I always work the nights my local CAP Sqdns do meetings... is it worth reinstating my membership?
Depends on what you want to do. It would be wise to discuss options with the squadron commander to see it things can work out. There may be activities during the day you can help out with, or some work you can do at home; like balancing the squadron's check book....
Good Luck.
Does this unit know you? Talk to the Sq CC about responsibilities outside of meeting nights. You can still be active at group and wing functions as you schedule allows. I was the Sq Commander and was present at meetings about 1 hour a month because of my work schedule. I spent lot of time at the office on my days off and had a great staff.
Worth a chat " I really want to be a member but right now I work on meeting nights. Where else can I be used?"
There are plenty of duty positions not requiring members to be physically present at meetings. Find out what you can do, and most units (the good ones anyway) will understand that you are still valuable to them and will find a way to make you useful.
"Hey, it's only two hours a week..." >:D ;D
I'll take a different view than the others here so far...
You say you want to join CAP...why? If you can't attend meetings, what are you bringing to the table?
Heres my view: If you can't or aren't willing to make time for CAP, then don't waste your time or the time of others. If it's just not a good fit right now, there is no disgrace in moving on. I want people that can and want to be here. I don't try to talk others into staying; I've never seen that serve as a successful model for the individual or the organization.
CAP doesn't pay the bills. If his individual unit can find a place for him than run with it.
Am an AF veteran and want to give back... I was a SM out of MD but moved to SC and my schedule rotates every 6 weeks
While some of your options may be limited, there are many things you can do to support CAP that doesn't include attending weekly meetings. As most have stated, your best course of action is to talk to the squadron commander to see if there's any need you can fill. Just make sure that whatever you commit to is something you can really do. Don't accept any responsibilities that you know you won't be able to fulfill, as the squadron will be depending on you to do that job. If circumstances change, most commanders will understand as long as you're upfront about it. Good luck!
+1
As a former commander of squadrons related to military bases.....we had lots and lots of members who had weird schedules or deployed.
The only thing I asked of them was to let me know if they could not support a task that they said they would take on.
If all you can do is help out on the weekends....great! We always need need people to help out on weekends!
There are some senior positions within the squadron that require a lot of work outside the confines of the traditional meeting times. When my schedule has been meeting-prohibitive, I have tried to do more in those "extracurricular" roles. For example, Professional Development, Aerospace Education, Public Affairs, and Personnel are all important jobs that one can do great work in the other 166 hours a week when one cannot attend a meeting, especially now in the era of electronic communication and file sharing.
Each of these roles are also in high demand at every echelon, so like so many others have said here, consider looking to Group or Wing work if those schedules are more conducive.
Finally, again like others have already stated, having a frank conversation with your unit leadership is key to helping resolve your question.
2 years ago I think I spent more time working with cadets on non-meeting days than meeting days through the CyberPatriot program. That just happened to be the way my schedule worked. Meetings are definitely not the be all and end all of CAP.