TBH for those of us under 5 AEF, when it was in its death throes at Wyton, more were cancelled on Thursday or Friday than happened, so we planned to go. Which wasn’t too bad as it meant staff got a ‘free’ day.
Exactly!
What is “Officially sensitive” about AEF being stopped for a safety issue? Is it sensitive to the contractors or the RAFAC?
This is how rumours and supposition start! Everyone then sees the negative side of RAFAC not having any air activities. Safety is non negotiable and it is very sensible to stop an activity until it can be assured that it is safe. We are not stupid so TELL US THE TRUTH THROUGH THE PROPER CHAIN OF COMMAND!
Its come from the Top.
We are not allowed to discuss on social media hence the blackout.
If you have any questions, I’d suggest you speak to your local AEF.
Email isn’t social media.
Not allowed to discuss on SM should also include not putting things on it, as per CACs post. An all address email with full explanation would have done the job much better.
Because, as we found out during the ongoing gliding fiasco, derriere-covering and saving face matter more than facts, keeping the troops informed and most importantly actually sorting out whatever catastrophic testicles-skywards event that has transpired.
Best to give everyone the mushroom treatment, minimum facts, maximum confusion, post on Facebook/Twitter, keep the volunteers in a state of cheesed-offness and cadets hanging on in hope for something that won’t happen whilst the “problem” doesn’t go away/isn’t dealt with.
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no it isn’t but you can guarantee that it will be leaked and be all over social media.
But if it’s not something that puts egg on anyone’s face, what’s the problem with just putting it on social media rather than having everyone assume that yet again someone has screwed up magnificently?
To be clear, because ‘it’s a secret’, I assume that some overpaid waste of skin has screwed up magnificently, and the reason a veil of secrecy has been drawn over it is so the overpaid waste of skins’ friends can concoct a plausible excuse for the magnificent screw-up.
Just so you know how your PR campaign is going…
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So are we now saying that anything that can’t go on Social Media is going to have to be classified as Top Secret and be kept in a briefcase handcuffed to the Commandants Staff Officers wrist?
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And why not?
Tornado GR4 readiness figures, SSBN patrol patterns, dispersal locations for an Armoured Bde in Estonia and the reason a bunch of kids can’t go jolly flying this weekend - I, for one, would lump them all in together…
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The problem is - it’s on Social Media - posted by CAC, the lack of detail allows for the creation of the rumour.
The reason for posting is shocking, given we have an All Adult ACO email distribution list… with a no comment on Social Media message attached
Yesterday CAC posted she was awaiting news from 6FTS and will then cascade via CoC ASAP - does this mean the updates myself & @LeatherWorker had over the weekend consisted of rumour/conjecture or are we hopeful of a swift resolution and return to normal ops, and thus decide not to publish the reason for a failed weekend of AEF to the wider RAFAC…
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But that’s the same as a chat in a darkened room.
If it’s not officially sensitive in way that would injurious to the nation, why not just say. All this cloak and dagger stuff just fuel the fire. If it means someone, somewhere on a nice little earner getting embarrassed, so what. Why should they be any different to politicians, business moguls and the like, who say or do something (sometimes years ago) get it put everywhere. Just because some individual sits at an MOD desk as I say on a nice little earner, doesn’t in my mind make them exempt from having their incompetence exposed to taxpayers.
On Monday night I had a parent and two cadets who look at CAC’s twittings and FB, ask me what it was about. So it is out there and just causing unrest, think that flying will go the way of other things. So what can I tell them, nothing. Cadets and a parent going away thinking and probably saying the ATC doesn’t do flying anymore. Although that’s not too far from the truth.
Another PR shambles for the corps, after the PR shambles that was the decimation of the VGS system. Both ironically related to the same thing, flying, or lack of it/failure to provide core activity.
Social media is a minefield, when in a picle best not to post anything at all.
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So CAC has admitted the following things in the above message.
- The current chain of command is insufficient as it cannot pass an urgent message to the correct recipient quickly
- She doesn’t have the details that affect one of the prime tasks of the Air Cadets
- She thinks Social Media is the best way to get a message out to her staff, so she must presume that we hang on her every SM message.
All of the above show a worrying trend!
