Parents

Parental Support

Parents need to keep in mind that if their child decides to join either the NSCC or NLCC, they will play an important role in assuring their child’s success as a cadet. The U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps is a non-profit, volunteer organization that relies heavily on parents to support the efforts of volunteer officers and instructors working with their children. With this in mind, parents should:

• Treating your cadets like adults and encouraging them to advocate for themselves, allowing them to grow in an atmosphere of wise freedom.
• Encourage their child to be respectful of officers and adult volunteers.
• Praise their child for his or her accomplishments.
• Remind their child to listen to and obey instructions.
• Be punctual in dropping off and picking up their child from USNSCC functions.
• Offer the unit assistance or your expertise.
• Donate locally or nationally
• Help foster friendships with other parents and cadets.

Our parents help the unit in many ways and do not have to commit the time to every drill weekend. We can always use help with making phone calls, sending emails, providing transportation, raising funds, preparing food, or obtaining chaperones for unit functions. Parents are welcome to be as involved as their schedules permit. We  need extra hands in many important areas and parents with extra time, energy, skills and dedication would certainly be beneficial to the smooth operation of the unit. The value of parent participation is tremendous!

Parent Volunteers

Parents who want to volunteer in a capacity that will routinely put them in direct contact with cadets will be asked to complete an Adult Enrollment application so that a background check may be conducted and proper liability risk mitigation is achieved. Cadets are expected to treat all adult volunteers and guests with respect and courtesy. Parent volunteers sometimes have a tendency to ask cadets to help in a work effort. If these requests interrupt a cadet who is acting under the direction of an order or request from someone within the chain of command, the cadet is placed in an awkward position. Consequently, parent volunteers are asked to be courteous and respectful of the cadets. This might include confirming that the cadet is available and able to help, answering cadets’ questions when they can, and always encouraging cadets to seek out resolution through the chain of command.

Conflict Resolution

As with all organizations, people with strong views and opinions sometimes arrive at an impasse where intense disagreements have the potential to disrupt business operations. This can happen at a unit when parents and/or adult volunteers cannot cooperate with each other, have interpersonal conflicts, and/or have very strong differences in their views of how the unit should operate. In such an event, the chain of command may temporarily break down at the unit level. When this occurs, parents should follow the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps’ national chain of command to resolve questions or problems in an orderly, respectful, disciplined, and professional manner. Parents with questions about the chain of command should discuss them with the unit’s Commanding Officer and ask that the appropriate parties be involved, if necessary.

While strong emotions and feelings can get to the best of us, parents should remember that this program exists for the benefit of our cadets, and disagreements between adult volunteers should not overshadow the mission of the USNSCC unit: to inspire, encourage and develop American youths into great leaders of character.