extra stuff

[Shadow811]

I'm the new group commander in my unit and one my goals for the year is to get cadets involved in Jrotc. I'm wondering about what kind of activities other units do to get cadets involved in the program.

[Stryfe]

Here's a few idea's that should help you get some people who aren't regularly involved more active.

-Community Service: In my unit we hold a few community service events per month, encourage Cadets to take apart of this. Not only do you help the community but it's a great way to interact with other Cadets.
-Drill Team/Color Guards: Get a interest in maybe starting a Drill Team (if you don't already have one) and participating in Color Guards. Talk to your principal about opening up events like Football games, assemblies with a Color Guard to represent your Unit.
-Out of school activities: Hang out with one another outside of ROTC! Everyone needs a break from it once in a while. Building friendships with other Cadets will encourage them to take more part in ROTC because they'll be with friends, and maybe end up having a good time with what they're doing.
-Incentives: Give them incentives; ribbons, parties, movies, etc.

Those are just a few ideas, I'd love to hear what other people can come up with!

Stryfe

[C.A.P. Flight Officer]

There is the obvious Drill and Color Guard. There are also fundraisers to help and support your unit. My unit had Pizza Hut Card fundraisers and candle sales through a candle company. My unit also invited our local college football players to play a basketball game against the cadets and had a school fundraiser from that. My unit also had bowling tournaments at the local bowling alley as a cadet activity. How about trying to hook up with the local VFW and put wreaths on Veteran's grave stones during big holidays. This is all I can think for right now. Hope this helps.

[TruBlu]

Stryfe said it perfectly!

Make sure you place a big emphasis on a drill team, that will be your biggest as far as cadet interaction goes. Many may hate the practices, but the down time at competitions and going to and from them as a unit can offer some pretty good team building (and often hilarity...).

[HWFG1]

I don't know that it would necessarily work for you guys, but, our cadets go to the middle school and talk to a bunch of eighth graders each week. A lot of our cadets love it, and it gets more people interested in joining JROTC. Granted, they have a "flex" period at the end of the day, which is one of the main reasons we are able to do this, and the middle school is across the bus ramp from us, but, if you can make it work, it might help. We've spent the last three or four weeks working on the 8th graders with folding flags, raising flags, bringing flags down, etc. This past Wednesday, we split our time between teaching them basic drill commands (the position of attention, present arms, order arms, and hand salute) and ending our lesson on the flag. But, like I said, it may not work for you, especially if you'd have to go a long way off campus to get to the middle school or whatever.

[Psybadek]

Without stating the obvious, one thing I liked doing was once every week after school I would sit down with some cadet's and work with them one on one. It could be about anything, maybe they had suggestions for the unit, questions, needed some guidance. Anything really. Some NS1's were really interested in stepping up in the unit, so I would give them some advice and help them with working there way up in the unit. Being the battalion chaplain I also had cadet's that wanted spiritual advice. (This was something I was doing as the chaplain but the discussions could be about anything.)

Sometimes cadet's just want to know someone is there to listen. I've known many NS1's that didn't participate as much because they felt out of place. (Partly because a majority of the cadet's who participated in meets were NS2's and up.) Sometimes you just need to work with them one on one and help them figure out what they can do for the unit.