The non-flyers (and that's most of CAP) tend to think of flying as a reward you get for mucking about with administrivia - but if you work with radios, or you're a lawyer, they don't expect you to wax the cat before you're "rewarded" with some communications or legal work.
The non-flyers are the most of CAP? No. CAP does a great job recruiting pilots. I've never seen any lawyers, or professional radio people, or professional managers who were NOT pilots joining CAP in droves.
Flying was seen as a reward because 90% of the people in non-flying jobs within CAP Senior Squadrons ARE pilots.
Cadet squadrons change that math, but they're often staffed by parents of the kids in the squadron. Or kids who grew up and came back to help specifically with the cadet program they remember and thought was worthwhile for them as kids.
And as far as "waxing the cat" goes... holy hell... I did twenty lbs of paperwork for every time I *touched* an actual radio or repeater system in Communications. The fun in that job was actually operating the gear at a SAREX or aboard an aircraft, or going out to fix something broken and get it working again... and of course, real missions. Running Comm for weekday missions while I was also "working from home" was five sheets of logs a day, besides ICS forms for the Mission Commander to upload into WMIRS as part of his required paperwork.
I got a call during the first day of one of those missions for a served agency from another old time ham radio buddy in the area.
"Hey Nate, is that you running aircraft Comm for CAP? Sounded like your voice."
"You know I can't answer that in an official capacity but you can probably hear the aircrew calling me on the radio in the background, hang on a sec... [take call]... I hear radios in your background too, you over at the [served agency's] Comm center today?"
"Yeah. I think your aircraft is on the wrong frequency to talk to us, can you let them know via your FM side?"
"Yep. But we had some programming SNAFUs last year and I wonder if that aircraft has the wrong stuff. What Tac channel are you using? I just took over Comm from the MC and he hasn't had time to brief me and he's 40 miles from here."
"Tac [xxx]"
"That was one of the ones that might have gotten misprogrammed. I guess the MC didn't read that memo when he dispatched that airplane. What else have you got there that'll work?"
"[List of channels...]"
"Is XXX programmed narrow-band after the State asked for that last year in the bandplan?"
"Says it is on my channel sheet here."
"Cool, I'll get them to come up there and let the MC know and re-do all the ICS paperwork and send you a copy."
"Thanks. See ya next weekend?"
"Probably, if these flights aren't still up."
MC wondered how the served agency radio guy knew to reach me, we've had each other's cell phone numbers in each other's phones for 20 years. Comm is Comm. We don't always work for CAP.
Guess who had to pay for uniforms and "membership" do paperwork that day, and who showed up in a polo and jeans and waved his security credentials at the guard who waved him in, and didn't have to pay any dues, file reports annually to USAF, and generally didn't have the hassles of a para-military structure around his volunteer work that day? The other guy. No other organization in the State makes Comm people PAY to work for them. Ever. They bend over backward to cover everything. Good Comm people ALWAYS leave CAP if they aren't pilots.
CAP is awful to radio folks comparatively.
I can't imagine they're any better to lawyers. The lawyers I knew in CAP were all pilots, too.
Flying has always been the carrot of the organization. If I want to do serious radio volunteerism, the Sheriff in my county always needs help as do twenty other organizations, and with a lot less unnecessary structure and silliness.
I was recently asked if I had any interest in helping out our county EOC. Granted it's a rural county, but I asked "Well, what hoops would I need to jump through?"
"Background check, you've already got that... badge, they'll make one for you, meet with the current guy who's "retiring" and have a couple of us say we know who you are and what you've done. Might want to buy a radio that'll play well on the county or State system, we have a guy who can get those at cost. Might be some older ones they could issue, but I know you'd rather program your own. You know most of the folks who work the neighboring county anyway, so you won't need any introductions there."
The guy who heads up the neighboring county? The same guy who called me from their Comm center that day.
Give me a break. CAP Comm *sucks* compared to any other Comm volunteer job. You do it because it's aviation Comm instead of asking if the road block is in place, and getting a list of places to send the dude with backhoes, and Gatorade. LOL. And maybe, just maybe, once in a while you'll be aircrew.
Aviation is always the carrot in CAP. I can stay plenty busy doing Comm in nicer environments with less horse-pucky and a real Comm budget at nearly EVERY other agency in the State. In most areas, getting hired and paid to do it, isn't more than a few months away if you are persistent enough and kiss the right asses, and you want a low-paying job with a decent retirement plan.
I attempted to explain this to CAP leadership and they all said they knew and agreed, but had no say in the matter. I've watched bright Comm people leave CAP for decades. Most bright enough not only to work with other groups, but even form new organizations and staff them and get grants. One runs a City Medical Eplorer program for kids interested in being Paramedics. Another started a completely new ground SAR group and ran it for two decades until interest waned. Another is the Comm-L for a different Statewide ground SAR group doing technical rescues. Another runs the technical side of a County STEM program by night and the county's Voip phone system and IP network by day.
I hate to break this to you, but CAP offered very little in terms of "job satisfaction" in the Comm department. It was, and is, the airplanes that keep CAP Comm folks showing up. I would think about that pretty hard the next time Comm goes well for you as an aircrew during a busy mission, or even if it goes poorly. CAP has nothing to offer a Comm person other than a huge pile of largely unnecessary work.
And yet, I still enjoyed it. Because, airplanes. I also enjoyed the crossover in teaching Comm to cadets as well as seniors. I also served on a National committee of Comm engineers developing ideas for moving CAP into this century and on to digital and away from wide and FM. It was doomed from the start, it had no budget.
But it was a fun learning experience and I keep in touch with a fellow committee member from AZ. We hit it off and we're the "You're going to have to do this cheap or it'll never get approved" contingent on the Committee. We technically "won" that argument, but cheap was still too expensive when the budget was zero. I'm sure someone will pull out our report at National again someday and argue for a budget with it and/or add it to a pile of similar reports done by folks who came after us, and maybe get digital radios and linking/trunking into CAP in another ten years.
Why? The money goes to airplanes. Always. Airplanes and cadets. The main missions. I have no argument with that, really.
USAF does need to get off of their hard-on for CAP to maintain an HF network, though. Volunteers at suburban houses aren't missile silos with acres of land to put up HF antennas, and CAP doesn't actually NEED a national HF network. I never had time to even start fighting that battle, but I did waste days talking to a sheriff to possibly go retrieve a CAP owned radio from a former member who turned it back in three years after he left the organization.
