Sucessful Open house

[NIN]

I had a big long post done up, then my login expired and killed it.. So I'll just attach a photo of my basic flight from last night:

22 new cadets in-processed as a result of our 25 Sept open house.  1 senior and 2 more in the pipeline.

Wooo hooo..

I just added more cadets last night than some squadrons HAVE.

[jacklumanog]

Wow, outstanding.  A great looking group in formation!  Congratulations.

[NIN]

BTW. for those who don't believe it: pipelining works. 

[Eclipse]

BTW. for those who don't believe it: pipelining works. 

I'd certainly believe it when you're bringing in numbers like those!

[NIN]

BTW. for those who don't believe it: pipelining works. 

I'd certainly believe it when you're bringing in numbers like those!

We've been pipelining for YEARS (started in early 2001) and its been 12-15 cadets each time.  This past spring it was only 8 or 9 (I think we changed something in the recruiting formula) and the fall 2001 event netted us over 25. YMMV, of course.  Our retention tends to be higher, too.

22 is a little high.  I would have expected 16.

BTW, 6 are female cadets. That's a much higher percentage than we've seen in the past.

[RiverAux]

I'm hoping for similar success with similar events in the future.

[Rangercap]

Nice. I just went to one school today. They ran annoucements all week, but neglected announce one more time right before the event. I got four solid leads. I was hoping for more, but I still have three schools to hit. 20 is my goal.

I cleaned up a little bit of your slideshow, NIN. Thanks for the link.

Question... are these numbers strictly though an open house? Or do you actually beat feet and hit the schools in person? I have read your post on cadet stuff... I like the plan you have set up.

Brian
PAWG

[NIN]

First, my concept of recruiting, which I repeat over and over to my cadets, is: "Maximum effective range of recruiting is 1 meter. An arm's length.  Anything beyond that is advertising."

In other words, its talking to people, direct contact, answering questions, etc, that recruits.   Person-to-person contact.

That said, we print 500-700 flyers for each open house (gladly donated thru a little "Xerox equity" where I work), and let the cadets doing the recruiting. Our informal survey of participants in our open house recruiting nights over the years show that the vast majority of people who actually come to the open house do so because of  direct, person-to-person action, not the newspaper, TV or anything else.  Put a flyer in their hands. 

Second, this year two of my high school-aged cadets managed to get a setup in the lunch room of their former middle school.   While the data is not clear on this, my gut says that this accounted for a fair amount of the "increase" in numbers.  Go team!

So my goal is to put recruiting teams into each of the 5-6 middle schools in my area in the 2-3 weeks prior to our next Open House in the spring.  If I can actually get traction in just 3-4, that would be ideal.

Glad the presentation helped.  We've been using that one for years as the lead off to the open house nights.

[Rangercap]

It still needs an update or two... like AFRCC is at McDill, and no longer at Langley, but does the job, and is very thorough.

Brian
PAWG

[BillB]

AFRCC is at Tyndall, not MacDill. Same state 300 miles apart

[Rangercap]

Thanks for the clarification.

Brian
PAWG

[Snake Doctor]

NIN,

Please , could I have a look at your presentation please?  I'm going to pitch the virtues of Pipeling to the commanders in my group. 

Thanks.

Paul

[NIN]

Not to necromance a 6 month old thread....

We held our Spring Open House last night.  It sneaked up on us, so our advertising cycle was shorter than normal.  I anticipated a turn out similar to last Spring's (which netted us 8-9 cadets), and we were fine with that.

The recruiting duo was back at it hitting their old middle school's lunch room with flyers earlier in the week.

We had between 40 & 45 non-CAP folks show up, of which there were between 16 & 20 cadet-aged individuals there.    And we had at least two families contact the commander that they couldn't come to the open house, but could they still join if they're at the meeting next week?

The commander and I agreed that if we get 12, we'll be doing well. I bet we get more.

Remember, the Maximum Effective Range of Recruiting is 1m.

[Stonewall]

You just motivated me Darin.

[Pylon]

You just motivated me Darin.

His success makes me cry a little inside.  I can never live up.

[Stonewall]

I hate one-line posts...now I'm a hypocrite!

In regards to pipelining cadets, I have met more resistence with this one subject than almost anything else in CAP.  I have seen a lot of people get so mad they want to file a complaint about me telling potential new members to "go away".  

I've already felt the reluctance from both my cadets and seniors at my squadron as I take the reigns of DCC (again).  I have real life experience with this and our efforts provided tangible results.

The best example I can give goes back to about 1996 when I tracked the tenure of 10 new cadets that were "pipelined" into CAP through T-Flight.  10 started and 3 years later those same 10 cadets were still in CAP.  It wasn't until they started graduating high school did they leave.

[Senior]

I know what the pipeline is for Pararescue.  What is the description of"pipelining " in this threads context? 

[JayT]

I know what the pipeline is for Pararescue.  What is the description of"pipelining " in this threads context? 

The exact same thing, except for CAP. You have cadet enter at a certain time of the year, go through a standarized training regimen, and then join the regular flights.

