Needs change in how volunteer staff are recruited- the timescales are ridiculously long, bad admin by civil servants doesn’t help especially as it’s their job and it ends up with the volunteers doing huge amounts of admin work. Once volunteer staff are in the system it needs a process of retention. Only once this is in place can you then expand numbers
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You also need a system of retrieval - exit interviews, easy return & perhaps a simple process but (not too easy to avoid hokey kokey volunteers) for volunteers to switch between role types (I.e. uniform staff =>civcom => CI => uniform staff )
The exit interview should also have the option of “can we retain your contact details to keep you informed about how the air cadet progresses” so if a Sqn really is struggling it can go out to the alumni & retired officers association to see what help there is.
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totally agree…
I was thinking about this earlier.
When it comes to retaining staff they (HQ) need to throw us a bone or two.
Over the last few years changes have gone in the other direction and made staff less willing to stay on or feel less valued.
Some of these changes don’t seem to have a rationale other than ‘you can’t have this’ and would cost little or nothing to fix.
A few ideas:
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Bring back time served Flt Lt or at least allow retention of rank for those who’ve held a Flt Lt post for say 2 years (would mostly be ex OCs)
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CI service to count for CFM
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Allow CFAV to draw part worn No3 from stores (if we can’t issue new)
I’m sure there are others.
Other things like VA rates, mileage claims, Join etc would need more work or cost more but it’s something we will need to look at.
It might be worth having a separate staff retention thread as I can’t seem to find one?
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Disagree with this. The majority of the time it’s either sits with the applicant or OC. I’ve seen CI, SNCO and CFC applications go through very quickly, only major hold up is getting the applicant to do their bit.
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The HQ logs man is working on us being issued this as I recall.
This is a MOD change, but I’d favour re scoping of the CFM, to better recognise all our volunteers such as CIs & SIs.
Perhaps 50% of the time can be as a Staff Cadet / CI and the remainder in uniform.
I’d also allow SIs to obtain alongside their LSGC (they could always be an SNCO RAFAC rather than SI (might just be reservists))
I would however remove the ability to carry regular service across where you were not supporting the cadet forces.
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We are apparently due to start issuing MTP soon [your own interpretation of soon]. . .
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For SI’s - both regular and reserve - two things are a problem.
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Expenses. The things where we were often most useful (and most enjoyable for us) where things that happened off Sqn, which - amazingly - happened away from where we live. Not even being able to claim for petrol in return for spending a day/weekend with cadets and teaching/giving them access to stuff they’d never otherwise be able to do always stuck in the craw.
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Cadet time not counting towards the 'community engagement ’ bit of working time - so helping kids get their DofE was an extra, but some dog**** like Armed Forces Day was core operational…
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Why aren’t you just doing that anyway? Who is going to know?
Edit: sorry, i thought you meant your own stores
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Your region/pillars must be really good then
Regular Sqn Ldr who owns training logs officers at worthy down will say otherwise…
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You can claim, with prior approval of your chain of command - details in GAI 1026.
In most cases, their bosses.
In most units helping cadets is likely to be very low on the list of priorities, especially as many units are already woefully under staffed.
I assume you do 1930-2130? Have you considered switching to 1900-2100? We did this at our unit due to a short time where we had no building and had to parade outside, and never bothered to switch back. It’s quite a bit better. Getting home by 2130 is noticeably less tiring than 2200.
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We did look at it but it doesn’t work for staff availability & day jobs & arriving in time.
One really important thing though is making sure we finish bang on 21:30 so final parade is always 21:20
I’ve wondered if starting 15 minutes earlier would help but I’ve concluded it wouldn’t make enough of a difference.
I’d be interested in how others plan their nights (start / end times, lessons, etc) though it might not have much bearing on how we fit in more
Cadets.
We do 1900-2130.
Any shorter would be detrimental to many activities, especially shooting - I can get 2 “comfortable” details in with any elements that are permitted to re-shot if the specific grade isn’t a pass - if they are short details, such as CLF1 or CLF3, then I can work getting 3 details in normally. For classification trg, the timings work well to cover 2 (maybe 3) modules.
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By the time first parade / associated faff is out of the way, any activities / classification trg start at about 1915-1920. Mess break at about 2010, then second half of the evening’s programme. Final parade at 2115-2120.
We now parade earlier because our unit moved away from our traditional location.
We now run from 1900hrs - 2115hrs.
Couldn’t do later because it’d be too late for people. Can’t start earlier because it clashes with busy road times and people sorting out things like dinner.
It still allows us to run things like the range though, but wouldn’t want to go any shorter. The extra 15 minutes would make a big difference.
A squadron near me does 1830 till 2100, meanwhile my Sqn does the normal 1900 till 2130.
1900 to 2130 here, too.
In terms of making things easier for people, we would struggle to change a day to not clash with ACF due to other users in the week, and struggle to change time because the current way means ACF start and finish slightly before we do, meaning we’re a little bit out of each other’s way.