Ok I am going to mention the M word, Morale!
I know tradition in the corps is to stamp it out etc etc.
But on a serious note, how is morale with your cadets?
I have been hearing grumblings from staff within my wing that the morale with the cadets is at an all time low.
Mainly due to a lack of corps activities such as Flying and Shooting, as well as the other hot topic of Gliding.
Just wondering and curious how you are finding it?
We seem to find it hard to get the cadets to do anything.
They moan when nothing runs, but when we run an activity theyâre not interested, which annoys the staff who do all the admin work and time to plan it and it usually gets cancelled due to lack of take up.
We currently have a little under 50 cadets and weâll be lucky if 5 of those are willing to do something at the weekend!!
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I donât think itâs just cadets with morale issuesâŚ
I personally think it is down to us staff being too busy all the time? And the fact that some staff members are not very enthusiastic and lack interacting with the cadets. Thatâs what I have noticed anyway. It just seems to be going downhill. When I was a cadet, old staff members would pass on enthusiasm and actually come and speak to us often and it had very good effects
We are in the same boat and just cannot seem to get the cadets to attend anything, anytime I plan a weekend activity Iâm having too look to other sqns from the offset just to make it possible to run. Yet at the same time we are told we not offering enough, we have spoke to them asking is it the activities that are being run that they donât want to do and they are saying that the activities are fine and that the things that they want to do. We are quite lucky and mange to get around 3 cadets flying slots each month but this month I cannot even fill those. All off the staff are at our wits end with it, to the point that we are creating a loyalty scheme where they can get money off activities for representing the squadron and wing and attending core activities
Yes same here, out of 77 cadets 8 turned up for bag packing.
I must admit I am struggling with my own morale, the grass is looking greener in MTP!
That being said I am trying to do my best with all the rules and regs.
I very much agree. On arriving at the squadron I usually go down to the main hall (ostensibly to deliver milk for the tea), chat for a couple of minutes with the NCOs and make myself available for cadets to talk to me. My reward is usually a cup of tea.
I, and a couple of other CIs, usually hang around after both the parades and this usually brings a number of cadets asking questions.
As for getting cadets to go on activities, you have to talk to them about what is happening. If I am running an activity (in our squadron every activity has a staff member identified with it) I talk to the NCOs and later the cadets, about it for some weeks before. If the idea isnât catching on and no-one is signing up after a couple of weeks we consider cancelling early before too much effort has gone into it.
As for always getting the same six cadets turning up, that is true everywhere. From memory off the top of my head I can name the half dozen who always sign up and then get them to work on the others.
Of course, this only works if the staff morale is high.
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I would say that staff morale is far worse than cadet morale. My cadets are generally unaware of the wider politics and Gliding is a distant memory which they donât really miss. Staff on the other hand are all too aware of these sort of issues as well as the usual politics that goes along with any large organisation.
I agree daws1159, cadets morale do come down to the staffâs morale and as I have stated earlier, morale is down because staff are always âtoo busyâ. I generally believe if you spend 15mins per night talking to your cadets positively and interacting more, your morale will be good and so would the cadets morale.
Maybe we as a organisation should treat cadets more like adults and interact more with them and Iâm sure more cadets will take an interest and attend more activities
Itâs not just the politics of things such as gliding, but also the amount of time and effort - a lot of people are fed up of putting in the time and effort for a few takers or to have to cancel last minute; perhaps this leads to a defeatist attitude from the offset and things arenât sold or targeted as best as they could be.
@XN150 is onto something - cadets donât pay attention to a notice at the end of the night or on the board; you have to get some facetime and sell it. Before that, just generally some informal contact time so they know and can trust you when you say something is fun (or however else you sell it).
Enthusiasm is a big thing - one of the key things we instil on our wing Initial Leadership Course is that a leader has to be enthusiastic, confident, and believe in what they are saying⌠perhaps weâre sometimes guilty of not showing this enough ourselves.
@daws1159 ⌠understaffed, overworked, admin burden, busy, stressed⌠it can be difficult to find that time you describe. Iâm always open to someone coming to me, and try to get âamong the troopsâ where I can, but you can guarantee that every night there will be at least one cadet coming to me needing to discuss something, and at least one last minute task to be done.
The Air has gone out of the Air Training Corps. No Flying or Gliding in the past 12 months. Considering our Sqn is located on a large training area and we have access to two lakes, we may have to look at the possibilities of buying a sailing dingy and turning the Sqn into Sea Cadet.
Whatâs the reason for no AEF?
