Good morning, Rhode Island Wing-
It is my honor to accept command of Rhode Island Wing, and I wanted to share with you my command intent and vision for the Wing - itemized below and attached to this email. Some highlights of the document were disclosed in my speech after accepting command last week. With perseverance, we will measure up to the organization's vision statement of volunteers serving America's communities, saving lives, and shaping futures. I am available to talk more in depth to anyone who has questions, comments, or concerns.
1. Rhode Island Wing is a great wing with huge potential; our Wing's leadership will leverage and develop that potential across all departments to improve upon the successes in our vital missions of Aerospace Education, Cadet Programs, and Emergency Services.
2. We will inspire our members to be goal-oriented, so that they can be productive in the organization, achieve those goals, and become better leaders themselves. It is the hope that members will advance in their professional development in any and all aspects of our three missions, in turn, raising morale for themselves, reinforcing the leadership pipeline - especially in terms of succession planning, and building esprit de corps for their units.
3. We will guide our subordinate units to carry out STEM fairs, aviation days, and special meeting nights for visitors that include an aerospace education concern; they are force multipliers for our members’ aerospace education awareness as well as recruitment; the measure of success is 20% new members recruited from each event. There is progress with bringing new Aerospace Education Members onboard, and this will help improve aerospace education awareness and inspire our members to take to the skies.
4. We will utilize Quality Cadet Unit Award criteria and guide our subordinate units to meet those requirements as a goal. Based on a sample of FY26 criteria, the measures of success are as follows:
* 100% new cadets to achieve Curry Award within first 8 weeks of joining CAP * 70% new cadets to achieve first orientation flight * 45% cadets achieving Wright Brothers Award * 50% cadets attending encampment * Three TLC graduates * Four different community engagement activities with at least four cadets for each event * STEM kit ordered and completed
5. We will maintain trajectory for emergency services and operations as we continue to carry out our missions effectively and to inspire the next generation of mission leaders, pilots, air crews and ground teams. In addition to Wing and Region TRAEX's, we will look to perform joint exercises involving nearby wings utilizing air and ground assets.
6. We will continue to be effective in the education and training of our adult leaders. While adult members volunteer to ADVANCE our programs, we will communicate every opportunity to ADVANCE IN our programs, and hasten their professional development. Communication is crucial; it is a two (or more) way street, and it will mitigate attrition in our membership. Moreover, we will continue to provide opportunities for our pilots, mission base staff, aircrews, and ground teams to attain and maintain proficiency through appropriately-scheduled training exercises.
7. We will focus on increasing our Wing's membership, to wit: there is strength in numbers, and more members will allow us to be more effective if there is a mutual fit. We will evaluate and improve open houses and outreach exercises to other organizations, and we will develop a system where schools and homeschooling organizations will partake in squadron meetings. Red Ribbon Leadership Academies and STEM fairs scheduled in the fall for each subordinate unit would be commendable.
8. Observing Rhode Island Wing's talented staff, anyone would agree that, as a team, we have the core competency to develop and prosecute tactics to accomplish the desires and goals as presented. As a Wing, we will be more recognized in the community, and thus, be a value proposition for our constituents here and beyond.
Semper vigilans,
-W
-- Col. Warren M. Weiss Rhode Island Wing Commander Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Air Force Auxiliary
(M) 516.815.8269
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Volunteers serving America's communities, saving lives, and shaping futures.