CAP Talk

Our squadron is looking for a new meeting location, the armory is closing, and depending on where we end up, a new day of the week to meet. Today we meet on Monday evenings. Looking to see what has worked for and your cadet programs. Your comments are especially appreciated. Thank you!

Tuesday in my AOR seems to have been the winner over the years, but you need to
poll the members or the staff and find something that fits at least the majority most of the time.

Thursdays has worked extremely well for us. We have the ability to use the meeting night in the same fashion as any other meeting night without the impact of a lot of holidays (Thanksgiving is typically our own known "have to cancel" week of the year)—No Monday holidays to worry about. And what's nice is the fact that, because we meet 6:30-9pm and have some level of exhaustion by the end of the night, we can all go into Friday as our one last day of the week to get through, then enjoy the weekend. We can have as many back-to-back weekend activities that we can offer, whether at the unit level or higher echelon that are open for invite, without worrying about scrapping valuable meeting time.

Sundays were terrible. Low morale; low turnout of seniors and cadets. If we had a weekend activity, we had to cancel the meeting, which meant we had to realign when we would do testing, Character Development, PT, whatever needed. It was just an absolute mess. What was really ironic with the whole thing was that I was really pushing people to test changing the meeting night, and the response I would get in return was "We always met on Sundays." When I asked how people felt about moving the meeting day, they said "Well, I always felt like weekends were terrible to meet." Then why didn't you move it? The answer: "We didn't know who would leave and who would stay."

I know of a number of units that meet on weekends, and they have the same story.

I also know of a number of units that meet on Tuesdays and Wednesdays that seem very successful.

Never heard of a unit that meets on a Friday. Monday meets seem to be fairly dead from what I've seen, and it doesn't seem to be common in our area.

Mondays seem common in our area, though we do end up losing out on some Monday holidays and when families are traveling back from an extended weekend. 

I'd asked our squadron membership about moving to another day of the week, as we met on Tuesdays when I was a cadet in WIWG.  It was a no-go.  Apparently here in Kentucky, Tuesdays and Thursdays are for after-school sports, Wednesday is for church, and Friday is for football, so...Monday it is! 

Tuesday seems to be the norm around here with Wednesday a close second.

Quote from: TheSkyHornet on July 19, 2019, 06:04:19 PM
Thursdays has worked extremely well for us. We have the ability to use the meeting night in the same fashion as any other meeting night without the impact of a lot of holidays (Thanksgiving is typically our own known "have to cancel" week of the year)—No Monday holidays to worry about. And what's nice is the fact that, because we meet 6:30-9pm and have some level of exhaustion by the end of the night, we can all go into Friday as our one last day of the week to get through, then enjoy the weekend. We can have as many back-to-back weekend activities that we can offer, whether at the unit level or higher echelon that are open for invite, without worrying about scrapping valuable meeting time.

Sundays were terrible. Low morale; low turnout of seniors and cadets. If we had a weekend activity, we had to cancel the meeting, which meant we had to realign when we would do testing, Character Development, PT, whatever needed. It was just an absolute mess. What was really ironic with the whole thing was that I was really pushing people to test changing the meeting night, and the response I would get in return was "We always met on Sundays." When I asked how people felt about moving the meeting day, they said "Well, I always felt like weekends were terrible to meet." Then why didn't you move it? The answer: "We didn't know who would leave and who would stay."

I know of a number of units that meet on weekends, and they have the same story.

I also know of a number of units that meet on Tuesdays and Wednesdays that seem very successful.

Never heard of a unit that meets on a Friday. Monday meets seem to be fairly dead from what I've seen, and it doesn't seem to be common in our area.

+1 all across the board.

However...

It's not a bad idea to consider when other nearby squadrons meet if you want to do regular joint activities with them.  One of the reasons our squadron meets on Thursday nights is because every other nearby squadron meets on Tuesday nights.  This lets us participate in their "special" meeting activities (our closest neighbor meets at Seymour Johnson AFB and two others an hour away meet on major civilian airports) without having to cancel our own meetings.

