We’ve all seen them, the cadet that is on a mission to fill their brassard as quickly as possible, because, in their eyes, ‘if they get the badges, they have to be promoted!’ I’ve got one at the minute. A Sgt who has no particular interest in any one subject, but grabs every possible course going, often at the detriment of junior cadets who have more of an interest and are better suited for the course.
But is it really a good thing for a sqn? As a cadet gets a bit more senior, usually Sgt with MOI for me, I prefer them to specialise in an air cadet offering and become a sqn SME for me, rather than flit between subjects, not really getting to grips with any of them.
The PTS is pretty much built around badge collecting; it’s inevitable. Why is it a bad thing they want to get involved in more activities? They can still become an ‘SME’ if they wish to.
I would say it’s the attitude all cadets should have. The reason the air cadets is such a valuable organisation is because of the array of activities it offers, a cadet following in that spirit and taking advantage of them all is never a bad thing. Equally I’d argue it is valuable to have a highly experienced SNCO, it gives cadets a clear way to get information about courses, and the more experience that SNCO has the more information they can give and the more courses they can talk about.
Also, never forget those sergeants are still cadets. They still want to enjoy their cadet careers, and they still want to pursue courses. Never see their rank as a reason for them to be denied access to courses they might enjoy.
Oh my god, how dare Cadets want to get absolutely everything they can out of the Organisation, it’s a horrible idea they should make a decision aged 15 on what they want to do and then they should just do that.
I encourage cadets to do as much as they possibly can because as most of us will know it becomes harder and harder as you get older and you have families to be able to do some of these activities.
If this means that they get a brassard full of badges, then so be it.
Surely this is on the sqn staff, just because they apply for every course shouldn’t mean they get the place. If there is a more junior cadet with more of an interest or who would benefit more then allocate the place accordingly.
Every cadet will, hopefully, want to take advantage of every opportunity the organisation offers.
Even in my time as a cadet there were always those appeared to get more oppotunities than others and whilst there was jealousy from the cadets as you mature you realise it wasn’t really the kids fault but the staff.
If we keep track of every single cadet and every single activity, in theory, yes. But that is a frankly enormous admin burden that I have zero intention of doing.
We have 60 cadets. At any given moment we have around 40 activities listed on cadet portal - not including all the various sub-apps. Keeping track of exactly who’s on what (which changes daily) is not something I would wish on any volunteer.
I get that it could be a huge burden but in the context of the OP question that would appear to suggest there are potentially more deserving junior cadets who don’t get to attend. The opportunity must be oversubscribed so they must be rejecting some cadets and therefore they have to complete the task anyway so why not reject Sgt Smith and let Cdt Jones attend if your making a choice anyway?
The activity lead is binning people off, not the sqn staff, and the activity lead could be any member of staff across the wing, who has no idea about the sqn nuance you describe.
Now, if cadet portal could run a single report detailing who was applying to what, then the sqn staff would be able to have the level of input you seek. Until such a thing is implemented, though, I don’t see it as remotely practical for it to be the responsibility of sqn volunteers to police an unpoliceable system.
@Ben_Wakefield could you make the above a reality? It’s becoming a real issue where we are, and I know others feel it too.
I would love a report in SMS called “who’s doing what” that exports an excell for the requested dates of which member of the Sqn is signed up for what including the fields of the activity name start time /finish time
I think eligibility criteria are coming, which will help a bit. So cadets can’t apply for courses they are too young for etc.
In theory Wings can allocate Squadrons x number of places and the Squadron manages their bids. But then as an SME you have to chase units to manage their bids or run around trying to fill places.
I’d say especially because of Covid many SNCO’s haven’t had the chance to get out there and do much so now that courses/activities are popping up theres a huge chance you will Sergeants etc doing them just to build up there knowledge on everything. (If that makes sense)
The badge collector has been around for years and a lot get blinded by them and there is a culture of seeing them as being regarded as good cadets. You see cadets who seem to look upon them as the Corps’ “Panini football etc cards” and as a result IMO lose their value. The annoying thing for me is that I was and had many cadets for whom sport is their thing and not really interested in the badge subjects, so to the outside world they don’t look like “good cadets”, yet they are out there representing the sqn, wing, region and corps, in a more positive way than someone who has done badges. If I was a cadet now, I would have no interest in the things that attract badges, unless it was compulsory and then I would put the minimal effort in to tick the box.
As a “badge collecting” cadet, I would say there’s no issue with it. As long as the attitude is there. I still have a niche I’ve fallen into. Just because a cadet signs up to everything, doesn’t mean they won’t have a field they excel in. The “if i get a bunch of badges they’ll promote me” mindset really isn’t that bad - as long as it’s encouraging them to get involved. A much worse mindset to have is “I’ve been here for a while so I deserve a promotion”.
The cadets who do sports do the other things, but they don’t get the visual recognition on their uniforms and never have for the things they enjoy and excel at.
The fact they are doing good things means they get promoted and more so than someone who has a selection of badges. As a sqn cdr I regard sport representation as a major factor when considering for promotion and in 27 years of being the one who promotes cadets, not been let down yet.
