First off please let me apologise for the length of my question.
Hello, I’m a cadet sergeant and the most senior cadet on my squadron. Below me are 2 corporals and that’s it for NCO’s. On average we have about 10-14 cadets a night. Now back when i joined we were parading with 30-40 easily so numbers and dedication is one problem for us. Another is the maturity levels of the squadron. No one seems to understand the ATC they just look at is as a youth club. We lose cadets regularly and have had limited activates outside of the normal parade nights (I’ll go into them later). The last shooting day we did was over 2 years ago. . . As for the parade nights they have become repetitive and to be frank boring. I struggle to see a purpose of showing up now. But i love the ATC and stay to pass my experience on. We have only 1 experienced staff member who has done everything to keep the squadron going and I can’t thank him enough for it. We do have 2 CI’s too but they’ve only just joined this month with no experience of the ATC. So my overall conclusion is how can I change this? How can I make my squadron great again like how it used to be? There must be something that I can do to save the squadron. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I know I’m only a sergeant but I can’t stand looking at my squadron crumble any more. Anything from a few weekends with activates that will keep cadets interested or ideas for parade nights that outside the norm literally anything I’m willing to try.
for me, the best way to get an immediate kick on morale - and therefore attendance - is a weekend away. doesn’t matter where you go or what you do, what matters is being away, doing stuff and doing some sqn bonding.
if you’ve got the staff (transport, staff ratio’s, BELA and FA…) then the training areas are the best/easiest/cheapest option: just do basic feild living - nav, cooking, tents, some walking, and a pizza//chinese/curry take-away on the saturday night.
if not, perhaps look at a local RAF Station or Army Camp, or see if another Sqn can help you out.
You’ve said Parade nights are boring and repetetive. Who is your training officer? Is it the same person who is trying to do everything else?
I would suggest you offer to run some of the parade nights, with the other NCOs you can provide some of the practical and ‘fun’ stuff (By which is mean hands on lessons, revision quizzes and initiative exercises, not just the endless greens nights NCOs seem to want to do).
Support from other units to get some weekend activities together is the way ahead here. Your staffing is at survival levels, so pushing too hard at the moment will only make matters worse.
I was my Sqns Training Officer as a Cadet FS so its not impossible that you could assist further with this.