Signing up new members at intervals

[Pylon]

I'm looking at making sweeping changes in the way our squadron's cadet program does business, and this is one of the major things on the table.  In a squadron that used to be 30+ cadets strong, and is now down to 8-10 active cadets despite heroic efforts by senior members and cadets, and a super active program... the trickle-in method is just not working.

The retention interviews are also definitely on the list.   Thanks for the idea, NIN!

[RiverAux]

Although I'm slightly skeptical of using this method with seniors, I think it is a very good idea with cadets. 

What to tell people who want to join outside the sign-up periods? 
"Well, you can't join a class halfway through the semester, can you?"

[NIN]

Understand that the trickle in seems like its "less resource intensive" but in reality its not.

With trickle in, we saw these issues (you may have seen these things, you may not have, YMMV, as usual)

• Always chasing membership paperwork
• Everybody at a different "level" of inital entry training (with the attendant repeats of training, etc)
• Constantly convening your membership board (you ARE doing membership boards, right?)
• Constantly issuing uniforms to new folks, ordering from Vanguard in dribs and drabs, etc.

We were always processing a new cadet or senior's paperwork, sitting a membership board, doing "new member" issue at supply, etc.   It was really putting a serious tax on our (limited) resources.

When we went to pipelining, it concentrated these things into a very short period of time. (several weeks)  Then we went to pipelining with inprocessing.  This concentrates all of our "administrative" actions into a very, very short time. 

This last time, in one night we inprocessed 15 new cadets and 4 officers.  Entered them into the database, generated CAPF 15s & CAPF 12s, gathered their cadet agreements, signatures and checks with the paperwork, sent them to the membership board, and then issued uniforms.  One night.  We did a bulk order of the "basic insignia kit" for all our new cadets all at once, and they started Cadet Basic Training (pilot testing of the Great Start program) the very next week. The seniors are in the midst of Level I.  Apart from handing over the insignia kits to the cadets, and waiting for their blues to arrive, supply is done fooling with our newbies.  All thats left is to graduate from basic training.

This is actually very "non-resource intensive"

[afgeo4]

Gentlemen... please don't forget one important statement after your recommendations...


"Results may vary"

I know of at least two squadrons in my group that would probably benefit from this type of recruiting, but I also know of at least 2 where membership would decline. The location, types of people the unit attracts, the overall feel of the people in your area and what your unit does day to day may greately affect how you recruit. There is no one solution for everyone.

[NIN]

I'm sitting in some high level planning meetings in another organization and someone said something very enlightening a little bit ago: "Cultural changes take at least 5 years to permeate an organization.. and maybe as long as 10 years.."

"Pipelining" is a major organizational cultural change. 

[Snake Doctor]

 A big thank you to all who have replied! I am making it policy (thanks NIN) for my commanders to do retention interviews.  I'm going to try to have them "buy-in" to the pipeline and great start methods.   I'm looking at a starting a new squadron in my group, so starting off right away and continuing with the pipeline method will be easy. 

Thanks again.  Paul

[NIN]

A big thank you to all who have replied! I am making it policy (thanks NIN) for my commanders to do retention interviews.  I'm going to try to have them "buy-in" to the pipeline and great start methods.   I'm looking at a starting a new squadron in my group, so starting off right away and continuing with the pipeline method will be easy. 

Thanks again.  Paul

Paul, you wag, I didn't know that was you 'cuz you didn't have a signature block in your first post.. 

Email me if you want more info/details.

[Snake Doctor]

 

I'm going to present the "Pipeline" to one of my Composite Squadron CC's tomorrow.  I'm sure I'll have questions for you NIN.

[brasda91]

I'm so convinced that this "pipelining" works, I have instituted it into our squadron effective immediately.  We have an Open House date of July 14 and our In-processing night of Aug 14 with the new training cycle beginning on Aug 21.  We have a training cycle of 12 weeks with graduation scheduled for Nov 6.  Currently we have 6-8 "active" cadets and 4 "active" seniors.  Will this be hard to run, you bet.  But I believe in it so I'm willing to try it.  We've done the "join when you want to" approach and have had little success.  Not to mention having several cadets all at different levels in the program.  I'll post our numbers after our in-processing night.

