A building only being used 2 days out of 7, is underused.
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Not completely dead.
Air Rifle is still okay, as is service rifle shooting?
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Oh, that’s fine then. I forgot we could just pick up an air rifle, and the world will be ok.
As for service rifle, you’re having a laugh, aren’t you?
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I’ve facilitated L144 shooting within the last month.
L98 has also happened locally within the last 2 months.
Yes, we’re not shooting every week. But it’s definitely not dead around here.
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It is in the South West. Well, my corner of it anyway.
I think you need to do a little (any?) real research. Shooting is not ‘completely dead’ far from it…https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircadets/news/success-for-raf-air-cadets-at-the-inter-service-cadet-rifle-meeting/
Please raise this at the next Town Hall as changes are being made to ensure we have an efficient AND effective approach to shooting across RAFAC.
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Wow. That’s a little strong honestly. You’re talking to a volunteer based in South West where they have had all their hubs taken away, so have no .22 shooting. And for many months have had no access to any publicly funded things like transport etc, so have had no access to L98s as they can’t move them. Nor get cadets to anywhere to shoot them.
You see it top down where yes, nationaly, we have cadets shooting. @pEp sees it from his perspective where no, his cadets and those from near by squadrons are getting no shooting at all. There isn’t any research needed there.
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Nope, it was a comment aimed directly at me that was entirely ill-informed. Happy to engage in here but don’t think for a second that I won’t call out poorly thought out commentary (regardless of role in the organisation…although it’s anonymous so I assume I am talking to folk able to do some research).
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Is this the same research that I’ve been living for the past however many years, or is that not good enough for you?
It’s interesting what exactly you reply to and it only seems to be where you’re personally slighted, which is odd.
We had an armoury that was commissioned, then decommissioned, without any service rifles installed in it over that period because of RAF ineptitude and incompetence about servicing them and not having the right gauge.
In the meantime our CLPWs were taken along with our private ammo. That ammo was destroyed by the RAF with no recompense for us.
In the South West we have been requested not to do anything above air rifle for 6 months. Then a complete ban.
In the meantime we had a financial matrix form added that effectively banned us from shooting. Events were cancelled. Then they started again and you stopped us doing anything off site.
And that link is lovely, it’s great, but you will know that attendance at ISCRM was down massively and I significantly doubt those units are training on an L144 regularly, they will be using higher quality CLPWs which they now can’t.
Feel free to call it out. Maybe, instead of offering us to spend a day with you, you should spend a day being the OC of a unit in the SW and see what it’s really like in this organisation.
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Also, I’m not anonymous. Plenty of people know who I am including paid staff.
You’ll agree that shooting isn’t ’completely dead’?
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The capacity to conduct shooting will be commensurate with the capacity of the organisation to support it.
You know very well what I meant, and being pedantic about it doesn’t really help the situation. Sure, I’ve reacted emotionally because I’m fed up with the organisation but if you’re not, I don’t think you’re lookikg hard enough.
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This is great management speak and a non-answer. Rather than “what can I do to ensure the cadet experience happens” what you’re doing is saying “you are not a priority and have to deal with it”.
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The problem is we all remember a time when the ATC was capable of so much more.
All we want is to be able to provide the current generation of cadets with the experiences that we benefited from. And we can’t.
That’s why some of us left.
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And the RAF I joined having been a cadet for seven years was 100000 strong and now we are under 30000. Things change. We need to change. It’s hard, really hard, but it’s necessary to rebalance ambition with resource (that’s not just money, that’s everything and critically volunteer resource).
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the trouble is while the RAF has shrunk over time, by and large the RAFAC has remained generally steady, both in Squadron numbers, Cadet numbers and CFAVs based on annual reports we see…
While I can accept change, particularly when there is good reason for it…no one seems to be telling us [RAFAC] of change until the day it happens so often.
it would be nice, if change is likely to continue for the RAF/MOD to lay out its stall in what “change” the organisation should expect in the next 3-5 years.
some of us [CFAVs] have 20 years experience “man & boy” and only see things taken away from us, but never have i seen a scope of what the RAF/MOD is willing to commit. it is always sly pause or temporary ban here or there, a policy document rescinded for review and amendment which never comes back.
there is a disconnect between what RAFAC HQ wants us [CFAVs]/the organisation to deliver and what the RAF/MOD want to be supporting.
it would be great to see the two organisations come together and talk so we know in 3-5 years time what the “output” of the organisation might look like (and be able to plan for it) - it is frustrating seeing CFAVs get qualifications to do activity X or put effort into creating Y opportunity only for it to disappear in half the time it took them to make it happen!
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Well then maybe the time has come for the ATC to leave and move to the SCC model instead.
As it stands we seem to get all of the admin burden that comes with being tied to the RAF and very little in the way of tangible benefits at the coal face.
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