member participation

[RADIOMAN015]

Well in my wing on the ES side for actual mission it's a general page to everyone (who wants to be included), and they deal directly with the IC, so the wing has already determined that the subordinate commanders (unless they have officially suspended the member) have no say in ES response/participation.

Also in my wing for upcoming ES training exercise, personnel can also go directly to the IC or appropriate branch directors for the exercise and let them know they are willing to participate.

Other activities of other squadron's e.g. banquets, camp outs, airport visits, normally meetings -- I guess it would all depend upon perhaps the total time involved (overnight) & potential risk/safety concerns, more than anything else and whether it was a cadet (getting permission slips) or senior member participating.    Generally, I don't think most members would mind letting their appropriate commander know.  Of course if the member is scouting out a potential new squadron to transfer to, than they might not want to mention anything until they make the decision to transfer (and why get anyone upset, because the member may also decide to stay where they are)
RM       

Radioman-
I also am in your Wing and I dont think the current system works to well do you really?
Around 50% of the Wing's members use their Wing email at best and very FEW cadets do in my experience. If we want to get serious about ES and Sarex's etc we need to rethink how we communicate- particularly if we want cadet involvement.
What good does it do for a cadet to commit before he/she knows their unit will be able to participate?
A better system would be to have each unit's ES officer be contacted and forward a listing of participants to the IC- this would add some organization into chaos and also inform a unit commander of who wanted to participate since the SC needs to approve utilization of a van/ so far as I am concerned everytime I see a Wing email asking for support it goes into a black hole and no one ever learns more until the day of the event which is NOT a good method of knowing who is where or doing what.
Ultimately a Squadron Commander should( if nothing else as a courtesy) know where his or her people are BEFORE they go- do you disagree?

In my opinion the current ES alert system works well from 0600 to 2400 hrs local.   The 0001 to 0559 hrs time frame, very few people are monitoring their phones/computers for text messages.  So an actual voice phone call to a telephone number of an ES qualified person (or squadron commander depending upon what he/she wants wing to do) in a particular geographic area will likely work best.

I agree that the unit commander should know IF anyone from the unit is participating.  With our former squadron commander, he generally was involved with at least being at squadron headquarters and monitoring what was going on IF we had a team in the field.  Basically I try to monitor for alerts and IF I see it will call some other squadron members to alert them IF it is in our geographic response area.  The cadet ES qualified personnel generally aren't getting the alerts, at least in our squadron, and really can't do anything anyways until a senior member gets involved.
RM

   

[Spaceman3750]

So, I know that a commander's permission for an encampment or NCSA is required....but...

What about local weekend activities hosted by another squadron or even group or wing level?

Same thing IMHO.

When I was CC I would not approve every Tom, Dick and Harry who wanted a CAP Vehicle License either.

Well, since most of our members are Tom, Dick, and Harry, I'm surprised you had any licensed drivers at all. I mean, if someone has a vehicular homicide maybe giving them a license is a bad idea but we've all had a ticket or accident at some point in our life.

So how many times will you let a senior member burn rubber in the parking lot? How about the man who drives recklessly to a meeting, I suppose you do not question him and just look the other way.

I was a cop for 25 years and I speak my peace. In NCO School they call it moral courage. Like I will let somebody, regardless of age, who is foolish, drive a vehicle or fly a plane I am responsible for? Stay in CAP long enough and you will meet the people I talk about.

After almost 5 years in CAP (3 senior 2 cadet) I have yet to see the idiots of which you speak. Must be something in the water supply...

Its like horseplay, its fun until somebody loses an eye. If I was in only one Squadron forever I will not see any differences. Visit another Squadron and you will see differences. Go to a Squadron when you are on vacation out of state and drop by and say "hi". See if you notice anything.

Already BTDT . They seemed pretty confused that some out of stater wanted to come by and say hello .

[Al Sayre]

Its like horseplay, its fun until somebody loses an eye. If I was in only one Squadron forever I will not see any differences. Visit another Squadron and you will see differences. Go to a Squadron when you are on vacation out of state and drop by and say "hi". See if you notice anything.

I've done this several times (as a few on this board can attest to) I've always learned something, and sometimes even left them with something useful as well.  I encourage everyone to visit other squadrons if you're in their area.  Call first though, nobody wants a stray Maj or Lt Col showing up on their doorstep in uniform, it smacks of "I'm from some HQ and I'm here to help" (and you might give one of us geezers a heart attack...) 

[SarDragon]

I've done most of my visiting in civvies, because it's usually a spur of the moment event. I've always been welcomed, and have been included into the activities a couple of times.