[Gunner C]

Not to necromance a 6 month old thread....

We held our Spring Open House last night.  It sneaked up on us, so our advertising cycle was shorter than normal.  I anticipated a turn out similar to last Spring's (which netted us 8-9 cadets), and we were fine with that.

The recruiting duo was back at it hitting their old middle school's lunch room with flyers earlier in the week.

We had between 40 & 45 non-CAP folks show up, of which there were between 16 & 20 cadet-aged individuals there.    And we had at least two families contact the commander that they couldn't come to the open house, but could they still join if they're at the meeting next week?

The commander and I agreed that if we get 12, we'll be doing well. I bet we get more.

Remember, the Maximum Effective Range of Recruiting is 1m.

One of my squadrons (WIWA Group CC) did pretty much the same thing - a new, motivated SM, whose son was a cadet, who had caught the vision of CAP.  They tripled the cadet membership overnight.

As far as pipelining cadets, I can see advantages as well as disadvantages.  WIWAC, we started a "class" every month for Phase 1.  Back in those days the Phase 2 achievements could be taken in any order, so it wasn't the logistical problem that it is today.  We had a huge, successful program.

[NIN]

UK: dude, its one part NIN's Pipelining and one part UK's t-flight. That's it. 

The recipie for my part is simple.

Its committing to the diet which daunts some folks.

[AvroArrow]

The exact same thing, except for CAP. You have cadet enter at a certain time of the year, go through a standarized training regimen, and then join the regular flights.

Little slow today.

Pipelining means to teach new recruits and eventually "promote" them to regular flights?

[JayT]

It means that you don't just accept cadets every meeting of the year, but only at a few intervals, to ensure that you can conduct a proper indoc to them.

[NIN]

[snip]
The commander and I agreed that if we get 12, we'll be doing well. I bet we get more.

Remember, the Maximum Effective Range of Recruiting is 1m.

Walked in the door about 90 minutes ago.  21 new recruits standing tall on deck.

12. *Pfft*  I was clearly sandbagging when I agreed with my commander that we'd do well getting 12 cadets this time around.

See the attached  photo taken about 10 min ago.

[Gunner C]

Good crowd!  That's going to blast training those new cadets.

[NIN]

Good crowd!  That's going to blast training those new cadets.

Proof is in the pudding. Consistently high retention numbers (we beat the national average by a few percentage points), active unit, well trained cadets, etc.

( I was wrong in my earlier post today about our numbers.  59 cadets and 30 seniors. )

People have told me that I should be thrown out of Civil Air Patrol for "not allowing people to join when they want to."  No, we allow people to join, but for administrative and training reasons, we only take new members 2x per year.  If you can't wait till then, there are units nearby, you can join them.



For those who don't believe it, "pipelining" works.  Come to my unit some time and see.

[RiverAux]

I think the reason that pipelining seems to work is that it is done in conjunction with a focused recruiting drive.  A unit that does two strong recruiting drives a year but accepts cadets at other times as well is probably going to do just as well.  However, what often gets compared is the twice-yearly recruiting drive with pipeline system against a unit that doesn't do anything but accept the random recruits that happen to come by.  Obviously the latter isn't going to do that well.

[jimmydeanno]

NIN,

Your Cadet Commander sent me a text message with that number last night, I think it's fantastic and congratulations. 

Oddly enough though, we had 37 of regular cadets show up last night and they brought along 7 potentials [44 total cadets, 32 seniors at the meeting doing stuff]. 

I go back and forth about the pipelining, but generally agree that it is a proven method of getting more people to stay longer, etc.  It helps alleviate a lot of administrative issues, logistical issues, etc. 

However, I really believe that an active unit that doesn't have pipelining has the same chances of success as another unit that does do pipelining.  Not three months ago, we had half that attendance on a given night.  Over the last few months we've been ramping up our activities schedule, fixing the meeting schedule issues, doing more o-flights, improving the cadet/senior relationships, and voila.  In a mere three months we have twice the meeting attendance and a miraculous 7 kids that want to join.

My unit down in VA didn't have an official pipeline program, but it sort of worked out that way.  We only had about 3 cadets actively participating when my wife and I joined the unit.  We had a change of command at the unit and recruited hard at the airshow.  Within 6 months we had nearly 80 cadets showing up to every meeting.  (BTW, that's a lot of uniforms to issue )  For some wings, that is their encampment. 

There is just something about being able to have an encampment style formation every week.  Now, it looks weird when I go to another squadron and there are less than 20 cadets there.  I want to shake the DCC and Squadron Commander and tell them they too can have a huge, successful cadet program if they really wanted to.

Where I think most of these units struggle, isn't with whether they do pipelining or not, but in their weekly meetings, recruiting efforts and what their actual squadron environment is like.  YMMV.

Again, keep up the great work up there in the Capital City.

[NIN]

I think the reason that pipelining seems to work is that it is done in conjunction with a focused recruiting drive.  A unit that does two strong recruiting drives a year but accepts cadets at other times as well is probably going to do just as well.  However, what often gets compared is the twice-yearly recruiting drive with pipeline system against a unit that doesn't do anything but accept the random recruits that happen to come by.  Obviously the latter isn't going to do that well.

