Recruiting Members

[NIN]

Seriously though...that is impressive.

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but this is what cohort recruiting does for you.

People say "We're too small to do it like that"
What they're really saying is "We're so small that we don't know how to manage our personnel and resources, so we prefer to do it the old fashioned and very inefficient way"

People say "We can't turn anybody away!"
What they're really saying is "We jump on any poor victim that walks in the door like a monkey on a cupcake and grab onto them like a Titanic survivor on a life ring" (too soon?)

People say "We don't want to grow too quickly.."
In 35 years, the number of units I've seen/heard say "We need to grow.." vastly exceeds the number of units that said "We grew too fast" or "We grew too much."

Seriously.

Cohort recruiting tends to be a function of unit size, anyway.  If you follow the model, a small squadron of 15 cadets and 5 seniors (just picking numbers out of thin air) might only pick up 3-4 recruits each time (initially). So you do 2 or 3 cohorts a year and pick up 6-10 new cadets a year. Pretty manageable, right?

If you apply the current organization-wide retention percentages, your nominal squadron of 15 cadets will have, say, a mix of 6 "first year cadets," and 9 "subsequent year cadets".   

So, with no recruiting at all:
1 Jan: 15 cadets
Minus 4 first year cadets and 2 subsequent year cadets.
31 Dec: 9 cadets

Come February this unit is a candidate for deactivation

So really, how many cadets (and seniors) does this unit need to recruit this year only to grow just 10%?

1 Jan: 15 cadets, 5 seniors
Loss: (as above) 4 first year cadets and 2 subsequent year cadets
Senior Loss: 1
Recruiting: 9 cadets, 2 seniors
31 Dec: 18 cadets, 6 seniors

You had to replace OVER HALF of your squadron's original strength to grow just 10%.
Now, spread over two cohorts, thats 4 & 5 cadets.  The seniors you can treat slightly differently.

You can assign ONE cadet to a 4 or 5 cadet corhort to train them.  Pretty manageable, right?

If you trickled 9 cadets in over the course of the year, thats one cadet every 5-6 weeks-ish.  OK, so that's a Great Start class, but NINE TIMES.  I'll be fair: you get 8 to join as pairs and one walks in solo about 3 weeks after one pair.  Now you're looking at running Great Start just five times.   Any way you slice it, thats still a pretty inefficient training model and you're constantly running Great Starts, new member paperwork, membership boards, unit supply, etc.

Once you start building membership, things start happening, however. You get a more active program. More people begets more people and your unit grows, and as things grow more, you become more efficient which helps out retention.  So eventually, you start retaining better than the 25% first year, 65% subsequent year numbers.

The next year your squadron looks like this (keeping a 10% growth paradigm):

1 Jan: 18 cadets, 6 seniors (9 first year cadets and 9 subsequent year cadets)
Loss: (as above) 6 first year cadets and 2 subsequent year cadets
Senior Loss: 1
Recruiting: 10 cadets, 2 seniors
31 Dec: 20 cadets, 7 seniors

Pretty manageable, right?

I won't bore you with the extrapolation.

But think about my squadron:

67 cadets and 31 seniors.

If I just go by the national average, I'm going to lose 24 of my 32 first year cadets and 15 of my subsequent year cadets (more total than many squadrons HAVE)

That means I have to replace 19-20 cadets in 2016 just to break even.  And I need to replace 25-26 to grow 10%.

(I know there are people out there going "Wait, wat?")

So I need at least 13 cadets in each BCT to grow.

"But wait, NIN, you had 21 in your last BCT.."

"Yep. And around 12 or 13 in the one before that."

These are completely do-able numbers for us. Have been for YEARS with cohort recruiting.  In our sleep.

Retention is a fungible thing that moves around. Sometimes our first year retention is higher than the national average (30%, maybe). Sometimes, its 20%.  But usually we're around 28%-30% first year retention or more.  So we have more than 10% growth most of the time.

If you plan worst case scenario, if you plan based on the expected averages, then anything you do over that is "money in your pocket," so to speak.

[NIN]

That looks awesome NIN.  Might I ask if I could have the powerpoint, and what you guys do/ talk about at the open house other than the typical stuff found at the end of every CAP news release?

I will scarf the latest power point from the guy who did it, but the basic agenda looks like this:

5pm - Arrival, setup, feed the troops some pizza for helping.
(setup chairs, screen, technology and displays)
- Displays: Aerospace (gliders, simulator, any STEM stuff we have), ES (the usual junk-on-the-bunk style gear display, maybe radios, ELT/DF, and then a laptop with a short PPT looping with ES facts, CP display (this year our CP display sucked.. I admit!)
- Food: finger food.  (one mom made these gluten-free raspberry & almond bars.. *faint*)
6pm: color guard practices a few times
6:30pm: start herding people to seats
6:35pm: start the formal presentation.
- Quick Powerpoint (< 20 minutes) (find it here https://sites.google.com/a/nhwg.cap.gov/recruiting/) under "Presentations" on the right.. its the older one from 2013, feel free to mod! I'll get the 2016 slides)
- "Call to join" (stolen from the scouts... usually the c/CC or another well-spoken senior cadets who speaks personally)
- Q&A
- Any presentations
- Refreshments (here is where the *real* recruiting happens)

[cnitas]

Thanks. 
We did a couple of events like this years ago and they were fairly successful.  The member who ran them is long gone now.  I would like to try and get our squadron's recruiting going again, and I am trying not to reinvent the wheel.

[cnitas]

Just read through the materials you posted. 

Wow! that is most helpful.  I know what I am going to be doing in the next few weeks!   

[TheSkyHornet]

Took NIN's advic--We held an Open House. While we didn't get the turnout he did, we picked up 11 new cadets and have two to three potential senior members that are considering joining. Our new class graduates on 20MAR. It was a real turning point in our membership, not just with our new members, but with our older members as well who have been around for a couple of years or longer. I had three review boards yesterday, and all three cadets said they were really happy to see the squadron becoming active again. When I asked them what they meant by that, they all said (in their own way) that they liked the new recruit training program. Two of them aren't instructing the new cadets, and I asked them why they felt like it made a difference to them that there was a new training class going on, and they both said that it made them feel like we were doing something to improve the squadron, even if it didn't affect them directly.

We're going to holding another Open House in the late summer/fall, possibly one prior to then as well. Our next training class is set to start in September.

One of the big things I will tell any parent is that they definitely need to come to the three meetings to get a feel for the program, because an Open House will always differ from an actual weekly meeting. There is work involved, and we will push their kids to become cadets. It's not boot camp, but we expect discipline, maturity, and a willingness to become leaders. And I stress that I always want to talk to any potential cadet before they make the decision to join because I want them to make the decision, not mom or dad. This is about their experience and their progress, and nobody should push them into something they don't feel they really want to do. If they ever have any questions along the way, they should never feel unwelcome to ask someone for information or assistance, and they are always welcome to address any concerns they may have. It's going to be a confusing first few weeks while they get used to things, but we are there to look out for them and help them to develop their skills and abilities as a professional, competent, confident cadet and member of the community.

I had a mom who was VERY hesitant about having her two sons and their cousin join. She was really concerned that, them being quieter boys (and a little awkward), that they would be out of their element in our environment. I reassured her that this isn't ever going to be a program where anyone gets in their face and screams at them or fake them feel inferior, but I will take them out of their comfort zones so they can get used to thinking on their toes and being put into situations where they'll have to come out of their shells. We don't embarrass anyone, and we don't scream at anyone, but expect to have some volume, expect to be put on the spot, and expect to make a lot of friends in the process because everyone else in the class will go through the exact same thing. It's not about breaking anyone down to build them up; it's about bringing out their potential and the skills that they may not know they possess. And the three are still in the class, getting ready to graduate, and they've done outstanding work in drill, PT, leadership testing, and (while still a bit shy) participating in interactive discussions with the class.

