Squadrons
Squadron events have always been a major part of our SPAADS Reunions. But while some squadrons have organized themselves early and had great dinners together, other (often smaller) squadrons have not been so fortunate.
Re-emphasizing Squadron Events
In the past, SPAADS Reunion Committees have generally avoided involvement in Squadron events. For our SPAADS 2010 Reunion, however, the 2010 Committee has decided to re-emphasize Squadron events in order to increase overall attendance. (For example, your email "alert" that this SPAADS 2010 website was up-and-running, was sent out 'by squadrons'.) But, Penticton is a very popular tourist area, and good dining establishments get reserved well in advance. So as a Committee, we took the initiative, and pre-booked all of the "prime" dining venues in Penticton ourselves to ensure their availability.
Liaison Sub-committee
We then formed a Liaison Sub-committee and tasked them with the job of getting Sqn Coordinators for each of our 12 squadrons --- all this on the understanding that the Committee would re-allocate venues to the Squadrons in rank order of 'committed' Wing attendance. (Note the 'hint' of competition here?)
The Bottom Line
The 'bottom line' here is that all of you can expect the 'Coordinator' from your squadron to be pushing you to make accommodation reservations early, so that your Sqn can get first 'dibs' on the best Penticton venues ! So we have high hopes that the Sqn events in 2010 will improve our overall reunion attendance!
Incidentally, you may be interested in the following statistics (which also show why we need Regular members with multi-sqn affilliation to indicate their "preferred Sqn" for the purpose of the 2010 Reunion):
SPAADS Membership Distribution By Squadrons
| Regular | Regular | Regular | Associates | Totals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQN | 1stSqn | 2ndSqn | 3rdSqn | ||
| 1(F)Wg | |||||
| 441 | 50 | 12 | 2 | 17 | 81 |
| 410 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 38 | |
| 439 | 51 | 11 | 4 | 14 | 80 |
| 2(F)Wg | |||||
| 421 | 61 | 12 | 3 | 16 | 92 |
| 416 | 26 | 3 | 9 | 38 | |
| 430 | 50 | 9 | 1 | 11 | 71 |
| 3(F)Wg | |||||
| 427 | 50 | 6 | 19 | 75 | |
| 413 | 30 | 3 | 11 | 44 | |
| 434 | 52 | 9 | 12 | 73 | |
| 4(F)Wg | |||||
| 422 | 44 | 4 | 19 | 75 | |
| 414 | 18 | 2 | 11 | 44 | |
| 444 | 57 | 5 | 1 | 17 | 80 |
| Misc | 8 | 7 | 5 | 20 | |
| Totals | 522 | 91 | 11 | 160 | 784 |
Current Membership (19 May, 2009)
Regular = 520
Associate = 161
Total SPAADS Members = 681
