Suggestions for a struggling squadron

[NC Hokie]

So, I'm the commander of a struggling squadron, and this is (theoretically, at least) a place for the exchange of ideas to improve CAP. What better place to ask for help, right?

Here's the situation in a nutshell:

Five active and mostly reliable senior members (11 on roster)
Ten active cadets (12 on roster)
Located at an airport that serves two small cities, with another less active airport located minutes away
Major USAF base 40 miles to the east served by a growing and active CAP squadron
Large urban area 40 miles to the west served by several other CAP squadrons
No EAA, etc. at home airport, and a small EAA presence at the other airport that doesn't like CAP (or our airport) very much

I am open to any and all ideas anyone wants to share. I've been in the big chair (well, it's not that big) for 15 months now with little to show for the effort I and my members have expended, and I honestly feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I'm hoping you guys have suggestions for other barrels to pry open.

[Eclipse]

The first thing I would do is have a "Come to Jesus" meeting with all hands and discuss the viability of the
unit openly and honestly.  Assess whether the current membership is really interested in getting things
moving, or if status quo is enough for them.  If it's the latter, you might have to make a personal choice as
to whether that's acceptable.

You should also have legitimate discussions with higher HQ as to whether your unit is simple misplaced to
be viable.  That's a hard choice to make, but ignoring that elephant in the room doesn't fix things.

Assuming you have people interested, then I would suggest the following:

Consider 2015 as a rebuilding year.

Look at your current ops and see if whatever you are doing is actually worth people's time,
and more interesting then their DVR queue.  The #1 reason people don't recruit is that they
don't enjoy it themselves.  If your current ops are lacking, fix those things first.  Start doing the
things you need or want to be doing immediately, regardless of whether you have the "full cadre" to do it "right".

I have found that much of fixing anything, especially behavior, is to act "as if" - do the things
the way they should be done, and before you know it, that becomes "the way".

Clear the deadweight to set the tone.

Concentrate the rest of the year on recruiting, with a push at anything remotely resembling a public gathering.

Get members to look to encampments, NCSAs, and SARExs on a regular basis, those tend to recharge everyone's batteries,
and they bring back resources.

Set reasonable goals, including every member recruiting at least one more person, with some sort of prize as a carrot
if you think it is necessary.  The real prize for all is a viable unit.

Rinse repeat.

[coudano]

There's nothing wrong with running a unit of a dozen cadets.
You can run a quality program at that size.

The key is to run a quality program.

Most likely, if you are running a good strong program, you'll pick up some extra bodies.
Fundamentals.


First of all, make the meetings interesting and relevant (for the cadets).
If your weekly meeting is a drag, so will the attitudes of your people.
Have a plan, in advance.
Avoid long lectures and classes.
Break up classroom with hands on activities.
Make sure that people have opportunities to check the boxes they need to check to advance.



Quite frankly, you're lucky to be so close to stronger programs.
Make friends, and piggy back off of their weekend squadron activities.
--Host a few of your own and make sure to invite your neighbors as well...
A lot of squadrons in your situation are 2+ hours away from the nearest active neighbor,
you are 40 minutes away from several.



Interesting meetings (every week)
Regular squadron activities (one a month)


Keep at a recruiting and replacement program for the senior members you have, and start training your replacement commander right now.

[Toth]

Biggest thing in my mind is to make sure the meetings and events are interesting, and things that members want to attend. The easiest way to bring a squadron down is when people get bored. Lots of people forget that CAP is a volunteer organization, and if people loose interest they'll stop attending. Its that simple.

Also encourage your seniors and cadets to work on their certifications, and make sure there is someone to certify them, borrow that person from the larger squadron if you have too. Participate in wing sarexs and events, that will also raise awareness of your squadron and probably draw a few new members as well.

Best of luck!

[RiverAux]

How big is the city that you're in? 
Does the unit have a recent history (last 10 years) of being significantly larger than it is now? 
Do you have a plane assigned to the unit? 


If you're in a relatively small town (less than 20-30K) it may be difficult to significantly increase your active senior membership even if you have a plane assigned.   Even if your town is smaller than that, with effort, you may be able to double cadet membership. 

If you don't have a plane, I doubt that you're really going to get a whole lot more seniors than that.  Possible, but unlikely.

[Capt Thompson]

I was in the same position wiwac, with an even smaller unit. We would do a recruiting drive, get 20 new cadets in, and then a few months later everyone trickled out.

The biggest thing is to not only make your meetings interesting, which ours were, but also to make your meetings mirror what you're telling people in recruiting drives. We were a small unit with no qualified ES personnel, no pilots, and no access to a plane. When I became involved in ES I had to go elsewhere for my training and qualifications. When we went recruiting, we told people all about flying, SAR missions etc. It didn't take long for new recruits to realize that our Squadron didn't have a way of participating in those activities.

I would:

Like Eclipse said, have a meeting and decide how things need to be, and start doing them that way. Don't wait for new recruits to start doing things the right way.

Decide on a viable recruiting strategy, and implement it immediately.

Partner with another Squadron if your unit doesn't have enough resources. If you don't have someone qualified to teach ES, find someone. If you don't have a pilot or a plane, partner with another Squadron to get new Cadets their O-flight in a timely manner.

It may be a good idea to borrow members from another Squadron to help out for a while. If your unit meets on a Thursday, and one of the thriving units meets Tuesday, see if they can loan you a few Seniors, and qualified Cadet staff to help run things until your current members and new recruits get up to speed.

[Private Investigator]

How big is the city that you're in? 
Does the unit have a recent history (last 10 years) of being significantly larger than it is now? 

Lot of good tips but I think this is #1. How long has the Squadron been around and what is the membership numbers. If the Squadron formed 3 years ago and you are at 20 or 25% of where you started at. You are dying.

Having five Senior Members you really are close to the hot water. One person with a serious health issue can really harm the whole Squadron. Good luck and stay strong 

[RiverAux]

Well, I was asking about the history to assess the potential membership numbers.  If they had 40 people 2 years ago that indicates that they probably could have 40 people again if they are running a good program and do some smart recruiting.  If the squadron hasn't ever been much bigger than this then they may be around the max potential size for the population base available to them. 

[NC Hokie]

How big is the city that you're in? 
Does the unit have a recent history (last 10 years) of being significantly larger than it is now? 
Do you have a plane assigned to the unit?

We are situated between two cities that have a combined population of 110,000, with another 80,000 or so in the surrounding counties.

The squadron consistently had 35 to 40 members between 2007 and 2010, and has been around 25 to 30 since then. The number of active senior members has hovered around five for most of that time.

There was a plane assigned in 2007, but it was pulled because it was not being utilized properly. That batch of pilots became empty shirts and dropped their memberships when they lost their toy and we have had no luck attracting others since then.

[NC Hokie]

If they had 40 people 2 years ago that indicates that they probably could have 40 people again if they are running a good program and do some smart recruiting.

We're working on the good program part, but please elaborate on your idea of smart recruiting.

[RiverAux]

Okay, so you're in a location that is capable of supporting at least a decent cadet squadron.  Without a plane, I think it unlikely that your senior membership will ever be all that significant.  When you have your come to Jesus meeting, you may want to consider switching over to a cadet rather than a composite squadron.  Your squadron actually is about average in strength, so don't get too down on things. 

By smart recruiting I'm basically referring to using the open house/pipeline concept of recruiting mentioned in several other threads.

The good news is that you actually do have a decent base of cadets right now.  If you only had a couple, you'd have a real tough time getting going. 

[NIN]

Okay, so you're in a location that is capable of supporting at least a decent cadet squadron.  Without a plane, I think it unlikely that your senior membership will ever be all that significant.  When you have your come to Jesus meeting, you may want to consider switching over to a cadet rather than a composite squadron.  Your squadron actually is about average in strength, so don't get too down on things. 

By smart recruiting I'm basically referring to using the open house/pipeline concept of recruiting mentioned in several other threads.

The good news is that you actually do have a decent base of cadets right now.  If you only had a couple, you'd have a real tough time getting going.

We all know that designations (Cadet vs composite) are essentially "which org chart we get to use."

(Years ago, when I took over a squadron that was on the brink of disaster, I said to the Wing Commander "How about we redesignate the unit as a cadet squadron so I can have a little more staffing flexibility?"  He said "I'd hate to lose a composite squadron from the wing.."   I was like "Wait, what?"  My wing commander, at the time he took over, didn't have a Red Service Ribbon. I don't think he understood that the designation change is more of a formality on a CAPF 27 than a loss of capability. Especially when such capability doesn't exist in the first place!)

That said, yes, sometimes it does make a lot more sense to sort of coalesce around the units "primary" mission (in this case, CP) if even for a year or two, and then build. If you recruit a base of seniors later, or wind up with a couple pilots who are willing to take on the responsibility of flying the next nearest plane enough to be able to justify a local plane, you can start discussing going back to being a composite sq.  But then again, you can have plenty of flight ops in a cadet squadron.

Also, you hit the nail on the head WRT pipelining: once you have a base or a critical mass of cadets where you can afford to designate a couple to "run" your Great Start/BCT flight, now it doesn't impact your overall unit (1-2 cadets out of 12 is a lot. 1-2 cadets out of 35-40 is not) and you get "feed stock" cadets supplied to your flights and the rest of your training program with only a little bit of effort.

[RickRutledge]

Generally, recruiting takes care of itself if the program is good. When the program is good the retention isn't an issue.

That said, it doesn't hurt to recruit once you feel the program is in a good place. Bringing new bodies in when your program is in a struggle or in a rebuilding mode can have the opposite effect.

Also, be realistic in what your unit can handle. There are few units I know of in the country that can manage an onslaught of new bodies, numbering north of 10, at once. Out of those 10 you might keep 2-3 at the same time next year. So work to really sharpen your efforts with the trickle of new blood you get and try to avoid overwhelming yourself and your people with too many at once.

Want to improve your program?
- Blow things up on the regular -- High adventure activities are a surefire bet to keeping high speed, low drag members around

- Focus on the basics -- Get a consistent schedule built, work with your seniors and cadet leaders to build each meeting night around useful subject matter and remember to try and do as much as you can outside the squadron building (field training, model rockets, RC airplanes, etc)

- Streamline the uniformity of the unit -- Many young adults are attracted to this program because of it's structure and similarity to military life. Operate that way.

- Treat your cadets like adults -- If you treat them like a 12 year old, they will act like a 12 year old. We recognized this at a prior unit I was commanding; the previous regime was treating cadets like little kids and many of the cadets experienced that treatment on a daily basis at school, home and even at work and when they got it at CAP too, they stopped coming. Once we fixed that, the waterfall began. That unit now has close to 40 cadets, when I began my command there they had 4. They've done a killer job of building a good program.

- Weekend activities -- Do stuff outside of squadron meetings. This requires much sacrifice on the part of the seniors to plan and execute but it will make a big difference in the long run. Lean on your wing planned and executed activities as well, this will soften the burden. Your neighboring squadrons can help with this too.

- Make sure they're having FUN -- This should go without saying. It doesn't have to be serious at every minute of every meeting. Work hard to inject fun into every activity. There is a time to be serious, but do the things that they can't do anywhere else.

For every one senior you'll likely get 4-5 cadets. Keep that in mind as well as you begin to actively recruit, down the road. The sales cycle with seniors takes longer and they have far more distractions.

By no means do I have all the answers, but these are a few best practices I've brought along with me to keep our heads above water. Hopefully you can find something useful in them.

[The14th]

This sounds almost exactly like the situation in my new Squadron. Small numbers with even smaller regulars. I'm hoping to help turn them around though.

