Indeed. But a quick win is for us to make it easier to identify those soft skills identified above.
To those with no military background (parents, even employers) rank doesn’t mean much. So we need to spell out what we do and why it is valuable.
Given how much we rely on cadet portal and online exams, this really should be something we should be aiming for. I would necessarily go iPad, but something similar is needed for all cadets. Or a certain number per unit or Wing.
Getting some would be good, but there’s no way we’d get one per cadet, or even enough to avoid squadrons having to source their own.
What is this joining fee of which you speak? Do you mean routine ‘subs’?
Some units charge a ‘joining fee’, which is absolutely not a ‘uniform deposit’ (as such things are banned). They might include a sqn tee- or polo shirt, MTP, shoes and/or boots, etc.
Some offer to return the fee if the uniform is all returned (but it is absolutely not a deposit).
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Discussed in greater detail here
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That’s alright following Special K we don’t treat any of the staff as adults anymore.
There is no official joining fee, but if you said there is now a joining fee, its £200, payable over 6 months, you could use that.
There’s no official subs either. And as Squadrons are being expected to pay for more a joining fee seems sensible
Para 1114 from AP1919
- Cadet Subscriptions. All cadets should cultivate a sense of personal pride and responsibility in the financial well-being of their own sqn and the organisations which support it. It is therefore desirable for cadets to pay regular subscriptions as members of the Corps. The Finance and General Purposes Committee of the Air Cadet Council will determine as and when required what the subscriptions shall be for the ATC General Purposes Fund. See also ACP300.
Cadet subscription is an official thing.
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How wonderfully out of date, as with most of our policy.
Before we expand by at least 30%, can we sort out our policy documents first, please!
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What I meant was the amount is not set out anywhere and isn’t standardised.
Yes, but I think that’s a good thing - some squadrons work more on fundraising than subs, or if the sqn has a lot of ready cash they can afford to charge less. Some squadrons may need to charge more. Depends on the building, area, demographic, squadron activities etc etc. No two squadrons are totally alike.
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That’s true of course
I used to be an ACF detachment commander in a deprived area and one of the first changes I made was to stop charging subs. It was an easy decision at the time, as we didn’t seem to have any overheads (my pay and the rental of the RBL memorial hall were presumably paid out of company or battalion funds).
I’d love to not charge subs but we have to pay for the SOV, broadband, IT, AT kit, all the fieldcraft kit we have and increasingly items of uniform.
Then there is the charges to Wing etc on top (which I don’t think the ACF have to pay?)
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I didn’t mean to imply sqns don’t need to charge subs. A small ACF det. is a very different proposition: no vehicles, broadband, or other overheads: all the uniform needed is provided at public expense, no charges to the company, and indeed support from company whenever minibuses, AT equipment, etc, were needed.
The ACF are trying the standardise costs across the board, and in my opinion it is a bad thing. They have to lower costs to cater for the poorest areas, which essentially means that detachments in more affluent areas get worse off. Subs, for example, we have to charge 50p per night. This is a royal PITA as it means instead of charging a nice easy £10 per term, we now have to charge £6 or £6.50, which means we need to keep large amounts of change in the detachment as a float. I did actually stop charging subs for a few years, but we were told we had to charge it.
As for an expansion, if they are serious about this there needs to be a big investment in infrastructure, mainly buildings. Many detachments can’t cater for massive increases in numbers.
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You still deal in cash? Every unit I’ve been on moved to electronic subs collection.
What’s cash? Don’t make me delve into my pre-Covid memories …