I met a cadet from Birmingham and Warwickshire wing at Nijmegen who mentioned that he’s doing that, it seemed like an amazing opportunity for those going
Forgot to crop the photo so gave away where I’m from… Whoops!
Just saw this at a fairly average sized train station… Can’t seem to escape from ACF adverts!
Sad thing is it doesn’t even cost that much to do for the reach you get and it can get really granular. Talking a few grand.
You could for example advertise at every station with a Sqn within 5 miles of it. Bonus points if you add a QR code taking you straight to a form to register interest for the nearest one to the adverts location.
I always find it interesting that they feature both the CCF and Army Cadets badges too - don’t think I have ever seen CCF feature in a RAFAC advert.
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Fixed that for you.
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Just seen a Facebook ad for CFAVs. Pretty good though no mention of the paperwork element of being a volunteer
Both my local detachments meet twice a week though
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Thats pretty awesome
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There are some people that seem to be a dab hand at this sort of stuff, we discussed on here a while back the best Wing social media. I’ve been following GMW since and they have done loads that is on a par with this Army Cadet stuff. Get the best MCOs from across RAFAC together and they could deliver an equally great campaign I’d say.
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And it shows the ACF/CCF Army’s USP very well indeed, the question has t be asked how can the RAFAC show it’s supposed USP, when that is non-existent to the vast majority of cadets?
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See, while I’ve liked that post - because I want to slag off the people who have destroyed flying in the ACO - I have never, in the 34 years I was a cadet, SI, and then CI, believed that flying was the ACO’s USP.
While it was always a biggie - though it always depended on where you lived and what camps you got as to what size biggie - what mattered was the sheer variety of stuff that might come your way.
That there was nothing the ACO thought wasn’t it’s bag baby - if you fancied it, and someone could fix it for you, then it was an ACO activity…
Of course, the Fun Police have been hard at work, as has rank incompetence, as well as stuff outside the ACO’s control, but the variety is still a big thing
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I would say that most of that variety is also available in the other cadet forces. What was unique to us was the amount of flying. Without that I’m beginning to question if we actually do offer anything that the ACF/SCC don’t do?
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A smarter uniform (if you can get hold of it)?
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I mean our woolly pullovers and wedge wood shirts have nothing on the Royal Marine Cadets.
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Ive been tempted at times, then i remembered i dont lick windows
When you look at all the publicity blurb on the website the banner is flying, and flying is to the fore of what is displayed, not anything else.
The question that needs to be asked; is the money being spent on their efforts directly manifesting itself in “bums on seats”? If yes then we can be getting a bit jealous, if not, nothing to get excited about. You can have all the shiny adverts in the world, but if they aren’t getting people through the door, it’s a waste of time and or effort.
What seems a lifetime ago each intake the mention of free flying and gliding opportunities, grabbed the interest of some and while it was not the reason why youngsters joined, it was an activity that set us apart from the crowd. Knowing this and trying to sell our wares on the basis of a free uniform, a menu of the same things as the competition, might do promises, never feels positive. Parents are always the barometer as they ask questions about things like lack of flying opportunities and you do no favours in not being brutally honest. But when the organisation as said makes it look like we do more flying than we do, the messages are mixed.
Since 2014 we’ve had nothing to set us apart, we all do more or less the same. Except you get the impression admin for us to do things has increased exponentially, with no benefit.
We get a number of Scouts come along looking for something different, we still do, but fewer are joining and increasingly those who do, keep a foot in both camps.
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I don’t know much about the other cadet forces, but I wonder if we really do the same as them? The SCC’s USP is RYA stuff and they even have their own ships. I don’t know anyone in our organisation who has done any sailing, let alone spent days at sea on a CF sailing ship. The ACF’s USP is obviously fieldcraft and shooting. While we do those things, I’m not sure we do it to the same depth and level of fanaticism. Can anyone point to an activity that we offer cadets that the other organisations don’t?
IMHO, everything changed for the worse in 2014. VGS gliding for cadets in all four corners of the UK was our USP.
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We do the Aviation Studies and Space BTECs.
Academic and classroom studies. But what about practical things?
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I’ve had cadets on TS Royalist & know squadrons who do DofE expeds on KAyaks canoes/row boats & the is that offshore sailing opportunities but they are very few & far between & I don’t know how much SCC support there is.
I did hear captain Sea Cadets joke once that they had more flying one year than the air cadets.
What we don’t want to become is effectively Army Cadets who go flying
Aren’t we already? I thought that’s what we’ve always been “do the best bits of the Army Cadets + Go flying”
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