Your meeting place, how is it kept?

[Stonewall]

This is not a discussion of where you meet or what type of facility you have.  This is more for those squadrons that meet at their "own" facility.  They have an permanent office, structure, hangar or even a trailor.

We are very fortunate in that we have our own building provided to us by the city.  We have 24/7 access and our own parking lot.  The building has a kitchen, full bathroom, two separate smaller rooms and one large meeting room, enough for about 40 people. 

Growing up at the same squadron but 20 years before, we met at a high school.  So suffie to say, I feel very very fortunate to have what we have.  Not to mention we have a new van and a C182.

Our building is a mess.  Computer monitors stacked up, crap laying around, old folders, notebooks, posters and AE projects.  The kitchen has old food boxes sitting on the ground and trash cans that haven' t been emptied in a while.  I am disappointed in my squadron. 

Perhaps if they knew what it was like to meet at a crappy high school where you have to wait until a certain time to sign out keys only to have other kids interupting your meeting and then not having a single closet to store your squadron's supplies, they would appreciate what they have.

I am going to take a few hours during this week to go in and clean it up.  I'll bring my shop-vac, vacuum, windex and trashbags and see if anyone notices.

Next to Andrews AFB Squadron in the 90s, I don't think I've seen such a fortunate CAP squadron to have a facility of this magnitude.  My best guess is that it's about 1100 square feet in size.

[Smokey]

You are lucky to have such a facility and it's a shame some treat it like a dump.

My squadron has it's own facility but it's in sorry shape.  It consists of 4 office type trailers  arranged in a  "U" shape.  The trailers seem to be circa 1960 and I'm surprised they still are standing.  We have a few small messes here and there, but the overall condition is lacking.  If it weren't for bubble gun, bailing wire and 100 mile an hour tape, it might just fall down.

[Eclipse]

Our building is a mess.  Computer monitors stacked up, crap laying around, old folders, notebooks, posters and AE projects.  The kitchen has old food boxes sitting on the ground and trash cans that haven' t been emptied in a while.  I am disappointed in my squadron. 

Unacceptable and sad.  Having it look that was risks losing it should your benefactors make an unscheduled visit.

[DC]

While we do not currently have our own place, we did have several rooms in a flight school that were our's alone a few years ago.

It could have been kept better, but it was not too bad, the cadets vacuumed and took the trash out every week, and cleaned the bathroom every month or so. One of the SMs mowed the lawn as needed, and we didn't typically leave stuff laying around.

Even in our current facility (just the conference room in our airport's FBO, which we have reserved for our meeting night) the cadets vacuum after each meeting and take care of the trash if it needs it.

[RADIOMAN015]

We have just about the entire 2nd floor, Wing of a large hangar on an Air Force Reserve Base.  This gives us two classrooms, 2 large office space areas, 3 smaller offices.    Additionally, we are allowed to have our CAP VHF antenna mounted on the hangar.  Furthermore, we have access to the base local telephone network/DSN network & have about 12 extensions.  We were not able to get access to the internet via the base system, so we use a wireless provider, since cost would have been prohibitive for cable or telephone DSL.  The hangar also has emergency power immediately available.  Our area is always kept clean, neat, & orderly -- there is no trash or obsolete equipment/furniture etc stored.  We have two retired senior members that spend a lot of time at our facility & perform a lot of the cleaning that is necessary.   Common areas, such as hallways/walkways & rest rooms are cleaned by base contractors.   Cadets assist weekly by emptying trash etc.   We are VERY fortunate to have such a great permanent place to hold our meetings, and are very grateful to the AF Reesrve for their outstanding support to us. 

RM

This is not a discussion of where you meet or what type of facility you have.  This is more for those squadrons that meet at their "own" facility.  They have an permanent office, structure, hangar or even a trailor.

[Pumbaa]

We make the cadets clean up after every meeting.  The place is to be in better condition than when we got there!  Chairs lined up even at the tables, floor clean, white boards erased etc...

We have a 15 minute clean-up time after every meeting.  No one leaves until the place is cleaned.  my mama did that to me growing up, the cadets can do the same thing.

If a cadet can't pick up the place I sure as heck will not trust him to fly or help someone.

[Duke Dillio]

At my squadron, we have basically a reconditioned warehouse.  There are walls with a couple of offices and we have a good sized supply room.  There is also a kitchen with a sink, fridge, and cabinets but no appliances (excepting the coffee machine...)  For the most part, the cadets and officers keep the place fairly clean although some appear to not know how to vacuum.  They also appear to not know where all of the trash cans are...

As for the stuff laying about, several of the squadron officers have made a very contrite effort to rid the squadron of all the old junk.  All of our excess DRMO junk (mostly monitors and old computers) are stored in the supply room in boxes.  I have heard horror stories from the past where the squadron had a bunch of junk to include a portable landing light system stored in a storage facility.  Apparently the officers at the time loaded several large trucks full of the stuff and took it to the local dump.  Since then, nothing comes into the squadron without approval from the chain of command.

[Stonewall]

Today, my buddy Jody and I were talking about this subject and not only would this place be "G.I. Inspection Ready" 24/7, but we as cadets would have pulled "duty".  Our place is big enough to set up cots and remain over night (RON).  It has a shower, internet, full kitchen, big TV with DVD player; what a great place for a qualified GTM cadet to spend the weekend doing homework, training, watching TV, surfing the internet.  WOW!  If we would have had this place WIWAC, it'd be manned like a volunteer fire department.

[Timbo]

After the fire in 1992, the Army moved my SQD to a super awesome converted WW2 O-Club.  It was a terrible mess, we cleaned it up, painted etc.  We spent 1 year before it burnt down.  Then we got moved to a old 2 story brick BOQ building and renovated the heck out of it.  We had one floor with nothing but a classroom and 8 rooms with bunks, and the first floor was a kitchen and offices for almost every staff member.

After renovation, we were told the new building we were in would be torn down......I left that summer (1998), and when I visited them this past summer, they were meeting in a old WW2 theatre on post.  It was a mess, and I found out that they just got booted from there and were looking for somewhere else on post to go.  When I left in '98 the SQD was around 100 members, with about 75 actually showing up.  Now they barely have enough on the rosters to be considered a SQD.

It is a shame, what you work so hard to build can utterly colapse in a decade. 

Anyway, I made sure that Cadets and Senior Members (both) spent 15 minutes each meeting cleaning up.  Then on the one Saturday a month the SQD met, we set around 1 hour toward cleaning.  That is the only real way to do it.  Get it clean, real good at first, then you only have to spend a few minutes each week dry moping, etc.

Stonewall......get some SQD members to assist.  No need to be the "hero"!!

 

[PHall]

We make the cadets clean up after every meeting.  The place is to be in better condition than when we got there!  Chairs lined up even at the tables, floor clean, white boards erased etc...

We have a 15 minute clean-up time after every meeting.  No one leaves until the place is cleaned.  my mama did that to me growing up, the cadets can do the same thing.

If a cadet can't pick up the place I sure as heck will not trust him to fly or help someone.

Why do you have just the cadets doing the cleaning? Would it kill your senior members to lend a hand?

Contrary to some folks beliefs, cadets are NOT slave labor for the seniors.

[Pylon]

We've been renovating buildings donated for our use by the county airport for the last several years, slowly but surely.  While it used to look pretty shabby when we inherited the buildings, we've all put considerable time, effort and personal money into getting the buildings gutted and renovated.  Our facilities are actually three small buildings next to each other. 

We've had a lot of squadron "work days" over the past two years or so.  Basically a weekend day where we'd invite everyone out to tackle our task list - cleaning buildings, sorting uniforms, sheetrocking walls, landscaping, fixing doors or whatever needed to be done.  I think for those of us that worked on the building it created a sense of ownership and pride.   That helps some, I'm sure.

The middle building has sort of become our storage and supply.  That building is a bit of a mess, though all of the uniforms are hung and boxed by size.  It's just that there's a lot of stuff in there.  But it's not a "public" building; members only go in there when they need something from supply (uniforms, for example) so that at least confines the clutter to a designated area.   I do my best to make sure the new classroom/ops center building, on the other hand, keeps as neat and clean as possible. 

The third building is a small office; the office can sometimes get messy with paperwork particularly during busy times.  It happens, and I don't like leaving it that way for long but when you have limited volunteers and unlimited work, messes can happen.  Sometimes I try and get up there on a non-meeting night and tackle some of the paperwork, or sorting new or returned uniforms sitting in the supply "inbox" or otherwise tidy up but my busy schedule makes those visits less and less common.

It takes a lot of effort at times, but it's definitely worth it.  Right on our PA-1 we actually have a "Facilities Committee". It has members on it who are willing to work on the building, including a few members who are contractors by profession.  We originally had committee meetings to determine how we were going to renovate the buildings, and determine layouts and materials needed and the process.  Now we meet more to discuss upgrades, maintenance tasks, etc. 


I have to agree with Eclipse's statement above that it could lead to a very bad situation if your benefactors who provide(d) the space were to stop by unannounced and were disgusted with the state of the facility. 

Stewarding the scant resources Civil Air Patrol does have is extremely important to our organization's ability to carry out our missions as well as our public and professional image.

[tarheel gumby]

We have cadets and seniors clean up & tidy the building after each use.
BTW every thing is kept neat and clean all the time.

[Gunner C]

We have cadets and seniors clean up & tidy the building after each use.
BTW every thing is kept neat and clean all the time.

I've been to your unit in Asheville, about 7 or 8 years ago.  It was awesome.  There was a SAR mission going on there and it was a pretty darned good facility. 

Gunner

[Stonewall]

Well, I took a half day at work and went to my squadron for 3 hours...NOT ENOUGH!  Going back this evening after my little ones go to sleep.

I found at least 4 cups on the floor or otherwise hidden that had things growing in them.  Food, dirty dishes in the sink and dead roaches throughout.  Had to empty my shop-vac twice & didn't even get to wiping down the surfaces.

Lots of junk and clutter needs to be addressed too.  Nothing I can't stand more than "free junk" someone pawned off on the squadron, like 200 FAA calendar books from 2001 or 30 year old duty rosters. 

Threw away trash from 4 full trash cans and emptied 2 liter bottles of soda that had probably been around for a few months...

Going to surprise the heck out of the squadron when they return after the break and set a standard where everyone is responsible for a certain area of the building before going home.

Cool thing is I found a photo album with pictures from '87 and '88 with me and some other cadets doing color guard and on the Camp Blanding Obstacle Course with some 20th SFG guys.  Love those fatigues with unauthorized Army Patrol Caps with "Ranger Eyes" on the back.

[JAFO78]

Kirt If I was in your area I would have been there to help. Nothing worse than having to do it alone. BUT the guilt trip is worth a million dollars

[Stonewall]

Went back for 2 more hours.  I changed 3 air filters because it looked as if they hadn't been changed since we occupied the building almost 2 years ago.  Seriously, my wife the Public Health Specialist/Biologist said she's surprised we don't walk out of meetings with the "black lung" each week.

I brought my high speed Dyson for a final touch up after spending a few hours with my shop-vac today and ended up dumbing the thing 3 times as well.  Looks nice though, and feels nice too.  I think I sucked up a total of 20 dead bugs, mostly roaches.

I still need to spend a few more hours but I'm not sure I can find the time this weekend.  Either way, I hope they notice when they come back.  We've got a phenominal facility.  The more time I spend there the more time I love it.

My buddy and I were talking about how if we had this place as cadets (instead of meeting at a high school) we would have bunked there over the weekend; standing by for missions and acting like we were "Active Duty CAP".  Seriously, you could live there.  I'm disappointed cadets didn't show up while I was there, but I can't imagine they do much more outside of official activities.

[RiverAux]

The 30-year old duty rosters could be interesting from a historical point of view.  Might want to keep some of that kind of stuff around. 

[Stonewall]

The 30-year old duty rosters could be interesting from a historical point of view.  Might want to keep some of that kind of stuff around. 

Yeah, I wouldn't throw that type of thing away, but it doesn't need to be sitting next to a box of cupcakes. 

[Stonewall]

Our home.

[Trung Si Ma]

The 30-year old duty rosters could be interesting from a historical point of view.  Might want to keep some of that kind of stuff around. 

Yeah, I wouldn't throw that type of thing away, but it doesn't need to be sitting next to a box of cupcakes. 

So they were Senior duty rosters 

[IceNine]

Wow.  That's a FANTASTIC facility.

I wish I could fall into something like that for my Group Hq 

[Stonewall]

Wow.  That's a FANTASTIC facility.

I wish I could fall into something like that for my Group Hq 

That's why I am so motivated to clean this place up.  I have never seen a CAP squadron facility this nice, ever.  I want the squadron to be proud of it and know that they are very very fortunate.

[IceNine]

I had a new unit commander years ago that came into a similar situation.  He came back after a few years hiatus, and within a year was the unit commander.

The entire time he was back he was laying low not stirring up too much, and when he took over he was fed up with the lack of respect for the van and facility.  The facility was an armory.  With indoor track, kitchen, office, the works.

To throw everyone off he sent out a call right after the holiday break and said the squadron had lost their facility and would have to meet at a local business that had only a small conference room and a parking lot to meet in, that everyone would have to bring everything they needed and take it home every week.  He also sent the van for "repairs" so it was out of commission.

After about 3 weeks of meeting in this office building he tactfully told everyone that stewardship of these to amazing resources (armory, and van) were key to success and that next time this could be for real.

When we went back to the armory after a month of less than ideal conditions we had a renewed respect, and we voluntarily came in to make that place spick and span. 

We lasted in that facility for another 2 years and the armory staff was throwing a fit when we were ordered out of that facility because of the work that we did for them.

[JAFO78]

Our home.

Very, very nice. They let this place get trashed . What a shame. I hope they enjoy such a wonderful place. Many other squadrons would love to have a building like this.
I know I would spend time there keeping the placed spit polished.

Kirt, you are the best... :clap: :clap: :clap:

[Pumbaa]

Why do you have just the cadets doing the cleaning? Would it kill your senior members to lend a hand?

Contrary to some folks beliefs, cadets are NOT slave labor for the seniors.

Why?  Because the senior members are taking care of scoring cadet tests. Senior members are securing the building.  Senior members are putting away the paperwork, senior members are securing computers. Senior members are taking the garbage out of the building, senior members are making sure cadets have what they need for the next meeting or activity.

Our squadron of cadets and seniors are a TEAM that has specific duties and responsibilities and cadets and seniors respect one another and work well together. Senior members go through a teamwork presentation and a communication presentation on working with cadets before they get accepted into the squadron.

I and other seniors go in the day before squadron and make sure everything is setup and ready for the evening and that all tests, and supplies are prepared.  Before and after squadron it is senior members who pick up and drop off cadets so parents don't have to drive the distance.

So before you open your mouth... [redacted by admin]... and accuse us of abusing or using the cadets as 'slaves' you need to find out a little more information.  Also... it is the cadets who drop the papers, leave stuff at the table and such.  They are cleaning up the mess THEY made.

So in short do less flapping of the gums.. or in this case the fingers.

BTW this is the facility we use, a former elementary school, now owned by a church that leases out many of the wings and rooms to organizations. 

Our squadron  room is at the bottom left of the photo near the vehicles. (first room on right)  We can seat over 30 comfortably with room for lining up... We also have access to the exercise room, game room, auditorium/gym and cafeteria along with our squadron room and storage.  We will be building a exercise/ challenge trail in the spring at the top of the hill.

[Hawk200]

Our place is in a hangar at the airport, one of the major benefits of having the airport manager as a member. It's older, but our particular portion has been seeing a renewal of sorts. We've cleaned up a good bit, painted, hung things.

The offices and "conference room" are essentially the senior domain, and seniors clean it. Cadets clean their area which is about four times larger than the senior, but seniors pitch in. As part of our free rent, we all sweep the main hangar area, sometimes putting down oilsoak, and cleaning that up. The unit tends to be at the airport whenever there is a major activity, such as airshows or fly-ins, and helps out with some crowd control, parking, and generally being the people to ask when someone needs directions somewhere on the airfield.

The area looks a lot better than it did when we first moved in, and continues to improve. Our unit took in folks from another unit that folded on another airfield (that field bulldozed their meeting place), and those folks fell in and pitched as if they had been there all along. Continued improvement is pretty much what we've been doing, and it shows.

[brasda91]

Currently we meet in an old VA clinic building.  Needless to say, my office is a mess.  Paperwork all over the desk and I'm sure the meeting room has a few papers that need to be picked up.  We have a couple of storage rooms with excess supplies, some junk, a radio room that needs some organization and a uniform supply room that could use a straightening.  Not the way I want the squadron to look, but as previously mentioned, I'm busy during meeting nights trying to get tests out, meet with senior members, discuss upcoming activities and meet/talk with visitors.  Seems like if I get one form or paper filed, two more end up on my desk.    If I can sneek away when my son goes down for a nap, I'll try to get a picture of our current building.

[fyrfitrmedic]

Wow.  That's a FANTASTIC facility.

I wish I could fall into something like that for my Group Hq 

That's why I am so motivated to clean this place up.  I have never seen a CAP squadron facility this nice, ever.  I want the squadron to be proud of it and know that they are very very fortunate.

They bloody well should be proud of it, it's gorgeous compared to the vast majority of CAP meeting locations out there.

My home unit's meeting place is finally starting to see some improvement; we sublet from the local VFW who in turn has a nominal lease from the local municipality which remains in effect as long as a "youth group" remains in residence. For quite some time we were hamstrung in terms of what we could do to/with the building, but a real partnership seems to have developed between the unit and the current VFW leadership.

Our relationship with the local VFW has been uneven over the years; it depends on which faction/clique is in charge across the street and how much drinking is going on, sad to say. We've had intoxicated members from across the street drive cars into the building not once but twice, have had our offices broken into by VFW members and have had cars towed out of the lot in years past who felt that "their" parking spots were "taken". Fortunately for us, it seems that the "bad old days" may be permanently a thing of the past.

[PHall]

Why do you have just the cadets doing the cleaning? Would it kill your senior members to lend a hand?

Contrary to some folks beliefs, cadets are NOT slave labor for the seniors.

Why?  Because the senior members are taking care of scoring cadet tests. Senior members are securing the building.  Senior members are putting away the paperwork, senior members are securing computers. Senior members are taking the garbage out of the building, senior members are making sure cadets have what they need for the next meeting or activity.

Our squadron of cadets and seniors are a TEAM that has specific duties and responsibilities and cadets and seniors respect one another and work well together. Senior members go through a teamwork presentation and a communication presentation on working with cadets before they get accepted into the squadron.

I and other seniors go in the day before squadron and make sure everything is setup and ready for the evening and that all tests, and supplies are prepared.  Before and after squadron it is senior members who pick up and drop off cadets so parents don't have to drive the distance.

So before you open your mouth... [edited] ... and accuse us of abusing or using the cadets as 'slaves' you need to find out a little more information.  Also... it is the cadets who drop the papers, leave stuff at the table and such.  They are cleaning up the mess THEY made.

So in short do less flapping of the gums.. or in this case the fingers.

And none of this info was posted in your initial post, so how was I supposed to know?

But my statement still stands. Because I have seen a LARGE number of senior members who consider cadets to be a nuisance and want nothing to do with them.

And I'm willing to bet you have too...

[Stonewall]

I went by the squadron again today to take out the trash that had been in the garage part of our building for weeks.  I had to use a friend's truck because it was one of those huge shop trash cans on wheels and I couldn't fit it in my Exploder Explorer.  My buddy who was a cadet in CAP with me at this squadron 20 years ago wanted to see the place anyway; he may join again...maybe not.

After he calmed down at how sweet this place was (remember, we met at a high school), he asked where was the standby ground team or the cadets on CQ...I laughed and while he wasn't 100% serious, I knew exactly what he meant.  Why in the heck don't cadets have this sweet facility wired and decked out like they own the place.  I know there are CPP rules that apply and all this stuff, but you know what I mean.  BITD we would have weekend "duty" with an alert roster, fully knowing that we probably wouldn't be called anyway as the SMs launch from their house in their POVs and don't even stop by the squadron 

[ThorntonOL]

It's an older building on the Greater Binghamton Health Center campus. We're in building 31.
A nice and roomy two story building.
Has two large rooms on the first floor and one large and one small on the second floor.
Use to house Binghamton Cadet Squadron now houses the unit i'm with Broome Tioga Composite.
My unit use to meet at Tricities Airport in Endicott until the mold started growing on the ceiling and we deemed it not fit to be used. (These are really old buildings) Not a year after we moved it was flooded to the ceiling and since then has been condemned along with the hanger it was attached to.Now for how we keep it clean or lack of.
It's mainly pretty clean with the exception of a soda can or two, there's about a half dozen small garbage cans and 2-3 large and one big cart that gets filled once every 2 months unless we have an open house.
So it's pretty much clean most of the time.

[Eclipse]

Our squadron  room is at the bottom left of the photo near the vehicles. (first room on right)  We can seat over 30 comfortably with room for lining up... We also have access to the exercise room, game room, auditorium/gym and cafeteria along with our squadron room and storage.  We will be building a exercise/ challenge trail in the spring at the top of the hill.

What is that up n the top left corner?  Look like maybe a motorcycle instruction range?

[jimmydeanno]

What is that up n the top left corner?  Look like maybe a motorcycle instruction range?

Crop Circle... 

[JAFO78]

Our squadron  room is at the bottom left of the photo near the vehicles. (first room on right)  We can seat over 30 comfortably with room for lining up... We also have access to the exercise room, game room, auditorium/gym and cafeteria along with our squadron room and storage.  We will be building a exercise/ challenge trail in the spring at the top of the hill.

What is that up n the top left corner?  Look like maybe a motorcycle instruction range?

Helicopter landing zone?

[notaNCO forever]

The pole in the center would probably prohibit a helicopter landing.

[Ned]

The pole in the center would probably prohibit a helicopter landing.

Tetherball court?

[jeders]

The pole in the center would probably prohibit a helicopter landing.

Tetherball court?

That'd be an awful big tetherball court. Maybe Extreme Tetherball.

[Al Sayre]

gibbet?

[jimmydeanno]

Intergalactic Jarts 

[Timbo]

Driving course? 

[SarDragon]

Well, it's pretty new. The markings in the back don't show on current Google, Yahoo!, or TerraServer imagery (as new as 2006).