Several Firsts...

Started by abysmal, April 07, 2005, 05:07:07 AM

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abysmal

Had a few milestones in my little squadron this last week.
I know this will NOT seem like much to many of you, but it has taken me 5 months of hard work to make this happen, and I owe it in large part to people online that have helped me get here..


Got my first 2nd. Lt promoted to 1st Lt ! (highest ranking cadet in the Sqrdn).
This brought about a change in Cadet command staff.
Which triggered a whole new Cadet Staff.

We now have a c/Training Flight for the first time.
A c/1st Sergent for the first time.
c/Flight Commanders for the first time.
A c/XO for the first time.

We even had our First Squadron Staff meeting since I joined last November.

In the grand scheme of things, there are all small items.
But they mark some MAJOR progress for us.

Oh, and i was told at the staff meeting that I will become the new Deputy Commander for Cadets as the current one is selling her house and moving away. Thus taking us from 3 senior members down to just 2 to run the cadet side of the squadron.
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Mac

Congratulations on making some major improvements in your cadet program, and on your appointment as Deputy Commander for Cadets. I would have to say that was the job I had the most fun at thus far in my CAP career, and I've held just about every position in a cadet in composite squadron that a non-pilot can hold or should hold, from cadet basic to senior member Captain.
Derk MacPherson, Lt Col, CAP
Vice Commander
Alaska Wing, PCR-AK-001

abysmal

Quote from: Nukem on April 07, 2005, 12:52:37 PM
Congratulations on making some major improvements in your cadet program, and on your appointment as Deputy Commander for Cadets. I would have to say that was the job I had the most fun at thus far in my CAP career, and I've held just about every position in a cadet in composite squadron that a non-pilot can hold or should hold, from cadet basic to senior member Captain.

Thanks.
They seem like small steps, but I am happy to see them having been taken at long last!!
The new position "will" be mine at somepoint after the current DCC leaves, but she has not given us a date for her departure yet.
Only that she IS leaving...

Must go recruit some new senior members!!
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Capt SSnyder

Congratulations on the great progress. FYI watch out for the IRS. The tax man will be watching your big pay increase.
Steven Snyder, Capt. CAP
Commander
Woodfield Composite Squadron
GLR-IL-075

abysmal

Quote from: Capt SSnyder on April 08, 2005, 01:16:41 PM
Congratulations on the great progress. FYI watch out for the IRS. The tax man will be watching your big pay increase.

HA!
Thats one thing I have leared VERY quickly.
CAP still stands for COME AND PAY....
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

MIKE

Quote from: abysmal on April 08, 2005, 03:16:30 PM
Quote from: Capt SSnyder on April 08, 2005, 01:16:41 PM
Congratulations on the great progress. FYI watch out for the IRS. The tax man will be watching your big pay increase.

HA!
Thats one thing I have leared VERY quickly.
CAP still stands for COME AND PAY....

Or Cash And Plastic!
Mike Johnston

abysmal

I like it.
We should start a new thread on what "CAP" stands for.
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

abysmal

Had the official change of command cerimony on Monday night.
All of the new staff positions were announced and all of the cadets were shuffled into the new flights.

Organized Caos...

The whole concept of a "training" flight is still foreign to all the cadets, and there was much confusion over the concept. But I think, based on teh suggestions of many on this board that it WILL work out for the best.

Also implimented a new "Core Knowledge" program for all the Cadets based on Rank.
Out of 29 Cadets we actually had 3 or 4 that knew the Cadet Oath! In a couple months I hope that will be 100%.

Lots of small steps have cunulated in some major changes in the last couple weeks. The squadron is taking on a whole new "look & feel" as teh cadets are finally begining to exert themselves in real leadership positions.
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Pylon

Quote from: abysmal on April 14, 2005, 04:36:40 AM
Had the official change of command cerimony on Monday night.
All of the new staff positions were announced and all of the cadets were shuffled into the new flights.

Organized Caos...

The whole concept of a "training" flight is still foreign to all the cadets, and there was much confusion over the concept. But I think, based on teh suggestions of many on this board that it WILL work out for the best.

Also implimented a new "Core Knowledge" program for all the Cadets based on Rank.
Out of 29 Cadets we actually had 3 or 4 that knew the Cadet Oath! In a couple months I hope that will be 100%.

