I am aware of a unit that had an unpublished policy of disallowing cadets to join during a certain timeframe before tabulation of Quality Cadet Unit Awards (31 Aug).
Is it better to be upfront about such policies? Is there justification in the regs to allow for doing this? What about something similar for adults wanting to join (for example: putting them into training cohorts)?
Nothing says "welcome" more than "we don't want you now because it'll mess with our stats."
Hmmmm...seems that cohort recruiting is one of the official methods of pipelining for cadets
https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/programs/cadets/cpofficer/great-start/great-start-introduction
Cohort recruiting and unpublished start date policies are two very different things.
One is being upfront with start dates; the other is misleading, at best.
Quote from: Paul Creed III on June 03, 2025, 10:27:23 AMCohort recruiting and unpublished start date policies are two very different things.
One is being upfront with start dates; the other is misleading, at best.
Agree here.
A unit conducting cohort is doing nothing different than the HS baseball team channelizing "new players" into the "start of the season," so to speak. You show up two weeks into the season looking to join the team, well, you're waiting till next season. Thats how it goes.
Most units join cadets in the fall and the spring in fairly clearly defined windows that are not congruent with the QCUA statistical windows, necessarily. (Caveat: there are some units in some localties where their "fall," as in "just after the start of the school year," is very much in late August, which DOES cause some conflict with the end of the QCUA window. There's not much to be helped there, as you definitely want QCUA's annual reporting to end after summer encampment season and probably before "recruiting season" for the majority of the country.
This is why I recommend, no matter where you are, to wait until after 1 Sept to start your fall recruiting. Even if school starts in early August, slide that start date for recruiting/membership a few weeks to the right. That way there's no need to "game the system."
(mind you: WIWAC, under the old CAP-MAP system, my squadron commander would hold cadets back from milestone awards so that we could spread them out to maximize our score. If we needed, say, two Mitchells and two Earharts for the year to get the max score, and we already had two Mitchells, then some c/MSgt got told to hold off and "wait until after the reporting period" to take their Mitchell. Or he would just wait to sign off on the CAPF 59-1. It was.. annoying.. if you got caught in that bubble. I mean we were squadron of Merit/Distinction several times, so I think he knew how to game the system, but man..)
In an organization that is 100% volunteer based and mainly funded by volunteer dues, this is a terrible idea.
If someone shows up and is interested in joining, we should darn sure welcome them with open arms.
I get being behind the power curve and, out of training cycle, etc. but turning them away, or delaying their entry just seems counter-productive to me.
Quote from: Shuman 14 on June 06, 2025, 07:57:27 PMIn an organization that is 100% volunteer based and mainly funded by volunteer dues, this is a terrible idea.
If someone shows up and is interested in joining, we should darn sure welcome them with open arms.
I get being behind the power curve and, out of training cycle, etc. but turning them away, or delaying their entry just seems counter-productive to me.
Which is why the Great Start program is not mandatory, it's up to each unit to decide to use it or not.
Quote from: Shuman 14 on June 06, 2025, 07:57:27 PMI get being behind the power curve and, out of training cycle, etc. but turning them away, or delaying their entry just seems counter-productive to me.
This is the usual argument against the cohort approach, however I've seen the success of cohorts convert a lot of non-believers. At least for cadets, I don't know about senior member recruiting.
QuoteThis is the usual argument against the cohort approach, however I've seen the success of cohorts convert a lot of non-believers. At least for cadets, I don't know about senior member recruiting.
Channelizing new members into clearly defined recruiting windows isn't specifically "turning people away." If your recruiting engine is properly tuned, you'll have a flyer for your next open house, you'll get their contact info, and you'll stay engaged with them until the next window.
As I have said before "When you make CAP 'easy come' it becomes very easy to make it 'easy go' as well."
My deputy commander for cadets, who was very against the cohort concept, said the same thing "What if they don't come back?"
My response "Then how interested in CAP were they in the first place?" Some of the most "sticky" cadets I've seen over the years were those that
did come back.
If you build your pipeline & advertising program correctly, the
vast majority of prospective members will show up to your Open House and join "in the window." After we started doing it for awhile, we'd join 12-16-18 cadets at a crack (22 once) and infrequently had someone show up in between cohorts. And if we did, we gave them the nickel tour, got thier contact info, and stayed engaged with them until the next event. Some joined, some did not.
The important thing to remember is that units doing cohort recruiting do this to benefit both the member and the unit. The member gets properly inculcated into the "ways of CAP" with a dedicated training cycle with other members and the undivided attention of their training cadre and mentors, while the unit gets the benefit of not having people slide thru the cracks and have to chase members individually who are on various "weeks" of training.
Piggybacking off NIN here... as I have the burden of constantly having to explain this one during TLC Basic...
Your unit's QCUA metrics do not directly align with your unit's individually-established training plan, unit goals, and monitoring data.
Here's how it works (in a nutshell):
- It's July 15. You bring in new cadets.
- Your Cadet Great Start program intends to graduate them 8 weeks later, exactly 56 days from now, on September 9.
- This places your new cadets outside of the "achieved their first promotion within their 56 days of joining CAP" prior to September 1 (on which a new QCUA period starts), not because they didn't promote within 56 days, but because they didn't promote by the time the system looked at the data to see if they had promoted. It also messes with your % of cadets with GES, % of cadets with Wright Brothers, % of cadets with Encampment, and % of cadets with O-Flights.
- National has said they are not going to adjust the data capture. Units need to plan around their QCUA metrics.
It really is the epitome of
it is what it is.
If your goal is metrics, then you need to plan your
cadets may join CAP date around an approach that ensures your metrics will be met, weighing in all of your QCUA items to see how it best balances out.
If your goal is cadets/numbers, then go for whatever will provide the largest return to your recruiting process
and retention plan.
If your goal is quality of training/experience, you should probably be targeting a cohort model that aligns with a regimented training structure and avoiding trickle-in additions to your roster.
Don't forget: removing individuals from the roster also has an impact on your QCUA metrics, for better or worse in some cases. Removing someone who hasn't had their encampment or their Wright Brothers will probably help you in those metrics; but removing someone who has their O-Flights will hurt you in those areas.
If you aren't looking at your data, and you aren't planning around data to some level, you're probably missing something somewhere. Don't let data metrics drive your entire program, but also don't be blind to what the data is telling you.