When the national events thus far mentioned are swimming The Channel and a ‘sports day’, I just hope that the media wombles are upto the task and get decent spreads in the nationals, but then it doesn’t scream Air Cadets. I can see lots of social media stuff under the misguided assumption that everyone uses social media.
There are 104 weekend days in the year, set aside 75 (just over 2 per Wing) one for each year, to give every cadet a proper airborne experience. Get that in the nationals and make something of it, to generate national interest. Not the ATC’s been for a swim or done a sports day.
What we are looking at doing locally (and I imagine most sqns) is to connect with past members of the squadron and it’s history locally. We feel it would interesting for old cadets to share experiences with the current crop, except the old ones will talk wistfully about the flying, large (15+ from the squadron) annual camps and the RAF, which is not the experience of my current cadets, bar ½ dozen or so. Of course it’s not the same, but we have in so many important ways drifted away from these. Unlike my generation of cadets, those before and a few after, modern day cadets don’t have the shared experiences, which are important when you meet up later in life. I meet old mates from to time to time and it’s a bit ‘pull up a sandbag’, but it’s good to reminisce.
I’m looking forwards to hearing about these. Everything announced so far has been a waste of time and will not be making it onto my training programme. I heard about one OC trying to ‘disaffiliate’ with the ATC and I’m starting to see why… Most of the time we can run better activities without HQAC’s meddling.
Some people need a reality check. That kind of behaviour from a commissioned officer is disgusting and has no place in ANY org. But that’s not about this thread.
its a free country, if the cadets, the staff, the CWC and parents decided their options were better elsewhere then good luck to them - the ACO doesn’t have a right to have a Sqn in X town, nor does it hold a monopoly on youth organisations.
i would say that if such a thing were to be a bad choise then the other local - and therefore rival - Sqn’s would have no problem showing them up. its interesting, though in no way surprising, that your focus is on loyalty to the organisation, not the cadet experience.
I’ve only heard things through the grape vine for Wing level stuff but I’m under the impression there’s due to be a parade with all of the Welsh Wings in Cardiff at some point
So far our main squadron event will be our annual Dining In. The OC has expressed a desire to make it far larger than usual and invite as many ex-cadets as possible and at a really decent venue. This year also happens to be our 70th Annual Dining In (we’ve been established longer but haven’t had a dining in every year) so I think that’s playing a part in the OC’s decision to concentrate our efforts on one event.
I have heard rumours that there’s stuff planned for RIAT too but I couldn’t give specific details.
I’ve read comments on here that people regard the ACO to be at a watershed and how the senior management handle the current situation and how it develops over the next 5 years (if we take it to the end of the current Cmdt’s tour) will be very influential on the long term viability of the Corps. I would be extremely disappointed if it didn’t reach it’s centenary and not like it seems to be heading … we had an air minded RAF linked cadet unit.
What has been announced thus far for the 75th anniversary nationally doesn’t scream the Air Training Corps has been around for 75 years and when (if) reported impressive or seemingly extraordinary Air related activity to mark this auspicious event. This needs to be something to invigorate the organisation, get the cadets talking to their mates and give us the impetus to build on it.
This year was the 75th anniversary of the BoB and the events organised were air related or what you would expect, such as parades and dinners.
What people are suggesting at squadron / locally are what you might expect, given the amount of time we have to devote to organising things, ie parades and social events. I wonder if there will any relaxations to accommodate these sporting activities in terms of qualifications and RAs etc. If not I wouldn’t expect too much more than what we might do for the odd squadron sport nights. Then there is the potential cost of hiring / using facilities for anything more and the biggest factor interest among the cadets.
Stay practical. Do you this the law will be relaxed in terms of the H&S Act so we can jib in a dodgy activity with no risk assessment? No, neither do i
I’ve too have heard that something might be going down at RIAT in addition to something at RAF Lincolnshire - sounding even bigger than Camp Kosovo in 2000. The joy!
well there is 1000 bed spaces for RIAT this year (up from 850 in 2015) and the campsite is moving location too…perhaps not linked to the 75th anniversary but may well help reinforce any recognition…?
The refugee camp at Cranwell in 2000 was IIRC had been mentioned by this time in 1999. But then we did everything by post, so now expect a flurry of emails c.2 months beforehand and lots of moaning that places aren’t being filled and lack of staff.
If this is in the pipeline, it needs to come out before we get the notifications for annual camps home and away, so we can better allocate cadet bids.
Well it won’t be anymore spectacular than what we already do. Maybe we can give our H&S experts a job, say we want to do this and get them to write the RA, if it’s not practical we won’t do it.
I meant the notion of a camp similar to the one at Cranwell in 2000.
I’ve seen the RIAT paperwork and the cadets weren’t interested. For us it’s long way and in term time. Plus if the weather is at either extreme, potentially unpleasant.
same here - from a Sqn that parades 45+ every night we’ve got a couple (and i mean couple) of cadets interested, but thats it. no staff are remotely interested - the timing is a problem, and to be truthful, so is being an unpaid skivy at an air show that gets less and less every year…
we’re only 90mins-2hours away and we’ve done it before, but the prevailing responses were ‘i’d rather set light to myself’, or ‘we’re still at school - are these people a bit thick?’
we’re all fully aware of that, however HQAC does trumpet RIAT as being a ‘big thing’ within the ACO experience.
it doesn’t have to, 20-odd years ago it was much more of an informal arrangement between RIAT and individual Sqn’s/WHQ’s. however, its now a much more official HQAC thing.
trumpeting something as being a ‘big thing’ within the ACO experience while knowing that the overwhelming majority of cadets can’t get the time off school to go does tend to beg the question ‘are these people a bit thick?’
We have people wanting to go back every year. Letter provided to school head explaining what it and we are about. Leave granted without a second glance. Try a little harder and you might not appear to be thick.
It depends on the school, my previous Sqn drew cadets from 2 schools; it would alternate between which one would refuse to sign off, and which one would say no problem. It is a local problem that you cannot always get past as some head teachers are so far into the ‘right on’ bunch that they will not countenance absence to learn to be a child murderer, no matter what you say or do.