[Spam]

One more perspective, on analysis and on recycling departing/inactive members: 


You've no doubt heard the USAF definition, right? "Leadership is the art and science of motivating, influencing and directing people to accomplish the mission (Air Force Doctrine Document (AFDD) 1-1). The Air Force ethic consists of three fundamental and enduring values: Integrity, Service, and Excellence, and CAP adds a fourth, Respect. (Insert joke here about lack of respect amongst the Total Force)!

Respect for our fellow volunteers, I would argue, is key to motivating a group of unpaid individuals and care and feeding of volunteers is our most vital engine to keeping our structure working. Once we begin labeling members as dead wood or dead weight to be eliminated, then we've applied an institutional lack of respect which is a failure of our CAP core values - a massive DIS incentive to volunteerism. We've also admitted two things: a failure of leadership in terms of attempting to motivate those inactive members, and a lack of management skills in listening to them and in finding a niche where they could make a contribution, however small.


A (true) case study in starting over: Squadron X has a ten remaining cadets, with only two active adult officers at the tail end of a long slide into mediocrity and failure. The remaining two officers drink coffee and chat, the unit has no remaining ES qualified personnel or current pilots, has failed to field a team/aircrew at a SAREX in years, and does no weekend activities. The roster has eight inactive cadet members and twelve members.

Option 1: Quit. Ghost them all, and reallocate the assets. Happens every year.

Option 2: "Clear the decks" by transferring all those inactive members to the Ghost Squadron, and start anew with a clean sheet.

Option 3: Perform a failure analysis and study your history to avoid being condemned to repeating it. At the least, start with a history review by calling the active and inactive cadet and officer members to interview them on their perception for the decline (i.e. a failure analysis of why the system failed) and what they would want to see in terms of a program they feel they could contribute to (a vision of success).

Option 4: Do the failure analysis via face to face and phone calls. Set Commanders Goals (strategic) for the unit (stretch goals as well as SMART near term goals). Ensure that the Commanders Guidance/Goals consider the interests of the members. Invite inactive members to pitch in at whatever level of time and effort they can spare. Some positions will need dual or triple part time heads to staff properly and some members may cautiously only attend one meeting a month. Some may not attend at all but will provide material or financial support (donations) or key advice.


In real life, this unit chose Option 4, bringing back about half the inactive members once they sensed a change in atmosphere, and within six months the unit had doubled in size, had a qualified GT and (re) qualified aircrew (even without a plane), and within a year had earned a Unit Citation for sustained DR performance in a multi Wing national disaster event.  If they had chosen Option 2, they might never have identified the root causes of decline, and would have thrown away the opportunity to regenerate essentially retired members into motivated, happy, vital teammates. From then on, every single member who left got an exit interview conversation, even if brief, to guard against slippage.


My view on retention/reactivation of old members is colored first by my logical conclusion that you need to do a failure analysis to avoid repeating past mistakes and by my totally emotional belief that we are all in need of salvaging and recycling at some point. Don't write off departing/departed members, and use them as your canary in the coal mine to help target problems.


V/R,
Spam

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". - Albert Einstein

[NIN]

*bump*

Just an FYI, we had our unit open house last Thursday night.

I counted 48 non-members in attendance.

(sorry for the potato quality photo..)

The DCC and I regularly have a bet with each other after an open house as to how many basic cadets we're going to sign up.   30 cadet packets were handed out, along with 5 senior packets, so I'm thinking 14-15 new cadets. I expect potentially one 1 senior member.  Thats in addition to the two seniors we've just signed up in the last 30 days.

The formula works.  I've had people tell me that it doesn't, but they usually then admit they didn't follow the recipe and omitted a key ingredient.  (Seriously! Had a guy take all my materials and stuff, and then he ran an open house and didn't get but 2-3 people to even show up for the event.  Come to find out, he did ZERO advertising, didn't print out any flyers, didn't advertise the event on his unit's facebook page or website, etc.  How are people going to come to an event you can't be bothered to tell them about?)