Lots of small steps have cunulated in some major changes in the last couple weeks. The squadron is taking on a whole new "look & feel" as teh cadets are finally begining to exert themselves in real leadership positions.

Congratulations!  Sounds like hard work paying off.  Glad to know that we may have helped even a little bit here.  Also nice to see that you're finally seeing some results from all the effort you've put into your unit.  ;)
Michael F. Kieloch, Maj, CAP

abysmal

I can honestly say that the HELP and SUGGESTIONS i have gotten from the people here on CAP Talk has been TREMENDOUS!!!
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Schmidty06

So, how many flights do you have in your squadron?  For how ever many cadets you have, how many are staff?  What is your average turnout rate when compared to your roster?  What does your cadet staff do?  What do you WANT them to do?  What are you plans for the next month, next quarter, and next year?  How many of your cadets are going to encampment this year?  And how many are going to NCSAs?  How many have or are working on ES ratings?

Why do I ask?  Because!  :P ;D

But these are some of the major questions that you have to start/should be/have to start asking yourself.  It seems like you've got your squadron's momentum moving now, and you definately DO NOT want to lose it.  Our cadet staff tries to have a meeting at least every two weeks, ideally every week.  This is outside of the squadron meeting itself, so that it doesn't interfere with our squadron meeting's activities and schedual.  Also, since it seems that you have a LOT of new staff people, you might as well make sure that they're doing their job like they are supposed to.  I would suggest having a staff training weekend that teaches each and every staff member how to do their job effectively and how it benifits the squadron.  Make sure that you don't have any underwater basket weavers on your staff, they tend to slow everything down.

And then, there's schedualing.  Make sure that you have a wide variety of activities planned both in and out of your regular squadron meetings.  It is vital to keep things interesting. 

And now encampments and NCSAs.  Highly encourage as many of your cadets to attend encampment as humanly possible.  I kind of see it as you aren't really a full-blown cadet until after you've attended an encampment.  And interestingly, cadets will usually get a motivation boost after encampment and will bring the knowledge that they learned at encampment back into the squadron.  In order to go to NCSAs, which is where alot of REALLY cool cadet programs experiences come from, they have to attend an encampment.  The motivation that they will leave encampment with will be multiplied several fold after they come home from an NCSA.  They'll be getting out with other cadets from around the country and gaining valuable knowledge and experience from just about everywhere.  I find that this helps keep your program within the squadron fresh instead of going stale with one or two generations of cadets that havn't been to any encampments or NCSAs.  Actually, my squadron has this standing financial assistance program to get cadets to go to encampment, the squadron will dish out $25 for every cadet who is going to encampment for the first time to help pay for transport, encampment fees, or spending money while out of town.  It works pretty well.

And finally, ES ratings.  ES is 1/3 of our mission, and is very interesting and challenging for cadets to learn.  Weekend FTXs, SAREXs, bivouacs, and the like are also great activities for all of the cadets outside of the regular squadron meetings that will keep them interested.  Also, it puts a greater challenge on your cadet staff to plan these activities out and run them.  It can also foster Esprit de corps when your cadets get signed off as flight line marshallers, or ground team members, or the like.  Of course you have to make sure that they earn it by meeting national training standards, but when they look at what they've accomplished, it's well worth the time and effort.

abysmal

Quote from: Schmidty06 on April 16, 2005, 05:06:56 AM
So, how many flights do you have in your squadron? 
As of Monday night, we have Two.

For how ever many cadets you have, how many are staff? 
We have 29 total Cadets, of which 5 are officers/Staff

What is your average turnout rate when compared to your roster? 
We run in the 85% range on a weekly basis.

What does your cadet staff do? 
Planning, Training, Classes.

What do you WANT them to do? 
PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE.
Do a MUCH better job of Planning, and start training the NCOs to do the training of the Cadets rather than the officers.



What are you plans for the next month, next quarter, and next
year? 
We have only planned out 4 months in advance.
And that is only for the regular meetings.
As this point we are only focused in on getting the regular meetings up to speed, when that is accomplished we will begin working on extra-curicular activities and squadron enhancements.



How many of your cadets are going to encampment this year? 
So far as I know only 2 can afford the $225 tuition and all of the additional costs. The Dollar amount is a MAJOR issue for our cadets.


