Basically, I’ve been given the position of Training Officer on squadron. It’s not that I mind this position; it’s nice to know that I have the responsibility of creating events that the cadets will enjoy. That said, I’m having a real dry spell when it comes to ideas. I remember when I was a cadet a few years back - coming up with stuff to do on cadet nights was easy! Now, here I am, with the official job, and I seem to have hit a wall. Typical.
What kind of things can I do on a cadet night that will keep them interested? I do arrange quite a lot of off-squadron activities, so that’s not really the problem. The real problem I have is when those off-squadron activities aren’t available and we’re stuck at the squadron. It’s even worse when the weather is bloody miserable and cold at this time of year. What do you guys do in such situations? We’ve had an influx of new cadets, so I don’t want to pile on the classification training at the moment; I want to get the newbies hooked and then I can integrate the boring stuff.
Help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
When I was a sqn commander I even did a Dam Busters night. I put the classic film on the projector and gave the cadets 10 questions to complete whilst watching it. It gave them some history into the event whilst going towards their inter flight competition. The feedback was good with a lot understanding the sacrifices made by those in bomber command.
A couple of ‘left field’ ideas I have had to come up with on those nights when staff can’t turn up;
We did a ‘Dragons Den’ evening last week, ad-hoc and last minute but we split the cadets into groups, gave them a brief of coming up with a design for a military vehicle (Air, Land, Sea, anything really!) and got them thinking of the pitch they would have to do in the den. To win, it was the team who managed the best deal with us ‘Dragons’! They loved it and some of the ideas were great and hilarious! Great thing about this was that it got the whole squadron involved and involved them putting into practice some of the things they learn at Cadets.
Every once in a while (once every 2 or 3 months) we do a ‘film night’ in civvies for the cadets to let off a little steam. We usually schedule these around the exams they have at school and they really appreciate it after a long hard slog at school to not then be put in a classroom for classification trg! I have found this keeps morale strong and also instils a good ethos as cadets then generally (not all, there are always 1 or 2 that muck about) give back to the sqd in attendance, bearing, pride etc.
Just a couple of ideas for you, I understand being in the same position of Trg Officer that ‘writers block’ is a swine!
