I don’t think we are allowed to travel that far, however I will ask the question
Definitely become disenchanted with the whole organisation.
If I’m to be honest it was a relief in March 2020 when everything stopped. There was one weekend coming up that meant we were spread over 3 places with insufficient transport and yours truly to sort it all out.
The VPNs actually provided a bit of purpose during lockdown and a very boring temporary job not that I miss them terribly.
Did HQAC just spend the last 2 years thinking about admin tasks to burden us with when we all got back to parading?
It’s been nice interacting with the cadets but the pressure to do blue/bronze badge training, DofE, AVIP etc at weekends and evenings as well as going back to what’s become a stressy job is too much. Add some fire stuff with very little direction, nagging from Sector commander that we aren’t doing enough (like they are 
). Then just to cap it, I’m having a battle with BPSS and can a Reservist be a CI issue. I’m about the closest in 30 years to just jacking it in.
One more email from a demanding parent might just tip the balance.
Honestly, are the ACF or Sea cadets this bad or full of rubbish? If we all drove off into the sunset in our SOVs what would the organisation do? Cyber and STEM as interesting as they are don’t hold much interest for most of the adults on the squadron.
Surely someone high up needs to listen. This is not a job and right now it’s not fun.
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JoT to quote the T.V. advert “when the fun stops STOP” but like any addiction that’s hard to do
I know, but like been stuck in an ever deepening rut we don’t notice the sides until something makes you
look up and see the sun.
Good luck in the future.
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The “treadmill” slowing/stopping due to Covid posed a moment in time to reflect on the importance of things. When the treadmill sped back up, I found myself less inclined / fit to begin running at the same speed again. I’m still here as I believe the organisation is a powerful vehicle to instil confidence and competence in the next generation but I also note that the opportunities to do such are not as they once were. All that being said, I still see the enthusiasm in cadets under the current offer and so, whilst it is reduced from what I experienced, there is still worth.
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Thanks Farmerdan - I see much of my job as DepWingChap being to try to keep the **** off busy Sqdn Padres!
Most of the BS at present seems to be when starting - as Monty Python said,
“regarding obscenities, this record contains four ****s, a ******** and a ******** - but, as they only occur in this introduction, you’re past them now”!
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Ah so the part that involves HQAC is the issue then…
If only HQAQ listened, I think you will find these figures on the .gov site interesting, A big push towards
CCF’s
Wow. So they’re saying we (community cadets) have lost only 1% of our cadet numbers, but 9% of our staff numbers…?
Lost nearly 20% of our cadets.
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The stats are stupid, they’re comparing the numbers now to 2018’s numbers not our peak. It’s much worse if you look at the maximum cadets and adults we had.
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Wow…
The ATC only has 26000 cadets… something somewhere has gone drastically wrong.
Is it just me or does that whole stats document read very very very pro CCF.
If it werent for those pesky community units getting in the way, we could save so much money.
Rekon the ATC wont make it to 100 reading this.
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From Apr 2020-2022 we have lost 6720 cadets and 2110 staff, or 21% and 18% of the 2020 numbers for cadets and staff respectively.
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Looking further into the numbers, I’ve worked this out:
Total Number of cadets and staff lost per service from Apr 20-Apr 22
Air
Cadets 6720 - 21%
CFAV 2110 - 18%
Army
Cadets 4110 - 11%
CFAV 1000 - 11%
Sea
Cadets 1090 - 7%
CFAV 520 - 11%
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Two interesting diagrams
Firstly while over four years the ATC dropped 3% there was a big drop in adult numbers from just before covid. Would be interesting if this was administrative (leavers not being processed) or pure retention issues.
Secondarily the age demographic for the cadets.
Numbers are comparable with the other service then a massive drop off round GCSE year. In a shrinking organisation I would expect a more linear decline curve. It may mean we are not retaining cadets after a certain point and perhaps the PTS needs tweaking to engage those elder cadets.
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I think it’s telling that we have lost the biggest percentage of staff and cadets in the past 2 years. Maybe it’s been down to our diabolical approach to Covid in comparison with the Sea Cadets, and the ACF’s marketing budget bringing in new members at a faster rate than we can.
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I think there was a lot of frustration within the organisation prior to covid, covid just gave people that natural break.
We are now well in the recovery phase and the air cadets response seems to remain diabolical. I am constantly seeing on Facebook about sea cadet growth & development workers and how there are offering bespoke help to units. Army cadets have gone National but not seen too much from units.
Air cadets? Let’s pretend covid never happened & go back to what we use to do rather than make things work better.
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Brought in majority by Chalk and his team of misfits who wrote the guidance.
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As a stat I would be interested in the length of service of the leavers.
High proportion on those with three years or less service shows poor induction. High proportion amongst those with 12 to 18 service would indicate an unpopular change in organisation ethos.
I would expect leaving spike around 12/13 years & 18/19 years service, but outside this would be concerning.
The natural wastage starts at 16 - schools (and parents) put so much pressure on kids to achieve that it becomes very difficult for them to continue with a hobby that is more time consuming than pretty much any other extra-curricular activity.
Really, how many other clubs or activities meet twice during the week in the evenings?
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This is from the report:
| 2020 | % | 2021 | % | 20202 | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 270 | 7 | 270 | 1 | 2 280 | 9 |
| 7 340 | 22 | 2 900 | 11 | 5 640 | 22 |
| 7 690 | 23 | 6 340 | 24 | 5 610 | 22 |
| 6 340 | 19 | 6 550 | 25 | 4 860 | 19 |
| 4 670 | 14 | 5 200 | 20 | 3 780 | 15 |
| 2 580 | 8 | 3 540 | 13 | 2 450 | 9 |
| 1 130 | 3 | 730 | 3 | 880 | 3 |
| 730 | 2 | 770 | 3 | 540 | 2 |
12-19 percentages of total.
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