How many squadrons have over 100 members?

[Holding Pattern]

I've been trying to identify squadrons that have weathered the last year well and I've come across a couple that have really pushed the envelope.

A consistent theme is they have over 100 members.

Is there a place I could see which squadrons fit that criteria without individually pulling each squadron's data?

[etodd]

How many of that 100 are active? Impressive number either way.  Our squadron's official numbers are low, but participation is dismal. We have a number of people who dropped out of view years ago, but keep paying dues as a donation. So membership numbers are artificially inflated. How much does this occur nationwide? I'm betting active membership for CAP as a whole is very small now. The official membership number advertised could be very misleading. (?)

[Fubar]

We had a squadron commander who one day decided their squadron was going to be the largest in the wing. They started recruiting everyone they could find, the commander even signed up their parents and siblings, none of which lived in the state (I've wondered if they even knew they were signed up).

They eventually became the biggest squadron although meeting attendance never really changed. Applied for a unit citation and a few other awards for being the "biggest" squadron. It of course all petered out fairly quickly.

Not saying this is the case with the squadron that's been mentioned here, but quality over quantity is definitely the direction to go in.

[dwb]

No, there isn't one source for unit info like that. If you have access to your wing's CAPWATCH download you could massage your answer out of those files, but it would be only for your wing.

We have a few 100+ squadrons in VAWG. Those squadrons have solid, talented volunteers, and they are doing the best they can during the pandemic. That said, they all benefit from population density as a significant factor in their membership strength.

[jeders]

My apologies for taking this off topic, but I did want to address one point which Eclipse will point out is a recurring theme throughuot the ages in CAP.

How many of that 100 are active? Impressive number either way.  Our squadron's official numbers are low, but participation is dismal. We have a number of people who dropped out of view years ago, but keep paying dues as a donation. So membership numbers are artificially inflated. How much does this occur nationwide? I'm betting active membership for CAP as a whole is very small now. The official membership number advertised could be very misleading. (?)

We can actually do a decent job of estimating this by looking at safety education data. If we assume that everyone who is reasonably active participates in monthly safety education or otherwise completes safety education requirements, and we assume that those who don't complete the requirements aren't active, then we can use the safety education data in the Commander's Dashboard (for those who have access) to estimate actual active membership. In SWR, this proportion is between 45-55% over the last several months with an upward trend; this means that of SWR's roughly 5,700 personnel, fewer than 3,000 are in any way active.

[Blanding]

If we assume that everyone who is reasonably active participates in monthly safety education or otherwise completes safety education requirements, and we assume that those who don't complete the requirements aren't active

What basis are you making this assumption on? In my experience, a member having completed an in-person safety education requirement depends on a safety officer or commander entering that data regularly.

Active members who participate in instructor-led safety education generally won't log it in, nor is there any reason for them to do so.

[TheSkyHornet]

If we assume that everyone who is reasonably active participates in monthly safety education or otherwise completes safety education requirements, and we assume that those who don't complete the requirements aren't active

What basis are you making this assumption on? In my experience, a member having completed an in-person safety education requirement depends on a safety officer or commander entering that data regularly.

Active members who participate in instructor-led safety education generally won't log it in, nor is there any reason for them to do so.

There are a number of units that don't assign their cadets to duty positions in eServices and don't enter their Attendance logs.

While it may appear to be an inactive unit, the problem is often with the administrative management of processes rather than a lack of attendance/participation by members.

[Fubar]

That said, they all benefit from population density as a significant factor in their membership strength.

Our legitimately large squadrons also benefit from being in highly populated areas and they seem to endure quite a bit of churn. While they are frequently adding new members (some do cohort, some do trickle in), their numbers always seem to remain fairly steady.

Instead of focusing recruiting so much, some of these squadrons need to take a closer look at retention.

[JohhnyD]

Our unit is in a small, suburban county. Just looked, we started last year with 53 SMs and 67 cadets. Today we have 56 SMs and 80 cadets. SM participation rate varies but is roughly 50%. Cadets participate at a much higher rate.  January of 2019 we had 36 SMs and 39 cadets.

Two major factors: 1 - a GREAT command climate (incredibly supportive local and wing command staff), and 2 - we have a dedicated hangar courtesy of a local SAR foundation that dates back nearly 40 years. That created the base, then we started ramping up community engagement. We created a combined SM and cadet PAO team, leveraged social media, earned media and activities, culminating in a "Friendraising" effort three months last year and restarted last month.

[baronet68]

I can offer a current snapshot...
As of May 1st, 2021 there were 36 units with 100+ total members and, of those, there were 6 squadrons with 100+ cadets.

[JohhnyD]

I can offer a current snapshot...
As of May 1st, 2021 there were 36 units with 100+ total members and, of those, there were 6 squadrons with 100+ cadets.

Circa 1500 units, 36 of us >100 members. Top 3%. BTW, we are likely to exceed 100 cadets before year-end. That puts us at the top 1%.

This is not that hard. It requires GOOD command people and a plan.

[etodd]

BTW, we are likely to exceed 100 cadets before year-end.

Wow!  How many of those 100 attend an average meeting?

Will need O'Rides just about every Saturday to get that many in the air regularly.

[JohhnyD]

BTW, we are likely to exceed 100 cadets before year-end.

Wow!  How many of those 100 attend an average meeting?

Will need O'Rides just about every Saturday to get that many in the air regularly.

We have O'rides every weekend.

