We need to communicate with cadets. We have always used Facebook but Im getting a big kick back that its not used or liked and with the impending under 16 Social Media ban, which I think will come in I want to be ahead of the curve.
Six months ago I introduced Brevo which is free and has worked well for emailing a monthly newsletter and program. Tonight we had an urgent change of uniform and I thought I would use the WhatsApp feature, but its chargeable. I also worry about putting everyones phone number on WhasApp as a group.
Ive come across Band which seems to do it all, has anyone used Band, What do you all do? There is a need for an urgent and routine communication method but I dont know whats going to be the right choice.
Whatever I do it will need to be GDPR safe Free and able to be used by all confidentially and I assume Ill need a waiver signed.
I know a number of cadet units have started using SPOND app but whether that works within the cadet regulations I would need to cross reference with ACP150.
Cadet portal & myRAFAC are meant to be the official channels but usage seems to vary with cadet demographics
Give a read of the regs before committing to any change.
I belive if you start a WhatsApp community, you can make phone numbers invisible from non-admins. This combined with multiple channels can be very good for announcements vs general chit chat
I use band, but not for cadets. It’s absolutely great, you can do so much on there. Only complaint would be the app can be a little slow sometimes, and the notifications a little annoying. But all very secure, no numbers shared etc. In our band, you can open chat rooms with people, but you can disable that.
That sort of notification should go to cadets via Cadet Portal (use SMS to send it out).
You can also use the Government Notify service free of charge for official business.
FWIW, at Cranwell we were told WhatsApp was ok provided the groups have CFAV moderating them, likewise closed Facebook groups. Spond etc were a firm ‘no’.
Moderation controls, different groups under a single community, you can have groups only visible to some members, send messages to all or some (by community announcement or group message).