I’m in a bit of a pickle.
Long story short, I was under the assumption (my first mistake) that the activity for the cdts tonight was sports. According to my staff I told the cadets it was blues on our last parade night (for some reason I can’t seem to remember this) so my staff have assumed that I had something planned which I don’t.
We do not have access to our main hall tonight and what with the weather being cold, doing drill is out of the question.
We have not put a RAM is and doing one this short notice with get me killed by my C.O
We currently do not have access to computers on our Sqn as we are currently under going maintenance so classification & most other things is again out of the question.
I’m not sure what I can do with my Cdts so am hoping I could grab some ideas from you guys.
Come of with some thinking man initiative exercises that can be done in blues.
As long as you’ve got access to some classrooms, Group Planning exercises tend to be good for last minute plans like this. Gets all the cadets talking and thinking and when they give the presentation it helps their self confidence.
One nearby Squadron has a cracking exercise where they get a map of the town, a map of the local area, dial the clock back to 1986 and get the cadets to plan a defense plan of the town against the Soviets.
The brief is normally that the Officer’s mess has been hit and they are the most senior people alive and have to come up with a defense plan to hold out for 48 hrs. They’ve got a list of available units and a list of estimate enemy. A member of staff acts as the “Intel Officer” who can brief on the capabilities of the both friendly and enemy units.
Good little exercise, infinitely variable and the cadets often enjoy the the thought experiment which has rapier batteries across their school playing fields!
Other group planning exercises are in the OASC handbook on bader and there are few others floating around on Military Forums and the like. Just beware that sometimes the maths confuse them but all are good.
Hope this helps
As long as you’ve got access to some classrooms, Group Planning exercises tend to be good for last minute plans like this. Gets all the cadets talking and thinking and when they give the presentation it helps their self confidence.
Why did I not think of this. Split the cadets into two team who plan an initiative from start to finish, SMEAC, potential risks etc and present it to me at the end. Which ever is best I’ll arrange for another night where it will be put into practice
One of the key things in the ATC is thinking on your feet and as long as it doesn’t look like you’ve panicked, cadets are none the wiser.
Not sure why drill would be off the menu, we’ve now got a continuity display that was born off the back of a night when we had a staffing disaster.
Don’t worry about your CO. The worst thing is a moan, but if they’ve been around a while, pound to a penny they’ve been in the same position. 
Failure to prepare, prepare to fail springs to mind on this occasion