Author: Admin

During Padre’s Hour on 5th June 2017 cadets were split into groups and asked a searching question on how they would improve the squadron and they were encouraged to give open and honest answers to the question.

Here are the answers that were given to help improve the squadron, as mentioned on the night we will take them all seriously and consider each in its own right. We may not be able to implement all of the suggestions but will answer each and where possible we will take on or try the suggestion.  some comments and answers in bold, some of this is still work in progress and continuous improvement from everyone on the squadron.

Group 1

1. More discipline – This is being improved but will not be a quick win and needs to progress over time, we will continue to monitor this as staff and NCOs and explore the reasons why discipline is lacking and try to address and eradicate those reasons as needed. It seems that a lot of it comes from not entertaining everyone as much as we would like to. – See ACP 20 for details on this.
2. More out of squadron activities – Agreed, we need to improve what we are getting out of activities, can we get achievements for what we do and how can we translate what we do on squadron to other things we do in the Corps and in our lives outside of the squadron?
3. More NCOs and CIs – Agreed here we need to work with our cadets coming up through the ranks and our community to ensure that the right people are able to fill these roles. We are always looking for new NCOs and CIs (…and indeed other adult volunteers too!), we hope to have news in these areas in due course and as much as I can see here is that we are progressing this. For those wanting to be an NCO ACP-048.docx (255 downloads) , for staff appointments click here
4. More physical activities – Noted, I will amend the training schedule to include more physical activities, this will be sports, trips to the training area too and I am planning more walks/hikes after 15th and 16th July.
5. More determination – Not sure how to approach this on anyone else’s behalf and will see if I can find the owner of this comment to see if this meant anything more that I can work with. For now, I will promise to give 100% of my determination to making a better squadron along with our cadets, civilian committee, and squadron staff
6. Less classroom activities – We have been trying to achieve this and I think we have answered this largely and will continue as best we can to keep this going. 

Group 2

1. No 3 nights – We have started adopting this and will continue to keep up with this, currently we have at least one Greens night a month, some months will have more as the training schedule allows.
2. Civi night – These are harder as we are a uniformed squadron, we have had one already and will continue to look for opportunities to keep this going when we can and it is right to do so. 
3. On sqn courses – We do have them and with the blue badge progressive training in the schedule now I think we are achieving this, however, I will again stand to be corrected if I am wrong and will seek to ensure we are improving here too.
4. More NCOs – Answer here is similar to 3 in group 1’s comments above, There will be a page on here shortly in the cadet area which will inform what is expected from our NCOs in the Corps and I would expect all cadets that have aspirations to become an NCO to read the documents and talk to our current NCO team for mentoring and advice. Also, share your aspirations with the staff who will be glad to mentor and point you in the right direction to achieve your aims. 
5. More projects – Projects sometimes work and sometimes do not, currently, they run sometimes with success and sometimes not so much, before we agree to more project nights I think we need to clearly define what we are doing and why. It’d be good to change projects perhaps too? Some other ideas will be welcome here. Personally, I am thinking including what we currently do; Model making, glider making, and music. I think we could add things like aircraft recognition, squadron history project for the website, squadron newsletter etc… What do you think? what do you want to do and what is the purpose of the project?
6. More shooting – I agree on this, paintball target shooting is becoming available shortly, the shooting officer is making in-roads to getting air rifles used on squadrons that can and the new No. 7 rifle is now coming into service which is all good new and progression. We will push hard on this front and will identify opportunities to get you shooting as soon as we can. 
7. Badge qualification opportunities – Since this was raised we have had a number of people passed through Heart start, Youth First Aid, Radio blue badge, and bronze badge to mention just those I can think of. We are actively progressing music badges and leadership badges too and will continue to progress you all through as much as we can. Please fill in the questionnaire below or on the cadet link to share with us your interests and we can ensure we are looking out for those things that particularly excite you about cadets and push those to you first… don’t worry about missing anything, this just shows us your preferences now we will also keep reminding you and trying to show you other activities too as your tastes will change and we want to make sure we can give you as much of the cadet experience as we possibly can.

Group 3

1. Get new tables – This is out of our control a little, we do complain regularly about the tables to the organisation running the building and we are on a list, in the meantime, we will see if we can do anything to fix them temporarily. 
2. Cake sale – Good idea, maybe something we can take to an event or some other function so we can maximise the money raised from this? 
3. New equipment – We have just put in a relatively large order to the civilian committee for some new equipment so have started to address some of this, it would be great to know any other specifics here, please share more. 
4. Respect staff / guests / cadets – This is a key tenet of Air Cadets and something that is also paramount everywhere else, in my opinion, we need to address this and I think this is being improved all of the time.
5. More camps – There are lots out there and more arriving regularly please keep looking at the events page, Facebook posts and squadron notice board for the next opportunities.