Civilian post nominals (plus JSP101 and email etiquette)

Further to this, it is why when personal accounts come out, with tethered role accounts, it will be a god send!

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I think its purely because some people love to appear superior to others in their communications.

Signed:

Sqn Ldr Gunner ROH CFM* STD(Hons)

It shouldn’t get messy. Best way of dealing with it I’ve seen would be:

Regards,
Joe

Joe Bloggs¦
Flight Lieutenant RAFAC¦
Officer Commanding¦
9999 Squadron¦
Air Training Corps¦

Mob:07712312312 ¦ Email: oc.9999@rafac.mod.gov.uk
For role related email please use role.wing@rafac.mod.gov.uk

Ninja edit RE the actual thread, no, I would not use post nominals except for RAFAC in an email, if ever. But I don’t really have any issue with those who do. Your life, live it!

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Signatures, you say? Someone needs to view this on desktop… :wink:

As for post-nominals, it is something that I would consider to add extra weight within a relevant discussion. Never as a matter of course, and not to try and get some kind of “rank seniority”. The opportunity for them to be particularly relevant within our world is mostly slim though.

I get the JSP101 angle, because in the real world of the actual blue suits it doesn’t matter - rank and role tells what you need to know. 99.9% of our world it doesn’t matter either.

Relevant post nominals support what you say, not who you are. Irrelevant post nominals show who you are.

…Unnecessary titles and descriptors deserve ridicule.

I had a CI once who had an MBE. I didn’t discover this until I accidentally saw a certificate he was using for some proof of qualification for SMS (I forget which).

That told me everything I needed to know about him and what a thoroughly brilliant CI he was.

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See also: Email Signatures

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Thanks for the replies.

Yes I am unfortunately aware of some CFAVs who use it to, shall we say show off about their own qualifications/experience and that really does annoy me. These are, in my experience, the ones who like to name drop or get something about themselves in every communication.

I guess the relevance is very personal to the individual and the type of activities they do within the organisation so for things like Fieldcraft, if I had it, I perhaps would do it like my work which does things like “I am a Mental Health First Aider” after the role. I’m not sure, I haven’t put much thought into it!

Thanks for sharing the link to the other forum post. Definitely interesting how there is discrepancy in views. I definitely don’t think my post nominals aren’t that exciting but I’m proud of my chartered status because it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I don’t use it though within cadet forums but I was wondering whether to or would that make me look a bit of an idiot.

Given JSP, I’m inclined to leave it out though.

Just a quick one - although I believe JSP says not to use them in the email/letter signature, I am sure I have read somewhere that they are appropriate in a personalised letter head for formal letter writing. Happy to be corrected. I use mine in my letter heads, but generally where they would be appropriate, for example when I am writing to a school about recruitment I will generally include “PGCE” as it adds a bit.

Debretts says that you can, or at least describes how you can.

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I love that the apology letter written in JSP 101 is signed off as

I N Dung
Squadron Leader

May start using that when I’m in poo! Even the JSP writers have a laugh once in a while

Ah I remeber the days when Defence Writing was called ISS and it was an 18 month correspondence course and exam you had to pass to be eligible for promotion

All done with pen, ink, pencil and ruler - as much a geometry exercise to get all the margins and spacings right before you even thought about content…

…and post noms only ever on letter heads and formal letters

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Precisely so!

A simple way of answering / contextualising the OP’s question via this analogy:

Q = “would you normally expect to, or ever really consider, wearing your medals on No.2 blues or No.3 greens?”

A = “No you would not”

And that’s it: case closed!

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But is an email not just a modern day letter and therefore formal?

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What a blatant waste of time and effort!

Almost as bad as someone using your current RAFAC rank, followed by RAF tank Ret’d :man_facepalming:t2:

Was that for Regular/Reserve service or as cadet staff?
Either way, that doesn’t sound fun but I do remember someone telling me to cross things out in a sort of Z shape and I weren’t sure if they were having me on as it seemed a bit odd but I was embarrassed that I didn’t know if this is correct or not so it would be painful to learn but I can understand it could be useful to be standardised etc.

I find another users point that emails have replaced letters interesting. I would agree they are more common but there is still a place for letters. Although certainly I’d love to send accounts an email with my VA forms rather than a printed form and cover letter although that is down to a. Not having a working printer, b. cost of stamps c. time. d. The ability for paperwork to magically get lost!

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The one that winds me up is people whose Twitter name is ‘Joe Bloggs MBE’…

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Oh yeah baby!! I’m ISS & scars - typed mine though = margins always good. :grin: Even taught in the DIOT Office Simulator at Cranditz! As rewritten by yours truly, an American exchange officer, & a nav who was retreading as a padre! Great fun, loads of stories.

A frightening few seconds whilst turning finals on a 500 ft low level circuit in a Vulcan. The other pilot exclaimed, very loudly on the intercom - “Oh" Frantic checking of engine instruments by me, can’t see anything wrong.

Cue nav radar swivelling his seat in a nano-second - in preparation for immediate aircraft abandonment (not good with the gear down - nose wheel right behind crew escape door!) - ”What’s the problem??!!”

The reason - “I forgot to send off my ISS yesterday, I’m a week late already…”.

That cost him several beers!! :laughing:

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Please, I beg you, stay on topic.

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No. An email is a modern day Loose Minute and therefore informal.
A Letter is a modern day letter :wink: