Better to do a little well, then a great deal badly..(Socrates)"

So, you think you are finally going somewhere. Your squadron has three flights, commanded by officers and your cadet commander is a C/Maj. Your squadron totals 40 active cadets -- 50 on paper. You go to an ES activity, and you are innocently telling Sergeant Smithy, from the Squadron across the county about all the great stuff that's been going on in your unit lately.

After a few minutes, he looks at you, almost sneering, and says "Yeah, at my Squadron ... we focus on quality, not quantity."

What's going on here?

To begin with, make no mistake -- you've just been insulted. The sergeant brought up a very real conflict -- quantity versus quality -- or, in simpler terms, "numbers" verses "goodness." The question is, which of these should a unit focus on?

History has shown if a unit focuses on numbers but does not offer a quality program, it will constantly be running recruiting drives -- because recruiting will be up, but retention will be down. Sustaining the pace of constant recruiting, in the face of large turnover, is next to impossible. If the unit slows -- or stops -- recruiting -- it will quickly fall back into the pit that it came from. So, focusing on recruiting alone is not the correct answer.

Let's examine what happens when we focus on quality. Jerry Weinberg, a noted expert on quality systems, defines quality as "value to some person." That is to say, if the unit has quality, then meetings will be worth going to. Retention will be high and furthermore, word of mouth will ensure that the unit grows. When you look at the structure of your squadron having four cadet officers and the cadet NCO's backing them up, you really do have pretty good retention.

Face it, if you are in a good unit, you want to recruit your friends, don't you? You don't have to be tricked or manipulated into recruiting, you don't need special activities or ribbons for it -- you simply tell your friends and they join.

What follows is a unit that truly focuses on quality should experience slow, steady growth until it hits a natural limit. Quality and quantity are not, in fact, enemies or opposites. Units that are growing steadily without running recruiting drives are probably growing because the unit and program is good. Growth is something to be proud of -- and Sergeant Smithy probably knows that ... and his unit probably isn't growing. So, to deflect attention away from his own problems, he turns your strength into weakness in a few words.

In conclusion, Quantity and quality aren't in direct conflict. Units that grow without conducting official recruiting drives are usually growing because of high quality. As for what Sgt. Smithy says, well, we could try to educate him, but if doesn't listen, that's just more recruits for us!