In cap-nhq-analytics/sqdn-of-merit-calculator: Calculating Squadron of Merit / Distinction Scores

Overview

The package CAP.SOMCalc is intended to assist wings and regions in calculating the Squadron of Merit / Squadron of Distinction every year. It provides a consistent, documented, and repeatable process for interpreting the statistical information published through eServices.

Regulatory Guidance & Approach

CAP Regulation 60-1 provides some guidance on how to determine the Squadron of Merit. It specifies:

6.6.1. Squadron of Merit. The Squadron of Merit (SOM) is selected annually by the wing commander based on the unit's performance during the preceding calendar year. Performance metrics are available in eServices to assist the commander in making the selection, but commanders may consider subjective matters in making their decisions.

CAP Regulation 39-3 provides additional information. It states:

a. Each January, National Headquarters will make a statistical report available through the Member Reports restricted application in eServices to assist the commander in making a selection. The Squadron of Distinction selection should be based on the following criteria, but ultimately the selection is the commander's prerogative:

(1) Squadron Strength - A minimum of 12 cadets at the beginning of the calendar year.

(2) Squadron Growth Rate - Reflected by an active recruiting and retention program.

(3) Cadet Achievement - Reflected by Mitchell, Earhart, Phase IV and Spaatz awards earned during the calendar year.

(4) Cadet Encampment Attendance - Reflected by first-time encampment attendance of squadron cadets.

(5) Cadet Orientation Flight Participation - Reflected by the participation of squadron cadets in the Flight Orientation Program.

The metrics are provided via a report in eServices titled Squadron of Merit Listing. This report provides the following information:

• Starting strength (StartStr) and ending strength (EndStr)
• Number of new cadets (NewCdt) and total renewals (TotalRenewed)
• The number of cadets receiving milestone awards (WrightBrosCnt, MitchCnt, EarhCnt, EakerCnt, SpaatzCnt)
• The number of cadets attending their first Encampment (FrstEncCnt)
• Orientation flights (OFlights)
• This metric is unclear - it is a categorical variable, either YES or NO, but it's not clear what it represents
• Syllabus 99 flights (Flight99)
• As with the previous metric, it's not clear what this represents, but a reasonable assumption could be the number of syllabus 99 flights

Note that when the report is exported in CSV format, several additional ghost fields are present, titled Textbox119 to Textbox128. This appears to be a formatting issue.

Based on this guidance, five components can be identified to be used in identifying the Squadron of Merit / Squadron of Distinction. These are:

• strength, represented by the starting strength StartStr;
• growth, represented by the NewCdt (for recruiting) and TotalRenewed (for retention) metrics;
• achievement, represented by the milestone award counts;
• encampment, represented by the FrstEncCnt metric, and;
• flight, represented by OFlights and Flight99.

CAP.SOMCalc implements these five areas as scores calculated from the Squadron of Merit Listing report. These five scores can be combined to determine a Squadron of Merit selectee. There are two methods available to combine the scores into a final result: the overall score and the overall ranking.

• The overall score is a weighted sum of the five scores; it defaults to weighting the five areas equally, but the weights can be customized. Since each score is standardized, large values in a specific score are less likely to skew the final results. However, the standardization is done using the mean and standard deviation of the specific score; extreme outliers in a specific area may still result in skewed results.
• The overall ranking is created by generating the ranking from 1 to N for each of the scores, and then summing all five rankings. The lowest sum is ranked first, the next lowest sum is second, and so on. In all cases involving ranking, the algorithm assigns ties the same rank, and then assigns the next lowest value to the rank that it would have received if there was no tie. For instance, the values of 2, 3, 3, 3, 6 would be ranked as 1, 2, 2, 2, 5. This is sometimes known as "Standard Competition Ranking" (SCR).

Limitations

This package assumes that the data available through the Squadron of Merit Listing report is valid, consistent, and free from errors and anomalies. This is probably not the case in reality, but it is not possible for most units to determine whether this data is accurate or not - it would require consistent data from eServices over a long period of time, which is not available for most users. In particular, it is not clear how the report handles members who transfer throughout the year - are they counted only once, or in each charter they were in throughout the year? In addition, the flight metrics are not obviously defined in any fashion, making it hard to determine how best to interpret them.

cap-nhq-analytics/sqdn-of-merit-calculator documentation built on April 14, 2022, 12:40 a.m.