Just watch out for your building usage/viability
If it is RFCA building and only being used 1 night a week then when the next cost cutting round comes…
One night is fine if there is a justification for short term but you need to be careful longterm
Lots of “staff training nights”
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I think the org needs to go to first principles on this - and yes, I’m a proponent of one night a week…
Who decides what’s successful/works in a Sqn? Is it WHQ, or the staff, or the cadets, or their parents?
Who decided, and why, that there’s an assumption that two nights is best, and that one night is lesser - if better than no nights, but something to be ‘remedied’?
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With one night a week, weekend activities should be counted towards ‘parades’ as such, so a full day on a weekend on a Squadron or Wing activity counts as two parade nights or cadets on a flying detail, that counts as two parade nights. Divide weekend activities unto four hour blocks.
But one night a week does make the WSO’s work harder as they have to get round many places at once.
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They have Teams for that!
Over a teams system, you don’t get the feel for a place and the ‘vibe’ in the air sort of speak.
True, however I think we could make more use of the tech to stretch out thin resources.
Not that we’ve seen a WSO down our way since before lock down.
Hahahaha, funny joke.
Haven’t seen a WSO at ours in 5+ years
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Then why are they needed, they could go back to being Squadron OCs then?
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I will admit, being so old as to remember, that Sqn’s didn’t seem to fall down flat just because they hadn’t seen a WSO in 6 months…
I think that sector co-ordination is a very good thing, but it only works if it’s organic/cultural to the Sqn’s involved - sector command however is a complete waste of time and effort.
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What is this WSO visit you talk about!!!
My Wing have had sector commanders and WSO’s and still they havent turned up in the last 5 years with the exception of popping into the OC’s office for the annual inspection, rarely in uniform and never to speak to the staff or cadets (pointless in my opinion).
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When I was a cadet one night was projects and the other was training syllabus so the balance worked well and both nights were well attended, though those were the days of 2 exam opportunities a year after first class. I guess with the online access to the training now its easier to have one night a week.
As staff the first time round before sectors and sector commanders were a thing we worked with a few other local squadrons to share skills and give more opportunities to the cadets across all the units and we spent most of the summer season out offering something.
Now most of those squadrons are part of an official sector, whilst my kids were at my old unit they didn’t do one activity with the sector during their entire time. Which for one was 5 years before covid hit 
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The truth is spoken. So I underlined it and made it bold!!!
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They end up doing that alongside their WSO role, too. Just get to act all important as a Sqn Ldr.
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Ahhhhh, the rank bit and look how important I am scenario. Maybe be a better bet for co-ordination that the squadron commanders who are all nearby, just meet in a pub and talk to each other.
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Absolutely this ^^^^.
Sectors should be organic - it’s about both geography and tilt. No point having Sqn’s lumped together if their staff can’t stand each other, and there needs to be a natural fit: it is helpful if there’s a Sqn that takes the lead in AT, another in FT/shooting and so on, but equally, there’s no point having an AT Sqn if the rest aren’t interested - better, in that case, for the AT Sqn to team up with other, like-minded, Sqn’s…
I’ve been part of successful sectors and unsuccessful sectors - and the difference between them was always the attitudes of, and relationships between, the staff. Amusingly the most successful sector I was a part of didn’t actually have a sector commander…
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So for those sqns that are doing one night per week, do you do a slightly longer parade night? e.g. 1 x 3 hours instead of 2 x 2 hours?
I always considered going to one night per week, but didn’t feel I could personally commit to extending the night half hour in each direction to factor in things like tying in recruit intakes and the length of time taken to complete first class cadet, as previously mentioned.
Other question is - do you do more weekend training session?
My impression is they just do less. Because for whatever reason thats all that can be done.
Any discussion around formalising 1 night a week, really does just sound like justifying a position a sqn finds itself in to me.
I’ve heard of a unit that on most months, they drop a night in the week and do a Sunday on unit for CPT and PTS.
I can see how that could expand to 1 night only all the time. It’s additional to other weekends with walks, expeds, ft, etc, but I think they specifically don’t do it in months with a lot on even if there’s a free weekend.
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