Okay.
Absent without reason then.
I stand by my point that it is good manners to let YOUR team know as the CO.
Maybe that’s just me?
I feel sorry for your staff team if you are a CO who doesn’t turn up and doesn’t let anyone know purely out of making a point that you’re a volunteer.
Surely it also a safety point letting someone know you won’t be down? Maybe you are one of two who attend regularly so if one doesn’t show then you may need to close due to safe numbers.
A quick text or phone call isn’t difficult if you aren’t going to be down, regardless of scenario. I’d hate to work under a CO that doesn’t show but also doesn’t provide warning or reason. Basic organisation and good manners.
AWOL became synonymous with “missing without known cause” in common parlance many years ago.
It’s a known term easily used to describe an absence which hasn’t been notified. If a member of staff or a cadet hasn’t notified you of their absence, they are - quite literally - absent without leave being granted. That’s not to say that they would be denied it, but they haven’t been granted it.
Sure, there are no real ramifications for a cadet other than in their stats, but I’d rather a cadet had 60% attendance but always told us when they wouldn’t be in (even if it’s a Facebook message on the day) than a cadet with 80-90% who randomly doesn’t turn up when we are expecting them to. It’s courtesy.
I have a cadet that I know will only be in 1 night a week - they get AA. Anyone who tells us before 1900 on a parade night gets AA. Recently had a cadet tell us they were taking 2 weeks off for exams - AA. Marking people AWOL is useful for assessing their integrity, reliability, and manners - vital characteristics when we’re looking for potential NCOs.
For a member of staff, especially an OC, to be absent with no notification or handover can be potentially incredibly detrimental to a unit.
It’s courtesy, teamwork, and in the case of an OC leadership. Would you just not turn up? I’d wager you’d complain if a member of your staff didn’t turn up when you were expecting them to and were relying on them.
Hoping to not disappoint too much, but I do tell if I’m taking a night off.
As for other staff, it’s annoying but you just go to plan B. I won’t make a thing of it, as I don’t want anyone to think they are that invaluable, even me as OC. Also how much stress do you really need to get into that sort of discussion.
What’s that I spy? Could it be a topic?
Doubtful, that was last seen limping away wounded days ago…
A mere 9 hours!
After that though, @AlexCorbin mentioned that the hours measurement will be changed, I wouldn’t be happy if someone was doing all of their hours as “paid” and none or very few actually on a unit (WSO aside, however…).
If they change to an annual requirement, I’d like to see a minimum of 12 (for example) attendances at a unit - and I would include WSOs in that - in order to qualify for a full complement of paid days the following year.
AWOL describes having some form of contract of employment either civil or military.
The question that no one has really considered is what is the actual purpose of VA; is it pay in-line with rank in which case we should get ‘paid’ all the time, or, is it a sweetener to offset costs, or, is it a carrot to make people do things they’d sooner not, but only eligible if they are in uniform?
What is the historical context for paying us for a number of days with strict conditions? When and why did it start? Why is that the community events that a lot of squadrons do, aren’t included in the mix for VA?
People get too involved in the I’m a x/y/z rank and more recently I have q/r/s qualification and therefore deserve more money than someone else.
TBH I get paid for my day job and the costs of cadet life get absorbed like all the other things I do outside of work. What increasingly is happening in the Air Cadets though is time is eaten into with mandatory things and expectations to do things, and no amount of pay can replace that or sweeten the bitterness of a another weekend or part of lost when you aren’t doing because you want to. It would be better if the mandatory things were worthwhile.
Maybe we should move to an annual bounty that all CFAV are eligible for based on an average hours across the Corps. When we moved to an annual hours contract at work years ago, 6 hours pw overtime and time and a half was factored into the grade bands, some won, some lost, but overtime as an entity went. This however meant the wage bill was fixed. I think that in the Air Cadets the VA budget is pitched under the hope / expectation that not everyone will claim the full amount.
Cheers @bob I realise I should have explained myself better.
I meant that on SMS he was marked as AWOL because we never had a reason for absence. I wasn’t trying to argue the technicalities of the acronym with @Teflon.
It amazes me people call it a hobby in some posts and a job in others. Most youth organisations don’t pay at all, if the only reason you’re hanging around the RAFAC and taking a certain rank is because it pays you a couple of quid more than another rank then it’s probably not the right attitude to have.
The VA is useful for buying kit to do with the hobby but that’s about it. I wish my mountain biking hobby paid as well!
I use hobby as a tongue in cheek description as it has become a job, but without one single benefit of a job.
