Need some ideas...

[Walkman]

Just got tasked with being Cadet Activities Officer. I've done a search here and poked around a bit at cadet stuff, and I've got some pretty good ideas for special activities to plan.

What I'd really like (but haven't been able to find too much) is some ideas of regular meeting night activities. We've got around 25 cadets at the moment and we're a strong PT group. We have some cadets that love drill team stuff, some that love PT, and some that love ES. We meet on campus at the ROTC building and have access to the Quad for big open spaces. Don't have too much room indoors, though.

So, tell me about the cool weeknight things y'all have done.

Thanks
-Walkman

[Turtle1]

Well by the time we finish all the "have to stuff" ( Ch. Dev., PT, Safety, DDR, Aerospace and Testing) that does not leave a whole lot of time, but what extra time we do have goes to drill and ES stuff.  We have had luck with some of the Leadership Activities that are found on CadetStuff.org under Wikki. and from the Cadet Great Start Program the cadets like the " Minefield" exercise and the " Lost on the Moon" is always interesting to hear their reasoning.  Hope this helps.

[Ned]

Not to mention all of the "project X" type exercises contained in the Essentials of Team Building text that was recently sent to your unit by NHQ.

They are terrific!  I've done many of them already.

They sound perfect for what you are looking for.

[Seabee219]

If your cadets like rocketry, you can get in on the AEX program, that is a neat thing to do, plus you can get awards for alll those that do it.  We had the local Sherrif Dept come out and bring there drug dogs out and put on a show for us, it was real coo.

  Also had our ambulance co. come out and give us stretcher training, you learn about their job, and you can sign off some SQTR at the same time. 

Have a PT contest between each element.  We went out to a local rocket club and launched rockets for the day and got some things signed off.

  If you want to email me let me know we can share ideas.

JC

[arajca]

Contact your local Flight for Life agency. See if they'll come out and put on demonstration. Many have progams for ES agencies, and many consider CAP as one. It's really helpful if you approach them with the idea of training your members to prep an LZ for them. The ones I've worked with REALLY like having personnel they've trained available.

They may even bring in a helicopter, if one is available. Obviously, real life comes first.

[war story]
When I was with the fire dept, we had scheduled a FFL training. The copter was about 10' from touch down when they paused, powered up, and left in a hurry. They received a call to transport a critically burned patient to the burn center at that time.
[/war story]

[SDF_Specialist]

I just paid a visit to my old unit. I've learned they one Friday a month, they have a movie night at the unit. No uniform needed. They also do this only if a certain number of members sign up to attend. Set up a rating system, and let the cadets bring in movies. If your unit has an open house, then I would say bring the topic up at a few meetings well before the open house, take a vote on whether or not to a movie night, then announce at the open house that your unit will be having a movie night. This can really boost the morale of your cadets, and make them want to participate more.

[Airrace]

1.   airport control tower
2.   airplane museum
3.   tour a airforce base
4.   build a rocket
5.   fire department
6.   police station
7.   flight school
8.   basketball game
9.   baseball game
10. Hiking adventure
11. volleyball game at park
12. capture the flag game

[Seabee219]

1.   airport control tower
2.   airplane museum
3.   tour a airforce base
4.   build a rocket
5.   fire department
6.   police station
7.   flight school
8.   basketball game
9.   baseball game
10. Hiking adventure
11. volleyball game at park
12. capture the flag game

Airace, nice touch, there are a lot of good ideas there.

Also

1. weekend FXT
2. Overnight Camping
3. Cookout at the beach (when its warmer)
4. Teambuilding Games

We could go on and on. You will be fine.

[Walkman]

Not to mention all of the "project X" type exercises contained in the Essentials of Team Building text that was recently sent to your unit by NHQ.

I checked with our CC & CDC and they don't know about that text. Is it available online anywhere?

Thanks everyone for the ideas. Keep 'em coming...

[RiverAux]

Take a look at the cadet programs specialty track pamphlet...

[Walkman]

Take a look at the cadet programs specialty track pamphlet...

I just looked. Didn't find anything...

[Pingree1492]

Take a look at the cadet programs specialty track pamphlet...

I just looked. Didn't find anything...

It's a book that was mailed out to all units.  We got ours a couple of months ago.

While it is a fairly good book, with A LOT of activities in it, most of the activities we'd have to heavily adapt in order to do.  The author seems to have written this for a target audience of schools, which have access to a lot of the necessary equipment for these activities.  I don't think I saw one activity in the book that didn't require something to be brought in.  And in our case, bought beforehand.

Again, while that book has some interesting material at the beginning, we haven't found any of the activities to be engaging or different enough from what we're already doing to be worth investing in the materials for.

My suggestion would be to use the book specifically designed for CAP, found here (Learn to Lead Activity Guide):
http://www.capmembers.com/media/cms/L2L_Activity_Guide__Reduced_C6CAF79E3E86D.pdf
Again, this is for Phase I cadets, so a lot of basic level stuff.  The movie section you may or may not find useful, but buried in the back you will come to the Guided Discussion section, which has a lot of good stuff.  You have to take care to REALLY prepare both the instructor AND the students for a guided discussion for it to be effective, especially with your younger cadets.  But once they get the hang of those, they can be pretty useful.