A saying of mine when I see cadets and prospects start to get shy:
"It's okay to be nervous. You think I'm not nervous standing up here talking to a bunch of eyeballs staring at me? It's okay to not know. You think I haven't been making this stuff up as I go along?" Usually gets a smile or two 

[Майор Хаткевич]

One day...I'll stop talking and thinking about it, and actually do it.

[NIN]

One day...I'll stop talking and thinking about it, and actually do it.

I have 9 units in my wing.

My unit pretty much kicks 7 of the other 8 unit's butts.

Squadron commanders have come to me over the years and said "We want to do what you do. Help us!"

First thing I say is "come to one of  our events and see how we do it."

To date, nobody has shown up.

The second thing I say is "Schedule and run a community wide open house event.  Here are our materials. Use them as you need to do."

So they hem and haw about it, put something on their calendar, change the date three times and don't even inform their people what is going on, let alone anybody else.  Then, when they actually hold the event and don't get the response they wanted, they complain loudly that "it didn't work."

So then, I start asking questions.

Q: "Did you print flyers for hand outs and give them to your cadets?"

A: "uh, no." (One unit actually said "I made a PDF, put it on our website and then told people they could print them out if they wanted to."  What?)

Q: "Did you advertise in the paper or something? Facebook??"

A: "Not really." (this is code for "no")

Q: "Did you tell your people to bring in someone?"

A: "No, we didn't." (a unit actually held their open house on a "fifth Tuesday" and told the ENTIRE squadron they didn't have to show up.  How.. exciting.)

At the end of the day, its pretty simple. We follow a very basic "recipe" for making this work.

But to follow a recipe, you need to actually follow it.

It would be like someone asking me for my excellent pumpernickel bread recipe and when they go to make it, they completely omit the flour, yeast and water.

And then say to me "I couldn't make your recipe work!" and when I ask why, they admit that all they did was throw a pinch of salt, some caraway seeds and molasses in the breadmaker and now its my fault that their bread didn't come out.   

Well, no kidding.

[Майор Хаткевич]

We've had this convo on and off a number of times. I believe in the system...just need to get people on board, sit down, and run it.

[NIN]

We've had this convo on and off a number of times. I believe in the system...just need to get people on board, sit down, and run it.

Sometimes its far easier to get forgiveness than permission.

[Майор Хаткевич]

We've had this convo on and off a number of times. I believe in the system...just need to get people on board, sit down, and run it.

Sometimes its far easier to get forgiveness than permission.

I'm thinking more on getting the staff in on the vision. Hard to run an open house alone, and do the whole "come back in 1-2 months, for our enrollment date" without commander/recruitment/staff buy in.

[Spaceman3750]

We've had this convo on and off a number of times. I believe in the system...just need to get people on board, sit down, and run it.

Sometimes its far easier to get forgiveness than permission.

I'm thinking more on getting the staff in on the vision. Hard to run an open house alone, and do the whole "come back in 1-2 months, for our enrollment date" without commander/recruitment/staff buy in.

"Listen, what we're doing now isn't working. Let's give this a shot, and re-evaluate in 6 months. If it doesn't work, we can drop it, but in the meantime, let's try it and see what happens."

[stillamarine]

One day...I'll stop talking and thinking about it, and actually do it.

I have 9 units in my wing.

My unit pretty much kicks 7 of the other 8 unit's butts.

Squadron commanders have come to me over the years and said "We want to do what you do. Help us!"

First thing I say is "come to one of  our events and see how we do it."

To date, nobody has shown up.

The second thing I say is "Schedule and run a community wide open house event.  Here are our materials. Use them as you need to do."

So they hem and haw about it, put something on their calendar, change the date three times and don't even inform their people what is going on, let alone anybody else.  Then, when they actually hold the event and don't get the response they wanted, they complain loudly that "it didn't work."

