8/2/2019 B-CCSpeechesEssays

1/2

Headquarters

CIVIL AIR PATROL

United States Air Force AuxiliaryBethesda-Chevy Chase Composite Squadron

P.O. Box 2674Germantown MD 20875-2674

29 Oct 09

MEMORANDUM FOR ALL CADETS

FROM: CD for Cadets

SUBJECT: Speeches, Essays, & SDAs

1. The Cadet Program requires cadets, for various achievements, to give a speech, or write an

essay or a Staff Duty Analysis (SDA). This policy establishes the means by which a cadet willschedule a speech and turn in essays and SDAs. For the most part, the procedures and deadlinesdescribed in this policy have been in practice for a while now, but it seems advantageous to put

them into formal policy.

2. Speeches. CAPR 52-16 requires cadets to give a speech for the Armstrong Achievement, andCAPP 52-14 requires cadets to give a speech as part of the SDA for the Flight CommanderAchievement. Details for these speeches can be found in these aforementioned publications.

However, when the cadet is ready to give the speech, s/he will indicate, through the weekly call-down, that s/he would like to give the speech at the upcoming meeting. This way the speech

may be accounted for on the Orders of the Day, which will schedule the speech right before

announcements. The cadet may not simply show up at the meeting and ask to give the speechthat night; the request must go through the call-down (for more information on the call-down

deadlines, consult the C/CCs Call-Down Policy). During the break at the meeting at whichthe cadet is scheduled to give the speech, s/he must provide the CDC with a copy of the

Speech Critique form (page 32 of CAPR 52-16). The CDC, or his/her designate, will thencritique the speech and go over the critique with the cadet after final formation. The signedcritique form will then be filed in the cadets personnel folder. In order for a speech to count

for the current month, it must be successfully given NLT the third Thursday of the month. Aspeech may be given on any week of the month, but if it is given on the fourth or fifth Thursdays

of the month, it will count for the next month.

3. Essays and SDAs. CAPR 52-16 requires cadets to write an essay for the ArmstrongAchievement, and an SDA for each of the cadet officer achievements. Details for theseessays/SDAs can be found in the aforementioned publication. However, when the cadet is ready

to turn in an essay/SDA, s/he will e-mail it directly to the CDC, and then also print out a hardcopy and give it to the CDC at the beginning of the next meeting (should the CDC be absent,the cadet will hold on to the hard copy until s/he sees the CDC again). In order for an

essay/SDA to count for the current month, it must be e-mailed to the CDC NLT 1700 Hrs. onthe third Thursday of the month. An essay/SDA may be sent at any time, but if it is sent after

8/2/2019 B-CCSpeechesEssays

2/2

this deadline, it will count for the next month. The CDC, or his/her designate, will then critiquethe essay/SDA and determine whether or not it meets the minimum requirements. If it is

determined to have not met the minimum requirements, the essay/SDA will have to be re-doneand re-submitted, and since a re-submission is treated as a new submission, it will be subject to

the above deadline (for this reason, cadets should submit essays/SDAs well before the third

Thursday of the month, and this way, if it fails and thus has to be re-submitted, there will be timeto do so and still have it count for that month). If, however, the essay/SDA is determined to have

met the minimum requirements, the CDC, or his/her designate, will mark it up with whatevercorrections need to be made (even a good essay/SDA will require some minor corrections), and

then go over those corrections with the cadet (the CDC may choose to do this either over e-mailusing the electronic copy or in-person using the hard copy). Although marking-up the documentwith these corrections often takes more time than the CDC has at the meeting itself, please note

that the essay/SDA will count for the appropriate month (determined by whether it wassubmitted before or after the above deadline), even though it may not be returned to the cadet

that same night with the necessary corrections to be made. Once the marked-up original isreturned to the cadet however, s/he must then, in a timely fashion (i.e., within a week or two),

make the necessary correctionsand deliver to the CDC a hard copy of both the corrected finalversion as well as the marked-up original version. Upon verifying that the corrections haveindeed been made, the CDC, or his/her designate, will sign the final corrected version and have it

filed in the cadets personnel folder. Please keep in mind that the important deadline withessays/SDAs is when it is first e-mailed to the CDC,not when the corrected version is finallysigned and filed, since the CDC may take some time in marking-up the original version and

returning it to the cadet.

JOHN F. REUTEMANN III, Maj, CAPDeputy Commander for Cadets