This word is something that I can remember being shouted at the beginning of parade nights when I was a cadet… Generally it would signal some form of project related to Duke of Edinburgh that never got completed or something like route planning.
Does any squadron do a particular project night and what type of things does it include? Is it related to Duke of Edinburgh or just general squadron activities?
The last Sqn I was supernumerary had project nights, some of the projects could be used for ‘skill’ section of DofE, projects included aero modelling and media which covered everything from newsletters to photography to PR boards.
I always found projects really mean we dont have anything else to do so let fill time with “projects”
Without a structured approach to them they are a waste of effort and time
We once made ghillie suits from old unusable DPMs, hessian netting etc. That made for a fun few projects nights. I know Squadrons that have worked towards some sort of goal, like a town/village show or carnival. Creating/making a stall or show of some sort.
While I share @AlexCorbin 's thoughts, Project evenings can be valuable if you have a collection of “single night projects” that slowly build up a cadets skill in a particular area. The alternative is a project that will take multiple nights and suddenly you’ve got the hassle of intermittent attendance etc.
For example, I’d quite happily run a single night project of building Foam board Chuck Gliders (nnChuckStang - nerdnicRC) and then eventually graduate to a multi-night project of building a larger chuck glider or powered RC aircraft (FT Tiny Trainer Build | Flite Test)
But as Alex said, they need a staff member who’s going to push it along and coordinate it.
I’ve deliberately moved my unit away from “projects” in the sense that most units seem to use it.
Modelling was a key example. Cadets could spend hours in a year painting a model, but there was no formal instruction, so no development.
I now structure what was the “project” night as a skills night.
The driving force is maximising range time if the right staff are in, as it’s a USP and gets people really excited because we now have a shooting comp.
Everything else we do (band, leadership, bronze first aid skills, STEM) is done in a way that anyone can be pulled out of that activity and thrown onto the range last minute and it won’t affect their overall development, because everything else is covered as a stand-alone activity.
All valuable and worth doing (skills that need maintaining and building upon over the year), but those that want can hit the range and know they aren’t falling behind.
We do 2 project nights a month. Each project last 6 months. I’ve seen a number of squadrons successful in doing it this way.
One group of projects is Volunteering, one is Skills. They select their project (we have 3 to choose from, but I know other Sqns I’ve liaised with have 5 or even 6) and we have a clear aim and for our Sqn we see those 6 month plans prior to launching.
I would say this are the nights the cadets quite enjoy!
Volunteering wise we’ve done stuff with a local charity (helping the food bank put together packs), squadron newsletter, history of the Sqn (we had a large am amount of old stuff in boxes), helping museums with transcripts, writing to veterans etc
Skills is always slightly easier we’ve done things such as eSports, Competition First Aid, military communications, Ensemble, etc
To be successful, project nights need staff to run them otherwise they easily become time-fillers.
The aero modelling for example was run by someone whose skill at modelling was on a different level, so the Cadets who took part developed their own modelling skills and went on to win competitions as a result, both in and out of RAFAC.
I’ve also seen aero modelling as a time filler/waster, putting a load of Cdts in a room supervised by an NCO and nothing of any use was ever done, Typhoons came out with the wrong bits in various colour schemes and a complete waste of a session on the training programme.
Done well, project nights / skills nights are valuable additions.
On a previous Squadron projects nights were used to catch up on classifications exams, idea awards, d of e evidence logs, BTEC workbooks etc as well as banner drill or 1st aid skills for the competition teams. The trouble was that if some cadets didnt have the focus or motivation you would lose their interest
As has been expressed, unless they’re run with a plan in place then they’re very much a waste of time. However, we’ve successfully run them for many years. They used to form a large part of the training programme with cadets able to select from several options as to which they were going to participate in for a few weeks.
A few that come to mind that we’ve run include;
Climbing
Raspberry Pi
FlightSim
DIY skills
Marketing
Vehicle maintenance
Sports/Phys
Really it depends on what experience your staff team have and their abilities to put a programme together to run over a few weeks.
One that I’m considering doing with interested cadets on my sqn is Game Development on these cheap little circular devices that run a raspberry pi pico.
They have an accelerometer so I’ve previously made a little “get the ball in the hole” game.