[Stonewall]

Trust me, it works and is well worth the effort.  When we started this back in 1996 we had 5 active cadets.  By the next year we had 15, its a true way to success, I assure you.

[NIN]

I'm so convinced that this "pipelining" works, I have instituted it into our squadron effective immediately.  We have an Open House date of July 14 and our In-processing night of Aug 14 with the new training cycle beginning on Aug 21.  We have a training cycle of 12 weeks with graduation scheduled for Nov 6.  Currently we have 6-8 "active" cadets and 4 "active" seniors.  Will this be hard to run, you bet.  But I believe in it so I'm willing to try it.  We've done the "join when you want to" approach and have had little success.  Not to mention having several cadets all at different levels in the program.  I'll post our numbers after our in-processing night.

The only thing I would caution is that you might "miss" the opportunity to capitalize on recruiting at the beginning of the school year.

For example, we used to do three open house/recruiting events a year. September, January and May.  We then determined that cadets recruited in May were usually on the "cusp" of being able to apply for and attend encampment, and might in fact miss encampment (and the attendant hit to retention).   Plus, it seemed that we were either planning for or just finishing a recruiting/inprocessing/training cycle. We even graduated one basic flight on the night of the next recruiting night.  Too much!   

So we eliminated the January event and moved the May recruiting to March to give us plenty of time to get new cadets inprocessed and trained.

So now we have our Fall recruiting in early October (11 October this year) and the Spring recruiting in March. That's it.  If we recruit in early OctoBer, inprocess by the end of October we tend to graduate the flight in the first week or two of January (Christmas & Thanksgiving impact our schedule there) and the Basic Flight commander & flight sergeant have a 6-8 weeks of their own to work on training materials, their own progression stuff, etc...

But doing October gives us a chance to get some of what I call "1 meter recruiting" done in the schools during the fall spin-up. 

[brasda91]

I'm so convinced that this "pipelining" works, I have instituted it into our squadron effective immediately.  We have an Open House date of July 14 and our In-processing night of Aug 14 with the new training cycle beginning on Aug 21.  We have a training cycle of 12 weeks with graduation scheduled for Nov 6.  Currently we have 6-8 "active" cadets and 4 "active" seniors.  Will this be hard to run, you bet.  But I believe in it so I'm willing to try it.  We've done the "join when you want to" approach and have had little success.  Not to mention having several cadets all at different levels in the program.  I'll post our numbers after our in-processing night.

The only thing I would caution is that you might "miss" the opportunity to capitalize on recruiting at the beginning of the school year.

For example, we used to do three open house/recruiting events a year. September, January and May.  We then determined that cadets recruited in May were usually on the "cusp" of being able to apply for and attend encampment, and might in fact miss encampment (and the attendant hit to retention).   Plus, it seemed that we were either planning for or just finishing a recruiting/inprocessing/training cycle. We even graduated one basic flight on the night of the next recruiting night.  Too much!   

So we eliminated the January event and moved the May recruiting to March to give us plenty of time to get new cadets inprocessed and trained.

So now we have our Fall recruiting in early October (11 October this year) and the Spring recruiting in March. That's it.  If we recruit in early OctoBer, inprocess by the end of October we tend to graduate the flight in the first week or two of January (Christmas & Thanksgiving impact our schedule there) and the Basic Flight commander & flight sergeant have a 6-8 weeks of their own to work on training materials, their own progression stuff, etc...

But doing October gives us a chance to get some of what I call "1 meter recruiting" done in the schools during the fall spin-up. 

My original Open House was planned in Sept. to capitalize on the school year.  But the squadron commander wanted to have it earlier, so....

I have been working on the schedule for the actual training cycle.  I have it planned for 12 weeks.  Do you think that is too long?  When I began scheduling the different marching movements (column left/right, right/left flank) plus the facing movements, I thought..."man you really need quite a bit of time to teach the cadets everything they need to know for their Curry Ribbon".  I guess I'm second guessing myself now, thinking that if I shorten the training cycle, I could get to the school this winter.  Suggestions...?  By the way, the flyers have already been printed for a July Open House.

