Question about Civil Air Patrol

[WestPointAspirant]

Hello! My family and I have a question regarding Civil Air Patrol after our 2nd meeting at the local squadron yesterday. I'm aware that Civil Air Patrol allows parents to join as volunteers and/or senior members, but there's this one guy who's been pressuring my dad to enroll as a senior member. He's always stressing that if cadets want to be successful, their parents have to be involved. As much as my dad's willing to help, he's a full-time nursing student, which means he only gets about 4 hours of sleep each night. Unfortunately we're immigrants so he doesn't have anything else to count on. I also have a little sister that my mom has to take care of.

Do you guys know if it's a requirement for parents to get involved in Civil Air Patrol? Is it legal to pressure other parents to join? If so, then I could not possibly join.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

It is ABSOLUTELY NOT a requirement. CAP is an excellent program. I hope you join, stay involved, and enjoy all the benefits. I hope there was just a misunderstanding. So.....
1. CAP like a PTO needs parental involvement. They rely on adult volunteers and having a parent involved is a good thing.
2. If your parent is busy or whatever that is perfectly fine. Only a minority of parents are members.
3. Some parents really enjoy being senior members and find it very worthwhile.
4. There is a difference in recruiting and coercion
If in fact your parent is being coerced, threatened, lied to, etc, please PM me. I'll get a stop to it fast.

 

[WestPointAspirant]

It is ABSOLUTELY NOT a requirement. CAP is an excellent program. I hope you join, stay involved, and enjoy all the benefits. I hope there was just a misunderstanding. So.....
1. CAP like a PTO needs parental involvement. They rely on adult volunteers and having a parent involved is a good thing.
2. If your parent is busy or whatever that is perfectly fine. Only a minority of parents are members.
3. Some parents really enjoy being senior members and find it very worthwhile.
4. There is a difference in recruiting and coercion
If in fact your parent is being coerced, threatened, lied to, etc, please PM me. I'll get a stop to it fast.

Thank you for your response and your amazing offer first of all!!! I do think that such a phenomenon is not the norm across the country. Also I'm not sure if that guy is just using the fact that we don't know much about CAP. When I arrived at the meeting, the first thing he asked me is where my parents are, because they cannot just drop me off (note: my parents do have an understanding of CAP, came to the 1st meeting, and had some questions answered). Obviously he was retired from his position too, but somehow he's still at the meetings, so unfortunately I think it would be too awkward to continue attending the meetings. I would say most other adults there are not like that, but he's just very adamant. Anyways I agreed with my family to take a pause on things but again I really appreciate your input!! It has alleviated much of my stress to know that we're not the ones at fault.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

It is ABSOLUTELY NOT a requirement. CAP is an excellent program. I hope you join, stay involved, and enjoy all the benefits. I hope there was just a misunderstanding. So.....
1. CAP like a PTO needs parental involvement. They rely on adult volunteers and having a parent involved is a good thing.
2. If your parent is busy or whatever that is perfectly fine. Only a minority of parents are members.
3. Some parents really enjoy being senior members and find it very worthwhile.
4. There is a difference in recruiting and coercion
If in fact your parent is being coerced, threatened, lied to, etc, please PM me. I'll get a stop to it fast.

To elaborate:
Myself and four siblings were hard-core CAP. Our parents were not in CAP nor did they volunteer.
I was a CAP senior member for a while when I had time...but then the war came and I had other obligations.
Eventually i had a kid between deployments. He joined CAP and thrived although I never did rejoin or volunteer.

 

[WestPointAspirant]

To elaborate:
Myself and four siblings were hard-core CAP. Our parents were not in CAP nor did they volunteer.
I was a CAP senior member for a while when I had time...but then the war came and I had other obligations.
Eventually i had a kid between deployments. He joined CAP and thrived although I never did rejoin or volunteer.

Hi! It's comforting to know that both you and your son had great experiences in CAP! CAP is an amazing program from which I think I can learn a lot of new things. Somehow I felt that the guilt-tripping part kind of scared my family off. Though I really like CAP, I just feel bad about mentioning it again to my parents.

 

[Academician]

Perhaps you can look at another unit. Some areas will have several within a decent driving distance. Units vary by culture, funding and overall quality. Many of my students have been CAP members, and I've encourage new students to join local units too. All enjoyed the organization, but sometimes they had to 'look' a bit to find a good fit. Good luck!

 

[WestPointAspirant]

Perhaps you can look at another unit. Some areas will have several within a decent driving distance. Units vary by culture, funding and overall quality. Many of my students have been CAP members, and I've encourage new students to join local units too. All enjoyed the organization, but sometimes they had to 'look' a bit to find a good fit. Good luck!

Hi! Thank you for the response! Unfortunately my parents are too busy to drive me any distance longer than the squadron closest to me. I've heard a lot of great things about CAP and had a generally positive experience. Probably this unit closest to me isn't the best fit.