Merging squadrons

My squadron has had 2 staff FSs (husband and wife) running it for years. It was only last year when we got an officer

At one of my old squadrons that I was with many years a go we had to merge with another squadron for a short period of time that we in particularly didn’t like but it happened anyway we had to get along with each other as we both paraded on the same nights the other squadron mentioned was about to close due to lack of numbers hence the merger.

We used their staff and they used ours to achieve the same goals however they had a separate area in our office which was theirs, they had to follow our training program as their was in a sham including their filing system, their cadets were uneducated their staff were not that much better, however this all changed within the time frame that they were with us as we (the CO and I) worked out the problems that this squadron had and they (Staff and Cadets) were taught the correct way of doing things from scratch even if it means doing things that is not by the book. It took some doing but it was achievable.

This squadron left ours in a better shape than it came to us and now nearly 20 years later it’s still around

The moral of this story is take what you are given and make the best of it if not change it.

The only downside I see to merging squadrons together permanently is the loss of identity of both squadrons and the possible conflicts that might emerge till things settle down if it settles down. getting to and from the new squadron if its a further distance than people though unless the merger is close by like ours was.