Would you prefer I lock and start deleting?
Brand is hugely important and something I see as key to our future. Identity through polo shirts or similar is a good one and I feel that this is a positive thing. Uniform isn’t just about blue or combat clothing.
We also need to attract people to the CI role and I think splitting that into categories is a brilliant way to attract SME’s whilst also fulfilling our statutory responsibilities.
The shadow board isn’t such a great idea as they aren’t seen as equals, but granted have a voice. This is a voluntary organisation and we need to be equals with a valid and equal voice at seats at the table. Management of volunteers is a complex task, and being one doesn’t mean you’re an amateur or don’t have the skills to add value at the highest levels of the organisation. That needs to change.
The current norm hasn’t adapted to the new environment for volunteers and volunteering quickly enough. So prudent change has necessarily taken place all at once which instils huge organisational instability, which is bad for everyone. Demoralising for volunteers and paid staff alike.
We need stability. A new culture. Both of which can only come from the top.
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Yes, yes, noooo! 
I think one of the big issues is that in terms of structure & fundamental philosophy volunteering is always ground/bottom up.
You build on the good work that’s needed & it links together & then grows from there.
Military/public sector/anything with a command & control hierarchy is top down. It’s at the point that these two philosophies meet that you get the clash.
The culture change can only really come from/through the volunteers but that change can only be enabled by the top.
It’s using the metaphor of cleaning a fish tank.
You have fish getting poorly. You can either try scrubbing the individual fish then put them back in the water (where funnily enough the get sick) or you can clean the fish tank & then get the fish back to health.
The top/paid staff can only create or change environment that enables us to move positively forwards. The volunteers will then change culture, slowly.
Perhaps part of the problem is that the top are trying to change the culture when they should be focusing on the environment we all swim in, & perhaps some of the volunteers are trying to change the environment rather than concentrating on changing local culture
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True. And totally agree but without influence the bottom up model just can’t flourish as it’s beaten down from the centre and top.
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My take on this subject is that the RAFAC will never radically change towards its volunteers for either the better or worse in the future: the ruling incumbent can’t advocate reform, and in this case, cannot be deposed or voted out of office.
Doubtless my adult instructors of half the Corp’s lifetime ago had exactly the same complaints about it which they would discuss in the pub across the road after the final parade on Friday evening. A note to Young People: the ‘pub’ was a building in which real people would gather to be sociable amongst each other - 20th century social media, in other words.
Of course, if one had a disagreement with another person, you might get an ashtray struck across your head, or bitten underneath the armpit, or punched on the back of the head from behind - all of which are examples I faced when being ‘cancelled’ on that particular platform. 
Honestly. Fast forward 5 years this organisation will be gone, certainly as we’ve known it.
Happily I got out at the right time. After an extended period of being treated like something HQRAFAC brought in on the bottom of their shoe, I decided I had no interest in continuing.
In particular:
Reflex suspensions of staff, even after it is identified there is no safeguarding issue presented by said staff, the suspensions persist for months.
Lack of comms during investigation and a complete lack of compassion from permanent staff involved in the process.
A laughable approach to mental health support of CFAV, particularly during investigations.
Current rules prevent staff making complaints about people while under complaint themselves. For example; if someone under investigation complains about someone spreading gossip about them, or about the staff member handling their case - this is not investigated until the case in closed - by which time the damage is done.
I should add context, that at the time of my resignation, I held a number of roles including OC, 2 wing positions and a role delivering AT at Region. I spent a minimum of 4 nights a week on cadet stuff, often more. I had a wall of commendations including a Lord Lieutenant’s commendation. I was as committed to this organisation as it is possible to be, yet policies and processes in the organisation were so poor, and so unfair, that a minor complaint against me, saw me suspended for 9 months+ and took my motivation, enthusiasm and love for the organisation, and destroyed it. An investigation is never an easy time for anyone, but the fact that I went from the level of dedication I had, to resigning at the conclusion of the investigation, should serve to highlight how poor the process is.
If I’m not a canary in the coal mine for how CFAV are treated I don’t know what is, and I am by no means an isolated case.
I recently received my CFM, I’m very tempted to simply send it back, I’m not interested in recognition from an organisation that values it’s staff so low, I’m no longer proud of the time I spent in the organisation, and I couldn’t, hand on heart, recommend it to anyone now.
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It’s not recognition from the organisation, it’s recognition from the crown acknowledging & thanking for your service. Don’t give HQAC the credit that they are recognising your achievements when it’s come from someone else 
Unfortunately yours is not an isolated case & is one part of the organisation that needs a massive strategic over haul.
