How much do we really offer those 16+ aside from the chance to teach younger Cadets or be (S)NCOs? Even then it’s not always tied into volunteering for DofE, which seems an obvious win win to me.
It does seem a bit of a gap in our offer.
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also 16 - earning age.
how many Cadets do we know have weekend jobs?
how many Cadets pick up an extra shift here, or an extra shift there and suddenly they can’t do weekend event cos they have school and work to juggle…then they stop being free of a weekday evening - as indicated by
there is little choice, start earning money or teach 12-13 year olds…
this is a valid point. I don’t know of any that are not “elite” sports clubs working at a high level.
some dedicated gym/sports hobbyist only visit the gym/swimming pool once a week yet we’re still at two nights a week
/threadcreep
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I do find this one quite interesting.
I remember pre-2020 (“The Time Before Covid” (TTBC) having discussions on here about the “staffing crisis” as we saw it back then. The apparent decreasing number of CFAVs at squadron level and (seemingly) ever increasing number of CFAV taking roles at Region/Wing levels in “non-jobs”.
I wonder whether the same number of post holders at Wg & Rg levels has remained current and it’s front line Sqn CFAVs who’ve moved on??
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In addition our local experience is that cadet numbers are coming back up, in some squadrons quite rapidly, but CFAV numbers are still falling as people either can’t or decide not to come back.
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It’s a candle being burnt at both ends - recruitment is going to tricky as every volunteer organisation is trying to recruit the same demographic simultaneously - a situation that won’t settle down till about three four years time.
It’s why I’m impressed with the sea cadets as they were kicking off & planning for an adult recruitment drive in Jan 21 whilst everyone else in cadet world were still working out if we were coming back.
The other issue is that less of the current volunteers are volunteering for the more onerous wing posts - I can see sectors being dissolved or moved to secondary duties to reduce staffing numbers.
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I do think we’ve not hit bottom numbers on CFAVs yet, we have a tricky summer ahead as people start running things and realise they CBA on the nice weekends to be away from home.
All I see from perm staff is more and more red tape issues and failing to understand the CFAV which is no doubt contributing to the retention challenge.
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Answers simple…
Pay VA for ALL cadet facing duties over 2 hours.
Including parade nights!
Still capped at 28 days or 224 hours.
There would not only be a large influx of staff to uniform. But also would offset an awful lot of the BS that goes with just running a Sqn.
If i knew that turning up 8 times per month would get me 16 hours of VA or equiv 2 days pay…
I would certainly grumble less for having to fill in forms etc.
Would still leave me 4 fays of VA to go towards other activities also.
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But would people then stop doing the weekend things or range days because they had used up all their days after doing a course or 2?
How many people would then use it as an excuse not to turn up to a large parade, week long camp or wing activity?
Could the cadet experince suffer more and we then truly enter a death spiral?
I don’t want to consider alternatives as there have been enough threads about VA already and I don’t think it would be the best mechanism to bring about positive change.
I know of one ex-senior officer who worked for RFCA whose job was to manage the development of CCF units, in which case he shut down a community unit just up the road from a newly established CCF unit.
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If they’ve already given an entire month to the organisation then it’s not an excuse, it’s perfectly valid reason to say “that’s enough for me, I have my own life as well”.
Honestly, volunteers are not a bottomless pit of time for this organisation to take no questions asked. We have to stop pretending otherwise. Don’t ignore the lessons of covid.
Someone gives up an entire month of their year and your reaction is that “oh, they’ll use that as an excuse to skive off”… Beggars belief.
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Considering how peoples lives both domestic and workwise have changed in the past couple of years, people who give up time in whatever capacity should be cherished not denigrated for that way it just pushes them out even quicker.
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It was a point in context of the whole post and wether such a move would potentially have a greater negative impact on the cadets, you know those young people whose lives we hope to add some value to with our volunteering.
Absolutely! As someone who had a break because of burnout by the org I wholeheartedly agree. People give what they can, my point was the potential impact on cadet experience, not saying it would be wrong just a risk.
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Taking a time out prevents the individual from burning out, as someone who is burnt out may be at a risk to others with possibly poor decision-making, been there at work. I took about 8 weeks out, yes it cost me, but it was worth it, and I was in a safety critical job. My boss at the time fully supported me, not a lot around these days in the NHS.
As to the RAFAC, a very stressed and burning out person cannot with the best will in the world give back the experience that the cadets deserve. The management at Cranwell need to realise this as it will be across the organisation and all the madness from above, demand this or that yesterday will just make people decide to close the door and say goodbye. We are in a very changed world of work for a lot of people which impacts on families’ day in and day out, as I said previously the RAFAC management have to learn this, but they are sat with their FTRS contracts as their day job behind the fence, not in the ‘normal’ world unlike the CFAVs who frequently struggle to balance home (the most important) work whether employed or worse self-employed (very close to No1) and lastly the RAFAC.
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You need an excuse for this…
“Nope, not coming to your large parade, as its completely pointless and doesnt benefit the cadets in the slightest”.
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Does that depend on the parade, a senior officers self aggrandising ‘look at me’ parade or something of significance such as Remembrance Sunday?
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Of course it depends.
But as we all know, there a vast number of pointless parades.
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If your activity is so unpopular that no one wants to do it you have to question of its worth doing in the first place.
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I agree so many are pretty pointless but as a CI, if my cadets attend then so will I. I don’t get paid and neither would “I” expect to be paid. I have been around staff who have a fair few years on me and they are lacking motivation. If uniform changes how you operate on cadet time then I will stick to being just a CI 
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In my wing the way to avoid parades is to turn up in greens holding a camera.
It then seems that actually taking pictures is optional, because the last wing parade we had about 10 photographers, Sgts taking flights for a lack of officers, and the only photos I ever saw of the damn thing were ones taken by a parent on their phone.
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I’ve seen this at numerous events. Part of the problem is we have no media management workflow (and probably shouldn’t expect one as a voluntary org). I did one small project for my Wing and genuinely had 6 people provide material in 7 formats.
But yes there is parade dodging going on too
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