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National Guides
New Cadet Guide - If you are a new cadet, this is the guide for you. You should review this guide when you join. It covers everything that you need to know about being a member and is the official guide for your start in Civil Air Patrol.
Parent's Guide to the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program - This guide is intended to help parents learn about the cadet program.
First Steps
This guide was written for our new cadet members. Between this guide and the resources linked inside of it, you should be off to an amazing start of your CAP membership experience.
The Membership Application Process
Instructions on joining Civil Air Patrol are posted on the national website, but the typical process is:
Step 1
Attend at least three weekly meetings. Our squadron meets every Wednesday at 6:30PM at Livermore Airport. We can generally be found at Five Rivers Aviation
Step 2
Complete the Membership Application. After your third meeting, you will be given a link to the online membership application. The online application is preferred, but you can complete the paper application and submit it to National Headquarters that way. National dues are $45 per year although our squadron also collects annual dues (approximately $25 for cadets).
When you are ready to submit a membership application, the aspiring cadet, parent/guardian and either squadron commander or deputy commander will meet for a quick chat. The purpose of this meeting is to:
- Answer any questions about Civil Air Patrol from the potential member or parent/guardian.
- Share information about Civil Air Patrol's safety culture, cadet protection policy, and expectations of membership (e.g. regular attendance, uniform wear, etc)
- Verify IDs - Our regulations require us to check that potential cadets are either US Citizens or permanent residents -or- for us to request a waiver. If you are not a citizen or permanent resident, don't worry. We have a well-established process to request waivers. However, we need to verify your ID as part of this process.
Our squadron will give you a membership application or provide you with the information on how to apply online. The biggest "gotcha" that cadets encounter from their membership application is how to answer the questions "Wing" and "Unit". For our squadron, you will enter "CA" for Wing and "346" for Unit:
Download the Cadet Membership Application
Review the forms of ID that are needed to verify citizenship / permanent residence without a waiver
Step 3
Once you have submitted your application, National Headquarters will process it and then send it to our squadron for final approval. If we have completed the identity verification and the in-person discussion in Step 2, your application will be approved. Welcome to our squadron!
Welcome Email
Once your membership has been processed, you will receive a welcome email from our National Headquarters with the Subject “Congratulations and Welcome to the Civil Air Patrol”. In this email, you will be given instructions for accessing our national self-service portal called “eServices”. You will also receive an email from the California Wing email administrator with the Subject “Welcome to the CAWG Office 365 Email System”. This email gives instructions for accessing your official Civil Air Patrol email account, provided by California Wing.
With the information in these emails, you should be able to take the following actions
- Create your eServices account
- Upload a photo for your membership card
- Print your temporary membership card
- Create your California Wing email account (this is the email address that CAP uses for all official communication)
Additional instructions for accessing these accounts are below:
