So at my squadron we have 2 Cpls and 30 cadets and no other NCOs.
I am one of the Cpls and at times it can be hard to run the evening whilst monitering everything the cadets are doing.
We are having problems with some people at squadron miss behaving and sometimes not lissening to NCOs or staff so im finding it difficult to handle every minor thing.
Staff are aware of the lack of NCOs but at the moment are unable to promote the 2 Cpls and get some more because of the lack of experience held by the 8 cadets best suited for Cpl.
If anyone can suggest a way to manage everything or help those cadets become more experienced it would be appriciated.
And if you have any questioned due to lack of detial im happy to answer.
Managing cadets, especially ones who don’t listen is hard. Even as a JNCO if you are the leaders of your squadron you have to act as such, which naturally will be difficult. What i’ve found is that sitting all the cadets down, more casually, at the end of a sports night or something “less structured” and talking honestly about what comes from poor discipline has started to help. Cadets, especially young ones, don’t always understand what its like to try and manage other people in a cadets context, and helping them to start to understand can’t hurt.
~ also on the experience front, lead by example. sign up to all the events you can, or want to, and talk to them about it. show them the opportunities that are there for them not just as distant ideas but as genuine potential realities for them.
2 cpls to 30 cadets is shocking, I’ll agree with you there.
If staff aren’t promoting because there’s a lack of experience though they’re doing things right, promoting to fill in a gap often leads to poor leadership where there’s an expectation of good leadership.
Ultimately it’s down to your staff to whether they’ll promote anyone so the only advice I can give you is to try and be a good candidate - and by all means encourage prospective cpls to do the same.
Thank you, I will try that when we’re next in.
As for the experience I’ve been trying that already and it seems to be working. How ever there also seems to be a large group of around 8 progressing at a similar rate, so we will see how that turns out.
It’s hard to explain.
On boards we have have 3Cpls 3Sgts
However there are only 2Cpls and 1Sgt who have a attendance over 5% over the last 6 months so the others are out of the picture.
The somewhat active Sargent has been suspended for 2-3 months and has threatened to leave multiple times during this suspension.
Me and the other active Cpl have been promoted around 3 moths ago however we were filling that job for almost 6 months before.
This is because our OC was having some health problems and tbh even though we didn’t hold the title we were master cadets and it was clear to everyone else who was mainly in charge.
The main issue I’m having at the moment is with a cadet who was the next most likely to be Cpl after us two got promoted and even though staff said they would promote 3 people they only promoted 2 to avoid that experience gap.
Now that cadet is often angry and rude to other cadets not seeing any reason to try anymore and will often refuse to listen to me and sometimes staff.
There are also reports of bullying around 3 reports in the last two weeks and me and the other Cpl are struggling to use 4 hands to hold 6 things If that makes sense.
So it’s not the staffs fault for not promoting as they are forced into a powerless position and promoting will only make things worse if the new Cpls are unable to manage.
Wow that’s a lot of words but that’s the wider range of things but I thought about asking here to see if anyone has dealt with it before.
I doubt this comment gives a lot of help but maybe splitting all the cadets into smaller flights may help? I’ve seen this trick being used on my squadron a lot when there’s a lack of NCOs.
Its better to have less ncos who are experienced then more ncos who arent. It must be incredibly hard for you and your fellow corporal and im sorry to hear that. Here are a few suggestions
-Talk to your cadets collectively and engage them
-Plan some fun nights- it might be what theyre lacking
-include more discipline
-talk to those potential ncos and teach them things, talk to them
-motivate the cadets as much as possible
-get someone like a WO to talk to everyone
These are a few i can think of. I genuinely hope the situation gets better. Keep doing what youre doing and dont let the stress get to u. youll do fine and this phase will pass. I hope these words mean something to you.
Hi, The situation is indeed getting better.
The sargent who was supended for ages came back and we have been working together to rienforce structure.
There is also an old CWO who is now a OC who has started to come back and help out with the problems weve been experiencing.
As for the fun activities idea it was more so the oppersite there wasnt anything to contrast it and it was becoming a youth club but now we are inforcing dicipline and we are getting results.
We are also training around 6 cadets for the new promotions where 4 will be choosen and we will finaly have a full NCO TEAM.
Anyway thank you for the suggestions all of them were considered and did help with progress so thank you!