Recruiting and Retention Ideas

[BFreemanMA]

Hello CT,

     I want to talk about recruiting and retention. I've been doing some research from the forums and I found a lot of great ideas; however, a lot of these ideas are circa 2007 or so. I want to open up a discussion on the modern needs of recruiting and retention.

     I just recently signed on as my squadrons primary R/R Officer. I am blessed to work with a very energetic staff and cadets who share my vision to see our squadron grow and become stronger. To that end, we have a "Bring a Buddy" day coming up on 10/22. My cadet R/R assistant and I started collaborating right off the bat and we have a short film we'll be shooting in the next few weeks to show at this event. The cadet in question is also working on a powerpoint that showcases the cadet side of things.

    However, this is only a one day event. Because I'm so new to the specialty track (and relatively new to CAP, I signed on 8/30/12), I wanted to get your input on your successes and failures with regards to recruiting and retention. Let this be a pool of ideas for all who are interested in the recruiting and retaining process!

     Some quick notes about my squadron: we meet on an Air Reserve Base every Tuesday evening. My "day job" is as a high school English teacher in an inner city district, which makes visiting other schools during lunch nearly impossible (I've pitched CAP to our AFJROTC instructors. Great bunch of guys and they've actively helped me out). We have a rather strong core group of cadets and SMs, but our cadet pool has steadily declined as time goes on. We have a few "empty shirts" on the SM side, but most of our staff show up to nearly every meeting and those who don't get their job done remotely.

     I welcome any thought or input you may have! Thank you all for your time!

[stillamarine]

Pm me your email and I'll send you some things I send to my squadrons.

[Panache]

Just point out that we're going to be able to wear ABU's soon.

(sorry!)

[BillB]

Many years ago I produced "Project Boot" a recruiting and retention program. It was very successful at the Wing and later Region level. It has been updated several times, as late as last year. But it's still based on many of the school policies and material available from NHQ. Much of the material from NHQ is no longer available. On the other hand, over the past year and ahalf, I've had several requests for "Project Boot" which was adapted to meet local needs and conditions. It was only designed as a guide or to give ideas not as an end-all cure. A month ago a copy was sent to General Carr, but I don't know if he lookied at it or even recieved it.

[EMT-83]

It's unfortunate that Recruiting and Retention are lumped together, since they are completely different animals. With such a high churn rate on our membership we should pay more attention to retention, and recruiting wouldn't be such an issue.

[FW]

It's unfortunate that Recruiting and Retention are lumped together, since they are completely different animals. With such a high churn rate on our membership we should pay more attention to retention, and recruiting wouldn't be such an issue.

We have a recruiting problem because we can't retain them.  This is why they are "lumped together". 

CAP must be able to establish clearer guidlines; to help recruit the kind of members willing to deal with the reality of the organization. We, also, need a leadership which can be patient enough to deal with it.

Then again, CAP must realize that members need an organization which can meet the needs of the volunteer. There has been more than enough studies on why we can't retain the members.  Maybe it's time to actually do something about it...

[JC004]

It's unfortunate that Recruiting and Retention are lumped together, since they are completely different animals. With such a high churn rate on our membership we should pay more attention to retention, and recruiting wouldn't be such an issue.

Absolutely.  Retention is the command's job, truly.

Let me think on this topic and see what I can list.  I may have a book suggestion or two, some documents/worksheets I developed over the years, stuff like that.

[NIN]

I have a few (dozen) thoughts on this matter. More later!

[Walkman]

There are tons of good discussions and info here that I've used over the past few years. You'll find info about pipeline recruiting and open houses and school visits and a host of other things doing a search.

But for my money, it seems whether you are doing a "bring a buddy day" or a big open house, it all comes down to members opening their mouths to their network and talking about CAP. In this arena, a huge budget TV ad or cool youtube video doesn't come close to the power of "I'm doing this and its one of the best things in my life and you need to check it out you'll love it". Look at your network (LinkedIn, FB, etc are good ways to quantify just how many people you know. @Eclipse: I know, I know...) and it's amazing to see how many people we are connected with. And we tend to have the strongest connections where there the most commonality. Its not too far of a stretch to say that what we like, many of our connections will like as well.

[Eclipse]

Run a full program.  You won't have any issues with retention.

[Walkman]

Run a full program.  You won't have any issues with retention.

^ +10

[BFreemanMA]

All,

     I appreciate the replies so far. A lot of good comments about "word of mouth" recruiting and some good ideas coming down the pipeline. BillB, I'm not aware of anything regarding Project Boot, but it sounds interesting. Would it be something you would be willing to send to me or discuss via PM?

     Eclipse, as full disclosure, I'm not directly involved in CP except as the AEO, but it seems like we have a full program running for cadets. Schedules appear to be made up wisely and are followed closely. There is usually something going on nearly every weekend for the cadets, ranging from Color Guard training to ES classes/SAREXs and trips. I think I'll sit down with my leadership after I get more information and see if my observations match the cadets expectations and understandings. Maybe I'll make up a survey of "favorite CAP activities" or "what would you like to see?" type questions! If we're running a full program, but it's full of things few people want to do, then that would certainly be a cause for alarm.

     Several individuals also made excellent points about recruiting and retention being two sides to the same coin. It's easy for me to see the good in CAP because I am a huge CAP nerd (if you'll pardon the term) and really threw myself into the program. I get 'warm fuzzies' from helping my community and working together with my peers. But some comments lead me to thinking and I realized that some senior members might not be aware of how robust the program is. I learned about a lot of opportunities by giving nearly everything a shot and then sticking with what I enjoyed the most. I understand that this strategy is definitely time (and patience) consuming, so maybe it would be beneficial for me to sit down with new and current members and discuss the opportunities CAP offers. For example: "you love radios, but can't afford to spend your weekends at a SAREX? Learn radio and learn how to be an NCS" or "if you're training to be a teacher, you can enter the CP specialty track and get experience working with and leading youth" or something to that effect.

     Granted, my own exuberance can cause me to see things through rose-colored glasses at times, which is an issue, but this discussion is really motivating me to make CAP the best it can be for our squadron.

     Please keep the ideas flowing and thank you all very much for your time so far!

[Eclipse]

I'd say your experience is pretty typical.

The "time and patience" comment is salient as well.  Both, especially the latter, are in short supply these days and
people's attention span are so divided and limited that anything that doesn't provide immediate returns tends to get
"fast-forwarded 30 seconds and then clicked through".

Anyone who has ever worked in a government or military paradigm, let alone tried to change it, knows that
these agencies work on geologic scales.  CAP, having the worst advantages of both, plus volunteer politics and human
nature, simply enhances that timeline.

We need to move CAP success from being diamond mining (dig randomly, work hard, fail often, steal a few when no one is looking, eventually find something shiny) to gardening (plan outcome, understand which seeds you're planting, work hard, and barring unforseen circumstance, expect results).

[FW]

^ Excellent! I think your metaphors are spot on.  :clap: