Your meeting place, how is it kept?

[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?