We’ve set the date for our first intake since I took over as OC, previous efforts saw us start with a full day, but we are now aiming for a normal parade evening.
Does anyone have any recommended text that we could steal to post on our Facebook page? Or any other good ways of generating interest in the local ATC Squadron?
I’ve already set a cap of 10 places, to ensure we can manage the intake, and hopefully that might create some demand.
Tried the public page for my Sqn (message me if needed) we literally spammed facebook with stuff.
We posted in INSERT TOWN NAME rumour control style groups and community groups and managed to get 10 cadets for our last intake
I don’t have any scope to get into school assemblies due to work, and being the only uniformed body at the squadron at the moment.
How do you manage 30!! You must have impressive staffing and facilities. Do you have an intake training plan?
I’ll be happy with keeping 70% assuming I fill the 10 spaces.
In the current climate you have to be careful as to what you say, as our corporate image doesn’t match the actual experience.
At our most recent intakes I have made a vague reference to flying, ignored gliding, but pushed the AT and DofE. However until we know the full impact of TOPL, AT might also be a little more muted.
Saying we do this, this and this and then not having it available will mean they may come along, but could well leave with a negative perspective.
Although the group you need to win over are parents as you are expecting them to bring their children, pay and transport them.
We did that too, and in addition we post every week or two with something interesting that we’ve done on the unit, with an explanation of how to join at the end.
If you don’t do something interesting once every two weeks, do more interesting stuff!
Regular content on various social medias.
Posters sent with cadets to schools and shop community noticeboards. A few good eye catching designs are up on the ACC Drive.
Page to register interest on the sqn website.
Normally get dozen or so which suits my sqn well.
Setup a Facebook event and spread the word via Community channels - both formal and informal - even “Spotted in anytown” raised us a bit of trade and interest.
Yes. The youth aren’t massive Facebook users. But parents, friends and relatives probably are - and its them who’ll be targetted.
Even throwing £10-15 of Facebook sponsorship can help spread the word for the events and raise the profile around the community.
It’s worth scripting some stuff in advance about what stuff the squadron has coming up in the lead up to an intake so everything looks fresh with solid content. If you cant get immediate photos of your cadets doing stuff, use some stock ones. Photos ALWAYS generate more interest than text. You can even schedule these now for 3 months in advance so you dont have to think about it!!!
As much as it’s a faff schools is the best way of getting them through the door. We have taken 69 spread across 2 intakes in the last 16 months, of which we have enrolled 52. Not all of those assemblies were done by uniform staff, I sent CI’s supported by Cadet NCO’s into some of them.
Anyone that wants help just PM me your email address I can get you up and running. Never done schools and created demand through Facebook. We have always been oversubscribed and do two intakes per year. Last Sep we had 23, same in Jan and we already have 20 for September. We lose a few from each intake but the Sqn stays around the 80 cadet mark.
Completely agree. If you have a Facebook page it needs to stay fresh and someone needs to respond to any feedback/messages etc. We also share the postings out on the local town group (has 22,000 members) which always gets a positive response and the local community engaged.
I found after spending around £100 on social media advertising that we did better getting the parents and cadets to share the post than we did parting with cash.
We also had a fight with Facebook as they said we were being discriminatory as we had an age restriction.
Did you get much interest from a SM Campaign? I am probably not the best at social media and will be handing it over to our new CI but im interested to see how others have done rather than saying no to her spending money.
I’ve used it in the past for the squadron, but only when we’ve received offers for credit.
Personally I wouldn’t spend money on SM generally as the best tool is just word of mouth and what the cadets themselves are posting.
We don’t tend to do intake nights but rely on cadets coming when they can. I would like to do it every 4 -6 weeks so that we can get them through to enrolment process. Sometimes it works other times it doesn’t. I would rather not let new recruits be turned down and put on a waiting list. We have a large hall, we could have 150 in our hall.
I can appreciate not wanting to turn away new cadets, but I think the majority find that it makes the Training easier to manage if you’re training a single bulk group, rather than dribs and drabs at different points.
There’s also the benefit of new recruits, who potentially don’t know anyone on the sqn, then have the support of the other recruits and can build a friendship group easier.
Impact of TOPL?
It’s a policy that has apparently always been around, but has recently been re-emphasised in the region.
All AT training that takes place on private land, even walking along a public right of way, can only be done once a notification to the regional Army Brigade headquarters has been sent, 6 weeks in advance.
This notification must include maps of routes or areas in use, campsites etc marked, an agreement with the landowner about what rules will be followed and what kit used, etc.
You can, apparently, negotiate an annual approval for regularly used routes with your local brigade.
Aye, I know what TOPL is. I was just wondering whether there had been some change in the policy is all. It’s always been a thing, just a lot of people ignore it/don’t know about it.
@redowling I guess it depends who you’ve got. I don’t think anyone here as actually managed to get any response from the brigade. . .
@Threaders afaik my wing has ignored it to the point of no-one knowing about it over the past decade, so yeah, it’s causing some frustrations.
We had a sector meeting two weeks ago and TOPL was mentioned.
It was something we had to do years ago and I had a vague recollection, but was something the ATC decided to ignore, as ‘training’ was using public footpaths and private campsites or training estate, so there was no real need of ‘military approval’… But it appears someone has rediscovered it to invent and or keep jobs somewhere and the ATC in its wisdom has taken it to the ridiculous level of potentially needing it for everything, such as to do drill off squadron or sports on the local council sports field. Which is insane, as if the Army has any jurisdiction over public areas or privately owned property.