Cadet staff help

[spiker84]

I come from a fairly small, top heavy squadron. Every year or two, our squadron goes through some sort of leadership crisis where our chain of command falls apart (we have had a streak off 'iffy' cadet commanders) and needs to be rebuilt. Our last CC just left, (Also the only officer at the time) on the same night two of our three chiefs promoted... The one who didn't was me, we decided as a group that I would stay at an enlisted rank until there was another cadet who we deemed a good enough example to take flight sgt. I moved from flight sgt. to first sgt, our first sgt. went to flight commander (he is no longer eligible for any sort of command staff within the squadron, long story) and the first element leader became the executive officer, since our squadron commander does not want a CC for now. Selecting a new flight sgt. and element leaders landed in my lap, and since in our squadron element leaders are staff (a fairly low staff position mind you, but important nonetheless) we decided that cadets should apply for it, since most of our cadets are capable of preforming the duties involved. My question is, is there a generic staff application form out there, or am I on my own for making one?

[Cap'n]

At my squadron, we have staff selections every trimester. What has worked well for us is to have every cadet who wants to apply for staff complete a résumé and a cover letter, and have them go through an interview process to choose the right cadet for each position. If anything, even just a résumé would work well, or just an interview. If you are interested in either, PM me and I can send you interview questions, as well as a sample CAP résumé and cover letter.

[Eclipse]

...we decided as a group that I would stay at an enlisted rank until there was another cadet who we deemed a good enough example to take flight sgt.

And which "group" allows you to violate your cadet oath by delaying progression?

Where's your commander(s)?

If you don't have enough cadets of appropriate grade to fill the positions, then you don't fill them, work on growing into them, and start recruiting.
It sounds like it's time for the seniors to take charge for a while.

[spiker84]

Thank you Pomegranate, I will PM you shortly.

And Eclipse, I should rephrase that; It was not forced upon me that I should stay behind. While I hone my leadership skills where I am now and study for a better grade before taking my Mitchell test, we are attempting to even out our already top heavy structure. Seniors have stepped in where needed, however we like to get our cadets experience in as many leadership positions as possible; which is why also by not promoting right away, I get some time in at first sgt. Our cadets tend to promote in blobs, right now there are two 2nd LT's, a chief (me) a tech sgt. who will take flight sgt. if he can prove that his leadership has improved sufficiently, and 22 airmen, two of which are senior airmen. It is very difficult for us to have a functional squadron without a proper chain of command, and much easier to keep our cadets on track with goals that they see in practice, rather than what they see on a power point slide and in reality whoever falls in formation first gets to be element leader.  That being said, we never force a cadet into a staff position that they may not be able to handle for the sake of having staff positions filled. they need to show that they are capable.

[68w20]

Thank you Pomegranate, I will PM you shortly.

And Eclipse, I should rephrase that; It was not forced upon me that I should stay behind. While I hone my leadership skills where I am now and study for a better grade before taking my Mitchell test, we are attempting to even out our already top heavy structure. Seniors have stepped in where needed, however we like to get our cadets experience in as many leadership positions as possible; which is why also by not promoting right away, I get some time in at first sgt. Our cadets tend to promote in blobs, right now there are two 2nd LT's, a chief (me) a tech sgt. who will take flight sgt. if he can prove that his leadership has improved sufficiently, and 22 airmen, two of which are senior airmen. It is very difficult for us to have a functional squadron without a proper chain of command, and much easier to keep our cadets on track with goals that they see in practice, rather than what they see on a power point slide and in reality whoever falls in formation first gets to be element leader.  That being said, we never force a cadet into a staff position that they may not be able to handle for the sake of having staff positions filled. they need to show that they are capable.

How is a squadron with 22 Cadets without their WBA top-heavy?  It sounds like you three (the two C/2nd Lts and you) need to work on developing element-level leadership, assigning mentors (IAW Cadet Great Start) to new Cadets, and giving pre-WBA Cadets legitimate leadership opportunities.  By doing that, you'll avoid the issue of C/TSgts that need to significantly improve their leadership in order to serve in a position that is typical of a Cadet of their grade.  You'll also develop a more robust Cadet Program that necessitates greater involvement from an early point in your member's Cadet experience.

[spiker84]

Whoops, I have been meaning bottom heavy. Apologies.

[Eclipse]

Regardless, any discussion of a cadet delaying progression should just to fill a staff role should be 100% off the table.

One, because it isn't fair to the cadet in question, and two because there's no mandate that staff job "x" be manned by cadet grade "y".
An officer can certainly fill the duties of an NCO, when necessary, and Yoda knows that we've had far too many 2-stripers as Cadet Commanders.

Your best tac is to fill the roles you can with the appropriate staffers, and then either leave the others vacant and back-fill with seniors,
or have more advanced cadets do the jobs until someone grows into it.

[68w20]

Whoops, I have been meaning bottom heavy. Apologies.

More sense made.  But seriously, we focused on the points I emphasized in my post and it's made a vast improvement to our Cadet Program.  Cadets are more heavily invested in the program earlier, which helps them to both enjoy it more and get more out of it.

[spiker84]

Whoops, I have been meaning bottom heavy. Apologies.

More sense made.  But seriously, we focused on the points I emphasized in my post and it's made a vast improvement to our Cadet Program.  Cadets are more heavily invested in the program earlier, which helps them to both enjoy it more and get more out of it.

We try our best, it can be difficult sometimes because many of our cadets our friends outside of CAP, most of them are 12 and 13 and want to talk to each other about whatever, but as long as nothing exiting happens the first part of the meeting, it is never to hard to keep them on track.

There are details that I am leaving out that explain why our squadron is in a tight place right now, but for the sake of those involved, I am leaving them out of this thread... the Lt's and I are working hard to resolve the issues, however we have not yet had a squadron meeting since the issues arose, therefore we have not been able to do anything about them yet.