How many cadets are in your squadron?

[Bryce7454]

How many cadets are on the roster? How many show up normally? I ask this because I would like to hear how big certain squadrons are. My squadron has 20 cadets on the roster by not too many show up every meeting. I'm just wondering.

[Holding Pattern]

Too many and not enough.

Number ranges between 20-30, with a relatively high attendance rating except during holiday weeks.

We actually maintain a 1:1 ratio of SMs to Cadets year after year, which surprises me.

[SarDragon]

None. 

[TheSkyHornet]

Composite squadron.

17 cadets on the roster.
5 are not active (2 just graduated high school and are off doing adult stuff, 3 dropped and never returned, waiting for their memberships to expire)
I'd say 8 are regularly at most if not all meetings/events. The others are usually the twice-a-month crowd or less, but show face at least once each moon rise.

Not nearly where I'd like things to be.

[NC Hokie]

Composite squadron with 21 cadets on the roster as of this morning.

[C/Cool]

We have 10 on the roster. 4 of these have pretty much dropped out. 2 more of us have started college so we can't attend much anymore. That leaves about 2-3 regular cadets per meeting. I think we are the second smallest squadron in the whole wing, but I am not entirely sure.

[The Infamous Meerkat]

Composite Squadron, 46 on the roster right now. We have between 20 and 30 in attendance each meeting.

[MSG Mac]

51

[Bryce7454]

51

Jesus thats alot. How many show up regularly?

[MSG Mac]

30-35

[MSG Mac]

51

Jesus thats alot. How many show up regularly?

30-35

[NIN]

about 65 or 70 right now, about 50-55 showing up regularly.

BTW, here's a pop quiz: How many CAP units have less than 15 cadets in them?

[MacGruff]

Composite Squadron with more SMs on the roster than cadets!  27 cadets with 12-17 showing up weekly.

[Holding Pattern]

about 65 or 70 right now, about 50-55 showing up regularly.

BTW, here's a pop quiz: How many CAP units have less than 15 cadets in them?

I'm praying it is under 10%.

[Huey Driver]

about 65 or 70 right now, about 50-55 showing up regularly.

BTW, here's a pop quiz: How many CAP units have less than 15 cadets in them?

I'm praying it is under 10%.

No way. Just looked at last year's Quality Cadet Unit Award data - out of 1035 squadrons with cadets, 393 have less than 15 cadets... so 38% or call it 2 out of every 5 squadrons.

[Tim Day]

We have 76 cadets and normally have at least 40 show up. To me the biggest factors encouraging participation are:

1. A meaningful schedule addressing (but not too bound by) contact hours, known by cadets and parents. A predictable weekly rotation of focus (PT/CD, AE, Leadership, Ops) has been very beneficial to us.
2. Strict adherence to Cadet Program grade guidelines for cadet duty positions.
3. Communications with parents.

[Airplane girl]

My squadron is tiny. There are 10 cadets on the roster. Two are leaving to go to college this year. I haven't heard from two of the other cadets in months, and I don't think they're coming back. 5 or 6 cadets show up at a good meeting, but sometimes it's just me and one other cadet. We're going to start a recruiting program soon.

[NIN]

about 65 or 70 right now, about 50-55 showing up regularly.

BTW, here's a pop quiz: How many CAP units have less than 15 cadets in them?

I'm praying it is under 10%.

No way. Just looked at last year's Quality Cadet Unit Award data - out of 1035 squadrons with cadets, 393 have less than 15 cadets... so 38% or call it 2 out of every 5 squadrons.

As of the end of June, there were 995 cadet and composite squadrons.

323 had less than 15 cadets. Over 200 had less than 12 cadets. With an anecdotal participation rate of about 65 to 75% of roster strength, well you can do the math. This means that there are 200 to 300 units who aren't putting more than six or maybe ten cadets at a meeting at a time.

More concerning is the number of units that have less than five senior members. 41.

There were two units that had only one senior member assigned.  How does that even work?

[TheSkyHornet]

about 65 or 70 right now, about 50-55 showing up regularly.

BTW, here's a pop quiz: How many CAP units have less than 15 cadets in them?

I'm praying it is under 10%.

No way. Just looked at last year's Quality Cadet Unit Award data - out of 1035 squadrons with cadets, 393 have less than 15 cadets... so 38% or call it 2 out of every 5 squadrons.

As of the end of June, there were 995 cadet and composite squadrons.

323 had less than 15 cadets. Over 200 had less than 12 cadets. With and anecdotal participation I'm about 65 to 75% of roster strength, well you can do the math. This means that there are 200 to 300 units who aren't putting more than six or maybe ten cadets at a meeting at a time.

More concerning is the number of units that have less than five senior members. 41.

There were two units that had only one senior member assigned.  How does that even work?

