Scouts might attract more volunteers if they offered activities that kids and adults really want: Flying & gliding, full bore rifle shooting and fieldcraft.
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https://www.activities.kentscouts.org.uk/air-activities-c1xsl
Well ok, Scouts do campcraft rather than dressing up as trees.
Tickled me there! 
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Isn’t this a bit embarrassing for the RAFAC. Here we all are arguing over the legalities of ACTO 035, selling our gliders and grounding the grobs (first step towards their eventual sale?)…
And the scouts are over there, in a bleeding microlight of all things, having a great time.
Good grief.
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sorry, CFAV’s, CFAV’s, CFAV’s
ok we’re back on topic 
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And they have at least one motor glider, might be getting another.
HQAC should ask The Scout Association for help. Bet Akela knows a thing or two about getting kids gliding.
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Going back to CFAV recruitment.
Has anyone (in the recent pre-covid past) had any successful active CFAV recruitment campaigns?
The only CFAV recruitment I know of around us has been either cadets timing out, parents, or a handful of “organic” Joe/Jane Bloggs walking in.
I’d be really interested to know of any activities that have been useful…
We attended a village-led “local volunteering fair” a few years ago. It was a complete waste of time.
We’ve always had some light interest at the village fun day but it’s never amounted to much.
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There’s normally a website that advertises volunteering opportunities for an area. London’s actually has a CI post advertised right now: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/volunteering/search/.
We’ve advertised with local universities/colleges and their associated student unions as they usually have some sort of career development and/or volunteering department. We also explicitly mentioned it would be useful for childcare, teaching etc careers as there are lots of transferable skills and it’s relevant experience.
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I did an CFAV recruitment drive when I took over my last squadron.
Adverts went out in all the volunteering sites, local rags, paid Facebook advertising and shared to all local groups, Twitter & we even put posters up all over the town.
Zero response.
My biggest issue was the material we have to use. The only stuff I could find was out of date and a little bit naff. I could make my own, but my skills are more playdoh and crayons than graphic design.
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Google G-BODU
There were leaflets at my old Squadron that still mentioned a certain Ex Air Cadet who might be able to Fix it for you. I wouldn’t have minded but they were put out on the side for the Awards Night alongside the Air Cadet Magazine by a helpful Cadet who had found them in a box, luckily I recognised them before any parents could get one!
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Whilst I’ve not personally been involved in any recruitment drives for CFAV since getting back into the swing of things, I inadvertently may have recruited for a local sqn whilst at work yesterday purely by mentioning some of the things we do.
So, has anyone considered speaking to their local flying schools and asking to advertise on a noticeboard- not necessarily to recruit the flying instructors as CFAVs but the private hirers? Often a vast array of careers - police, engineering, medicine, broadcast and all have an interest in aviation … and we all know pilots like to show off lol!
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If we are going to attract new people we need to change the offer. In this accept we are essentially playing dress up in the Air Cadets; SNCO or Officer to all intents and purposes the same thing, youth leaders. The badges we wear are effectively irrelevant, so why not flip or zig zag between SNCO, Officer and CI. You would need to be in uniform to do this, but this flexibility might be the difference between people leaving and staying. We need a system which aids recruitment and retention, because as we all are too well aware what we have currently doesn’t work. We only have a rank structure to parrot the RAF, so that people we have little interaction with can understand. In the volunteer side it makes little or no difference in the grand scheme, except to appease people’s personal insecurities.
When people in the organisation moan about those in roles making mistakes it baffles me that people are so anti spending time learning, especially when they like to make so much about us “training/developing” people. You don’t go to work, start a new job/role and not spend time learning the ropes, so why do we not do this in the Air Cadets and in this I don’t see cadet service as making people any better. It’s like saying because you went to school you can leave and become a teacher straight away. The problem is we are so bloody desperate for people we take people on, fast track them and put them into roles, they don’t like it and sod off. I get moaned at because I play the long game with staff, but they do different things on the sqn, I don’t know call it development, and if they decide to go on to other things they are prepared.
I am proud of my Commission, it was challenging at times but worked hard to get it.
We are the RAF Air Cadets, of course there are things we could and should change, but we mirror the parent service structure because it is part of our identity.
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Preach!
Whilst I mostly agree, I do think we should avoid doing things the same way we always have just because it’s what the RAF does.
The RAF regiment changed it’s rank structure so it’s units could work better alongside their Army colleagues. Changing our structure may or may not make CFAV more attractive/improve retention, but let’s not dismiss it out of hand.
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Based upon this I wish to be known as Commisioner
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