Meetings around Christmas

[manfredvonrichthofen]

My squadron for the past few years has skipped our regular meeting for the week of Christmas and had a one day SAREX at a different area each year the week after Christmas, this year we will be going to a state park and an astronaut exhibit.

What does your squadron do around the holidays, a party, something different, or just skip it?

[HGjunkie]

We skip the last 2 weeks of December. It works because the school system here gives the last 2 weeks for winter break.

[GTCommando]

Our squadron has a Christmas party, complete with games, gift exchange, and every kind of sugary goodness you can imagine. 

[SARDOC]

We skip the last 2 weeks of December. It works because the school system here gives the last 2 weeks for winter break.

We do pretty much the same thing...We do our holiday party at the first meeting of the month. 

[addo1]

My hometown unit holds an annual dining in, complete with yearly awards and the such...

[HGjunkie]

We skip the last 2 weeks of December. It works because the school system here gives the last 2 weeks for winter break.

We do pretty much the same thing...We do our holiday party at the first meeting of the month.

We had our holiday party/ awards ceremony in november...

[Eclipse]

Obviously, depending on timing, it makes sense to skip some meetings, but this year, for example, with Christmas and Christmas Eve on the weekend, most units that meet earlier in the week could probably do so with no notice of the holiday.

My first year as a unit CC, succeeding a commander who had done things at a "lower ops tempo" than I had put in place, we had our holiday party the first week of December.

After dinner, one of the members came up to me and said "See you next year, Sir!", with all seriousness.  I looked at him and replied, "What? We have a meeting Tuesday..." 

"Oh, I guess things are different."

"Yes."

The previous commander, in addition to only meeting twice a month, skipped the whole month of December.  On top of that, any excuse from voting night to a Bears game was enough to cancel a meeting.

The result was about 22-30 contact hours total a year outside of irregular training opportunities or things the members did outside the unit, and then a bewilderment as to why they weren't getting anything accomplished.

My point here is that CC's need to be careful how much, if any, time is skipped because of holidays.  Cadets, especially, need to stay on
a regular schedule or will lose focus.  With so much vying for member's attention these days, it is easy to find things to backfill "CAP time" and before you know it, you have an empty meeting space.

As an aside, I've recently seen more and more units having their holiday / year-end parties to avoid the rush, and take advantage of
lower banquet rates in the dark days of January.

[Spaceman3750]

We meet the first 2 weeks of December, then come back after New Year. We have our banquet in early January.

[Thrashed]

We are doing the Christmas party and white elephant gift exchange the week before Christmas. We don't meet right after Christmas.  We will lose only one meeting this year.  We don't meet during school "holidays".

[manfredvonrichthofen]

We will usually meet on all holidays to include Independence day only because we are in the parade. This year we are completely skipping the meeting the week of Christmas because we meet on Thursday nights. So we are going to have the usual winter SAREX on the 28th or 29th as a call up. I agree wholeheartedly that you need to keep the tempo and not loose meetings as much as possible.

[DC]

My current unit has a Christmas Party the third week of December, then skips the last week of the month.

My old squadron had no holiday party (our awards banquet was always in October), but skipped the last two weeks of Dec, in tune with the school break.

[bosshawk]

Christmas party on the 16th, nothing more until early Jan.  Our senior meetings are dull enough without having a bunch of missing personnel.  We could likely go to every two weeks and not miss a beat.  Our cadets meet on a different night, so have no idea what they do.

[ZigZag911]

Our group holiday party (staff, squadron CCs, guests) shifted to January because folks had too many other commitments to attend to in December.

[a2capt]

Depending on the fall of the holidays, we either elect to skip the last or last two Tuesdays. Like this year, we'll be skipping the last week only, though staff (cadet/senior) will still attend on the week between Christmas and New Years this time. We have our traditional open house the 1st week in December, too.

[RADIOMAN015]

The holiday is on a weekend, so we do have a meeting on the week of the 20th BUT no meeting on the week of the 27th...

Generally, members aren't very interested in doing much CAP related activities during the Christmas time, they have more priority things to do in their lives.   We also have our annual award banquet in January each year.

RM

[JohnKachenmeister]

We had a meeting the first week of December, which was our Christmas party... snacks, champagne cocktails, and beer.  There was a little business conducted, and ID photos were taken with everyone in service dress uniforms, but mostly everybody just chatted and socialized.  Next meeting is in January, but the key people are in pretty much constant touch anyway via email and phone.

We don't have cadets, so training continuity is not an issue.

[Major Carrales]

We usually have our parties around the week of the 15th of December and then suspend regular activities until the first week of January.  Of course, activities such as SAEex and REDCAP are not subject to "winter quarters."

[Cool Mace]

We always have a Christmas party the week before Christmas. White elephant, drinks, snacks, that kind of thing.

We take off the last two weeks from December since we meet on Thursdays.

[ironputts]

Our Holiday Party was December 16th (Thursday) with all cadets, senior members and families participating. We began with cadet and senior promotions, awards, and presentations. We followed up with lots of food and general discussions with more presentations ending with see you next year. Our next meeting is in January. We cancel some meetings as we are in a church and the middle/high schools are next door so it makes parking tough. We take off the month of August due to vacations and national CAP events our cadets attend. I find that a great time to rejuvenate and get ready for another year. Twenty years and counting!

[MSG Mac]

I am visiting my grandkids and their unit has meeting today and on the 30th of December.