[floridacyclist]

If our folks buy off on this, I would try to advocate to have the new class ready in time for the Winter Encampment....the following class can go to the Summer encampment.

I guess what I'm envisioning is an open house at the end of Feb or so and another at the end of August. We could have a couple of pre-training meetings after the open house and then formally sign them up and start their training with a full Cadet Development Weekend.

The cycle would culminate at either the Winter or Summer encampment and planning would begin for hte next cycle to start 2 months later.

The instructors could either be special assignments from among the cadet corps, or possibly a regular rotation from among the general cadet corps so that everyone takes a turn teaching. I think that the value to the instructors cannot be overestimated either. We are always claiming to teach leadership by putting the cadets in charge, this is our chance to put our money where our mouths are.

[NIN]

My original Open House was planned in Sept. to capitalize on the school year.  But the squadron commander wanted to have it earlier, so....

I have been working on the schedule for the actual training cycle.  I have it planned for 12 weeks.  Do you think that is too long?  When I began scheduling the different marching movements (column left/right, right/left flank) plus the facing movements, I thought..."man you really need quite a bit of time to teach the cadets everything they need to know for their Curry Ribbon".  I guess I'm second guessing myself now, thinking that if I shorten the training cycle, I could get to the school this winter.  Suggestions...?  By the way, the flyers have already been printed for a July Open House.

Hey, no worries.  The big thing is that you have to find the timing that works for you.  For example, in the midwest school gets out earlier and thus encampments are often earlier. Here in New England, the kids go to school until late June, so encampment is often in the end of July or beginning of August, changes our "drop dead" date to get cadets to encampment.

Check out the Great Start Guide (posted by me elsewhere here on CAPTalk.net) and see if that gives you any hints.  That is a FIVE week cycle, so go figure.

Think "enough to get them thru the Curry and into the hands of an element leader, flight sergeant & flight commander." You would be surprised how much you *think* you should cram into Basic really could be taught *after* Basic.

Interestingly, my squadron just split off our THIRD flight in preparation for the basic flight's graduation next week.

[Pylon]

So tell me more about how your in-processing nights work.  I was thinking of having a few different stations.


One station for paperwork and information... CAPF 12/CAPF 15 stuff, CAPF 60, fill out the master record and folder, fingerprint cards, CAPF 2As, etc.  Hands you the welcome packet including information on Level I/Cadet Basic Training and the Great Start booklet, among other goodies.

Another collects financials: national dues, squadron dues, etc.

Third station takes your photo... for SIMS, for E-Services, for Photo ID and CAPF 101.

Fourth station issues your uniforms.  Male or female member, as appropriate, tapes you for sizes.   Here's your full BDU set, M-65 field jacket, boots, s/s and l/s blues, leightweight blues jacket, and service coat.   For those signing up with aircrew interest, here's your flight suit and flight jacket.  (And yes, our squadron issues all of those from our stock to our members, with a few of the extras based on size availability).  Sign here and thank you.

What am I missing?  What else should be accomplished on your in-processing night?   

[SAR-EMT1]

A way to get back the gear if they fade away in a few months ?

Seriously:
print up cards with "need to know" items:
Commanders Contact info, squadron website, NHQ website, Hock shop etc.
Monthly Uniform schedule, possibly the address of a local seamstress or cleaner who does a decent job for alterations, nametapes and such.
Cadet Oath, Safety Pledge

We dont have the mass in-processing at my unit, but every new member gets 3 of these cards (about 2 x 2 ) with the above info.


Also, make sure there are members present in (correct )BDUs and the Flight Suit and Blues  so as to give the recruits a chance to see what the uniform should eventually look like.  - Id have samples of the completed  forms availible too.

Finally, if there are any staff Officers that havent yet been introduced to the noobs, make sure they are present, if only to give a pat on the back.