I think you'd have to consider location, funding, resources (which I guess, in turn, comes from funding), leadership (who's running it, and what skills do they have, as well as their availability to be dedicated to their squadron).... a lot of factors that can cause issues with active participation

Sure, we have some cadets who just don't feel like participating as much as they used to, which can be a retention issue as well as them learning that as they get older, they have other priorities than just CAP. But we've long had an issue with leadership driving people away, including senior members.

[Thonawit]

We have 9 Cadets, 2 are in-active, 1 is in College leaving us with 6 active cadets. We have 2 potential Cadets and 2 that are waiting until they are 12.
Typically we have 5 or 6 of the "Active" Cadets show up at meetings.

[Bryce7454]

We have 9 Cadets, 2 are in-active, 1 is in College leaving us with 6 active cadets. We have 2 potential Cadets and 2 that are waiting until they are 12.
Typically we have 5 or 6 of the "Active" Cadets show up at meetings.

Which squadron?

[BFreemanMA]

Composite squadron. 53 on the books. About 30 or so show up regularly.

[Juice]

 Our Composite Squadron has 48 cadets on the books with 30-35 actively participating each week. We also has 36 Seniors on the books with 12-17 actively participating each week. 

[C/CMSgt Allen]

At one point in my squadron we had 63 cadets but it's way below that now.

[Bryce7454]

At one point in my squadron we had 63 cadets but it's way below that now.

Attendance has been faltering?

[C/CMSgt Allen]

We had leadership issues for a while. Our Squadron commander, and our Cadet Commander just left out of the blue.

[LTC Don]

As of the end of June, there were 995 cadet and composite squadrons.

323 had less than 15 cadets. Over 200 had less than 12 cadets. With an anecdotal participation rate of about 65 to 75% of roster strength, well you can do the math. This means that there are 200 to 300 units who aren't putting more than six or maybe ten cadets at a meeting at a time.

More concerning is the number of units that have less than five senior members. 41.

There were two units that had only one senior member assigned.  How does that even work?

I'm curious about meeting locations: School vs Church vs Stand-Alone Squadron Headquarters vs Other, and if there is a correlation as to squadron strength.

I've always believed that units that have someplace they can legitimately call home, but that also have administrative and classroom space tend to be more apt to thrive.

[TheSkyHornet]

As of the end of June, there were 995 cadet and composite squadrons.

323 had less than 15 cadets. Over 200 had less than 12 cadets. With an anecdotal participation rate of about 65 to 75% of roster strength, well you can do the math. This means that there are 200 to 300 units who aren't putting more than six or maybe ten cadets at a meeting at a time.

More concerning is the number of units that have less than five senior members. 41.

There were two units that had only one senior member assigned.  How does that even work?

I'm curious about meeting locations: School vs Church vs Stand-Alone Squadron Headquarters vs Other, and if there is a correlation as to squadron strength.

I've always believed that units that have someplace they can legitimately call home, but that also have administrative and classroom space tend to be more apt to thrive.

In our case, we use the "Community Room" at a local airport. It's a small GA facility, but at least we have the ability to roam around and play with some of the aircraft that the flight school has. It does have a classroom with a big whiteboard and projector. We also just got permission to tear out the school's old simulator and put our own flight sim computers in there. The meeting area is very dated, even with modern equipment. It's a dingy place to be. We do have the ability to put up just about anything on the wall we want, which is great for our posters and award plaques, but because we share a common space we do have to worry about other people touching our stuff and leaving all of their crap out when we walk in on our meeting day. We once got chewed out by a visitor because of a dirty U.S. Flag that was on the stand, even when we explained that the flag belonged to the airport, not our squadron. It's not a building interior that we're proud of, but it's what we have to work with. And we have to worry about leaving our own equipment out, making sure we lock everything up. We don't really have the often of setting up a permanent work station aside from our printer/scanner which the flight school keeps using even though we have a big sign that says "Civil Air Patrol use only."

The problem we have with our place is that, while it's on a main road, we're often confused with another bigger municipal airport a few miles away. A lot of prospective recruits go there instead of to our facility. We are also very limited as to our indoor space unless we can get the airplane hangar cleared out for us to use. It's not ours, so everything we do needs to be done by request and only if they can get it done. It usually ends up being a "we'll see the day of if we can manage that." We have quite a bit of outdoor space throughout the airfield, so long as we keep our bearing in some areas due to the potential for moving aircraft. Overall it isn't too horrible of a location. The plus side is we don't pay rent.

[SarDragon]

We don't really have the often of setting up a permanent work station aside from our printer/scanner which the flight school keeps using even though we have a big sign that says "Civil Air Patrol use only."

Remove and lock up the paper tray(s) when you aren't there. Problem solved.

[CAPDCCMOM]

^^^^ A well placed mouse trap can work wonders keeping people out of your stuff

[MSG Mac]

Take the power cord with you.

[SarDragon]

Take the power cord with you.

Too easy to come up with a replacement.

[TheSkyHornet]

I'm thinking of claymores....

And that should have said "option" not "often"