At a guess, 5AEF & the move from Wyton to Wittering- ah, no weekend ATCâŚ
Mike, I believe that 5 AEF is now meant to be flying at weekends⌠That said, our most recent allocation was up at 7 AEF.
Yes - & same for us last month, slots at Cranditz.
At the risk of being the grumpy old git I have been in the corp since 1983. I am going out this weekend on an exercies. We have all our squadron, plus two nearby squadrons joining us. I an the EO, having done the course, I am also a Fieldcraft Instructor and Skillie. - Just laying out the details.
50% of our staff wonât turn up, the boss has cried off and there will be me (F/L) a Flt Sgt and two CIâs, the visiting Sqns will provide 2 CIâs and thatâs the problem, Staff Morale and cadet availability.
We used to have Squadrons with 30 plus cadets who wanted to do everything, now its studies and work that gets in the way. The cadets havenât changed but parents, schools and employers have. The demands on the kids time has exploded.
Now to staff, There are so many hoops, rules and admin that it gets a chore and the AOC forget we are volunteers giving the greatest gift, that wont be given back - our time. The pleasure has gone out the staff, squeezed out by insurance and rules, there are too many leaders without common sense or experience, its been replaced by RAâs that no one reads. When I started over 30 years ago we did everything, including stuff we probably shouldânt have done, but no one got killed and it was fun. We have now introduced all the rules and courses that the âold guardâ cant be bothered with so they have been replaced by highly qualified numpties, and the result is worse injuries. It wont ever go back as it was but we still need the experienced guys. As an RCO I know many who have given up trying to progress and they have just left. I spend time telling them that the rewards are the same, a gift to the cadets and I have talked a load out of leaving.
I want to stay in for the cadets, I have a boss who loves paperwork which leaves me time to do shooting and Fieldcraft which I love. I cant do DEA because I not BELAâd I offered to do it privately as it was the same quals on a quicker course but the Wing would rather pay me for 20 days (ÂŁ1400) than pay for my qual at ÂŁ340.
Thatâs why morale is up the swanny, Disillusioned Adults passing their morale downwards to the stressed cadets.
Donât fool yourself its a hobby, it isnât, its an âenjoyableâ job. With a job comes rules and training but it doesnât mean you canât enjoy doing it. - A hobby is what you stop doing to watch something good on the TV.
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A Good post there! 
Well, I canât say Iâve been around as long, but youâve hit the nail on the head. Even in the 10 years Iâve been involved things have changed a lot - the cadets have changed, the parents have changed, the staff have changed, and the whole atmosphere has changed.
As a newer and younger member of staff, there is a mountain to climb - not only in terms of learning the role, the regulations, techniques, tips, and tricks, but a major one is the qualification side. The thing is, with each new qualification comes added pressure to make good use of it (and by good I mean very regular), but there isnât enough time for one person to give in so many different directions. Too many people are being too stretched and it sucks the fun out of it. To then wade through that mire to find it was all for nothing and you have to cancel due to staff and/or cadet numbers hits pretty hard.
So many squadrons are short on qualified staff that each type of event falls to the same minority. It is a job, and sometimes it can feel like a full-time job, but itâs one we choose to do because we enjoy it and want to give back and all of those other warm and fuzzy feelings-related motives; however, thereâs only so much faecal matter one can take before the balance is tipped too far the wrong way.
On a slightly unrelated note, I donât understand how we can be so far behind the ACF in terms of our syllabus structure and the consistency with which its taught. Now, my classifications knowledge was pretty good, but when I came back and learned that we had these books with all-new content in, and p-poor resources to use, I found myself back at square one. Thereâs a fair whack of quite specialised (although basic within those specialities) knowledge in those books now and not all squadrons have staff members experienced enough within those areas.
Part of the problem is the sudden reduction in joining age, the first class cadet training is not designed for 12 year olds.
As a retired professional in aviation I got "volunteeredâ to do Principles of Flight and other aeroplane related topics and spent a fair amount time preparing lessons from the Powerpoint presentations. The first thing I noticed was that the Powerpoint stuff was very poor and in many instances actually wrong. The second thing I noticed was the number of times my lessons were cancelled at short noticed because the padre or wing Warrant Officer was visiting. It is quite difficult to to keep the enthusiasm to prepare lessons when they keep getting cancelled.
As for the inaccuracies, what should I do? Just teach the stuff that passes the exams, or add that this is actually wrong. I have to remember that some of the cadets (although fewer than before the pause) are actually going to fly aeroplanes and should therefore have the correct information.