I have been asked to advertise (share) an (online) activity this weekend in the cadet portal.
I shared the activity in the CP and then went to tick the no transport provided option. I noticed that the Adult IC has not been assigned and the event had not been approved.
I know that this is not really a big thing for online activities at the moment, but it got me thinking. Should I as a Sqn OC be sharing activities that have not been authorised or at the very lease the activity commander signed off that the activity is following the rules of the RAFAC? Doesn’t the fact that I am sharing and activity imply that I am content for cadets to attend the above activity and that I am content that it has been properly planned and Risk assessed? Or am I been to critical of of what is a live process and everything will be in place by the date of the activity.?
My understanding is that by ticking the transport box, all we as OCs are saying is that we are happy to show it to our cadets and that transport wont be provided.
All responsibility is on the activity commander and 2nd sign off box.
At least in my wing, we have to advertise AT events on cadet portal prior to getting approval so that ratio’s, climatic injuries etc etc can be checked by WATTO.
shrug
I completely agree that it is illogical, and really we should only be advertising events to cadets once they have been approved.
and @redowling, in reality activities very rarely are cancelled, as you know. I’ll always work with the WATTO (or anyone else) to get to the point where they are happy, but it’s just the principle of it. We shouldn’t be advertising activities to cadets until we know they are going to happen (aka approved).
for the same reasons that I wouldn’t advertise a kayaking course for joe public to sign up for until I had instructors, insurance, kit etc etc and decided how many places I had available for participants.
It’s more that without the cadets already added they can’t see who should be attending. If the cadets are already on there then whoever is signing it of can see the number of cadets that should be going, and also if they have all done climatic injuries training etc etc.
I’ve never had an AT application approved until I have the list of cadets that are attending added.
Yes, as I originally stated. I understand why, just don’t feel that that is the way we should be doing things.
Yes the person approving the activity is accepting the risk on behalf of the duty holder, but the Activity IC is also accepting risk as the Activity IC, the person who will actually get dragged under if something goes wrong and they hadn’t followed policy.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, just going off what I’ve been told in the past. The last time I ran a climbing session I tried to get it approved before I had a definitive list of cadets attending. I put in the admin order something to the effect of “Two qualified staff attending, maximum 12 cadets attending. Each instructor will have two lines with 3 cadets each. Climb, belay and tail. Final list to be confirmed closer to date of event but maximum of 12 cadets.”
It got sent back to me and I was told it can’t be approved until I know who’s attending so they can check mandatory training/clearances if over 18.
Now that our DDH has said we don’t have to review mandatory training etc. I would probably consider approving an activity without a list of cadets - but the plan would have to be very specific a state how many instructors / cadets you would employ, how female cover was being dealt with etc.
Ultimately I’m approving your plan; so as long as you define what you are going to do in enough detail that I can confirm compliance with policy then that should be sufficient.
If I want to check you are actually implementing your plan I’ll come out and see you on the ground.
Indeed. But I still don’t see why you wouldn’t advertise an activity to cadets until it’s approved. Based on the general submission timelines you wouldn’t be advertising anything untilo about a week before…