And therein lies a lot of the issue.

"Trickle-in" recruiting is not very resource intensive on its face.  They show up, fill out some forms, pay some money, stand in formation, eventually get trained.    How hard is that, right?

Problem is, if your unit is seating a membership board like CAPR 39-2 suggests (and you are conducting membership boards, right?), then with trickle in your personnel officer is always processing CAPF 15s and 12s, your membership board is always meeting, your logistics officer is constantly issuing new member kits and uniforms, etc.  Takes your personnel officer away from day-to-day "personnel" business, your logistics officer away from the unit's overall "logistical" things, and the poor dudes who make up your membership board can't give it their full attention, or their duties suffer.

And this is going on, ALL THE TIME.

With pipelining, you do a unit recruiting night 2x a year, an inprocessing night 2 x a year, and run a basic flight 2x/year.   My inprocessing is on the 2nd of April. By the end of that night, 75-80% of the cadets will have their CAPF 15 in the mail to NHQ, the squadron will have sized them (correctly) for their FCU, issued BDUs, sat them in front of a membership board, snapped an ID-card photo of them, and thats that.

The following week, the personnel officer has to deal with a couple follow-ups and then goes back to doing his/her personnel officer duties as assigned. The logistics officer is about to make a bulk order for insignia, once, and the guys who comprise the membership board are back doing their duties. For the next 5-7 months until the next inprocessing.

[CadetProgramGuy]

Where can I see a copy of the PPT?

I am in the process of starting a new squadron, getting the initial Cadre up to speed.  We are going to have the open house there in a month or two.

[Stonewall]

We have begun a major recruiting drive that will culminate in a squadron open house on 23 Apr.  It will follow a major air show in the area the week prior.  We will place brochures and flyers at local middle schools, libraries, at the air show and a very popular Army Navy surplus store that is a provider for BSA troops in the area as well as being the largest Air Soft and Paint Ball store and it's only 3 miles from our meeting place.

[NIN]

Dude, make the date & Open House "BIGGER" (please tell me you have the correct fonts..Eras Bold ITC, Eras Demi ITC and the Word Art is done in Hattenshweiler and Arial Black..)

I'll email you what we do for a program.  I think our presentation is still available on the squadron website (whoops, squadron website is gone.. that's bad news bears..)

[RADIOMAN015]

We have begun a major recruiting drive that will culminate in a squadron open house on 23 Apr.  It will follow a major air show in the area the week prior.  We will place brochures and flyers at local middle schools, libraries, at the air show and a very popular Army Navy surplus store that is a provider for BSA troops in the area as well as being the largest Air Soft and Paint Ball store and it's only 3 miles from our meeting place.

Are you going to have a recruiting booth and display at the airshow?  We got a fair number of recruits that way, especially cadets but also a few seniors
RM

[Stonewall]

Dude, make the date & Open House "BIGGER" (please tell me you have the correct fonts..Eras Bold ITC, Eras Demi ITC and the Word Art is done in Hattenshweiler and Arial Black..)

I'll email you what we do for a program.  I think our presentation is still available on the squadron website (whoops, squadron website is gone.. that's bad news bears..)

I thought it looks pretty good.  Send me what you got before I go into production and start pasting these throughout the city.

Are you going to have a recruiting booth and display at the airshow?  We got a fair number of recruits that way, especially cadets but also a few seniors
RM

I'm not the POC for the air show, but I will be there and if you know me, I'll make contact with 100 people whether they like it or not and spread the word.  From Andrews AFB air show to Manassas Air Port, I'm a true "salesman" when it comes to recruiting.  I've recruited people for other squadrons in other states from a McDonald's.

[NIN]

I've recruited people for other squadrons in other states from a McDonald's.

I was there, and that doesn't count. That young man was not cadet aged.  But his mom was pretty hot.

[Stonewall]

I've recruited people for other squadrons in other states from a McDonald's.

I was there, and that doesn't count. That young man was not cadet aged.  But his mom was pretty hot.

I knew you were going to bring that up.... "like the patch do ya...do push-ups" is not a recruiting line.

I was thinking of WV during ANG drill weekend.

[Stonewall]

Well, I forgot to mention last week that we had our open house and after conducting some follow up calls since last Thursday, we're expecting at least 7 new cadets to show up for T-Flight on May 7th.

We didn't do the full blown planning and execution of how I like to advertise and solicit for new members, but we needed to act fast to get our numbers up so we can average 15+ cadets at our meetings.

7 may not sound like a lot, but that more than doubles our A-Flight (after they graduate T-Flight).

[biomed441]

I was "pipelined" as a cadet back on 2001. Now I'm a senior member. The system works.  I learned a whole lot more in a t-flight (my squadron just called it bravo flight) that was catered to the development of new cadets. Proper drill, memory work, introductions to the program and all of its aspects. I don't know why so many seem to object to this form of training. Different teachers, different methods I guess.