Leading our organisation is a very hard job, bringing together a mix of Service and Volunteer working and I don’t envy her position. But this is another example of extremely poor PR. Ironically involving systems that are meant to make PR easie!!
Social media is the best way to get immediate information out to a wide user base at next-to-no notice. The issue was dropped on the desk late Friday (as all the best problems tend to be) and the initial tweet was a simple warning to check before you travel. I have no issues with that and I assumed it was due to the weather conditions.
That Terry bloke seemed to know (or assume) that there was an underlying issue and pressed the matter. The mistake was responding to that in the manner that was done.
It is entirely possible that the full details were not available at the time. Shoddy communication is not the exclusive domain of RAFAC.
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No it is not!!!
Social Media is only effective for the people who are tied to the account where the message is posted (Friends on Facebook or followering on Twitter). If you are not, you will never receive the information. Unless all RAFAC staff are on these systems and monitor them regularly (which I am sure they are not and do not) they will not get the post or tweet.
The correct route for this information was a phone call to the Region Aviation Officers, who could tell their Wing counterparts, who would contact the relevant affected Squadrons directly. Chain of command in action! This would result in the correct people being told and no SM based rumours and prevarication!
Facebook and Twitter assist in showing the Public what the RAFAC do. Bader is for important messages, through the chain of command. Why isn’t this in place?
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Yes, social media is a good way of getting a short burst of time critical information out to the widest possible base - schools use it when they have to close due to weather, the Highways Agency use it when they close a road due to an accident - I have absolutely no problem with that, and I’d put hard money on it reaching far more of the people it needed to on that Friday night than by sending out through Bader or whatever.
But, it was a holding message - the cadet equivalent of ‘contact, wait out’ - what should have happened is that on the following Monday morning another message should have gone out (on all the channels) saying roughly what the problem is, what the current, however fallible, timescale is, and the date of the next update when, hopefully, more information will be known and broadcast.
If you don’t like rumours and supposition, don’t leave a vacuum for it to breed in - particularly when you made the same mistake last time…
sharepoint replies on users subscribing to updates and getting access to email. This has worked fine for AEF updates for me, or for the urgent alert system they can do on the announcements section. they all rely on emailing the info out and that relies on the people having immediate access to the emails.
A bader announcement should have been done, but so too should quick social media alerts on twitter and FB - these 2 are more readily followed by a wider group of people, including those who may not routinely access the generic accounts.
So, you are half right. We do need a better internal alert system, but we should also expect to put urgent info (with little detail) on social media to maximise the spread.
Yes, but the Social Media message should be along the lines of…
Please check BADER for an important update on AEF Activities this weekend, any questions should be directed through the CoC.
The problem is we (CFAVs) don’t all follow CAC on Facebook/Twitter, a lot of her followers are cadets/parents.
We (CFAVs) are all supposed to have access to BADER.
Phone calls to the affected squadrons (12 x AEF x 4 Slots across a weekend = 48 calls by either 6 RAvO or 34 WAvO or 34 WEXOs)
And no void of palatable official information
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We have BADER as the formal means of communication and everything should come through it. However, we all recognise that BADER has limitations and many of us are not constantly checking our …@aircadets.org email accounts (if we have one). Here there is a place for social media as a stop-gap or means of alerting but let’s do it properly. Let’s revise our SM policy, get into bed with FB/Twitter/Instagram or whatever, formalise @names # etc. In fact, a step further would be to develop our own smartphone app if we are really worried about data protection.
What if like me you have no interest in things like TwitFaceInstaChat, you can spend your time devoted to these. Tea and lunch breaks are not the hive of social interaction they once were as people will sit, phone in hand waiting for the next scintillating instalment of people’s lives or passing their same to others. Sitting in the office now, I’ve had two updates on the travel dilemmas of people I do not know.
I find it incredible that CAC says the CoC can’t disseminate information quickly enough, when she must have the same all email address facility that we have. Or does she have to send to Region, who send it Wing, who send it to Squadrons, just in case some simple serpents get over excited about someone doing something that is their job. When we were lucky enough to be getting flying slots, a quick. email check on Friday PM was essential for Saturday and Saturday for Sunday and phone call en-route.
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