Greetings CAWG Cadet Programs Officers;
Hoping this message finds you well and that you enjoyed a great Thanksgiving break. It’s been a month since the CAWG Conference, and I wanted to follow up and bring everyone up to date on the recent developments in Cadet Programs for CAWG.
I’ll start by acknowledging the tremendous work and service of Lt Col Glenn Wiggins who completed four years as our Director on a strong note and was awarded CAP’s Exceptional Service Award for his performance as Director. We are a stronger program because of Glenn’s leadership and look forward to future collaborations and support from him.
I mentioned a few of our new Cadet Programs Team in October and will to add some more names in this update but wanted to extend the invitation to the collective cadre of Cadet Programs Officers to join our team in a role, large or small, that you can contribute in. More on this later in the update. I’ll start by clarifying the organization of the team and reporting structure. The Cadet Programs Team reports to the Deputy Chief of Staff, and that happens to be Capt James Hockel, super fortunate for us, as he is one of our strongest supporters.
As you may have seen from the Duty Listing, we are building the team from the ground up and can announce several key assignments:
- Deputy Directors are Major Rene McCoy, Major Lisa Cherry, and Captain Jagger Osseck
- Encampment Commander is Major Steve Angus
- Chief administrator and Finance is Major Paula Urbom-Shope
- Youth Aviation is Lt Col Robin Kim
- IACE Coordinator for CAWG is Lt Col Tammy Sturgill
- CWCAC Senior Advisor is Capt Andrew Hockel
Several other key positions are open including Adult Education Coordinator, QCUA Tracking Manager, Facilities Development Manager, just to name a few. And this is in addition to the numerous opportunities for roles as NCOS, Cadet Competition, and other ILP leadership roles. I can not emphasize enough that we all need to partner to offer the quantity and quality of programs for our cadets wing wide so please join in where and how you can. I’ll assume most roles will be IAOD so you can participate in your home units weekly, but if you re interested now or later, please reach out!.
Now on to News and Program Updates:
- 2024 Cadet Programs Conference scheduling is going to be an issue. We are unlikely to get Camp San Luis Obispo for the traditional President’s Day Weekend this year due to new Cal Guard Scheduling rules on holiday weekends. We are looking at alternative scheduling options and Capt Osseck will be publishing an update later this week.
- 2024 Encampment will be scheduled for this summer at Camp Roberts, CA. Our Encampment Commander, Major Angus is coordinating with the post for dates, and will announce the encampment dates as soon as possible. Additionally, he will be looking for Senior Leaders for Encampment. Please connect with Major Angus for more details
- 2024 Cadet Competition is changing format this year with an emphasis on Region Competitions. Additionally, California Wing will be the host facility for the 2024 Region Competition, so we will have both a Wing and a Region Competition to plan and are actively looking for a few more leaders to help with that endeavor.
- I mentioned a Senior only Planning Conference. We are actively working to schedule that event for Camp San Luis Obispo, CA in Calendar Q1 of 2024. This weekend will grow to be an annual event where we set the agenda for the CAWG Cadet calendar for the following year. We are getting a bit of a late start having it in Q1, but the minute we have the weekend set, the invitation will be sent so those interested in leading a wing activity can join.
Group Cadet Program Officers:
- As we start this journey for a new Cadet programs Team, I’m excited to hear that people are already starting to take on leadership roles as Group Cadet Program Officers!. These leaders will have a tremendous impact on the success of our cadets and we have organized our Wing level leadership team to facilitate communications. Major Lisa Cherry is taking on the role of Deputy Director for Outreach and will be the primary liaison with the Group Cadet Programs Officers. Major Cherry has been a successful Squadron Commander and Group CPO for Group 8 and is the perfect person to coordinate the resources and communications to support the Group CPOs. Look forward to regular updates and meetings scheduled by Major Cherry.
Follow up from Wing Conference / Ongoing Communications:
I’m attaching two presentations that were reviewed at Wing Conference for your review. (Links below)
As mentioned in our opening meeting, our plan is to have regular communications to ensure the needs of the wing are met. We’ll initially start with regular updates to all Cadet Program Officers via email and posting to our website, but we’ll work to expand that by including CPO focused Teams channels for targeted training resources that you may need. As we grow the team, we’ll have regular Group CPO calls, and we’ll target town hall meetings on Teams where we can share the good news of the wing and have Q&A sessions. Additionally, our Wing Commander Col Newton has stressed the importance of unit visitations by the Wing Level Cadet Programs team so we will make a concerted effort to visit as many squadron meetings as possible. On a personal note, I’ll start with Group 2 first as I live in Gilroy, CA, but my daughter lives in Long Beach, CA and one of my sons live in Yolo County so I’m fielding invitations for Squadron visits in 2024!
Looking forward to working with everyone for the betterment of our Wing Cadet Program.
In Service Together,
-Wayne
Lt Col Wayne C. Brown
