Now you come ro mention it @Tornado this seems remarkably familiar…
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See my post immediatly above yours.
25 years with the org. You give and give and give, then one day think… what the hell for.
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I must admit I’m feeling much the same; after 20+ years it’s becoming more and more of a struggle to motivate myself…
Hang on, anyone else starting to feel warm?
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But the bubbles feel so pleasant, and I feel sleepy
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Ribbit.
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I think you’ve missed the whole point of this thread. More staff are leaving than are joining, so yes, surely they WILL be missed.
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This was me, as a few years ago, every idea I came up with was poo-pooed by our OC. I was beginning to wonder why I bothered trying to improve things. Nothing to do with further ups this time either. If I had left looking back now, I do believe they would have really struggled. But thankfully that isn’t the case now as things are better and our staff team is starting to look a little healthier.
Not everyone will see the bigger picture if they haven’t even had the chance to spend time around the cadets and what difference you can make to their time, no matter how small you think you are contributing, the bigger picture shows when the cadets have completed an activity or gained a qualification.
I use the ‘I’m only a CI’ but I get what I need done without being in uniform and the cadets are the ones who are getting the most out of their time on sqn. If you find it difficult even getting to start as a CI, many will possibly think it’s even more difficult getting into uniform.
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Ive been here for 40+ years and I have seen so many fed up (I would use a stronger word) that do just that and they are across the board good and bad. I know of two WO’ of over 20 years service who are just a gnats whisker away and I don’t blame them although I just keep reminding them think of the cadets. They are just feeling undervalued and put upon. So do I, Ive been waiting so long for my clasp to the CFM I’m due my next one this year. The military moan about being put upon over and over again but they are doing it to us and don’t even start me on Car Parking bans. I teach tech subjects, RCO, SAAI and FTI (or whatever its called this week) and I would jack it in but for selfish reasons -the cadets and retaining a military connection. People moaned 40 years ago and walked but its nothing as bad as it is today.
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@Fjc not sure where the hold up is there then, we’ve had application just turned around in 7 months, and with the King’s head on the medal. Putting that down to the change of monarch on medal. Heard it looks okay.
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Just checked on the dates so I’m a bit off on the due date for the next one. Applied in 29NOV22, was due 19SEP20 so was a bit my fault waiting two years to apply but it was chased 10OCT23. Still waiting, at least I have two things - my previous three clasps and the knowledge of exactly how Air Cadet Staff are valued - as if I didn’t know after 40+ years! - not at all we are a readily disposable commodity like ration pack tissues.
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Myself and a friend put our forms in at EXACTLY the same time.
Our experience was identical, from start date, qualifying service etc. identical. They went in the same envelope.
His medal was awarded in December.
I am yet to receive mine.
So this is the case with a lot of things. The question is how do we get that outsider perspective so we can fix things without leaving (causing things to collapse)
I was chatting to one of my cadet Sgt at the weekend. 15 just finished GCSEs been in for three years.
One of things he was saying was that he loves tri-service events working with cadets from the SCC & CCf as it gives such a different perspective. It also made it easier to compare the faults and the positives
I think this what need to do & encourage.
It keeps things fresh & different. It puts us with positive CFAVs who aren’t competing with us. It allows us to hear horror stories that don’t affect us & think how lucky we are.
However it’s also important to remember that we will all leave volunteering at some point. It reaches a natural point when it’s time to move on to make way for new blood & avoid being the blocker that needs to be put out to pasture.
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Which is exactly why I went when I felt my time was up to make way for new blood and new ideas. Didn’t want to hold on and become a grumpy old man.
Thanks everyone for all our service - ours isn’t the only organisation that can be its own worst enemy… No organisation lasts for ever… our bodies certainly don’t! I find that one bit of good feedback from Cadets gets me through an awful lot of adult unprintableness 
think a lot of what we’re up against is general public attitudes to risk, the ability of computers to become inflexible, but also to share bad news and rumours… and the lack of breaks for long-serving staff. I told a previous employer, who were losing good people, to bring in sabbaticals for seniors as a cheap-ish USP. They didn’t - and shrank 90%. very best wishes to us all in looking after ourselves - “own oxygen mask” etc. Dying in harness needn’t be a development objective!
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Be interesting to see a graph of the cumulative experience of all CFAV staff.
I suspect it’d look a bit like this…
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Some of us were born grumpy old men!
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Maybe one day a pretty princess will kiss you and all will be well again
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Resignations arent processed quick enough, if at all, to get a real-time analysis. Mine hasn’t and I resigned 6 months ago.
I’d chase that up. Mine was submitted in early April this year and I had the letter in late May.
Our WHQ is very slow. When i was OC i had several former staff sat in the suspensions part of SMS because they hadnt been processed and it had been so long that their DBS’ had expired. I chased and chased but they never went.