Future Leaders To Hone Skills At Maxwell AFB

Seventeen of Civil Air Patrol’s top volunteer leaders from across the nation will enhance their leadership savvy at the 2008 Wing Commander Course April 6-12 at CAP National Headquarters, at Alabama's Maxwell AFB.

This course is designed to help commanders transition from lower-echelon command to the executive level and to understand their strategic roles as members of the CAP National Board, a key CAP governing body. Course attendees are selected by their region commanders and must be approved by the CAP national commander.

The program focuses on three main blocks of study: leading the organization, tools for corporate officers and tools for wing commanders. The blocks include seminars, lectures and hands-on exercises in more than 20 enriching sessions.

Participants will obtain more sophisticated comprehension of the organization's components, including aerospace education, cadet programs, operations, information technology, public affairs, membership development and logistics. Students will also strengthen their leadership attributes by studying topics such as ethics, legal matters, how to obtain grants and managing volunteers, finances and other resources.

CAP Interim National Commander Brig. Gen. Amy S. Courter said the Wing Commander Course enables CAP's national leadership to provide the highest quality of support to volunteers serving their communities through approximately 1,600 local units across America.

"In order for our members to reach their potential as volunteers, they must have the best professional development available," said Courter. "Thanks to this leadership training, our commanders will be poised to wisely manage CAP's assets and to nurture relationships with other members, the communities we serve, partner organizations and the general public."

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the US Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental US inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 103 lives in fiscal year 2007. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 65 years.

FMI: www.cap.gov