[PAO] National Board
Tom Traver
tomt at theppigroup.com
Mon Jul 21 10:19:51 CDT 2014
Karen and Pat speak for many of us in our retirement years concerning participating and
Supporting CAP. I was just a pup in 1970 when I first joined and attended numerous conferences albeit via USAF transport. Now in my impending retirement years, the budget
Just cannot support these type of expenses. The conferences are important, but so are our
Limited budgets that only become more so as time goes on.
Tom Traver Lt Col, CAP
Deputy Director, Public Affairs, PCR
-----Original Message-----
From: cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org [mailto:cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org] On Behalf Of Pat Mitcham
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2014 9:02 AM
To: CAP Public Affairs Officers
Subject: Re: [PAO] National Board
Good morning all,
I agreed that many of us cannot afford multiple conferences in a year. By the time I've gone to wing and region conferences, the National Board is out of reach. Add in ES activities and my budget for supporting CAP is gone. Some of us have retired and need to make sure the budget for volunteering is realistic, no matter how much we want to participate.
Thanks, Karen and others, for talking about this.
Regards
Pat Mitcham, Lt Col, CAP
Huntsville Senior Squadron PAO
Sent from my iPad
> On Jul 20, 2014, at 11:24 AM, "lockit3" <lockit3 at att.net> wrote:
>
> Thank you Lt. Col. Copenhaver for bringing this subject up.
>
> The fact of the matter is, that even if these rates are not "terribly
> out of line" for a conference this size, it is still unaffordable for
> many of our members, me included. If we pay for the meeting hall and
> any peripheral rooms needed for the breakout sessions, or whatever we
> are calling them this conference and the hotel knows it has "X" amount
> of rooms guaranteed, concessions should be able to be reached on the
> room rate for members. If the facility will not make such concessions
> because it is Las Vegas and they will get that rate from someone then
> let them get it from someone else. We do not have to conference in Las Vegas.
>
> First of all, it has been my experience that if you have time to go to
> the activities that are available outside of the conference, you are
> not attending the conference. My answer that would be take a vacation.
> While other cities may not have the outside venues, they could handle
> the size of our event and perhaps for a lesser price. I have concerns
> about meeting somewhere like Vegas anyway. As concerned as we are
> about the image of Civil Air Patrol and the image that casts on the
> Air Force, is this really a good idea.
>
> If we save on the price of the hall and classrooms, then maybe our fee
> could at least cover the banquet and everyone could attend. A Spaatz
> cadet from our Wing is National Cadet of the Year and most of our Wing
> members will not see him receive the award because we cannot afford
> the conference let alone an additional fee for a banquet that should be included.
>
> I did not intend this to sound like a gripe session, but sometimes I
> think in an effort to look like an organization of high prestige, we
> forget that our members are volunteers, mostly of middle America. We
> need to get back to servicing the needs of the members who service the needs of our country.
>
> With respect,
>
>
> Curtis "Wayne" Hooks 1st Lt.
> Civil Air Patrol
> FLWG Online Newsfeed Manager
> Group 1 Public Affairs Officer
> Group 1 Recruitment and Retention Officer Thank you Lt. Col.
> Copenhaver for bringing this subject up.
>
> The fact of the matter is, that even if these rates are not "terribly
> out of line" for a conference this size, it is still unaffordable for
> many of our members, me included. If we pay for the meeting hall and
> any peripheral rooms needed for the breakout sessions, or whatever we
> are calling them this conference and the hotel knows it has "X" amount
> of rooms guaranteed, concessions should be able to be reached on the
> room rate for members. If the facility will not make such concessions
> because it is Las Vegas and they will get that rate from someone then
> let them get it from someone else. We do not have to conference in Las Vegas.
>
> First of all, it has been my experience that if you have time to go to
> the activities that are available outside of the conference, you are
> not attending the conference. My answer that would be take a vacation.
> While other cities may not have the outside venues, they could handle
> the size of our event and perhaps for a lesser price. I have concerns
> about meeting somewhere like Vegas anyway. As concerned as we are
> about the image of Civil Air Patrol and the image that casts on the
> Air Force, is this really a good idea.
>
> If we save on the price of the hall and classrooms, then maybe our fee
> could at least cover the banquet and everyone could attend. A Spaatz
> cadet from our Wing is National Cadet of the Year and most of our Wing
> members will not see him receive the award because we cannot afford
> the conference let alone an additional fee for a banquet that should be included.
>
> I did not intend this to sound like a gripe session, but sometimes I
> think in an effort to look like an organization of high prestige, we
> forget that our members are volunteers, mostly of middle America. We
> need to get back to servicing the needs of the members who service the needs of our country.
>
> With respect,
>
>
> Curtis "Wayne" Hooks 1st Lt.
