Just returned home from a great NER Cadet Comp. At the awards ceremony, it was announced the 2016 National Cadet Competition was cancelled. The cadets were disappointed, however all are looking forward to 2017...
Any rationale given?
V/R
Spam
The senior leadership wanted to move the competition out of the "Holiday Break" period in late December and align CC with other NCSAs in the summer. I think we are looking at June. Details to follow.
Ned Lee
National Cadet Program Manager
That really stinks but I never liked the idea of having it at the end of the year. Very bad time to travel for most of the country. I wish this decision would have been made sooner so we could have it this year.
Ned, may I respectfully submit a recommendation for NCC at the END of summer, i.e. late July.
Rationale:
1. Many cadets have final, end of term exams in both late NOV/early DEC, as well as late May.
2. Many schools start back in early August these days.
3. Backing up competition dates, an NCC date in late July would allow Region competitions in June, and Wing competitions in the spring (April time frame) before school finals and AP exams heat up.
V/R
Spam
Quote from: Spam on May 09, 2016, 01:10:01 AM
Ned, may I respectfully submit a recommendation for NCC at the END of summer, i.e. late July.
July is prime Summer encampment season, not to mention NESA, Air Venture, HMRS, and many Wing and Region flight academies.
It's probably the singularly most busy month in the CAP calendar for larger-scope activities. You'd lost the few cadets and senior still interested to other summer activities.
Having it in the winter is perfect because it's an activity that generally takes place indoors, and there usually isn't much CAP-wise going on in the Fall / Winter.
I haven't seen much interest in NCC around these parts in close to 10 years. Being competitive takes a fair amount
of practice and initiative, and there's so much else in the CAP playbook to accomplish. and so few people to do it, there
just isn't time left in the month.
Eclipse, I get you, and don't disagree a bit. June and July are chock full. No good answers, but my input was predicated on what Ned stated was the national desire to put it in the summer. June, July, and December are all bad choices.
For us down South, we've learned not to put our encampments in July due to the heat, so mid June is our preferred encampment time. Our schools end the beginning of June and start the first week in August now. So, eight week window.
My unit won our Wing competition three times running, took a year off because of the expense, came back and won it again, and we saw the interest around the Wing wane seriously from 9 teams, to 7 teams, to three, to one other team. So, I'd agree with your last statements as well.
We were to have had a Wing comp this past fall, but with only 3 weeks notice, no one was interested, and it was cancelled the FRI night before.
I just don't see a big future for NCC, really. I don't see making it MORE complex by adding new events, and intentionally conflicting it with other (summer) events, as a winning strategy.
V/R
Spam
Holding NCC in the summer makes the run up difficult for Northern-tier units. You're just coming out of the winter when it's time for wing and then region competitions (usually April & May with a summer NCC), so practice time for anything that requires space or outdoors may be limited due to weather.
Not sure what the answer is, but frankly maybe NCC as we know it (knew it) needs to evolve into something else.
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