So then, I start asking questions.

Q: "Did you print flyers for hand outs and give them to your cadets?"

A: "uh, no." (One unit actually said "I made a PDF, put it on our website and then told people they could print them out if they wanted to."  What?)

Q: "Did you advertise in the paper or something? Facebook??"

A: "Not really." (this is code for "no")

Q: "Did you tell your people to bring in someone?"

A: "No, we didn't." (a unit actually held their open house on a "fifth Tuesday" and told the ENTIRE squadron they didn't have to show up.  How.. exciting.)

At the end of the day, its pretty simple. We follow a very basic "recipe" for making this work.

But to follow a recipe, you need to actually follow it.

It would be like someone asking me for my excellent pumpernickel bread recipe and when they go to make it, they completely omit the flour, yeast and water.

And then say to me "I couldn't make your recipe work!" and when I ask why, they admit that all they did was throw a pinch of salt, some caraway seeds and molasses in the breadmaker and now its my fault that their bread didn't come out.   

Well, no kidding.

I still have your open house template and plan to put it in use soon.

[Holding Pattern]

"Monday, Tuesday at the latest!"

[Майор Хаткевич]

We've had this convo on and off a number of times. I believe in the system...just need to get people on board, sit down, and run it.

Sometimes its far easier to get forgiveness than permission.

I'm thinking more on getting the staff in on the vision. Hard to run an open house alone, and do the whole "come back in 1-2 months, for our enrollment date" without commander/recruitment/staff buy in.

"Listen, what we're doing now isn't working. Let's give this a shot, and re-evaluate in 6 months. If it doesn't work, we can drop it, but in the meantime, let's try it and see what happens."

That's sentence one. Sentence two is getting their buy in.

[Raptormanf35]

I have tried to recruit my friends but they ask me why should i join especially when they have to pay for joining and buying uniforms etc, its easy to get cadets to join but what incentive really is there for senior members to join aside from a burning desire to serve your country for free even though there is a paid version called the USAF lol.

[Holding Pattern]

I have tried to recruit my friends but they ask me why should i join especially when they have to pay for joining and buying uniforms etc, its easy to get cadets to join but what incentive really is there for senior members to join aside from a burning desire to serve your country for free even though there is a paid version called the USAF lol.

Cater to their interests.

"You have a HAM radio license? That's cool. What kind of ticket do you have?"
"Tech/Gen/Extra"
"That's really neat! CAP lets us encrypted radios for operations on military frequencies!"
Aaaand the hook is set.

"You have an IT certification? That's cool. Do you remember the good old days of technet and the MSDNAA?"
"Yeah."
"Well if you help mentor or coach a cyberpatriot team, you can get the next best thing, a dreamspark premium account and cisco netacad access!"
Aaaand the hook is set.

Also don't underestimate the draw of the full set of cadet programs for senior members. AEX has a lot of possibilities as well, along with... well, I can go on all day. Give me a section you think you can't sell, I'll build you an elevator speech.

[Raptormanf35]

Well no one I know has a specialty like that so I guess I would like to know what to say to just an average person with no license or special qualification.

[Raptormanf35]

Also my friends are mostly age between 18 to 30

[Holding Pattern]

Well no one I know has a specialty like that so I guess I would like to know what to say to just an average person with no license or special qualification.

Discovery.

"What do you do for a living?"

"What do you for fun?"

"What do you want to do for a career?"

Find common interests.

Especially for the 18-25 group, point out that CAP experience can fill out an otherwise empty resume with things like:

"Managed a ground search team"
"provided radio support for multiple 5 man teams operating in a communications exercise"
"Completed the following FEMA Independent Study and In-residence courses:"
"Regional Drill Team Competitor"
"Was intercepted by an F-16 and didn't go to jail" - Though this should be a T-shirt

[Raptormanf35]

Now I'm thinking about updating my resume lol