Our Squadron is in a very lucky position of having some money to spend. Has anyone any ideas on what to spend the money on. All suggestions appreciated.
Have you asked the Cadets for ideas?
In my experience every squadron is different and what would be a great investment on one could be a waste of money on another.
Does your squadron do a lack of AT and DofE, due to not enough equipment, or not enough equipment for everyone?
Does your squadron have adequate first aid training equipment strored in a First Aid Bag - Practice for wing competition, squadron flight system night etc
Radios - do you have enough for a comms night, or enough for a fieldcraft ex where you include contact reports (if you have a FTI)
Leadership - there are so many leadership activities where different equipment is needed.
We built a shed where we keep our sports equipment - more training for wing sports day etc
Build a flight simulator and if you have a Cadet or staff member who has completed ACPS/PPL etc, they can teach
So many opportunities
Best practice from HQ would be Chris Hoy.
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Give the cadets a day out with some of it.
Two Squadrons I have been at:
Flight Simulator
Radio Equipment
Backpacks that can be signed out of stores on loan
Two man tents
Map cases
Compasses
Sign written florescent tabards for when cadets are out and about
To name a few
We went for three-man rather than two-man. More room for kit and a marginal increase in weight, important to consider for DoE expeds.
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We sold the 2 men we had to staff and bought 3 man ones years ago. Much better if you get the ones with a porch, which now have for exped. We use the old 3 man for events where they want somewhere to hide or sleep in without the hassle of kit.
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Remote control aeroplanes for actual flying experience.
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Laptops / tablets / projectors for classification trg / Uliilearn.
If you have the space, go for your own 5.5 / 10m air rifle range.
EDIT - how much dosh - how is your minibus situation? 
A good start would be to look at the squadrons’ planned activities for the year in delivering the cadet experience. Look at what resources are required (i.e. equipment) and see if there’s any obvious gaps where the money could be used to enable delivery. Are there areas of the cadet experience where the squadron would like to develop / improve or start doing?
Alternatively, does the squadron have any long-term initiative that the money could be used to support. Great that the squadron is in a good financial position, but I’d caution against “finding” something to spend the money on, unless it’s justifiable and there’s a genuine need.
As others on this thread have suggested, engaging the cadets is always insightful and may give a good perspective on what they feel would enhance their cadet experience.
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Ultimately we need more info. Don’t buy a bus if you haven’t got anyone to drive it. Don’t buy rifles if you’ve not got anyone qualified to shoot.
How much money? What do you have already? Your post is just a little too vague for anyone to offer any real suggestion I’m afraid.
Not necessarily - the time it will take to set up the project = get someone on an RCO cse. Or, another local sqn has an RCO but no range…
I would assume having some money to spend means that everything else is sorted. In which case something enjoyable would be the order of the day.
Getting more kit needs more space to store it and squadrons (in single buildings) are not really designed for storing the amounts of kit you might need to cover all activities. I’ve been to a couple of squadrons with portable air rifle ranges and they get moved around, just to get them out of the way. While portable they are not entirely practical in terms of storage.
PeP is right don’t spend on an SOV unless you have plenty of people to drive it, which is more than two older members of staff abd or committee members. Rifles maybe, but if it means twisting someone’s arm to do a course, not sure that’s the way forward and buying rifles that could get used more by other squadrons, not sure about that either.
It’s very much dependant on what you already have and what your staff are prepared to do.
There is no point in burying AT Kit if you don’t have any qualified staff and no one is interested in going out and getting qualified.
A Portable Air Rifle Range is worth the money if you don’t already have easy access to Shooting. Getting staff qualified is easy as they have the Air Rifle specific RCO Course now which only takes 1 weekend and like all Shooting courses you can now apply for any course anywhere in the country via the Shooting portal, it’s really easy. The issue is still access to SAAI to train your cadets to use it.
I’m a big believer in the value of having an SOV but at the moment HQAC aren’t issuing Permit 19’s so you would have to apply direct to the DVLA and make sure you buy the right type.
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We had an SOV but it spent most of its time rotting in the car park and occasionally getting stones thrown at it. We spent as much money on repairing bound brakes and MOTs as we did on fuel.
They are dead handy, but most of the time we simply didn’t need it.
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The SAAI is the biggest problem so not having one would be a reason not to spend money on air rifle shooting.
I have been trying to get some WI for 3 months and the earliest date I’ve been given is June and then not able to run a range until July or August.
Not so long ago RCOs did the lot, but because we have to fit the military model which couldn’t be more removed from what is practical for us, if it was at the edge of the known universe.
An SOV is very much dependant on whether you use it or not, ours is out at least every other weekend not to mention being used to go climbing/canoeing on parade evenings. (It’s also loaned out a lot to otherness local groups such as the church).
When you say “recently” RCO’s did everything I assume you are talking about 15 years ago prior to the introduction of Weapons Instructors? Maybe it’s a local problem for you accessing SAAI’s, where I am there are loads so you don’t need your own, especially since air rifle can be taught in a parade evening. It is however well worth having your own RCO if you are going to go out and spend money on an air rifle range so that you can get maximum use from it. (Which is much easier with the new 1 weekend air rifle specific Course).
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Any cadets that might need boots/shoes/polish, that sort of thing, that maybe can’t afford it?
The SAAI as distinct from RCO is still relatively new and only came into existence when the SASC took over. Prior to that we had WIs which IRRC were sort of SAAI but not. I fail to comprehend the current system as it makes no sense at all.
Locally (within 15 miles) we have 2. One is OK but the other is not.