Encampment Activities

[CAPAPRN]

Hello:
I have been assigned as the Training Mentor for our states encampment. Luckily I have a lot of help, and we are doing O-Flights, water survival, a trip to the Nautilus museum, the obstacle course, as well as several great guest lectures on aerospace careers, leadership etc. We will also be doing model rocketry. My question is regarding schedule "holes." I have asked my cadet staff for input, and we are doing paper helicopters etc, but I would really like ideas for 1/2- 1 hour "hole fillers" - especially ones that can be moved around due to weather or missing speakers. Any ideas? Also- any cadets out there needing an encampment please look at the CT Wing Encampment website, we are August 10-17th in Niantic CT.

[BFreemanMA]

I know CTWG uses Great Start Weekend, and this is a direct rip from that program, but maybe "minefields" if you didn't already do that? It's a great teambuilding activity that focuses on trust and communication. I can tell you about it if you're not familiar, but it can bring a flight together. Worked well with our squadron!

[CAPAPRN]

Hi Brian- great to here from you - I really benefited from your presence at SLS- I am not familiar with minefields- can you PM me the details? Even better- what are you doing Aug 10-17th ? Any chance you come down to the CT shore one of the days 3-4 & 6-7 are usually free for a good teacher to drop by! - Thanks- Carol

[PA Guy]

Look on the NHQ cadet programs site and find the draft Cadet Handbook.  It is full of hip pocket training activities  and lesson plans.

Here is the link: 

http://capmembers.com/file.cfm/media/blogs/documents/Cadet_Encampment_Handbook_2013_REDU_E97BF749FED08.pdf

[BFreemanMA]

CAPAPRN, PM sent 

I posted the informational part of my PM here in case anyone else needs some ideas for their encampment. Figured we should keep the ideas going for anyone who might need them:

Here is a link to the "minefields" activity I was talking about: http://www.firststepstraining.com/resources/activities/archive/activity_minefields.htm.

As PA Guy suggested, there are a lot of great "single serving" activities in the link that he gave.

For my HS classes, at the beginning of the school year, I have an icebreaker activity that I do with my juniors and seniors. I take a extra-large beach ball, inflate it, then write silly icebreaker questions all over it (think "How many rings before you answer the phone?" or "What was your greatest experience in CAP so far"). You toss it to a member of the flight, who catches it and has to answer whatever question their dominant-hand thumb lands on. They then pass it on until everyone gets a turn. It's silly enough that there's little pressure on cadets who might be on the quiet side, but valuable because everyone learns about everyone else in the flight.

[XxJake114xX]

Hi,
I just got back from my eight-day encampment yesterday and i was told that there is a website that you can go to that shows all of the pictures taken at encampment. does anybody know what i am talking about? 

[Eclipse]

That's going to be specific to the encampment - check their website for links.

[ol'fido]

Hello:
I have been assigned as the Training Mentor for our states encampment. Luckily I have a lot of help, and we are doing O-Flights, water survival, a trip to the Nautilus museum, the obstacle course, as well as several great guest lectures on aerospace careers, leadership etc. We will also be doing model rocketry. My question is regarding schedule "holes." I have asked my cadet staff for input, and we are doing paper helicopters etc, but I would really like ideas for 1/2- 1 hour "hole fillers" - especially ones that can be moved around due to weather or missing speakers. Any ideas? Also- any cadets out there needing an encampment please look at the CT Wing Encampment website, we are August 10-17th in Niantic CT.

Not every minute of the time has to be scheduled. Many of our cadet staff appreciate what we call "flight time" where they can work on issues that the cadets may be having such as uniforms, drill and ceremonies, and bunks/inspections.

[SarDragon]

Hi,
I just got back from my eight-day encampment yesterday and i was told that there is a website that you can go to that shows all of the pictures taken at encampment. does anybody know what i am talking about? 

http://www.cawgencampment.com

[arajca]

Hello:
I have been assigned as the Training Mentor for our states encampment. Luckily I have a lot of help, and we are doing O-Flights, water survival, a trip to the Nautilus museum, the obstacle course, as well as several great guest lectures on aerospace careers, leadership etc. We will also be doing model rocketry. My question is regarding schedule "holes." I have asked my cadet staff for input, and we are doing paper helicopters etc, but I would really like ideas for 1/2- 1 hour "hole fillers" - especially ones that can be moved around due to weather or missing speakers. Any ideas? Also- any cadets out there needing an encampment please look at the CT Wing Encampment website, we are August 10-17th in Niantic CT.

Not every minute of the time has to be scheduled. Many of our cadet staff appreciate what we call "flight time" where they can work on issues that the cadets may be having such as uniforms, drill and ceremonies, and bunks/inspections.

At the COWG, we put Flight Time on the schedule. Problem solved.

[Eclipse]

I believe personal time is actually required now as part of the new curriculum.

[ol'fido]

There is a difference between flight time and personal time.

[Cap'n]

Just make sure the Cadet Staff knows the difference between "personal time" and "flight time." My flight staff would use our hygiene and personal time to essentially take us to an empty room, have as stand at attention, and yell at us. This resulted in very minimal free time to do things like shower, brush your teeth, change, etc.

Not fun when that time is already very limited.

[Huey Driver]

Just make sure the Cadet Staff knows the difference between "personal time" and "flight time." My flight staff would use our hygiene and personal time to essentially take us to an empty room, have as stand at attention, and yell at us. This resulted in very minimal free time to do things like shower, brush your teeth, change, etc.

Not fun when that time is already very limited.

Can you say hazing? That's not cool, useful, or allowed at all.

[ol'fido]

If you are running your encampment right, your staff will know the difference. If I have cadet staff that put everybody in a room and yell at them when they are supposed to be having personal time, I will most likely have a new cadet staff most ricky tick.

[Eclipse]

Can you say hazing? That's not cool, useful, or allowed at all.

It's probably not "hazing", but it is a dumb waste of time and should not have been tolerated by the senior staffers.

Edit: Ol'fido beat me to it.

[Cap'n]

This happened over a year ago, and while I don't know if I'd consider it hazing, still shouldn't have happened. Bad move on the cadet's part, but he did "chill out" a little bit as the week went on.

Like I said though, make sure that when you give personal time, the Cadet and Senior staff understand it is their (the basics) own free time. But flight time is always a good filler, and even a small briefing/lesson is never a bad idea (safety, how to perform well on inspections, importance of teamwork, etc.)

[ARandomCadet]

Just make sure the Cadet Staff knows the difference between "personal time" and "flight time." My flight staff would use our hygiene and personal time to essentially take us to an empty room, have as stand at attention, and yell at us. This resulted in very minimal free time to do things like shower, brush your teeth, change, etc.

Not fun when that time is already very limited.

Seems pretty familiar compared to what my flight sergeant said about his ALS. At his ALS, there was a time set aside where all the cadet staff was supposed to do was to make the other cadets cry. Then, he told me about the grog from OKWG encampment this year. Unfortunately no UH-60 rides, but they did do rappelling this year, the cadet staff did point out 2 UH-60s that came up from behind the trees and flew overhead.

[Eclipse]

...there was a time set aside where all the cadet staff was supposed to do was to make the other cadets cry...

If that was true, which I can guarantee you it isn't, then every senior involved in that activity should be bounced as
soon as it can be substantiated, and any cadet who participated demoted and sent to retraining on hazing RST, and CPT in general.

That is not what CAP is about, and it's not funny.

[Huey Driver]

Sorry, not hazing, but just violation of RST stuff.