What are your opinions on weather someone should get promoted even though there isent really space for them?
As on my sqn the OC seems to be of the opinion of, if you deserve it then have it.
But I am of the opinion of, you may deserve it but having too many of the same rank will make a too many cooks situation. Meaning you can’t really do anything as everything is already done by other NCOs.
Needs to be balanced.
You need to keep a rough structure but should highly competent cadets be kept at a low rank due to rank congestion?
Each CO will have their own philosophy on this & whilst they are the CO then it’s probably the right one.
One tool is to have establishment posts so when cadets become 18 they can be given slightly different role so it doesn’t confuse the command structure too much.
Sometimes you need to over promote to help clear out the old guard. It’s healthy for a Sqn to have a coup every now and then 
coup or cull?
Both although Culls often follow Coups 
That is my philosophy, really.
It’s all very well not promoting deserving candidates on the sqn because there isn’t room, but then that will disadvantage your candidates when it comes to doing stuff off sqn.
Acp 20 dictates the level.of establishment for cadet NCOs each Sqn is allowed, depending on the size of the Sqn.
Anything more than this is outside regs.
Simples.
Except the line that allows discretion for minor deviation based on local circumstances
… I guess that’s the same philosophy as
‘Reducing coal not ceasing coal’…
Fitted for, not with
Never looked at a wing establishment then
I take a view that on a particular night you need a number of NCOs on the sqn. If this means having more than what the books suggest so what. Sometimes there are lots and others not so.
Well
Given that quote it makes sense to have a few extra NCOs as slack because it’s unlikely the whole sqn will attend every night
Also with NCOs more likely to be in exam years or have part time jobs - due to their age - a bit of redundancy is useful.
I tend to promote when deserved, irrelevant of positions available. Usually this fits in with a rough NCO structure anyway. Why should someone be held back from a rank they can clearly perform in just because someone else got there first…?
This was my theroy behind having too many of one rank. Because if everyone was sgts, it has the same affect as everyone being cadets.
But with some cadets if they had to wait for someone to move on they’d never get anywhere so promoting them anyway is the only way.
I never find myself in that situation though. In a Sqn of high 40s I’ve got 3 Sgts and none of the Cpls are ready to be promoted yet. I’m never going to end up with, for example, 10 Sgts.
In this case then your plan works. As I realise that not every cadet is worthy of promotion and won’t end up floding the ranks.
How many sqns do mass promotions across all ranks on the same night?
It’s what our OC tends to do, but I think its better to promote to Cpl first, give the old Cpl’s a few weeks to train up and hand over duties to the newbies and then promote them up to Sgt and so on…
This is pretty much the opinion of some of my older staff members, but I just don’t see it that way.
As I see it, all you are doing is increasing the pool of people capable of fulfilling a Sgt level role.
IMO, being an NCO should never be about being able to give orders out on every parade night, but having or developing the leadership skills to be capable of stepping up should they need to.
I always tended to build my NCO Structure around my flights, so depending on how many Cadets I had indicated (roughly) how many NCO’s.
So a flight would have between 12 & 15 Cadets, plus 2-3 Corporals, 1-2 Sergeants and 0-1 Flight Sergeants.
Ideally you would have the higher numbers when you had more Cadets in the flight to keep it balanced, but you won’t always especially as I only really used to take 1 major intake per year.
The recruit flight is never going to match that structure and would be where I would store any spare NCO’s. (Generally the more experienced ones).
I would generally run a promotion process with a known number of vacancies, but if we had more than that absolutely smash it I would promote the 1 or 2 extras and find something for them to do. Conversely if I had 5 spaces and only 3 candidates made the grade I would only promote the 3.
I’ve also had very senior Cadets doing staff roles upto and including Adjutant before when they were a better candidate that any of the Staff.