SLS/CLC Director Best Practices

[IceNine]

My group is hosting an SLS/CLC at the end of august.  I will be one of the directors, and I am handling the admin/finance/equipment side.  The CLC director is handling food, housing, PR, etc.

I was working on building a spreadsheet for the registrations, that I could mail merge onto the certificates and such.

But, instead of reinventing the wheel has anyone made anything like this already?

I Eclipse is setting me up with the powerpoint that has the videos already built in. 

I want this thing to be smooth.  Are there any other best practices that you all have found?

[Cecil DP]

Where is the SLS??

[Eclipse]

I also have word docs setup for the certs - since we're usually talking about 10-15 on either side, we just did them manually. 

The realities of the length of people's names, etc., coupled with the limited number of certificates available from Wing (or NHQ) makes it "scary" to be generating them off of a mail merge.  We printed the names out on blank paper and held each one up to the light to insure the alignment was correct, then print the masters.

Another issue is that the certs are so thick they will not feed through every printer.  For example the HP OfficeJet 4215's which were issued with a lot of the unit notebooks will not feed these certs.  Most HP Laserjets will. 

[IceNine]

Where is the SLS??

Central Illinois

[Cecil DP]

Where is the SLS??

Central Illinois

Too far!!

[IceNine]

You could always fly in, there are 2 fairly good sized airports within 20 minutes

[Short Field]

If your wing is funding the course - no issue.  If it is self-funded as ours have to be  then get the money up front. 

Sounds cold but if you don't, you will pay $5 to $10 out of pocket to get handouts, Course CDs, binders, etc., and then have five no-shows. 

Triple check all the attendees to the SLS course.  If they don't have Level 1 and entry into a Speciality Track, National will not give them credit for the course.  Once they complete the requirements, National will retroactively give them credit, but it is a pain as you have to resubmit the Fm 11 for each one as they get qualified.  Some Squadron Commanders will sign a Fm 17 saying they meet all the requirements even if they don't meet any of them except having a CAPID number and still breathing.

[Eclipse]

Its not a course director's responsibility to resubmit Form 11's to NHQ, nor to be double-checking a member's qualifications.  That's the whole point of the form to start with.  If a Unit CC chooses to send a member without level one (for whatever reason), that's his mess to cleanup.

If a course dir isn't a commander, they may not even be able to see a member's records anyway.

Every member leaves with a copy of the Form 11 for their file, if they have issues from there its either the unit CC's problem or the Wing PDO's.

[Pylon]

An access database similar to the amazing Encampment Management Program would be a great resource for any short-term activity, PD or otherwise.

You might be able to tweak EMP for your use, and assign participants to flights based on the track they're in (CLC flight, SLS flight, staff flight, etc.).  EMP could then easily generate participation lists, completion certificates, MSAs, labels for a myriad of applications, email lists, merged mailings and manage all of your applicants and their data easily.  You could even automatically generate a page of received applications where applicants and staff could check on their status without having to bother your registrar.  You could also easily track who has paid, who owes money, etc. through EMP - a very handy feature.  Auto-generate letters welcoming registrants, reminding people who owe money, graduation packets and ad nauseum. 

It's a very powerful program.

[Eclipse]

That's a lot of overhead for 20-30 people, completion certs are provided by NHQ, and unless things have changed, the NYWG program, while interesting, depends on access to a wing-level CAPWatch, which few people have.

It also won't have the data from people outside your state, and is only as good as the data on eServices for contact info, which people tend to not update regularly.

A basic spreadsheet works fine.

I have one around here somewhere for threading the classes as well.

[Eclipse]

Certificates.

These lined up properly on an HP Laserjet.  YMMV depending on the printer, and long names have to have a reduced font.

[Eclipse]

Generic Schedule.

Makes it easy to see who is where and in what class.

Saturday lines up much closer than Sunday, so we start Sunday later to get everyone out at the same time.  This may cause issues for people who come together, but at least the can leave at the same time and everyone gets their certs together.

