| The Trend Over the past decade,
I have heard many arguments about what Cadet Programs should be; these range from
"Let Cadets do what they want to do" to "Membership is cyclical; it goes up
and it comes down." The trend that I have noticed over the past ten years or so is to
not require much of Cadets "After all, they might quit."
Keep in mind that most Cadets will only know how to do what they
have been exposed to. If Cadets have seen a weak CAC, a weak cadet competition, and no ES
opportunities, they are only going to know how to sit around and have a picnic. If they
have seen yelling and screaming (or saw Full Metal Jacket a time too many), they are going
to go in that direction. The Cadet who wants to change the Status Quo is the exception,
not the norm.
"We all wanna change the world …"
Still, if you are reading this, you are probably the exception, or
trying to inspire others to be the exception. You want to try new and different things so
that, when you leave for College/Air Force/Turn Senior/Whatever, the Squadron you leave is
larger, more experienced, and able to do more things. You want to create a permanent
revolution.
Esprit De Corps
One key to retaining high-quality people is to keep them doing new
and interesting things. Not surprisingly, the keys to building Esprit De Corps is to have
a unit that is:
- Different than others in some way
- Better than others in some way
- More efficient than others in some way
This tells us that the best way to make our unit better is to find
something good, something rewarding and challenging, and to try to make that a part of our
squadron.
A Practical Implementation
Does your squadron have a ground team? No? Go found one.
Does it get called out on real missions? No? Get involved and
take it to the next level.
Do you have a Squadron Color Guard? No? Go found one.
Do you have a Squadron Drill Team? No? Go found one.
Do you regularly write CAC proposals? No? Get Crackin'. Get as
many cadets as possible involved in the process.
Do you have a squadron-sponsored annual leadership school? No?
Make one.
Do you split the school into levels? (Airman Leadership School,
Flight Staff School, etc.) No? Take it the next level!
Who plans your weekend activities? Senior Members? Get more
involved in planning your programs.
Do you do Encampment-Style PT on PT nights? Start!
I think you get the picture. Every time you give up on something,
five years later, none of your cadets know how to do it. Every time you start something
new, five years later, your posterity3 can do it without blinking an eye. To keep people,
do something different than other units, something better - something they are too scared
to try. Remember - the harder things are to do, the more rewarding the feeling when they
are done.
In 2000, Boulle-Norman was the first Michigan Wing Squadron in 20
years to compete in the Great Lakes Region Cadet Competition with an all-squadron drill
team. Imagine how less it would have meant to us, had we took the "easy way" and
just had a color guard.
Plus, when the competition was over, our Squadron had 16 cadets
who were experts at drill and Aerospace Ed and had perfect uniforms. Are you beginning to
get the picture?
Master Yoda and Luke
So, you find something you want to do, and even find the perfect
Cadet to lead it. You ask him if he will do a (activity X), and he says "I'm going to
try."
Try is perfect for the Cadet, and bad for the squadron. It's
really saying "I might not do it at all, but I want you off my back this instant;
still, I refuse to make a commitment." If your Cadet Leader won't commit, how can you
expect his followers to commit? It's times like this that you need to drive for results,
and carefully explain, as Yoda does to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back that "Try?
There is no Try. Do. Or Do Not Do. There is no Try." Get your Cadet
to make a commitment, then help him see it through, and you'll be amazed at the results
you get.
Getting Efficient & Sustaining Excellence
Efficiency just means getting things done better with less effort.
It's been my experience that the law of diminishing returns applies to Cadets; if you try
to teach drill (or aerospace) the same way, over and over again with the same Cadets, they
will get bored and learn less, possibly even getting worse as you "train" them.
Cadet Officers and NCOs need to constantly innovate and examine
the way they train to find out what works best, possibly rotating a mix of "best
practices" to keep things fun. In drill for instance, the following methods of
instruction all work in varying degrees; using one repetitively will cause problems:
Individual/Very Small Group Instruction
Instruction/Demonstration/Exercise Technique
Practice Exercise
"Sergeant Says"
Element Leaders Repeat Commands
Element Leaders Instruct
"Airmen Command" Marching Challenge
Conclusions
Every Squadron has an informal body of Cadet Experience. When
Cadets "grow up" and move away, some of that experience moves with them. When
Squadrons "give up" on programs for a few years in a row, the Squadron loses
that experience and can begin to fold inward. To beat this problem, the Squadron needs to
seek out new challenges, building that body of experience, making commitments, and keeping
things fun.
It's a lot of hard work.
It is also definitely worth it. Ten years from now, when you are a
Senior Member writing columns about the way the Cadet Program should be, how do you want
your memories to read? I gave up because it was too hard and I was afraid of failing?
I didn't think so.
Matthew Heusser, Capt, CAP
Leadership Officer, GLR-MI-265
Comments, thoughts, criticisms, complaints? I’m looking for
feedback. Please feel free to drop
me an email. |
