COVID-19 Environment

Currently in the COVID-19 environment, Cadets train once a week on Wednesday Evening, 1845hrs – 2000hrs (6:45pm – 8:00pm). Our training takes place virtually over Zoom.

Pre-COVID-19

Cadets train once a week on a Wednesday Evening, 1830hrs -2130hrs (6:30pm – 9:30pm) at Eastshore Community Centre, located at 910 Liverpool Rd, Pickering. There are optional activities held locally that occur on weeknights, such as Drill, Sports, Rifle, and Band. We host or attend weekend activities throughout the training year, such as survival weekends, sports competitions, leadership training, and gliding.

A Cadet who participates regularly in the (extra) activities may find themselves coming out 3 – 4 times per week! Cadets are encouraged to take advantage of the extra activities offered. There is something for everyone.

The local Cadet Program with 856 Air Cadets runs from September to June. Optional Summer Training is also available, which is run by the National and Provincial levels of the Cadet Program.

COVID-19 Environment

In the current COVID-19 environent, Cadet training takes place over Zoom. The Zoom weeks for each link can be found in the Zoom tab of their Level Group pages.

1830: Log-on to Zoom Session

1835 – 1840: Attendance

1840 – 1915: Period 1 Classes

1915 – 1925: Break

1925 – 2000: Period 2 Classes

2000: Dismissal

Pre-COVID-19

We meet at Eastshore Community Centre, 910 Liverpool Road South, Pickering, ON, on Wednesday evenings. Opening parade begins at 18:30hrss (6:30 pm). Parents are asked to ensure they are at the Community Centre prior to 21:30hrs. (9:30 pm). It is very important that parents arrive on time to pick-up you up.

We ask that parents do not block driveways during drop off/pick up of Cadets. Please park your vehicle to keep the roadways clear.

1830: Arrival/Fall-in

1830 – 1900: Opening Parade

1900 – 1930: Period 1 Classes

1935 – 2005: Period 2 Classes

2005 – 2015: Level Officer Period

2015 – 2030: Break

2030 – 2100: Period 3 Classes

2100 – 2130: Closing Parade

2130: Dismissal

While we try to limit Cadets being delayed after Closing Parade on a Wednesday night, sometimes it still occurs. The most common reasons for a delay are:

• receiving important information or documentation for an activity or other purpose
• cleaning up after a lesson (more common if your Cadet is an Instructor)
• engaging in an OGroup (Orders Group – this will occur if your Cadet has been appointed as a Cadet Directing Staff member for an activity)

A major goal of the Cadet Program is getting Cadets to lead Cadets. This is one reason why we encourage you to find information at the lowest possible level in the Chain of Command as possible. This is something that is common in the workplace. You don’t go to the CEO to ask how to submit a vacation request. As you go through the Cadet Program, and start leading other Cadets, you will get questions from the Cadets you lead. This helps you to practice important leadership and communication skills.

Once you logged in, you might have noticed a navigation bar appear on the left-hand side of your screen. If you’re on mobile, click the menu button and you will see the options. Here, you will see:

1. Squadron Community
2. Calendar
3. My Groups
4. Messages
5. Photos
6. FAQs
7. Summer Training
8. Kit Shop
9. Report Absent

Let’s take a look at what these pages are.

Squadron Community

The Squadron Community is the first page you see after you login. There are a number of things you will see on this page.

1. Announcements – This is where we will communicate announcements for the entire squadron. Keep an eye out here.
2. Upcoming Activities – Just as it says, this list some upcoming activities. If you click on an activity here, it will bring you right to the calendar item.
3. Recently Active Members – This shows who has logged in recently to the website.
4. Groups – A quick way for you to discover different groups. In the future, we will add more groups beyond levels, such as teams.
5. The Main Feed – This is a great space where we as a squadron can all connect with one another. Feel free to ask questions, comment or like other cadets or staff posts. Keep an eye here as well for some squadron wide competitions! You will also notice posts come into this feed from groups that you are a part of. This is useful to help keep all the communications in one place. If you do have a level specific question, please post that question to your level group. You will notice a “report” button on each post here. If you ever see anything inappropriate or offensive you can report it, which will notify an administrator.

Calendar

The calendar shows all of our activities for the year. Currently it only shows our Regular Training nights, but we will add more activities as the year goes on. You will also be able to signup for activities here as required.

My Groups

My Groups shows all the groups you are a part of. Groups are similar to the Squadron Community, except it’s just a space for your smaller group.

In the group pages you will see:

1. Feed – Here you will be able to connect with one another, ask questions, comment or like other cadets or staff posts. Your Level Officer will also use this space to communicate level specific information.
2. Zoom – In this tab, you will see all of the upcoming and past Zoom for your level. You will be able to see the Zoom details and see a count down timer to the start of the meeting. When it gets close to the start of the meeting you will be able to launch the Zoom meeting from here. We will start to access Zoom meetings on our website starting 4 Nov.
3. Members – See who is a part of your level
4. Documents – Find and download documents specific to your level
5. Photos – See any photos specific to your level

Messages

Here in messages, you will be able to send direct messages any user of our website. No more need to find and keep track of emails! You will see a history of your messages with single users or groups of users. You can also start typing in the name of users here to start a chat.

An important note, while these are direct messages, they are not completely private. Just like anything on the internet, anything you send is there forever, even if you delete it. We can and we will be auditing the direct messages that are sent.

Photos

This page contains the official Squadron photos from years past.