And how many are going to NCSAs? 
None that I am aware of.


How many have or are working on ES ratings?
Most have their ES card for training purposes.
A few are signed off on communications.
None have a GT rating.



Why do I ask?  Because!  :P ;D


But these are some of the major questions that you have to start/should be/have to start asking yourself.  It seems like you've got your squadron's momentum moving now, and you definately DO NOT want to lose it.  Our cadet staff tries to have a meeting at least every two weeks, ideally every week.  This is outside of the squadron meeting itself, so that it doesn't interfere with our squadron meeting's activities and schedual.  Also, since it seems that you have a LOT of new staff people, you might as well make sure that they're doing their job like they are supposed to.  I would suggest having a staff training weekend that teaches each and every staff member how to do their job effectively and how it benifits the squadron.  Make sure that you don't have any underwater basket weavers on your staff, they tend to slow everything down.

And then, there's schedualing.  Make sure that you have a wide variety of activities planned both in and out of your regular squadron meetings.  It is vital to keep things interesting. 

At this point we have NO outside activities whatsoever.
The cadets are asking for them, but there are REAL issues in pulling them off when we only have TWO senior members, and one of us has to work every Saturday.
Senior staff is just non-existent.


And now encampments and NCSAs.  Highly encourage as many of your cadets to attend encampment as humanly possible.  I kind of see it as you aren't really a full-blown cadet until after you've attended an encampment.  And interestingly, cadets will usually get a motivation boost after encampment and will bring the knowledge that they learned at encampment back into the squadron.  In order to go to NCSAs, which is where alot of REALLY cool cadet programs experiences come from, they have to attend an encampment.  The motivation that they will leave encampment with will be multiplied several fold after they come home from an NCSA.  They'll be getting out with other cadets from around the country and gaining valuable knowledge and experience from just about everywhere.  I find that this helps keep your program within the squadron fresh instead of going stale with one or two generations of cadets that havn't been to any encampments or NCSAs.  Actually, my squadron has this standing financial assistance program to get cadets to go to encampment, the squadron will dish out $25 for every cadet who is going to encampment for the first time to help pay for transport, encampment fees, or spending money while out of town.  It works pretty well.

We need to be working on some MAJOR fundraising program for 2005, as money is the #1 reason why the cadets are NOT going to any of the programs. They just can not afford it. Its the same problem we have with Uniforms.


And finally, ES ratings.  ES is 1/3 of our mission, and is very interesting and challenging for cadets to learn.  Weekend FTXs, SAREXs, bivouacs, and the like are also great activities for all of the cadets outside of the regular squadron meetings that will keep them interested.  Also, it puts a greater challenge on your cadet staff to plan these activities out and run them.  It can also foster Esprit de corps when your cadets get signed off as flight line marshallers, or ground team members, or the like.  Of course you have to make sure that they earn it by meeting national training standards, but when they look at what they've accomplished, it's well worth the time and effort.

Could not agree more!!
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

abysmal

Had another first that I am very proud of.

We had our first night where the cadet staff ran the ENTIRE NIGHT!

I know this should not be seen as such a big deal, but trust me, it was.
It was a real treat to see the cadet staff run the entire meeting from start to finish with no senior intervention.

This was the very first night in almost 7 months that I was able to work in the office on cadet paperwork during a regular meeting!!!

These cadets are making some great progress...
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

arajca

Speaking of firsts, we held the first meeting up here in Summit County last night. This is the first step to establishing a squadron up here.

We only had 6 guests, but two have already decided to join - one senior and one cadet (not related).

The ball is rolling...

abysmal

Wish I were there.
Spent 17 years in Boulder before moving out here to Lake Havasu.
Summit county was one of my favorite places to hang on the weekend.
2LT Christopher M. Parrett
[red]Deputy Commander of Cadets, Cadet Programs Officer[/red]
London Bridge Composite Squadron 501
SWR-AZ-112,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona

elkorona

Hmm, I may go to Havasu sometime in the future (near or distant).  Unless I steal 70X down at DVT I don't feel like driving.  Havasu was a nice airport to come in to...
Lt Col Elliott Korona, CAP
Deputy Director, Civic Leadership Academy