I added the sixth choice.

A "best" meeting night depends mostly on the needs of the individual members of the unit, and is usually a consensus. If needs changes, the meeting night can shift to a different night. I know of a unit that met on Saturdays for a while, because it was the best fit for people's schedules.

We meet on Monday as do several of the other squadrons in our area. Tuesday is also in use. We meet on Holidays unless it is Christmas or New Years.

Depends on:
1. Access to your meeting facility
2. When your members can attend

I agree that Monday's due to holidays and three day weekends should be avoided.

Tuesdays have always worked for us.  Guess it's because we've wound down from the past weekend and aren't geared up yet for next weekend.  Attendance has always been good on Tuesday.

Mondays are just impractical.

coming out of the weekend most cadets won't be able to prep their uniforms the day before, as suggested by EVERYBODY.

I might suggest doing it on whitchever day nearby units don't do it, that way if anybody want to get ideas from other units (which I would highly suggest) for their weekly meetings, everybody has the capability to do that without missing one of their own.

I was the CC of a unit that met on Sundays.  I was originally skeptical, but came around.  Time was 1700-1930 if I remember correctly. It very rarely conflicted with most after/out of school activities.  The meeting was over early enough  to not cause difficulty with a "school night"  if anyone needed to stay late for a meeting it wasn't so bad and it was easy to schedule extra time before a meeting for things like color guard practice without it being difficult in the get out of school/work/transportation type issues of a weekday.  Downside, if you have a weekend activity, it pretty much runs right into the meeting night with no break.

MK

Met every day except Sunday. Most common was Monday and Wednesday. Wing met on Tuesday. The best one was actually a Saturday morning meeting. Went from 1000-1300. Left us time to do some afternoon activities or a bivouac. Didn't conflict with other after work or school activities.

Just wanted close loop on my original question and where we ended up. We've transitioned from meeting on Mondays to now Thursdays. The early feedback has been exceedingly positive.

Thanks everyone for participating in the poll!

I've had meetings on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and as a squadron commander and deputy commander for cadets, we were always heavily involved in ES, so it seemed like Thursdays worked well for us because we'd prep for weekend ES (and non-ES) activities on Thursday for our departure Friday evening or early Saturday morning. It was kind of a "prep night" just 24 hours prior to major activities and operations.

Seems like Monday and Tuesday provide a bit of a lag between planning and execution. YMMV.

We've tried meeting on a few nights.  We've found that given the cadets' homework schedule that Saturdays seem to work quite while.  We meet early enough (1600) that people can still go out and enjoy their Saturday night. 

Quote from: futura on August 19, 2019, 02:55:45 AM
We've transitioned from meeting on Mondays to now Thursdays.

Definitely keep us posted in the long run as to how this works out.

Quote from: Stonewall on August 19, 2019, 03:18:22 AM
Seems like Monday and Tuesday provide a bit of a lag between planning and execution. YMMV.

My thoughts as well. Plus the weekend may still be wearing off.

Quote from: Angus on August 20, 2019, 07:11:59 PM
Saturdays seem to work quite while. 

First unit I've heard of that meets on a Saturday.

What's the usual head count for a Saturday?

Quote from: TheSkyHornet on August 20, 2019, 07:36:49 PM

Quote from: futura on August 19, 2019, 02:55:45 AM
We've transitioned from meeting on Mondays to now Thursdays.

Definitely keep us posted in the long run as to how this works out.

Quote from: Stonewall on August 19, 2019, 03:18:22 AM
Seems like Monday and Tuesday provide a bit of a lag between planning and execution. YMMV.

My thoughts as well. Plus the weekend may still be wearing off.

Quote from: Angus on August 20, 2019, 07:11:59 PM
Saturdays seem to work quite while. 

First unit I've heard of that meets on a Saturday.

What's the usual head count for a Saturday?

I was in a Saturday unit for a few years. We met from 1000-1300 and usually had about 40 total between cadets and seniors.