Making a Schedule, should that be the Cadet Commanders job? Or should he or she give the Flight Commander what he wants on certain weeks for that month and let the flight commander make the schedule?

Certain blocks of time should be pre-scheduled for things like moral leadership, safety, aerospace education, etc. That's the stuff required by national.

Then the cadet commander decides what goals to establish for the cadet programs side of the unit. The cadet commander should probably work with the squadron commander or deputy commander for cadets to figure these out, and get some feedback from the cadet staff. Once everyone has agreed on the goals, the cadet commander can turn those goals over to the flight commander. The flight commander plans the flight training and activities to best meet those goals and the cadet commander gives guidance and feedback. The flight commander should plan for each meeting at least a week in advance.

There you go, JMHO.

Our schedule is almost 100% set from git go.

Formation, opening ceremony, report, and inspection always happen at the first 15 minutes.

Closing formation, announcements, and admin type stuff always happen during the last 15 minutes.

Testing, moral leadership, and safety always happen on week 1.

CPFT and team sport always happen on week 2

Weeks 3 and 4 are split into elective training times which cadets and officers have specific lists of things they can work on (and they are only allowed to work on things on those lists) This allows cadets to sort of "choose your own adventure". If you wanna get GT then work on GT. If you wanna get CG, then work on CG. If you need help (mentoring) from a cadet on leadership chapter 3, pull one over and get some help.

Of course during this time, the cadet commander can hijack elective training time to teach a class, or handle some squadron business. But most of the time it is used as elective time by the cadets.

The downside here is that it really allows cadets to "go at their own pace" with their elective training time. They have to be "doing something approved" but they don't necessarily have to be making massive amounts of progress. I'm actually personally ok with this as it allows each cadet to go at their own speed. We don't unnaturally speed cadets through the program, but there are also no hinderances. A cadet who wants to get moving finds that this systems allows them the most freedom to get individualized attention in their specific interest area.

The Cap'n pretty much hit the nail on the head, but I'll add in my .02 as well...

The cadet commander and the deputy commander for cadets should sit down one meeting and figure out what needs to happen within the next 3 months (the cadet commander should have a good idea, since he/she provides the goals and direction of the cadet part of the unit). The following month should be solid (meaning there's no dispute over what classes are being taught and by who), the next 3 months should be fairly solid (meaning things don't have to be definite, there can be a couple of open meetings) and there should be a general idea as to what will happen in the next 6 months (cadet staff position rotations, activities like encampment). You could even do goals to be accomplished within a year, but anything more than that may be stretching it out too much IMO.

Once this schedule is made, you ought to run it by the cadet staff to be critiqued, and once again run it by the DCC. Once approved, the cadet commander should distribute copies to his/her staff.

Now, the staff should (depending on the positions they hold) make their own schedules according to the C/CC's schedule (for example, the C/CC schedules an hour-long drill session. Unless you want to spend an hour doing "Column Right, March", "Forward, March", as a flight commander, you should schedule this time (buddy up the newbies with experienced, skilled cadets and teach facing movements, switch out the acting flight commanders, knock-out drill, flight inspection, etc) Not every single detail needs to be structured, but you should always know what's going to happen next. Ideally, the C/CC would schedule some "flight time" at least every other meeting, and give the flt cc some somewhat generic goals (improve passing rate on testing, have new cadets make C/Amn 6 months after they join) then the flt cc makes his own (all cadets will get at least 80% on their tests, newbies will get their mosquito wings in 3 months).

However, you asked if the flight commanders could make a schedule for one certain week or whatever. I'd say if that's how the cadet commander wants to do it, that's totally within the discretion of the cadet commander (and the DCC is cool with it, of course).

Long story short, the cadet commander should make a schedule that includes the whole cadet unit, the flight commander focuses on how his/her unit fits into the big picture. Simple, ain't it?

I prefer that the cadet commander write the schedule, but it really depends on the situation at the unit. For instance, if you have a real bonehead for a cadet commander (and you are stuck with him), I can see allowing him to delgate it.

The only time I have allowed the cadet commander to delgate schedule writing responsibilities was when we had two programs running at the same time (one for the nomral flight and one for the basic flight). Because my cadet commander already had over a year and half of experience creating schedules, we decided to give the two flight commanders some more experience (which paid off when they became cadet commanders).

Still, I never accepted a schedule from either flight commander. I made the cadet commander responsible for them, and if there were any mistakes, I took it up with him. If you accept the title, then you accept the responsibility. If I had a cadet commander say to me "Well, sir, I didn't write it" as an excuse for it being late or wrong, they wouldn't be the cadet commander anymore. But then ,you know how hard I am on cadet officers.

YMMV...

http://forums.cadetstuff.org/viewtopic.php?t=4027

If I'd remembered this thread existed, I would of posted here originally.

I, BTW, am a flight commander.

The C/CC is a total goof off. If I don't make the schedule, the schedule won't get made. He's supposed to make the schedule, but he doesn't stick to it. The DCC asks him for a monthly schedule, and so the C/CC will give one up, but three minutes before the meeting, he'll be scribbling down, I quote, the "real" schedule. So I make the schedule now, and even when someone decides to chuck the whole thing out at the last minute, at least I have a general idea of what training I want to accomplish that day.

C/2d Lt Reichardt

The Cadet Commander at my squadron is ultimately responsible for the cadet's schedule. He makes sure all of the required things are included (and really they all happen on the same nights of the month at the same time.) He then sets aside some time each week for the flight staff to conduct their flight specific training, which normally is a half hour a week. The flight commanders are responsible for planning this half hour a week.

Once the flight commanders have filled in their parts, and the cadet commander has the entire schedule put together, he gives it to me and I more or less just say okay. Sometimes I suggest changes, but for the most part I let the cadets do what they want.

In my Squadron the Cadet commander is responsible for getting the schedule together for the cadets and that job is given to me and I tell the flight commanders that thy need to come up with a plan for the meeting before the begining of each month.

In order for this to work you must have very clear goals for the flight commanders to work with and they must be on the ball with what is happening with their flight.

The only reason I will change what they are doing is if I see that they are doing the same thing month after month.

Hope this helps

C/CMSgt. Elias Wiff
Cadet Deputy Commander
Viking Squadron
MN Wing

10 Nov 2005, 20:46

to

27 May 2009, 16:48

Impressive.

Yeah, well... *shrug* IMO there is still some room for input, even if the thread is almost four years old...

That kind of power should be delegated and regularly transitioned.

Two words (well, an acronym and two numbers, really) ...

CAPP 52-15.

Yeah, what I said.
That is how planning should be conducted. Also, that is not how I have seen it. :/