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

[DOUGLAS E. JESSMER, Lt Col, CAP CAP/PM]

All:

I've been following this discussion with great interest, as it goes to the heart of how we communicate to pretty much every constituency. Fact is, emergency services is one of our three main missions. How can we be effective in telling the CAP story if we don't have some background in what's probably our highest-profile purpose?

I don't believe every public affairs officer should need to be a public information officer. And they don't have to be, but those PAs who don't want the FEMA courses and the PIO qualification can stop with the technician level of the track. Those who want the PIO training but can't get to Emmitsburg can go as far as the senior level. I'm sure Emmitsburg is nice this time of year — it's got to be less muggy than it is here in Florida. And if you want the training and to climb the ladder of the specialty track and lay low on the ops side, that's up to you. CAP is, after all, a volunteer organization.

But every PIO should be a PA. And every public affairs officer should at least have a 101 card and some PIO training. Not to have that is to neglect a very important part of what is CAP. We aren't a pure-play emergency services organization, but people know us for that, at least the ones who know us. (And that's another thing — many would-be "customers" for our ops folks still don't know who we are! We need to market ourselves better in that regard....) We aren't just a cadet-program organization. And public affairs officers are in the best position to explain the three sides of CAP — they're not "the ops side and everyone else," but rather, the emergency services, cadet program and aerospace education missions with which Congress chartered us back in the day (PLs 476 and 557). A good PA needs to be well-versed in all three components.

The most important thing in PIO training for CAP members is to learn how to play well with other agencies. CAP's PIOs won't be the lead on any incident, but we still stand to get our message out, and we must have the discipline of messaging to "stay in our lane" and work as part of a greater system. If Deepwater Horizon didn't teach us that, I don't know what will. We need to be team players, all up and down the line. Squadron PAs play as vital a role in our missions as do wing PIOs and the national staff. 

There's not really much else I can say that hasn't been said. Yes, these are the requirements. If there's widespread issue, I imagine adjustments may be made (that's just me speaking from my experience, not saying anything official by any means). We still need to be realistic while we're stretching the field, after all. But what's most important is that we want our public affairs officers to be the best they can be, to be able to capably, competently and confidently tell our story, and to position CAP favorably in our populaces.


DOUGLAS E. JESSMER, Lt Col, CAP
National Marketing Officer

COM: (727) 480-9606
Clearwater, Fla.

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