emergency Services stuff. Is that where we are?
Is anyone looking for Cadet Programs, Aerospace Education, or mission support (like Public Affairs, Logistics, etc.)?
Quote from: JC004 on July 16, 2011, 11:41:25 AM
Basically ALL of the posts, e-mails, and messages say Emergency Services stuff. Is that where we are?
Is anyone looking for Cadet Programs, Aerospace Education, or mission support (like Public Affairs, Logistics, etc.)?
I would take all of those to give to my fellow seniors
only if they were IAW regs... There's enough rumor and conjecture running around as it is.
Standardized Ground Team and Aircrew Status boards, or better still a standard set for the whole base staff.
Both electronic and manual.
I am happy to contribute my efforts to the work.
Quote from: Spaceman3750 on July 17, 2011, 01:35:36 AM
I would take all of those to give to my fellow seniors only if they were IAW regs... There's enough rumor and conjecture running around as it is.
I don't believe in rumor and conjecture. I believe in resources that go beyond regulations in that they provide additional optional guidance (although a commander could make something mandatory practice. We had a standardized practice for recruiting and retention efforts, in a Sq OI, including things like tracking incoming potential member inquiries, tracking visitors, setting new members up with mentors, and putting everyone through a Getting Started checklist).
Best practices, by definition, are not mandatory and they can't possibly be the best if they send you astray. It is everyone's responsibility, though, before implementing, to make sure that the things are up to date and in compliance with local policy. Something could have to be adjusted to fit with a wing policy, for example.
Quote from: Eclipse on July 17, 2011, 01:36:52 AM
Standardized Ground Team and Aircrew Status boards, or better still a standard set for the whole base staff.
Both electronic and manual.
I am happy to contribute my efforts to the work.
I've wanted to work on this for a long time and somewhere in here I have a lot of dashboarding stuff. I mostly took my dashboarding proposals and ideas outside of CAP and worked on them for other non-profits. I am developing an all-new one right now too.
I'd be interested in status board work and I'm certain others could be found who would be as well. It'd be nice to be able to have an electronic one that would sync with things and have some functionality like having a mobile version available. Anyone who has worked with me on things that involve management, IT, and reports knows that I like status boards/dashboards, charts, graphs, tables, bullet points, and little green/yellow/red indicators of all types to make information easy to understand, fast to find, and consolidated.
Any communications (not radio) or Senior Memeber leadership training/education type materials in the hoard?
There is a member in my group that has found a source for on=line status boards I believe. We were discussing it over lunch at a restaurant after a squadron SUI recently(shhh, don't tell Radioman we were there more than an hour 8) ;)). I can ask him about it this Saturday at the group SUI.
Quote from: arajca on July 17, 2011, 03:49:07 PM
Any communications (not radio) or Senior Memeber leadership training/education type materials in the hoard?
Communications like management communication? Yes. Leadership stuff I've started putting off in a corner for now, but there is plenty.
Quote from: ol'fido on July 17, 2011, 03:52:12 PM
There is a member in my group that has found a source for on=line status boards I believe. We were discussing it over lunch at a restaurant after a squadron SUI recently(shhh, don't tell Radioman we were there more than an hour 8) ;)). I can ask him about it this Saturday at the group SUI.
That could be interesting. The easier to get things done, the better. I have a lot of things to work on, including out of CAP.
Quote from: ol'fido on July 15, 2011, 02:16:02 AM
That's a start but like I said it just needs some fleshing out. Plus the chapter on COMPTERS in SAR needs some edits. No, I didn't misspell computers. That's how the manual has it. Plus it talks about the need to prepare for Y2K.
http://www.nasar.org/products/106/Fundamentals-of-Search-and-Rescue
Add some material about ELT search (there is plenty already around), and I am not sure what else you really need.
Something that doesn't cost $40. ;D
I would love some recruiting stuff. Not just flyers, but press release templates, templates for an open house, new member packets, etc. Also any fundraising form letters and templates would be greatly appreciated.
Yeah, the problem is the public affairs stuff is mostly in this binder and its associated binders.
(http://www.colganmarketing.com/IMAG0076.jpg)(http://www.colganmarketing.com/IMAG0078.jpg)
I have to convert most of the public affairs stuff back to digital formats because I had a huge data loss a while ago.
I've started moving all the ES materials into one single place since much of that is already on different drives and can be compiled.