Accounting for Inkind Member Donations for Squadron Activities/Operation?

[NC Hokie]

^ I think the implied one was enough.

Yes, it was.

Say what you want about WIWAC, the techno divide, etc., but it is practically impossible to be a successful cadet or senior member without an email address and some sort of semi-reliable internet access, even if its just from a library.

I actually agree with you on this, but the letters I send aren't addressed to cadets or senior members.  Tell you what, let's agree to disagree for now, okay?  I promise that I'll have a satisfactory explanation for my postage expense if I ever wind up in your chain of command.

[Eclipse]

k...

[heliodoc]

Yep

More to Fraud, Waste, and Abuse than $20.00 in postage

OPSEC, FWA, etc flown pretty freely around CAPTalk....making CAP still lookin like RM wannabees.  Trying to question 20.00 dollars here and 150.00 there... every chain of CAP command MAY have different costs...but some sooper dooper CAP types think that folks in CAP revolve around only certain CAPTalker's earths orbit and try to apply that 52 different Wings

I'd be asking the hard question about the "hard guys" here on CAPTalk  trying to be "tough" CAP Sqdn Commanders....

[Eclipse]

^ There are units who have annual operating budgets less than $150.

Also, FWA is a mentality towards proper use of resources as much as it is a set dollar amount.  If you think FWA doesn't happen under $100,
you don't know what it is.

[heliodoc]

GO get 'em, Eclipse

There must be many offenders here on CAPTalk with different situations that JUST SCREAM FWA, right??


WOW!

[a2capt]

You could send emails to parents instead of letters.  There will be some without it, but but that could cut the costs down some.

Tell ya what ... our cadet and senior command staff send out a couple emails a week. But when we actually want information to get to parents, we send mail. It works. They show up in droves to the parents night events when we've sent mail vs. all the times we've told the cadets during call down, during closing, etc.

Well worth the postage.

[RiverAux]

You could send emails to parents instead of letters.  There will be some without it, but but that could cut the costs down some.

Tell ya what ... our cadet and senior command staff send out a couple emails a week. But when we actually want information to get to parents, we send mail. It works. They show up in droves to the parents night events when we've sent mail vs. all the times we've told the cadets during call down, during closing, etc.

Well worth the postage.

There is a vast difference between emailing cadets and emailing the parents, which is what I suggested. 

[RADIOMAN015]

Folks, PLEASE don't get bogged down on the type of "in kind" donations that your squadron members or other friends of your unit provide to your unit

I don't know overall how much of this "in kind" generosity keeps my unit going.   Again I really would like to see a simple way to track this for a full year budget period.   It is important to quantify this because as an organization we should be reporting to the public what our 'true & actual" costs are at every level & how we meet those cost requirements -- donations in kind might be a significant percentage.

As far as the "audited" financial statements, most squadrons would be foolish to even show these statements to a potential donor.  The reason is there's very big dollars shown, and the statements & report have been skillfully crafted to not show that squadrons really have to be self sufficent as far as administrative costs, etc.   Perhaps if a footnote or very specific statement was placed in the report clearly indicating the financial burden of squadrons, many of us would use the annual statements/reports. 

For those of you keeping your units afloat by your own personal funding/in kind donations, I salute you :clap:  BUT again the "right" thing to do is to show this publically to ensure potential donors to CAP are very well aware of this, especially at the squadron level.
RM