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

[Arthur Woodgate]

Thank you, Douglas.

 

Your analysis is pretty much in line with the spirit of what NHQ/PA set out
to accomplish, and spells out the choices available to the PAO very well. 

 

The PIO position has such high visibility that it can either boost someone
to national prominence or doom that same person to bottom-of-the-heap
status. It's all a matter of training - and choice.

 

Regards,

 

Arthur ~

__________________________________

ARTHUR E. WOODGATE, Lt. Col., CAP

Director of Public Affairs & Director of Organizational Excellence

Southwest Region

Civil Air Patrol - "Citizens Serving Communities"

512.432.0231 

512.547.6997 <<< VoIP (secondary)

512.567.1935 (cell - not always on)

awoodgate at austin.rr.com 

LtColWoodgate at gmail.com

 

From: cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org
[mailto:cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org] On Behalf Of DOUGLAS E.
JESSMER, Lt Col, CAP CAP/PM
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2014 6:54 PM
To: CAP Public Affairs Officers
Subject: Re: [PAO] [Bulk] FW: New CAPP 201 - Public Affairs Officer
Specialty Track

 

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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