There needs to be staged restrictions for those against whom a complaint has been made - almost a triage:-
What you could do is review the initial complaint and ask the question that if the complaint was taken on face value & upheld & what would the category of likely action be.
If it could result in dismissal/criminal investigations action then suspend.
If it could result in major or minor administrative action then either suspend or they are restricted to in Sqn activities only until the investigation is concluded.
If it could result in minor administrative or informal counselling then the person is restricted to unit & not permitted to take part in or deliver off Sqn activities.
Regardless a good practise should be that suspensions must be reviewed monthly by RC or RCoS to confirm that the continual suspension is still appropriate & proportionate.
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This is my biggest thing about it all too.
Anyone who comes to me to ask about volunteering, I tell them it can be great, but don’t go near the air cadets. It’s not worth the hassle.
Certainly, my former colleagues in the RAF all know to stay well clear.
Kids and parents who don’t know better? Yeah, they’ll probably keep on heading in that direction, but not for long. We won’t retain kids like we used to. They’ll join at 12 and by 15 they’ll have decided the couple of good things aren’t worth the complete lack of others and decide to focus on school and exams.
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There needs to be a lot of things. I have no issue with suspension while the facts are established. 9-10 months plus for a staff member who has done nothing was too much for me to justify returning.
I think far too many people are glad to be back they don’t think to challenge why it was seen as ok to treat them that way
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Also the other aspect that when you return from disciplinary suspension you’re dropped back in & expected to pick straight up again with no consideration for the mental headspace you’re now in.
People don’t challenge or raise it because they’re pretty much broken & are trying to rebuild.
Don’t send back your Cadet Forces Medal! They are a rare and precious near-mythical artifact. I’ve been waiting nearly three years for mine since I applied.
That’s longer for what is a well-established and routine award which shows your nation’s and organisation’s appreciation of your loyal and professional services than some medals I have been awarded for conflicts that have sprung up out of nowhere, were prepared for, fought to a successful conclusion, and the medal approved, designed and presented to the many participants.
For instance, Saddam invaded Kuwait on 2nd August 1990. We won the war and enforced the UN Resolution against his genocidal occupation of that country by March 1991, cleared up the battlefield, returned home and were presented the Gulf Medal in June 1992 - all 50,000 of us.
Maybe I haven’t got the Cheat Code for the CFM. 
Log on to bader, go to sharepoint, hold down Ctrl & press
Then click start in the top right to warp you to the CFM express portal 
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The fabled Konamedal Code out in the wild!
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I actually ‘cashed in’ three years of military service to claim the CFM after nine years, but I’ll soon have done the full twelve anyway.
I once tried to explain to the missus how one could do that with a minimum of three years prior service, provided one hadn’t used it for any other long service gong: for example if one had done only fifteen years in the RAF and got the RAF LS&GCM, one would have to do the full twelve in the Cadet Forces, but only nine if you had done less than fifteen…
…but I stopped before she called the Relationship Guidance Councillors. 
At least you were successful in doing so - 2 years of starting the query I am still trying to get someone to acknowledge my 2 years post-18 Cadet service for the QPJM. All fun and games isn’t it 
Ultimately they don’t care.
I was in a terrible headspace prior to the suspension, throwing myself into cadets was all I had, and it was helping, a bit.
When I got suspended, all I asked for to support me was a little update every 2 weeks - even if no progress had been made. Rolling into Christmas I didn’t get anything, and by the time I rang to chase it was long Civil Service break, and nothing doing until week 2 of January.
I was in a terrible place, and at that point, going into Christmas alone, my friends in the cadets having been (wrongly) told they couldn’t speak to me at all, no information on how long this nightmare would last, I had very much considered whether I still wanted to be around.
I’m in a better place now thankfully, and I don’t ever want to be back in that place. But I’ll never forgive the RAFAC for not valuing me even enough to send an email every 2 weeks telling me what was going on.
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So I tried the cheat code you shared with me: Galadriel appeared (the Cate Blanchett with pointy ears version) and showed me a vision of my CFM in the possession of Gollum, who is lurking in the Mines of Moria. He’ll give me the medal in exchange for the One True Ring.
So now I’ve got to find travel to Middle Earth, find and steal the Ring, enter the Mines, fight a platoon of Orcs, avoid waking up BALROG!!! in order to reach Gollum.
I’ve got a feeling that once I’ve made the exchange I’ll transmogrify into Gollum, except I’ll be hoarding the CFM instead, freeing up the Ring to continue its travels. We know how trustworthy he is…“The presss-shuss!!!”
