As stated in 1LT Martin's post above, Thursday's meeting and the remaining meetings in March (and on into April) will be oriented towards getting new members moving along the pipeline towards their GES and their initial steps towards their ES ratings like Mission Scanner (MS) and Mission Staff Assistant. It is imperative that new members plan on attending these. We'd also like to have as many veteran members present as possible so the new members can benefit from your experience and advice.
Let me echo Dave's mantra: come prepared. This means paper, pencils/pens, and other common sense items just as you would for a college class. But it also means that you should begin investigating the various resources and manuals and appropriate regulations pertinent to your field of endeavor. For example, for Mission Scanner there is a Task Book, a Home Study Course Part 1 and Part 2), etc. Additionally and equally applicable to all aircrew roles (Mission Pilot, Mission Observer, and Mission Scanner) is the CAP Mission Aircrew Reference text.
The entry level to Mission Base staff can be Mission Staff Assistant, in which case one will want to acquire and begin studying the Mission Staff Assistant Task Book. Those more technically inclined might want to gravitate towards Mission Radio Operator -- for which there is also a task guide -- and a prerequisite ICUT requirement.
In any event, to the new arrival on scene, this appears both convoluted and labyrinthine. 1LT Martin and the staff will clear all of this up. In the event he does not, then ask, ask, and ask again until you have things clear in your mind. At squadron 150 we do not have a mentor program per se
but rather new members should consider all of the veterans as their mentors.
But that said, the veterans will make every attempt to smooth out the bumps in the road, but we will not put you in a sedan chair and carry you down that road. Progress in this unit and in CAP requires effort on your part.
Towards that end, we are making the Squadron blog into more of a resource -- given that our web site creation effort is stalled. We now have added "pages to the site that covers the standard "welcome to CAP" as well as directions to the meeting place for recruits. These are over there on the upper right had corner under the legend "Other Useful Information". Additional pages will address "Getting started in Civil Air Patrol". It's modeled after a page on the Emelia Earhart Senior Squadron 188 web site. It's a work in progress now and should be finished later this week.
Finally, still tentatively scheduled is the Squadron 150/Squadron 68 joint SAREX at Chino on 57 APR 2013. Details will be forthcoming so stay tuned.
See you Thursday.
Bill
W. H. Phinizy, MAJ, CAP
Commander
Long Beach Senior Squadron 150
