Looking for thread???

[ol'fido]

A few months ago there was a thread on here that talked about having flights or satellite units at various locations that reported to a central squadron. It was somewhere on the east coast. I have done a couple or three different searches to try to find it but have come up dry. Anybody remember?

[Al Sayre]

Don't know about the thread, but we have a couple of squadrons (including mine) with detached flights.

[Eclipse]

We've recently done some R&D on this issue in (our) wing, to find that a flight has no fewer staff or reporting requirements than a squadron, it is simply a charter designation based on composition and size.

The assumption had been that a "flight" could operate as a sub-chapter of a full charter, allowing the administrivia of a small unit to be handled by its "parent", but we found that was not the case.

[ol'fido]

What research did you do?

[ol'fido]

Don't know about the thread, but we have a couple of squadrons (including mine) with detached flights.

How do you handle the admin on these?

[isuhawkeye]

Eclipse,

you are correct assuming that the smaller unit is actually chartered.  In the past I had experience in a unit that incubated squadrons as they grew towards charter.  This took a lot of work, and trust, but we let them hold meetings, and build an administrative staff under our umbrella.  All paperwork was pushed from their admin officer to the parent squadrons for review, feedback, and processing.

Once the subordinate unit was large enough they were chartered as a squadron.  If they couldn't get enough members for that the consensus was that they weren't ready to be on there own. 

[Eclipse]

What research did you do?

Discussions with the wing command staff, NHQ and the regs.  It was me and a number of others including 2 other Group CC's.

Don't know about the thread, but we have a couple of squadrons (including mine) with detached flights.

How do you handle the admin on these?

Admin and all other functions are identical, the same staff and SUI requirements apply (have to have CC, SE, AEO, FM), and all reporting must be done same as larger units.

There had been discussions of making one or two of the smaller or shrinking units Flights "of" one of the respective groups, assuming going in they would be functionally an "element" of the larger, but it doesn't work that way, once you have a charter, its all the same.
The Groups aren't supposed to be operational echelons, so assigning folk to actually be rank and file members is problematic, because the Group CC's scope is to large to concentrate on weekly regular meetings, and if you have enough for a flight, you might as well just charter them ad let them fly.

As ISUHAWKEYE mentions, with the blessing of Group and Wing, I suppose there's no reason an incubator couldn't be started, but the line is tricky, and the unit CC who accepts that is doubling his workload for the greater good, but little local gain.

[EMT-83]

It could have been me; I remember the thread. We recently "incubated" a flight into a cadet squadron. Feel free to PM if I can help with anything.

[Al Sayre]

Don't know about the thread, but we have a couple of squadrons (including mine) with detached flights.

How do you handle the admin on these?

Basically, they are part of the squadron that happens to meet on a different night in a different town(I go to both meetings).  The members can attend either or both meetings and all squadron functions.  Admin is handled at the main squadron, but a member of the flight is the Assistant Admin and Personnel  Officer and usually takes care of the flights stuff.  Our Chaplain comes by once a month and does Character Development for the Cadets.  Right now, there is little likelyhood of this flight developing into a squadron on it's own as there is a very small recruiting pool, but we are talking about adding another in another nearby city that has that potential.

[ol'fido]

My problem is that we have a large geographical area(the southern third of Illinois) that is somewhat sparsley populated and very economically depressed(15-20 % unemployment). We are trying to look at a way of "incubating" some units into squadrons but there may be a few people here and a few there. Not enough to go ahead and stand up a unit but too far away from an established unit to travel to. Plus we are looking for a way to "reinforce" the units we have until, hopefully, the economic demographics change. The area had at its height in the mid to late 80's had 4-5 composite squadrons and 2-3 chartered flights. Now we have 3 composite sqadrons outside of those in the metro-east area by St. Louis. Just looking for a way to build the program down here.

[ol'fido]

What research did you do?

Discussions with the wing command staff, NHQ and the regs.  It was me and a number of others including 2 other Group CC's.

Don't know about the thread, but we have a couple of squadrons (including mine) with detached flights.

How do you handle the admin on these?

Admin and all other functions are identical, the same staff and SUI requirements apply (have to have CC, SE, AEO, FM), and all reporting must be done same as larger units.

There had been discussions of making one or two of the smaller or shrinking units Flights "of" one of the respective groups, assuming going in they would be functionally an "element" of the larger, but it doesn't work that way, once you have a charter, its all the same.
The Groups aren't supposed to be operational echelons, so assigning folk to actually be rank and file members is problematic, because the Group CC's scope is to large to concentrate on weekly regular meetings, and if you have enough for a flight, you might as well just charter them ad let them fly.

As ISUHAWKEYE mentions, with the blessing of Group and Wing, I suppose there's no reason an incubator couldn't be started, but the line is tricky, and the unit CC who accepts that is doubling his workload for the greater good, but little local gain.

Who did you talk to on wing staff?

[isuhawkeye]

One of the take aways from the ill fated Iowa experiment was an All Iowa squadron.  This unit met for a full day monthly, and allwoed individuals to participate in CAP from different communities.  This required travel, but it was only for one saturday a month.  I imagine a group coul ddo this to help foiseter and incubate long term slow growth in some communities that would not normally have a CAP presence. 

Disclaimer:  I do not know the fate of this unit, or if it still exists.