Uhh, topic?
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The inconsistency of awarding CFMs is related to the subject of CFAV retention as far as I’m concerned. It does seem like it would be easier to travel on a quest to Middle Earth to receive one, which isn’t on, really. When you earn an award, there shouldn’t be an unexplained and lengthy delay in receiving what you are due, otherwise you feel taken for granted by the organisation you work for.
I didn’t join as a CFAV a dozen years ago solely for medals, but now that’s about the only reason left for me to stay on and give the minimum commitment of my time.
I used to do it to teach aeronautical subjects to young people who might join the RAF, but I think that there is less interest in aviation amongst them than there used to be: forty years or more ago, the aviation sector and industry was seen as more exclusive or glamorous than today. Indeed, nearly all ATC cadets would have had their first ever flight in a Kirby Cadet glider or Chipmunk trainer in those days. The majority of cadets were aviation geeks to some degree or another, and had a good self-taught knowledge of military and civil aircraft.
Now we appear to be just another youth organisation. The RAF is a third of the size of thirty years ago, and does no active recruiting within the RAFAC; we hardly do any gliding compared to before, which is a fundamental part of learning to fly an aircraft, and civil aviation has lost any glamour it had, between strikes at airports by poorly paid employees, post 9/11 security hassles and aviation being pilloried as the Bad Guy in the carbon emissions debate. It’s become like the oil industry: everyone needs it and uses it;
no-one respects it.
So if we are losing our raison d’etre in the aviation world, where does that leave the CFAV? Helping Other People’s Kids get on in life long after you have paid back what you took out as a cadet in your youth? That’s probably the reason why the Scouts have many more children on their waiting list than adequate adult staff volunteers coming forward to look after them.
It’s the first economic law of Supply and Demand: too much demand and not enough capital resources to fill it. In this case, the capital is both the money available to an organisation and peoples’ time and willingness to commit it as a volunteer.
We could consider the fact that, if the RAFAC employed squadron staff in properly paid full and part-time positions, with a good motor mileage and subsistence rate, there wouldn’t be any complaints about retention of adult staff. On the other hand, giving no Volunteer Allowance or motor mileage rate would reduce the overall time commitment of CFAVs quite a lot, and probably cause many squadrons to close down.
Either situation described above is unworkable for the ATC as it is, either in terms of expense or willingness of volunteers to commit their free time, so we exist in the grey area between the two extremes: getting inadequate recompense for what we do, and complaining about it.
There is most likely a silent majority of volunteers who give plenty of their free time and money to the RAFAC, and indeed any volunteer organisation. No other nation on earth does more organised volunteering than the UK: it would be interesting to see the state of the country if all voluntary labour ceased for even a year.
But such willingness to volunteer is a finite resource within the individual: how the organisation maintains that quality for its own continued existence is by giving tangible benefits back to the volunteer. Otherwise there will be an unnoticed erosion of capability which will suddenly take effect…much like the current flap about the state of the UK Armed Forces. That happened because no-one in the UK Government or public took any notice of the Whingers who were Proved Right in The End.
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Sorry for the delay in replying to this suggestion - but…my tuppence worth…
The idea of simplifying the process to encourage more staff in a CI role is brilliantly simple - in that it could be used to fill a gap in non-qualified or specialist staff, by adding to the staff/cadet ratio.
For arguments sake let’s call the new role “Civilian Staff” as opposed “Civilian Instructor”, to distinguish between the roles.
The staff could be relatively new - non specialised, assisting during their probationary period / awaiting DBS.
Let them assist in providing adult coverage - but not allowed to be in a 1 on 1 situation, or even lone adult with a group… but frankly, why would you want a new or inexperienced staff member to be in that position anyway…
There are numerous instances when having extra adults is beneficial - but unlikely to be on a revalue basis - such as car marshalling or trolley packing etc
Such individuals might already have a role in the Civ Com, but they might also be family of a staff member who just comes in to assist here and there - but needs to be documented for safety purposes!
As for CIs in a Wing role - this is already possible for example in Road Marching - provided the CFAV has completed all mandatory training including Heat / Cold injuries (polar expedition, arctic survival, Marathon de Sable etc), AFA and RMTL…
In our Wing, we had a lot of members of the BDWF who, would have been happy to become “staff”, to assist with delivering Road Marching - but who didn’t feel that they had the time to be able to commit to assisting with other activities. Similarly, the idea of having to participate in multiple mandatory training courses, seemed particularly onerous.
For example, the second member of staff in a support vehicle…
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