> Civil Air Patrol
> FLWG Online Newsfeed Manager
> Group 1 Public Affairs Officer
> Group 1 Recruitment and Retention Officer Tallahassee Composite
> Squadron Ser FL-432 Public Affairs Officer Recruitment and Retention
> Officer
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org
> [mailto:cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org] On Behalf Of Wm and
> Kandyce Lewis
> Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2014 1:31 PM
> To: 'CAP Public Affairs Officers'
> Subject: Re: [PAO] National Board
>
> I have done conferences for our wing and I don't have prices like
> that. You can get hotels to not charge for the the rooms if you agree
> to so many rooms being rented by members, and guaranteeing so much in
> other costs. I know as I have done that in the past. You just keep
> telling them you need a less amount. I didn't check the cost of the
> dinner but I thought $70 last year was out of line for our members.
> And having gone many others must have felt so as well as there were
> lots of members eating at other places during the banquet as I saw
> them out and about. I realize we have more guest we may pay for
> national conferences but it can't be that much more. I suspect less and less members are going to national boards.
>
> And yes as members get closer to retirement they are looking at those costs.
>
> Kandyce Lewis, Lt Col.
> WA Wing Staff
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org
> [mailto:cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org] On Behalf Of Doug
> Barth
> Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2014 8:50 AM
> To: 'CAP Public Affairs Officers'
> Subject: Re: [PAO] National Board
>
> I totally agree with Lt Col Copenhaver,
>
> In particular, as I move toward retirement and have more time to
> commit to my volunteer activities, I also am very cost sensitive.
>
> While I understand and encourage the value of face-to-face
> conferences, I think we should look more extensively into
> webinar/webex events, both to reduce cost to the membership and to
> increase the availability of these types of topics across CAP. Or
> perhaps video tape the presentations and post them to CAP website. I am not aware that we do that.
>
>
> Major Doug Barth, CAP
> Group II
> MDWG
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org
> [mailto:cap-pao-bounces at lists.sempervigilans.org] On Behalf Of Karen
> Copenhaver
> Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2014 9:44 AM
> To: cap-pao at lists.sempervigilans.org
> Subject: [PAO] National Board
>
> Dear Fellow PAOs,
>
> As we continue our volunteer commitment to an outstanding
> organization, we gladly donate our resources to train and participate.
> Across the years, we have attended conferences for our wing, region
> and our national board, and the cost has slowly increased, mainly
> because of the economic posture of the time. However, after reviewing
> the current cost associated with our national board, personally I am
> voicing a concern of how many members can afford this astronomical
> cost. Registration - $205 per person plus room of more than $100+ per
> night (don't forget tax and tax); (plus the extra days lodging for a
> total of 5 nights if you stay for the entire event) then if you plan
> on attending our PAO Academy it is $45, and if you want to attend the
> FEMA course it is $20, then Incorporating the Medal of Honor Character
> Development Program into Character Development for $20 and Grant
> Writing for $10. We can easily add these costs to be exorbitant for
> many. I've attended many National Board Conferences, but never
> experienced such fees, and would like to know what the "registration" is suppose to cover, if not the work labs, and associated hand-outs.
>
> I would like to see a more reasonable cost for our National Board
> Conferences in the future. We do not necessarily need a place like
> Las Vegas, Washington or Atlanta, or the like, as we do not have the
> numbers of attendees to support that type of location as we once did
> with totals of upward of 2,000+ attendees. We have some locations
> that could support the size of our event, with less expense to our
> members, such as Charlotte, NC, and communities of that size across our country.
> Our overall cost has escalated to a level whereby one must truly set
> aside additional funds up to more than $1,000 to attend, and that does
> not include airline tickets, which are escalating too. I don't know
> how many of you join me in these sentiments, but we need a more
> economical platform for our national board conferences.
>
> One other comment, wouldn't it be nice to have a non-military speaker
> like Bill Cosby to entertain and inspire us to continue our service?
> As a volunteer organization, who gladly gives and gives so much to our
> communities and nation, I would hope that an individual like this
> would not charge, but to have airfare and other related costs (room
> and meals) to be covered to get him/her to be our speaker.
>
> Realizing our organizational funds are somewhat limited and reduced
> greatly across the board, we could certainly reduce our cost by
> holding our national conference in a less costly location, and it
> would increase the numbers who can afford to attend. It indeed is a
> great experience that everyone should have the opportunity to attend.
> The labs, breakout sessions, or workshops... what ever they are
> called, are always phenomenal. The opportunity to network with your
> fellow members and national staff is something that you will always
> remember as you also establish a contact and many times lasting friendships. If you can.....
> please attend as it is an experience that you'll want again and again.
>
> Thank you for your commitment and dedication to one of the best
> organizations of which you could ever be a part.
>
> Respectfully,
> Karen L. Copenhaver, Lt Col, CAP
> Deputy Director, Public Affairs
> MER
>
>
>
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