FAQs

A list of frequently asked questions. We will continue to add to this list as we get more questions.

Summer Training

This page contains information on the Summer Training program and how to apply.

Kit Shop

The kit shop contains squadron swag that can be purchased.

Report Absent

Here you can enter the dates you will be absent. If you are aware of a number of dates you will be absent, you can enter them. If you enter a date in error or will no longer be absent for a date you reported, please reach out to your Level Officer.

Once you logged in, you might have noticed a navigation bar appear on the left-hand side of your screen. If you’re on mobile, click the menu button and you will see the options. Here, you will see:

1. Parent Community
2. Announcements
3. Calendar
4. My Groups
5. Messages
6. Photos
7. FAQs
8. Summer Training
9. Kit Shop

Let’s take a look at what these pages are.

Parent Community

The Parent Community is the first page you see when you login. It is a place where you and the Squadron Staff can connect. It’s a great place to ask questions and to get information. In the Parent Community you will see:

1. Feed – Here you will be able to connect with one another and the Squadron Staff. This is a great place to ask questions, especially if you’re not sure who to reach out to. You will also see information and other communications posted here.
2. Members – Here you will see a listing of all the Officers & Civilian Instructors, Squadron Sponsoring Committee Members, and other Parents. From this page, you can click on the small mail icon to send a direct message to a specific user.
3. Documents – Here you will find documents that have been uploaded by the Squadron Staff
4. Photos – Here you will find any photos uploaded by the Squadron Staff that are just for parents.

Announcements

This page has a list of all the announcements made on the website.

Calendar

The calendar shows all of our activities for the year. This is where Cadets will be able to signup for activities.

My Groups

My Groups shows all the groups you are a part of. The Parent Community, which is the first page you see when you login, is a group. Overtime, you may be added to other groups.

Messages

Here in messages, you will be able to send direct messages to Officer and CI staff and SSC members. No more need to find and keep track of emails! You will see a history of your messages with single users or groups of users. You can also start typing in the name of users here to start a chat.

An important note, while these are direct messages, they are not completely private. Just like anything on the internet, anything you send is there forever, even if you delete it. We can and we will be auditing the direct messages that are sent.

Photos

This page contains the official Squadron photos from years past.

FAQs

A list of frequently asked questions. We will continue to add to this list as we get more questions.

Summer Training

This page contains information on the Summer Training program and how to apply.

Kit Shop

The kit shop contains squadron swag that can be purchased.

If you are having a problem with the website or your account, please send a message to the Webmaster using the internal messaging system. If you cannot log into your account, you can use the ‘Contact the Webmaster’ contact form on the Contact page to send the Webmaster an email.

There are a lot of acronyms in the Cadet Program, we know it can be confusing if you are not familiar with them. Please find some of the common acronyms below with their definitions.

2IC – Second in Command

The Officer or Civilian Instructor who is second in command of an activity or group of Cadets.

Cadet DS – Cadet Directing Staff

The Cadet Team who is running an activity (under the command of the Directing Staff).

CoC – Chain of Command

The Chain of Command is the hierarchical organization of the Squadron.

DS – Directing Staff

The Officer and Civilian Instructor Team who is running an activity.

EO – Enabling Objective

A EO specifies a specific lesson within a PO. Lesson numbers are shown like: M103.01. ‘M103’ is the PO while ‘.01’ is the EO. Let’s breakdown the lesson number:

M – Means this is a mandatory lesson. The other letter you may see is C, which means complementary. This letter doesn’t mean much to you or the Cadets, it’s only important for the Staff who are scheduling lessons.

1 – Means this is a Level 1 lesson

03 – Means this is a Leadership lesson

.01 – This indicates the specific lesson in the Leadership PO, which is “Identify the Responsibilities of a Follower in a Team”

FTX – Field Training Exercise

An FTX is any activity that takes place in a field. For example, our Winter FTX, Spring FTX, and Survivial day.

LHQ – Local Headquarters

The LHQ is the main building we parade out of and where our offices is. Our LHQ is the East Shore Community Centre.

NCO2IC – Non-Commissioned Officer Second in Command

An appointed postition that makes a Cadet the second most senior Cadet for an Activity.

NCOIC – Non-Commissioned Officer in Command

An appointed postition that makes a Cadet the most senior Cadet for an Activity.

OGroup – Orders Group

The OGroup is a meeting with the Directing Staff and Cadet Directing Staff of an activity to review the Operations Order in detail, to review activity setup orders, and to answer questions.

OPI – Officer of Primary Interest

The Officer or Civilian Instructor who is in command of an activity.

OpOrder – Operations Order

The OpOrder is the formal plan for an activity.

PO – Performance Objective

A PO is an overall topic in the cadet program (e.g. Instructional Techniques, Leadership, General Cadet Knowledge, etc.). Lesson numbers are shown like: M103.01. ‘M103’ is the PO while ‘.01’ is the EO. Let’s breakdown the lesson number:

M – Means this is a mandatory lesson. The other letter you may see is C, which mean complementary. This letter doesn’t mean much to you or the Cadets, it’s only important for the Staff who are scheduling lessons.

1 – Means this is a Level 1 lesson

03 – Means this is a Leadership lesson

.01 – This indicates the specific lesson in the Leadership PO, which is “Identify the Responsibilities of a Follower in a Team”

Yes, it is important for you to check the website on a regular basis. The website is our main tool for delivering communications, where all our activities are listed, and where you can signup for activities. At a minimum, you should check the website once per week.