We split our SM meeting off from the main meeting as we ran out of space. We get 50 - 60 cadets (out of 80) and 15-25 SM's between our two meeting nights. We average 2 Academy appointments every year, a Spaatz every year (probably not this year, COVID has really been tough on us!), Sq of Distinction most years. We did not sweep the Wing of the Year Awards but did capture well over half. Retention is getting better since we added our NCO corps members (three strong so far, but doing the work of a dozen!), it appears to have really improved.

[JohhnyD]

I can offer a current snapshot...
As of May 1st, 2021 there were 36 units with 100+ total members and, of those, there were 6 squadrons with 100+ cadets.

Thank you!

[baronet68]

I can offer a current snapshot...
As of May 1st, 2021 there were 36 units with 100+ total members and, of those, there were 6 squadrons with 100+ cadets.

Circa 1500 units, 36 of us >100 members. Top 3%. BTW, we are likely to exceed 100 cadets before year-end. That puts us at the top 1%.

This is not that hard. It requires GOOD command people and a plan.

You might end up in the top 1% by size, but likely won't be in the top 1% based on cadet performance. 

Of all units last year with 100+ cadets, do you know how many placed in the top 100 nationally when measuring for promotions earned per cadet during 2020?  Zero.

In the top 200... Zero again.

In the top 300... Zero yet again.

On a national scale, from a total of 1012 cadet/composite units, squadrons with 100+ cadets ranked quite poorly when looking at promotions per cadet (PPC), an indication of overall cadet program health where highly successful units have a PPC of 2.00 or higher.

Cadets      2020 PPC     National/Region Rank
155         1.41         333/25
135         1.34         379/49
135         0.32         932/115
121         0.34         923/129
121         0.21         951/125
114         1.39         350/73
111         1.44         313/47


Generally speaking, while large squadrons often have a core group cadets who are highly successful, they also have a significant number of cadets who simply get lost among the masses and who become isolated, fall between the cracks, and fail to promote within the program.


Regardless of unit size, the most important thing is to have an active and engaging cadet program where a majority of the cadets continue to progress at a consistent rate through the program.

[JohhnyD]

I can offer a current snapshot...
As of May 1st, 2021 there were 36 units with 100+ total members and, of those, there were 6 squadrons with 100+ cadets.

Circa 1500 units, 36 of us >100 members. Top 3%. BTW, we are likely to exceed 100 cadets before year-end. That puts us at the top 1%.

This is not that hard. It requires GOOD command people and a plan.

You might end up in the top 1% by size, but likely won't be in the top 1% based on cadet performance. 

Of all units last year with 100+ cadets, do you know how many placed in the top 100 nationally when measuring for promotions earned per cadet during 2020?  Zero.

In the top 200... Zero again.

In the top 300... Zero yet again.

On a national scale, from a total of 1012 cadet/composite units, squadrons with 100+ cadets ranked quite poorly when looking at promotions per cadet (PPC), an indication of overall cadet program health where highly successful units have a PPC of 2.00 or higher.

Cadets      2020 PPC     National/Region Rank
155         1.41         333/25
135         1.34         379/49
135         0.32         932/115
121         0.34         923/129
121         0.21         951/125
114         1.39         350/73
111         1.44         313/47


Generally speaking, while large squadrons often have a core group cadets who are highly successful, they also have a significant number of cadets who simply get lost among the masses and who become isolated, fall between the cracks, and fail to promote within the program.


Regardless of unit size, the most important thing is to have an active and engaging cadet program where a majority of the cadets continue to progress at a consistent rate through the program.

How do I find that number for my unit?

[baronet68]

How do I find that number for my unit?

The 2020 PPC numbers were distributed to every wing/region commander and every wing/region director of recruiting and retention.  Some wings did a better job than others when it came to sharing the data.

If anyone would like to know their unit's PPC for 2020, just send me a private message with your charter number and I'll be happy to share.

[Eclipse]

There are several reports in eServices which will provide this information.

[baronet68]

There are several reports in eServices which will provide this information.

If there's a report in eServices that will count the number of monthly active cadet promotions, divide that by the number of active cadets in a unit, then rank order the units by wing, region, and nationally based on promotions per cadet, I'd love to see it.  It would save a significant amount of time spent on data manipulation and processing.

[JohhnyD]

You might end up in the top 1% by size, but likely won't be in the top 1% based on cadet performance. 

Of all units last year with 100+ cadets, do you know how many placed in the top 100 nationally when measuring for promotions earned per cadet during 2020?  Zero.

In the top 200... Zero again.

In the top 300... Zero yet again.

On a national scale, from a total of 1012 cadet/composite units, squadrons with 100+ cadets ranked quite poorly when looking at promotions per cadet (PPC), an indication of overall cadet program health where highly successful units have a PPC of 2.00 or higher.

Cadets      2020 PPC     National/Region Rank
155         1.41         333/25
135         1.34         379/49
135         0.32         932/115
121         0.34         923/129
121         0.21         951/125
114         1.39         350/73
111         1.44         313/47


Generally speaking, while large squadrons often have a core group cadets who are highly successful, they also have a significant number of cadets who simply get lost among the masses and who become isolated, fall between the cracks, and fail to promote within the program.


Regardless of unit size, the most important thing is to have an active and engaging cadet program where a majority of the cadets continue to progress at a consistent rate through the program.

Cadets = 62
PPC = 1.84
National Ranking = 132nd (2 units tied)
Region Ranking = 15th

We appear to be somewhat better than most large units, no?