The RAF is all about officers and flying. They see the ATC as an extension of this.
The army is run by SNCOs, the officers manage and over see.
I would say that NCOS running sqns is against the rules, it is something that has been allowed to happen due to the shortage of officers. An example of this is that only officers can be inventory holders. this is due to the fact that we are covered by the Air Force Act and held to account and SNCO are not. What will happen in Apr17 when the new Cadet Commission comes in and we will no longer be covered by the AF Act will be interesting. Perhaps the WgAdO will be the inventory holder for the whole wing but I canât see that happening being a Civil Servant at all that. Like I have said previously, the law of unintended consequences.
Who will be first for the fire sale of all the stuff on inventory that you cant get rid of but no longer want.
HQAC will adopt their SOP and produce a wodge of policies and paperwork (after all they have little else to do) around Officers and invent some trite rulings to keep things the same, to suit them rather than us.
I relish not being under the AF Act as it has not benefited me (nor anyone else) one tiny bit. They seem to only have applied bits of it to us as it suits them to impinge on us rather than anything else.
Well, I have pondered all these changes and I personally donât think they are that good.
I never joined this organisation for the Uniform & after many months of pondering the situation, have decided to call it a day next year & after 20yrs commissioned will resign that commission.
I will apply to become a CI, that way I will continue with the organisation.
I think a lot of people will be pondering their position, and this organisation boasts that they hold their volunteers in the highest esteem, yet canât manage retention never mind recruitment. As they say âtalk is cheapâ.
The basic facts of life, if volunteers donât like something & can not change it, they walk & volunteer for something else.
Until the Corps grasps that basic fact, it will go from one crises to another, but claim it is a success while others just think âdream onâ.
The thing that we all know is that the people at HQAC havenât got the first idea about the people actually running the organisation. They seemingly forget or unaware adult volunteer staff have jobs and families and many of us have been through the mill in recent years. Likewise the cadets have families. many now, unfortunately, âbrokenâ which puts a huge emotional strains and demands on them and splits them in several directions when it comes to holidays, weekends and so on.
We have become like in many large institutions little more than entries on a database. The difference is even in a large organisation the local management know you and have an idea what is going on in your life. Whereas locally in the ATC your area Wing Staff are so detached they donât know people as they should do and if you arenât doing something get uppity, only to be made to look sheepish afterwards⌠The last couple of annual inspections the WSO has come down with a few print outs and so on gleaned from SMS and used them to say well done or could do better and compared us to other sqns, ,so these have lost something.
