Senior Program

[davedove]

I am taking on the job of Deputy Commander for Seniors in my squadron in a couple of weeks.  One of my tasks is to try to come up with a senior program.

Right now we don't really have a program.  Seniors come to the meetings (maybe) and, if they don't have any administrative work to accomplish, they sit around, shoot the breeze, then go home.

Now, socializing like that isn't all bad, but it can be very detrimental to new members.  They join up all ready to help out, then get to the meetings and have nothing to do.

What I am looking for is ideas of things that can be done on a typical meeting night.  We meet for two hours every week, so I'm looking for different activities that only take an hour or so to do.

I'm just brainstorming right now, so any ideas?

[0]

Well one thing you could do is run it similiar to a cadet meeting.  Like have Emergency Services classes, etc. 

[davedove]

Well one thing you could do is run it similiar to a cadet meeting.  Like have Emergency Services classes, etc. 

I was thinking along those lines, having the senior program mirror the cadet side.  I'm looking for some specific ideas though, like a specific idea (short ELT search, etc.).

[jeders]

What sort of things does your squadron do outside of meetings? Do you have a plane that gets flown much? Are you Senior Members more interested in avaiation/AE, ES, CP, OMFC (Old-Man Flying Club)?

If they are interested in certain areas, then exploit that interest with training in those areas. If you have a plane, then do flying related stuff, obviously.

Identify the jobs that need doing. You say that if there's no admin stuff to do they just sit around, maybe there are jobs that need doing but no one is assigned to do it.

Depending on how often seniors meet in your squadron, here they meet twice a month, you can do one meeting as operational and the other as admin/PD. Do training for whatever type of operational things you do on one meetings. On the other meeting do your paperwork and admin jobs as well as PD-type training such as preparing people for SLS/CLC, etc.

Of course if most of them are there just for the OMFC, well then you're gonna have a hard time getting them all to do something structured, or at least that's been my experience.

Just a few thoughts, hope they help.

[kpetersen]

Just make sure you are treating the seniors like seniors and not cadets.  Had I the opportunity, I would split it into 2 types of a prgoram: 1st being teh standard classes, the second being job specific.  While admin does not always take 2 hours a week, you can't pull the admin officer out of doing his job for the entire meeting.  ES is easy to do an hour of for some people, and then you can have the ES officer developing both the senior and cadet training.  (I'm not sure the size of your squadron). 

I would definately recommend teaching leadership to the seniors.  Even if they only have 1, or no, assistants, at some point htey might, and they should know how to handle those people.  This can be done directly through lectures, or indirectly, through group projects, project X's, etc.  The latter may be better; you don't want seniors to think they need leadership training.  Make sure its more like "We think you're a good leader; we just want to make you a better one."  (Having them mentor cadets also helps this)

Ideally, I would also work on AE, because that's the mission (aside from flying) that is most pushed off to the side, from what I've seen.  If they dont' like the technical aspect, maybe have them focus on the history. 

[O-Rex]

I started a similar thread last week that might give you some ideas:  there were alot of helpful posts-

http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=5033.0

[bosshawk]

A few ideas: remembered from the time that I first joined CAP.  It was a Senior Sq, so no conflict with any cadet training.

One night a month was ES, with all that it entails: DF, putting together a survival vest, map reading, gridding a map, training on how missions work, etc.  One night a month on Disaster Relief missions.  One night on commo, chasing ELTs and other miscellaneous things.  The fourth was an admin night for everyone.

Worked very well for a Sq that was very active in ES.