One of the cadets in my squadron lives 2 hours away and has to commute every friday to attend meetings. He has expressed interest and has been notified that he needs to convince 14 cadets to join before getting a charter to form a new cadet squadron by where he lives. He has since recruited 3 members, as well as 2 prospective cadets. Is there any advice I can give him?
I would recommend trying to start a Flight. You only need 8 members, three of whom need to be Seniors. The way I'm doing it, I'm attached to another unit so I can learn the ropes for while. Then once the unit is on its feet and a good running unit, the commander can talk to their Squadron/CC and work their way up the chain. If you have more questions, feel free to PM me what I'm going through!
Make sure that he has the wing commander's blessing. Without that, no matter how many people you recruit, a squadron won't get formed. There are a number of administrative functions that senior members must complete prior to formation. Depending on the requirements by the WG/CC, he/she may require specific detailed plans for recruiting, ES training, AE, and CP training, meeting locations, fundraising, etc etc etc etc. It is a lot of work and requires a lot of attention prior to it happening.