I hope to see as many of the TEXAS CAPTALKERS their as I can. I'm catching a ride with the Brownsville Comp Squadron. It will be a good weekend!!!
GOD BLESS and GOOD TRAVELS to all!!!
Well, I attended the Texas Wing Conference this past weekend. Since it was held in Austin again this year I didn't have far to drive. It was held in the historic Hilton hotel at the Austin -Bergstrom International Airport. The Hotel is the site of the original 12th Air Force HQ when the Airport was Bergstrom Air Force base. 12th AF HQ building known as Bld 2900 was round and was nicknamed the "Donut" they built the hotel inside of the original structure. very interesting.
While there I met Major Carrales, he's a true gentleman, I just wish we would have had more of a chance to chat. I'm sure he could fill in the fine points of the broad strokes I'll mention about the Wing Conference and the comments made by Gen. Courter.
General Courter attended and spoke at the conference, although she didn't wear a military uniform, she wore the corporate blazer during the day and a black dress that evening. She made many statements during her morning speech including a promise for no more uniform changes. (actually I don't mind common sense changes that move us closer to the AF but thats another topic) She also stated that we are going to be getting rid of the ECI-13 and move to a basic Officer Course that will be on-line and require the student to complete a series of basic officer courses and topics.
She also outlined her mission statement for CAP at the Wing Banquet. Hopefully Major C. can fill those details in, as the wife and I had been drinking a really good margarita earlier with the Wing Commander Col. Smith and the Region vice C/C, Col. Davis and I do not actually recall the exact words the General used. but I will say that it has a much better ring then the standard "CAP"s mission is Emergency Services, Cadet programs, and Aerospace Education" She talked at length of the need for CAP to have a more dynamic mission statement that truly embodies who and what we are.
During the morning session she spoke and actually gave a plug for Vanguard and how great they are. She said that the money that CAP receives from Vanguard is used to help pay training costs for some programs. Personally, I would prefer to get rid of Vanguard and allow others to make and sell the same insignias, it would keep costs lower by encouraging competition among vendors.
This Wing Conference really opened my eyes to what is wrong at Wing Conferences and why the attendance is really bad these days. Part of it is the costs of fuel and the problems with our economy. the others relate directly to how the Wing Conference is actually planned. They did not have their act together at all and pretty much just did it with little planning or forethought. The Guest speakers in the opening session didn't even know they where expected to actually say anything. The whole morning session almost lasted 10 min. the guys in charge just said, well have a great conference, enjoy all the sessions, take care. they actually had to stop and regroup and then the General and a rep from National HQ talked a bit aboutCAP and what they do. it was very badly put together. the town hall meeting with General Courter was also just thrown together with no prior planning. All of the so called training sessions where the same ones they used last year. it was a real disappointment.
Ok, this is a bit long, I'll stop here. I'm sure Major C can throw more detail in or cover the things that I have forgotten to mention.
Topics merged.
I'd like to give another POV about the Texas Wing Conference. While it is true that MC made a HUGE mess of the protocol in the morning, I found the information given by BGen Courter to be refreshing and it gave us hope that CAP is finally going in the right direction. :clap: The Town Hall session was exactly what it was intended to be - Q&A. The banquet was ok, nothing special.
As far as the sessions are concerned, I went to Operations, ES, Safety and IMU. I thought all of these sessions gave good information about new regulations and my only complaint about the IMU session was that it wasn't long enough.
More people should attend the conference.
Well, here is my take on the TXWG Conf. Not bad, I would of expected to see more members attend for the size of the wing. It would of been nice if they let use know that we wouldn't have power point projectors/screens. Also, we needed transition time between classes.
I agree with you that the IMU class needed to be longer but, I am a little biased. I gave the class. ;D