Note, this is utilizing the new curriculum, which is now required for these classes.

This is an Excel file, but the system required it be zipped.

[Eclipse]

Slipstreamed presentations and videos.

http://hq.group22.net/files/sls_clc/
(PM me for the password)

We took all the presentations for the respective curriculum, and put them in one .ppt, with blank slides in between.

The "Broadening Horizons" slides were changed to the same format as the rest.

We added a line for the presenter on each header slide (edit appropriately).

Added an intro slide to CLC (didn't have one).

There is some kind of font error on both when you open them, it was from the original presentations and
still exists in the separate files as they are posted today.  Just click through and ignore.  Its annoying, but you'll only see it once.  If anyone can identify what is causing it, that would be great.

National did not provide the videos as required, suggesting instead that you setup a separate DVD, or jump out of the presentation, play the DVD, and then come back. 

We captured the video as indicated and incorporated it as slides in the presentations.  As long as the .wmv files are in the same directory as the presentations, they should work fine.  Make sure you use a 1/2-way decent machine, and that its running lean.  I'd also avoid a dual-screen setup, as Windows media player likes to decide where the video will play and it gets testy.

Your best bet is to set it up so that either the laptop and display are clones of each other, or the laptop screen is blank and only the projector is working.

In general I would strongly recommend getting two, dedicated, notebooks for display, cleaning them up from all the junk that accumulates on squadron PC's when less-then-techie users play with them, and having them ready to go when the presenters walk in.

We prohibit any changes or additions to the slides so there should be no reason for people to bring it in on their own key drive, CD, etc.

The reason we prohibit changes is that this is a national curriculum and we have no way of vetting the information in advance to insure it is appropriate.  I had one instructor who was doing an already dry subject heavily edit the slides into something that looked like a car-commercial disclaimer.  This is supposed to be a primarily discussion based, group-dynamic curriculum, so the slides are simply a touchstone (as they should be in any presentation).

We also print the entirety of the lesson plans and provide then in a binder, in order, with the schedule on the first page.
This is waiting on the podium for use by all the instructors.  Again, this is to allow the presenters to just walk up, grab the clicker and start the class without a lot of commotion.

Granting that experiential discussions are the key to this curriculum, embellishment or tangents are ok to a small degree, but we've found that the class timing, as indicated, is pretty close as long as people don't stray too much.

This is not the old, "departmental based" curriculum.  There is no need for you to be a specific type of staff officer to be able to teach most of these classes.  The best instructors are well-rounded, informed and engaged members who can speak with authority and experience as to their own best-practices, with an eye towards acknowledging others in the room with differing opinions.

Also, make sure your instructors understand that the "Creative Thinking" exercises are subjective discussions of problems without specific answers.  I have actually had an instructor who went through the whole exercise, and then literally said "OK, great discussion, but you guys are wrong, here's the 'correct' answer..."  Then, because he's a pilot / operations guy, went on to tell everyone that the money should all be spent on the airplane, because they are the most important part of CAP. 

Nice.

Suffice to say we received a number of complaints about this.

It should probably also be said that the directors should be keeping a general eye on the tone, timber, and conduct of the instructors.  SLS', especially, will be attended by newer members with less experience.  While its been my experience that a good SLS or CLC can energize a member and have them bringing back the "fire" to their local units, I've also seen way too many members who come back with 1/2-truths, misunderstandings, or echoing the incorrect opinion of an instructor, and then justifying actions based on "well that's what they said in SLS/CLC".

If an instructor strays too far, gets something wrong, or starts moving into non-canon opinion, there are tactful, professional ways to make corrections and move things back on target.  None of them involve yelling or getting into an argument in front of students.

I will usually put up (or draw) this graphic:

Its important to keep the conversations as close to the "need" target, straying into "nice" only occasionally, and avoiding the "don't need" whenever possible (perhaps tabling the discussion for lunch, breaks, etc.).

Spacing - MIKE