I will update as conditions warrant.  Week 0 is next week, inprocessing is in 2 weeks.

[NC Hokie]

The formula works.  I've had people tell me that it doesn't, but they usually then admit they didn't follow the recipe and omitted a key ingredient.  (Seriously! Had a guy take all my materials and stuff, and then he ran an open house and didn't get but 2-3 people to even show up for the event.  Come to find out, he did ZERO advertising, didn't print out any flyers, didn't advertise the event on his unit's facebook page or website, etc.  How are people going to come to an event you can't be bothered to tell them about?).

Is the long open house post that used to be on CadetStuff the recipe you're talking about?

[NIN]

The formula works.  I've had people tell me that it doesn't, but they usually then admit they didn't follow the recipe and omitted a key ingredient.  (Seriously! Had a guy take all my materials and stuff, and then he ran an open house and didn't get but 2-3 people to even show up for the event.  Come to find out, he did ZERO advertising, didn't print out any flyers, didn't advertise the event on his unit's facebook page or website, etc.  How are people going to come to an event you can't be bothered to tell them about?).

Is the long open house post that used to be on CadetStuff the recipe you're talking about?

More or less, yes.

https://web.archive.org/web/20051221230027/http://www.cadetstuff.org/archives/000113.html#000113

(I had to go back and scarf it out of the Wayback machine..LOL)

The short version is:

1) Set a date 30-60 days in advance, create flyers and ADVERTISE IT!
2) Arrange displays (ES, AE, etc) for the evening, and refreshments.
3) Have a short formal program (PPT, Q&A, 1-2 awards) and let them mingle for refreshments, talk to members (this is the "recruiting" part) and take a member packet home.
4) Have a follow up program for the potential cadets and seniors _WHEN_ they come back the following week (and weeks thereafter)

[TarRiverRat]

Tar River was founded back in 1980.  Over the years we have had a large Senior and Cadet presence.  Had a large group of pilots and a plane that we rotated back and forth with CPB16 in Manteo.  Our squadron was known as a great ES asset and our Cadets were like blood hounds in locating the ELT targets.  We have had 3 cadets make Spaatz and are in fairly high positions in the Air Force.  One of the Spaatz Cadets is flying Ospreys for the Special Operations Command.  Another cadet that made Cadet LtCol is now flying Ospreys for the Marine Corps out of Okinawa.  The original base of Seniors and Cadets have either passed away, moved on to other squadrons or higher positions in CAP.  Most have been in for a long time and just burned out.  I burned out for awhile and now I am back.  We have three pilots left in the squadron.  One is elderly and not current, the other two have very low times in the aircraft.  One has been gaining time with the plane from the other squadron but is having some personal difficulties at this time and not able to continue until it is worked out.  Major Hess is a great CC and has a lot of good ideas.  I was the CC in the late 90s and feel that I did a good job but things are completely different now than it was then.  I am the PDO, ESO, Testing Officer, Historian, and Asst IT.  I also work in Law Enforcement and only can make every other Cadet meeting and mostly none of the Senior Meetings due to work.  I and another member have also been trying to heal any perceived wounds with the EAA group at the other airport.  The other airport was the original home of the squadron.  Currently we have a very nice squadron building that the airport has given us.  It used to be the manned weather office for the airport.  Now it is automated and we do not go into that part of the building.  We have a classroom, supply, kitchen, communications, 2 staff offices, operations room, and we are located on the apron.  We can look out and see all the aircraft that use the airport.  Navy enjoys doing touch and go here as well.  We have a great set up and we are one of three Mission bases for the NC Wing.  I apologize for the long post, but wanted everyone to know a little about us.  We are proud to be called "River Rats"!

[NIN]

This week, 11 new cadets in ranks, 1 had a conflict and will be there next week for inprocessing.

Not sure 100% why the percentage of  "packets handed out to cadets in ranks" is that low.  Its a little unusual.