The majority of staff have moved to 388, but it was an offer, rather than an order. Some choose to move to other local units because of location or personal development. I’ve seen some of the stuff the OC has produced, and he’s done some fantastic work to build a structure that will keep everyone involved and engaged, and has put some brilliant foundations in. It brings together the staff and cadets, and genuinely, everyone is very positive and see the benefits beyond just the new building mentioned above.
Community, cadets, local and central gov, other community groups, it’s gone down really well in the six towns.
There is a 100 cadets split into 3 flights - each lead by a FS (one FS from each of the merging units). Each flight has a mix of cadets from the 3 squadrons merging, including a mix of NCO’s.
The Senior Cadet NCO’s met with the OC a few weeks back to hash out policies and processes, and to add their thoughts.
The key positions on the squadron are split among the staff from the 3 Squadrons, with everyone now occupying the role they felt they wanted.
But most of all, the staff merging onto the new squadron all worked well as a team before the merger was even announced, so far from any bickering, everyone is looking forward to officially been one unit.
This is happening more and more. Our wing of 30 has had to prepare a ‘Doomsday’ plan, which includes losing 10 squadrons. Although they have not been told to implement it yet, it is looking more likely!
Being in the same region as staffs wing i am quite concerned with this development. The lease for the land my sqn sits on is the most expensive in the wing. With two sqns within 20 minutes drive and 3 more within 30. The closure of my unit would save £3150 a year.
Having taken over the sqn when it was failing. One uniformed staff me, 1 CI who could only dp 1 night. Yes only one adult on the unit, and cadets you could count on one hand.
Now 11 staff when allof the admin is sorted and more than 30 cadets. All in a small valley’s community witge onr comp and a catchment arra of no morr than 25, 000 people.
The issue of my sqn is most cadets travel down the valley to mu sqn. All of the options of other units are further down the valley The result of my unit closing will be a extra 20 minutes travet to the next closest. Some of my cadets already travel 20 minutes to get to my front door. A 40 minute trip for the cadet is a 80 minute round trip for a parent.
I should be confident that my sqn is safe because it is one of the bigger in the wing. .if they can move three viable units in Stafford to one super sqn. Anything is possible.
The key in Staffs was the one time availability of a significant amount of cash. This wasn’t so much about money saving by RFCA but taking advantage of the available funds to best serve the Cadets of the 3 units.
What bob said - availability of cash, plus space issues at one squadron, aging building in another, equalled opportunity.
The new squadron building will have both a 4 lane .22 range, and an Air Rifle range, qualified staff to run every activity in the cadet experience, 5 minibuses, and a top notch new HQ, it’s a good thing for the kids of Stoke.
I think that this is a fantastic opportunity, so some cadets may have to travel further, but how bad is the travel in Stoke, and how big as a city actually is it.
Have any cadets left the ATC as a result of the Merger and being unable to travel to the new HQ?
By bring the staff/cadets/resources together I’m sure that a better cadet experience can be delivered, even if they were already working together there will be an improvement to the parade night experience .
With these extra staff, I’m sure people will be able to take a night off and not feel guilty and potentially need to look at shutting the squadron as a result.
Whilst I agree in principle to your comments, and good luck to the lucky cadets around Stoke, how many other squadrons will be ‘joined together’ with no RCOs, nor minibuses!
Just as a cost saving measure, that actually won’t be much in the long run.
Go back to the last massive upheaval of 1999, when we lost a Region, lost some Wings and amalgamated others. How much money was actually saved after the whole rebranding exercise was complete.
I agree that measures need to be taken on the underperforming squadrons, but will this lead to larger squadrons being drawn together to form ‘super squadrons’ at the expense of the ‘poorer’ squadrons, that with a little help, would flourish.
The rumour mill is that GM wing is also creating a super squadron, who will share the site with a Wing training centre. Except that the building that they have chosen is: a) In desperate need of renovation, and b) currently for sale.
It does does sound like a great opportunity for the cadets of Stoke - how do the other units feel? I wonder how the super squadron will fare vs ‘normal’ units in inter-squadron competitions?
I think we are lucky that it’s been well thought out to choose the right units to merge - as you say it wouldn’t have worked with 3 units with no kit, no staff etc.
Not sure how other units feel - sure there will be the odd hint of jealousy, but that can’t be helped.
In terms of how the unit will fare at Inter-Squadron competitions - probably pretty well, but then the 3 units all did very well on their own previously - all top 10 finishers at WFD, good performers in sport etc, so will only be a slight improvement on what happens normally.
The other thing is, that we have always worked closely with other units - we are very much made up of staff who are in it to help the cadets.
As a result we have already extended offers of help to other squadrons locally who need access to minibuses, who would like to use a shooting range etc. So this super squadron will be more than just a large group of cadets that get the best opportunities, it will give us the staff and equipment to support the rest of the Wing too, and as someone said previously, the large staff team gives us scope to support others without having to do 4-5 nights a week.
