Exactly this.
The Region Sports and Welfare Trustees release the funds which is then used to fund civilian provided training. The CN for 2024 applications has just gone out.
I can’t see any difference here between a squadron civcomm doing something similar. Where it would be an issue I believe would be if the squadron staff or civcomm actually enabled, arranged or delivered the activity.
I think we need more detail but in the case of OP, the post reads as though the squadron would be allocating the gliding club. In the Mike Cross case, it appears as though the choice of club is self organised.
Those 2 approaches are quite significantly different in terms of potential liability (inc court of public opinion) should something go wrong.
Is the North Region Sports and Welfare a separate fund from the standard committee structure, or is it the Regional Civilian Committee?
sorry everyone, I thought ACTO 10 and 11 probably stopped Civ Coms doing stuff like this, unless money never touched the Civ Com account, but happy to be corrected!
At the end of the day, the MOD/RAF/RAFAC have no power over a charity giving money to a cadet to go flying… If CFAVs are involved then it obviously needs to be made clear that it is not a RAFAC activity. Just a private individual getting money for flying. No different to a cadet getting money from the Air League to go flying.
This is the lines of thinking that most go down.
However, even doing this has been deemed by (presumably the RAF) legal teams to still hold some sort of risk to the organisation that they don’t want to have to defend should something go wrong.
So what we are now dealing with are “club rules” - and the club rules say you can’t do it, and there will be consequences for those that do… Which could end up in you being kicked out the club (as that is the worst sanction you could receive for breaking a club rule - not a law).
All we can do is provide lots of feedback that this club rule is daft. Which has been given in spades through the CoC; and even members of this forum discussing openly meetings with senior permanent staff and indeed AOC level staff.
And I can’t share the details at this stage, but I’ve become aware of a very long term, highly skilled CFAV being terminated by HQAC due to a much, much smaller issue which didn’t even happen during a cadet activity or with any cadets present.
Tread very carefully, HQAC appear to be wanting to target CFAVs for anything right now.
Like I say, I can’t share the details right now, but I was absolutely fuming when I heard what it was for, as it truly was nothing at all.
So what you’re saying is…a Civ Com could negotiate with a local BGA club to offer trial flights to scholarship winners - say 20 in total at £25 per flight - and then offer scholarships to cadets whose parents have made a charitable donation to the Civ Com of £25.
Terms and conditions apply…namely, this is NOT a cadet activity. No CFAV involved. HQAC not involved. No red tape.
To summarise…HQAC are determined to run the organisation into the ground, and will hammer anyone who uses initiative to try to bring back ‘Venture - Adventure’
The time to eject is rapidly approaching.
A Civ Com could do this, but they’d probably find themselves disbanded, or the squadron closed, if they did.
I refer the honourable gentleman/lady to this thread.
It would need to be a stand alone charity in conjunction with the gliding club.
So it is possible.
Can you imagine the headlines…“Air Cadet squadron who haven’t had a glider flight for 2 years, is CLOSED by headquarters for using initiative to get cadets flying!”
I honestly don’t think that HQAC would be that stupid…
Watching with interest; let me know how you get on!
Never ever neglect the possibility of stupidity in an organisation with a closed mindset.
A nice Daily Hail or The Scum headline, with a couple of pictures of cadets and their parents looking a bit sad. Yeah, the media attention wouldn’t look good.
So I wonder what would happen if a squadron had a rich benefactor and offered a bursar per year for top cadet. Nothing to do with RAFAC!!
It should be fine. If I won the EuroMillions and stuck £10mn in a trust/bursary fund/charity with the sole purpose to get cadets flying, then there is nothing HQ can do. I can create a charity called ACC’s Cadet Flying Fund with me and a couple others as trustees, and then make the constitution something to the effect of “Getting RAF Air Cadets flying as much as possible”. Then invite cadets to apply. This would be completely outside the RAFAC, it would just be the charity only accepts applications from current Air Cadets.
There’s no reason a CWC couldn’t do something similar, as far as I can see. I say again, this is no different to the Air League giving out scholarships etc. which we as CFAVs do advertise to our cadets.
All of this except funded by a JustGiving page, (other crowdfunding sites are available).
It might just embarrass the SLT into doing something about the lack of gliding opportunities.
It shouldn’t be a problem, our core aim is
Promote and encourage a practical interest in aviation
Funding a scholarship falls right in with our core aim, you cannot get more practical than flying.