It used to be a hobby, as you turned the lights off, closed the door and went home and did as much or as little as suited you and no one got concerned, I do this as much as possible even now, if nothing else for my own sanity and prevent moaning at home.
But I know there are an awful lot of people out there who react to the Air Cadet mobile ping like one of Pavlov’s dogs and run around doing loads of extra things to appease the powers that be.
Seconded
can’t disagree with that.
however on the flip side
if the Sgt was the exercise IC, be that an AT event walking, climbing, canoeing or other, and has the qualifications and bit of paper and all the responsibility was on them, and the Flt Lt rocked up tp join in - is it “fair” that the Sgt who put in 20 hours of admin prep before hand to make the event happen gets £60 for the day when the Flt Lt rocks up offering nothing to the event gets £96
i’m not sure how it is any different. 12 hours a month is 12 hours a month, not 12 hours a month on parade nights.
I have only been able to make 3 nights a month at times, but easily covered any remaining hours but a day walk or supporting a Wing development course.
12 hours a month I have always understood to be in any format.
complete two climbing days on the weekend = 14 hours that month, difficult to complain the time is not being put in.
this, i understand and heard from a realible source, is the reason there is “Director” and “Participant” on SMS against Staff
the idea being Directors will be on one band, participants on another “lower” band. turn up to an event to complete the ratios, you get some pocket money as a participant. run the event and be critical to its success - director, higher rate in recognition of the effort put in.
it is open to abuse as everyone could be marked as director but then i would expect Wg HQ to step in and question it if it is not obvious how everyone could be a director…
what i do find astounding is the annual “bill” for our VA is ~£5million based on that VA.
I am not suggesting getting rid of VA, but what could the organisation do with £5million?
how many SOVs does that buy?
how many Canoes could wish issue to each Sqn? - with money for a CFAV to get qualified?
what is the going rate for a Grob 103 nowadays, or similiar?
or how many winches??
it is remarkable that £5million is just in “pocket money” for the CFAVs…
Bored on a Monday morning in work as i was interested what we could get:
18 plate 17 seater with low mileage - we can afford 177 minibuses (Just the purchase).
1 trailer, 8 canoes and 1 qualified member of staff - we can get 494 “sets”
so in theory
~half the Squadrons we could equip with the ability to offer canoeing
or
~15-20% of Squadrons with a new SOV - or (controversial) 5x Buses per Wing to be used like the ACF have “County vehicles”
More than that: we’d lose so many staff the money would go round even more!
Mind you, there would have to be fewer cadets, too, what with all the squadrons and RAF sections closing…
for me, it needs to start at first principles:
why is it that the Scouts can get away with not paying their staff but the ACO and ACF can’t? the answer is that, certainly compared to being an OC, being a Scout troop leader is both a lot more fun, and a lot less hassle and work.
the VA is a much needed bribe, and the reason its much needed is that being an OC (particularly) involves not much fun and a huge amount of hassle and work, and that without the bribe (or to be perhaps more precise, if the bribe was taken away) people would take a massive hump at doing a difficult, time consuming and usually thankless task and then having one of the few bits of recognition for their work taken away, and clear off.
so, the answer is simple: reduce the OC/Adj/TO/whatever job to the level of work/hassle/aggro that the Scouts will do for free, and then buy huge numbers of canoes/minibuses/whatever.
the problem with the staff role in the ACO isn’t just that it involves to much work, its that so little enjoyment is actually produced by all that work. if staff spent the same amount of time on the ACO, but only 20% was the endless paperwork and idiot emails, and 80% was spent doing fun stuff that is the stuff the cadets actually join to do, then i rather doubt they’d kick up a fuss about being paid…
i am not suggesting the removal of VA - simply interested what the organisation could do if that “budget”/lump of money was assigned differently.
what is greater value - half the units able to canoe or Staff retention?
personally i think it is ridiculous to think that staff will simply walk away if VA is removed.
do i believe the same opportunities will be available?
not one bit.
if the pocket money of VA was not available after a weeks camp as “compensation” for not spending my annual leave with my family and a loss of £300-500 I spent on them in place of the week away - would I still do it?
I would be thinking a lot harder about how many times I did so that’s for sure but I certainly wouldn’t walk - but you’d see me doing a lot fewer annual camps and full weekends away on courses or delivering development opportunities
if CFAVs do choose to walk if VA is removed then good riddance as the money was more important than the opportunity to make a difference and personal enjoyment
i volunteer because I enjoy it and notice the difference i make. the fact I get some pocket money on a few of those hours I do, great.
there are 1000s, if not 100, 000s of volunteers who do so without any compensation, remuneration of “out of pocket expenses” paid for - why should the Cadets Forces be any different?
