Before they moved 5 AEF seemed to cancel more than actually ran and then essentially stopped when they moved to Wittering and weekend flying has been like hen’s teeth. Weekday flying requires people taking a day’s holiday, with no firm guarantee of it going ahead.
Being old school a detail comes up and I’m all for it, however when you get Thursday or Friday emails saying it’s been cancelled or phone early doors and told it’s been binned, it stretches your resolve and patience.
I’ve seen many of these advertisements across the UK over the last few months. Train stations, service stations, shopping centres etc. They are really simple, professional and eye catching.
Yet the best our national media team can produce is boring posters for use on social media and a weekly review video that mostly focuses on units in the same part of the UK.
I feel it’s once again another example of the enlightened in the ivory towers showing us what little ambition and imagination they have.
I’ve met the new Comdt and felt he listened to the points from those on the ground but over the last six months I’ve felt that our organisation is more disjointed and lost than it’s ever been. The media strategy shows how off the bottom of the scale we are. Perhaps it’s because so many of our “SME’s” are volunteers pushed into their position due to lack of volunteers in the organisation.
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What’s ‘fun’?
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The ACF media presence is fully (mostly) funded by RFCA. They have a budget for national campaigns, we don’t. It really is that simple.
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Admin
According to HQAC and the chief fun sponge
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I don’t get why we don’t have a budget for this and many other things.
It baffles me the cut that HQAC takes in subs per cadet per month. Double that cut and recommend that all Sqns set their subs to £20 p/m.
We now have a budget for this and all the extra/change of badges coming in…
Not that simple when they are all independent charities with their own sets of trustees.
They are at the moment at least…
why not…why do the ACF get RFCA funding and we dont?
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Badges etc should come from a central budget and be supplied not via the GPF.
I wouldn’t be happy about increasing subs just to increase the amount that goes into the GPF to be mismanaged and squandered. You might as well put it through the shredder for as much benefit your cadets will get for it.
If you are going to spend money on advertising you need a product that stands up to scrutiny and to get a return on the spend. I would sooner spend money on local advertising, you can get 1000 A5 leaflets for £30-£40, backed up by town SM which costs nothing and no corporate BS.
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Because it’s all managed by the RFCAs.
Their area staff are recruited and managed by RFCA.
The ACF is more RFCA owned…
yes i gathered that but why…?
why do they get all the benefit of RFCA while we only get them as mild building caretakers?
It’s because RFCA (use to be TAVRA?) is the arms length quango used to manage the army reserves of which the ACF are a formal part.
RCFA employs the paid staff for the ACF while in the ATC the paid staff are MOD civil servants as they put the cadets under an RAF command.
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RFCA runs the ACF essentially
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What they said 
WRT to RFCA and the ACF, with all the checks etc we have been given to do, surely it would be better for the CAA to do these on their rounds, rather than us doing it and they can also speak directly to us and the WExO if there are any problems. There you are admin burden reduction. TBH if this could ne done the benefit would be much better than any ads.
This is not true. The media campaigns.you’ve been seeing were organised via the media team at Cadets Branch, which are ACCT posts not RFCA. The RFCAs do help out with some regional advertising occasionally, but they don’t do a lot to be honest.
While the RFCA do control the buildings and the full time county posts are RFCA positions, they don’t do a lot with the running of the ACF.
This is on the door of a joint ARC / ACF Centre (although actually nearer to @big_g than me I think)… wonder how well it fits with their corporate media guidelines!
Had this show up on my feed this morning.
Surely we could have a similar thing from HQ?
I keep putting our own adverts up.
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There persistent marketing is certainly having a positive impact on the ACF within my neck of the woods (SW England). Having spoken to a number of people who are part of the ACF and others from RFCA it appears that their numbers across many units have dramatically increased.