[PAO] New CAPP 201 - Public Affairs Officer Specialty Track

[jaimielhenson at fuse.net]

I have real problems requiring PAOs to become PIOs. The positions are very different and require very different skill sets. 

One can be an effective, even an outstanding PAO, "behind the scenes". That is, writing news and community interest stories, posting/sending photographs, maintaining facebook pages, twitter accounts, websites, etc. It is a non-stress, non-time limit position. It does not necessarily require one to be attractive or well-spoken or to look good in the uniform. 

PIO requires all of those things and then some. 

IF PIO is going to be required, the training needs to be taken seriously. I had the honor of being in the first NESA PIO class several years ago. There was a member of the class who had absolutely no business ever dealing with the public or press. This member was an complete embarrassment to the uniform and CAP. The member was awarded PIO credentials just because the course was completed. There was no provision for "failing" someone who clearly wasn't qualified. 

Anything can be put on a piece of paper. If CAP PAOs and PIOs want to be seen and treated as professional equals in the "real" world, then we have to be trained and held accountable to the same level. 

Not all PAOs can or should be qualified as PIOs. To force this upon someone is either going to reduce the number of personnel willing to train beyond the Technician Rating or is going to end with many unqualified PIOs in the field simply because they completed a course. Neither of those scenarios is a positive outcome for CAP Public Relations. 

Jaimie Henson, Maj. 
Public Affairs Officer 
Public Information Officer 
Kentucky Wing 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Blake Sasse" <bsasse at sbcglobal.net> 
To: "CAP Public Affairs Officers" <cap-pao at lists.sempervigilans.org> 
Sent: Saturday, August 9, 2014 5:36:29 PM 
Subject: Re: [PAO] New CAPP 201 - Public Affairs Officer Specialty Track 

I don't think I agree with the merging of PIO/PAO quals as this 
essentially does. With effort you can find people willing to do normal 
CAP PAO work, but I have had a very tough time finding those interested 
in the more high pressure, time-sensitive PIO job. 

What I think we are risking is that more and more unqualified people 
will be put in the PAO slot because it is a required position, but that 
they will choose another specialty to progress through because of the 
very high new and existing barriers within the PAO track. 

Those that are actually interested will probably still get Technician, 
for which the requirements are basically to do the squadron PAO job the 
way it is supposed to be done. But, I think that we will see a major 
decrease in the number going to Senior and Master because of the PIO 
requirements. I counted 5 in-residence training courses to get Master 
-- any one of which is likely to be an insurmountable barrier to a 
majority of PAOs, especially those that work and can't afford to give up 
that many weeks of pay for CAP (since most of these courses are taught 
during the work-week for the paid emergency response community). 

I have always been supportive of the idea of increasing the requirements 
for PIO, which are awfully weak, but putting this much into the 
specialty track just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. How much is it 
going to benefit CAP to make it this difficult for someone that is only 
interested in doing PAO to advance in grade? 

Incidentally, has anyone pointed out that the "become a PIO" requirement 
is in both the Senior and Master requirements? I think it would be 
"Become a PIO" for Senior and "Maintain PIO" for Master (assuming we 
want Master level to be a PIO at the time they get the rating). 

Blake Sasse 




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