I have nothing to do right now.

At least, I have nothing CAP-related to do. There are plenty of other things to occupy my time, but right now, nothing to do with Civil Air Patrol.

You see, I am currently on a sabbatical, after recently completing a term as Commander of the Syracuse Composite Squadron, New York Wing (which, by the way, is a fine squadron, if I do say so myself. And I do.)

A lot of people were confused at my insistence that a successor be chosen, and that I be given a few months off. Most people thought I was burned out, and those people were probably correct. Now that I have some time on my hands, I've given some thought as to why I needed this sabbatical so badly, and why I think they're such a good idea.

From pretty much day one in CAP, I have been an active participant. A very active participant. I took that cadet oath thing pretty seriously. I attended meetings every week, all through high school and college, and continued after I graduated. I took on more and more responsibility. Flight staff, first sergeant, cadet commander, administrative staff, ground team, deputy commander for cadets, squadron commander, Group cadet programs, Wing CAC, I did it all. I attended nine encampments, a bunch of conferences, seminars, CAC meetings, senior member professional development, and countless squadron activities (car washes, day trips, bivouacs, recruiting drives, etc. ad nauseam).

Whew!

What I didn't do along the way was relax. I wouldn't say CAP was my life, but it was certainly a very large part of my life.

Somewhere around mid-2003, there came a point that I began to lose focus as to why I was in CAP. For the first time in my CAP career, it was just too much, and I didn't want to do it anymore. There were (frequent) times when I downright loathed having to attend a meeting or activity.

"But it's September 2005", you say, "why didn't you take a break two years ago?"

Anyone who has ever been a squadron commander can answer that for you: I didn't have anyone to take my place! It took me that 2+ years to find the right person, make sure the squadron was in good shape to hand over, then perform the transition. I was lucky; some people don't find that right person and end up settling for anyone as they jump ship because they can't take it anymore.

I could probably write a book on the mystery that is volunteer leadership, and why CAP has a tendency to burn people out like it does, and why it seems there's never anyone around who can step up and command. It stems from an abject lack of training on the part of CAP and the USAF... we just don't prepare our people for command, and we don't do a good enough job of preparing their replacement.

But this is an article about sabbaticals, so you'll just have to wait to learn why we don't train our people well enough. Sorry.

Many years back, I remember counseling people who felt they had lost their way in CAP. My advice always revolved around sticking it out, and waiting for that next interesting thing to come along, or possibly helping them find a new assignment that would reinvigorate them.

You know what? That advice is bunk. At least, it's bunk some of the time. I've decided that sometimes, you just need to get away. Drop everything, pack those uniforms away in the back of the closet, and just do nothing for a while. I've only been doing nothing for a few weeks, and I already have a much better attitude about things.

I've decided that everyone in CAP should take sabbaticals. They should be mandatory, on about a five-year cycle. We should allow people to take 3-6 months, or more if they need it, to recharge their batteries and get excited about CAP again. That's what I'm going to do from now on. Whenever I decide to don that uniform again, I will do so faithfully for 4-5 years, then make myself drop it all and do this sabbatical exercise again. Rinse and repeat.

Volunteers in CAP have a tendency to get caught up in the weeds; the week-to-week, month-to-month, year-to-year grind of meetings, activities and internal politics. It consumes more of our time than it should, and we begin to lose focus of why we got excited about all this stuff in the first place.

Time away from this grind allows us to do other things. I don't have to spend the first 30-60 minutes at work after a meeting night doing CAP paperwork (shhh, don't tell my boss I said that!) I can focus on my job, my wife, my house and my cats... it's a wonderful feeling.

Sure as the sun rises, in a few months time I'll be looking to get back into the CAP routine. I like it, enough to stay in for 13 years. But I'll never do 13 years straight again without a break, and I suggest you don't, either. The next time you feel like you want to get away from CAP, do it! Spend some time getting things back into perspective, and come back with renewed energy. You'll be a better person for it, and you'll be a better asset to CAP in the long run.

As for me, I've got some more nothing to do.