Comms seems like a big tool box with different spanners, each one suits a certain task at a certain time and sone thougt how to use it, however it seems quicker and easier to get the monkey wrench out , then throw it hoping it will hit the right spot to get the machine working.
When you say squadron arent advertising to their cadets which type of courses are you referring to?
Typically, Bronze level courses run at Wing level that lead to qualifications.
Only a minority of Squadrons advertise them (if they are not on cadet portal the cadets can’t apply) but looking at it from a squadron staff angle it can also be hard to keep up!
We don’t know why they don’t advertise, it might be transport or local events that clash. At wing level we woudn’t know about them.
Lots of aquadrons gatekeep access to things from Cadets, it’s amazing when you talk to the cadets and they hadn’t heard of lots of stuff that’s going on as the unit hadn’t published it to them in any way.
There can be a few reasons for this and it’s usually the unit can’t provide staffing or transport to the cadets to get to the event.
Quite often unit just forget to publish stuff. It’s nice that the control lays in the hands of the unit staff, but at the same time, it is adding an extra level of admin to sqn staff. Add to that the fact that if the event director edits the cadet portal bit, it doesn’t auto update for sqns if already published until the sqn staff go in and update it.
I know this was discussed extensively when it came out WRT WSOs having the power to publish directly or not, and we went with the latter. Now that it has been around for a while, I think the former may be better. Or maybe allow WSOs to publish direct but with a grace period of some sort.
I understand the argument, but that will result in the opposite problem, where a unit might not realise something has been advertised when they hadn’t advertised it themselves for a legitimate reason.
Another example not mentioned is when the squadron staff want to control who bids for an activity, like an NCO course or MOI course. Also, activities that have eligibility requirements that can’t be checked on SMS/Units (currently), like completing certain fieldcraft lessons, you can end up with cadets being selected who aren’t eligible.
This. Many times.
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Those are manageable issues I think.
I do know of a local squadron that still uses paper sign up sheets. It works for them!
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There needs to be a split on the cadet portal bit IMO. A bit the event director adds, and a bit Sqn staff adds. The former being updated across the board when the director changes it, and the latter only updateable via sqn staff.
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But anyway, here’s a 180 post thread talking about just this issue alone…:
Oh no, I agree that it’s manageable, we do it now. My point is that if people outside the unit had the option to advertise events directly to cadets then it would circumvent any controls the unit staff put in place.
All Wing activities should be advertised by default…the number of times I’ve seen mails from SMEs asking to advertise is stupid. If an event is being run at Wing level then the whole wing should be invited straight away…
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Wearing my SME hat, what controls are needed?
I would rather courses are advertised to all. If a Squadron can’t attend because they are otherwise committed the OC can drop me an email, and worst case I can remove them from the SMS.
But often not all cadets are at, or even able to be at, whatever event the Squadron is doing.
It’s more likely that staff just aren’t interested so don’t see the point in sharing. To be clear, we don’t require any Squadron to send staff on the Wing courses I run, we make sure we cover the ratios from the SME team.
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I think I explained in my first post. A good example is NCO courses, where cadets often have to be recommended by their OC to attend and places are very limited, so the squadron may need to prioritise who they put forward. If it’s advertised to all cadets, then any of them can bid and potentially get selected.
My other example of activities that have eligibility requirements that aren’t recorded on SMS/Units has happened, where we’ve had a cadet selected for a fieldcraft camp where they didn’t meet the prerequisites and getting them to a point where they do was not trivial. Unit staff should be best placed to know the cadets previous experience and whether or not they are eligible.
On the first one, I agree. (Units can also prioritise applicants of course).
More generally, and perhaps this will come when cadets get access to the Microsoft suite, it would be useful to be able to message applicants/attendees directly. This could even be anonymous - DS can select ‘all applicants’ or all selected applicants for example. This would allow pre course questionnaires, or sharing course materials. Saves the squadron having to act as a postbox.
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If “someone” could keep SharePoint as a clean environment with outdated dox removed, internal info sharing would speed up and be more efficient. A little off topic but by doing this, less emails would be needed to promulgate new info
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Unless the event requires sqns to provide supporting staff, why not publish direct.
The squadrons don’t even seem to have control over who gets selected for things, so why insert the extra admin step of having them push it to cadets?
Until there is a view for sqns to see what thier cadets (or their parents on their behalf) have signed up to then this is a non starter.
It’s been said on another similar thread (and maybe on this one), but it would be unfair to punish squadrons who do advertise reliably when appropriate to do so.
Directly advertising activities will also create admin in the opposite direction where squadrons will need to unadvertise activities or request they be removed.
It would be better if the organisers of activities communicated to the squadrons when activities go live and to understand why they’re not advertised (it’s not just the cadets that are “customers” for activities above squadron level, it’s everyone in between). Like someone said already, it could just be that they haven’t seen it and need a reminder.
Good idea. Give me a buzz Dan if you need any help in getting traction.