They can be for those participating
But if you take JL as a guide (not a dig at JLs)
Out of about 40000 only approx 120 on the course 60 pass it And who knows how much it costs to run, someone mention £100,000 for travel alone.
Is it value for money? Does it give a good cadet experience to the corps as a whole?
With this information I would say no unfortunately.
I noted the comment regarding D&C camp and RIAT participation being cut down to only 3 regions. If thats the case then it does then seem unfair on those cadets who are out with those regions. If HQAC want a D&C camp then it must ensure it’s open to all you cannot have a them and us attitude towards corps activities.
It’s going to switch year on year, same for all the big camps so one year you will have the chance of going to the Shooting camp, then next RIAT. It’s to save on Travel Costs
My understanding was that our aviation focused Camps, RIAT / Aerospace would rotate, giving each wing more places alternate years and continuing to offer a Corp aviation focused camp.
With the release of the Aerospace Camp Calling notice, it would appear that isn’t the case.
Would love to see the outputs of this camp review…
As someone that did JLway back when it had a single figure course number we all gained an immeasurable amount from it. But, due to the ages involved very few of my cohort lasted more than six months post course so I question how useful it is in terms of payback. It is probably more useful as a carrot to encourage potential candidates to be more involved in the first place in order to gain their spot. (I probably would not have stayed in the Corps in my first year at uni if I wasn’t doing the course)
But surely HQAC and GPF trustees are more or less en and the same?
Got another job for the Civcom then - good thinking!
I think it was the Mission Statement for 2014 which talked about developing funding & working within the RAF family - evidently that went the way of the Harrier and XH558 - grounded or this discussion would not be happening.
Can’t help but notice that despite most camps being split per year into regional allocations, and the push for value for money, there is yet another music stream camp appearing for a “strings ensemble”. We now have a marching band, concert band, choir and strings ensemble.
I’m not a big fan of music camps but that is probably because we don’t really have bands up here but having A singular music camp I can understand but this constant push for more and more music camps I feel takes money that is scarce enough away from the real core activities.
They probably go for these music and drill camps as they are cheap.
The majority of cadets I know who play instruments and do so to reasonable standard have their own so there’s no need to buy / supply.
The over-riding thing is all the camps are either too few in number and places and things like music, singing and drill far too niche, to actually make them something to stir up interest at squadron level, unlike the old annual camps, which were spoken about and whet the appetites of younger cadets. I wonder if the performance camps aren’t a response to incessant wannabe TV shows that infect us like a plague, I wonder how long is it before we have a dance camp.
If we had a management that didn’t seem so self-obsessed we might have camps with a broad appeal. But a big ticket event requires much less effort on their part.
The concern with funding the ATC in different ways is that it won’t get to or benefit where it is needed most.
what is broken lies with the availability of dates which is a result of the availability of RAF Stations - we have far fewer than we ever have.
the format isn’t broken, it is the lack of places (accommodation) which reduces its availability to the Cadets.
the Super camps are countering this by having 100s of Cadets accommodated where beds are available…
I think there is a big advantage of running these big ticket camps at Corps Level over running big generic camps at that level.
You provide opportunities at a National Level which aren’t spread evenly at a local level. (The Shooting Camp last year took all levels for example).
It’s easier to get specialist staff to commit to a specialist camp, have no interest in wearing Blues for a week, but offer me a weeks Expedition and I’ll be far more likely to make the time.
By running specialist camps you take the pressure off of the annual camp spaces, since those Cadets who have a particular interest will go off and do that activity leaving the annual camps for the newer cadets who are still finding out what they enjoy doing.
HQAC have access to specialists that Wings do not, if HQ somewhere Wing rings up the central band they are likely to get fobbed off, ifthw Commandant makes the same call she’s likely to get “how can we help you ma’am”.
Annual camps of old were in modern parlance a chance to do team building within the 10-20 of the squadron, away from the squadron and cadets leaned and developed.
The cycle of the annual camp would invariably be :
1st look learn enjoy
2nd as above with potentially responsibility as you were either a Corporal or on the cusp and could be given things to do to see how you got on
3rd+ as above with more responsibility as you were in all probability a Sgt and higher.
All of this would have been done under the gaze of your squadron staff with others chipping in. I know for a fact we saw cadets bloom at annual camp.
The big ticket events are one offs as it’s unlikely cadets will attend more than one or be given opportunity to learn how to be an NCO.
As they are I am unlikely to go to annual camp again as the last two we have had, have been little more than holidays with vaguely linked trips and the specialist ones hold no interest for me personally and I know others who like me enjoyed annual camp, but see the new camps as niche. I thought I’d go for the STEM camps but it doesn’t seem the cadets are making things from scratch, building things and developing practical hands on skills and bringing all aspects of design and technology together. I would have thought it would have been a brilliant way for cadets to say have a project to complete from concept to finished item; work with designers, engineers and builders with the cadets split into teams to work on the various aspects, after all a designer doesn’t necessarily do the building, to see how the different roles come together (or not in the case of military projects). But from what I’ve seen it’s little more than hangar exercises and some visits. I also think an RAF station is not the best place to do it.
So who are the camps for cadets or staff? I get a sense from this the staff.
No point dragging unwilling staff along to a week’s camp they have no interest in - the Cadets won’t benefit from that individual(s) presence
far better have passionate people leading on camps.
in our Wing we have a group of CFAVs who will almost certainly be doing an annual camp each year. they are the “specialists” for the annual camps - they may have no interest in D&C, or STEM or other so they “specialise” in Annual Camps.
We run our own squadron camps twice-yearly on training camps like Swynnerton. They are usually AT based, but we cover a wide range of activities. Most of the squadron attends, our cadets love it and they really help with our recruitment and retention. None of these camps charge us for messing, so we get free food and accommodation all week!
The annual camp of the past is dead. You don’t go away as a squadron, instead its a handful of cadets from a random collection of squadrons in the wing. And thats not a bad thing.
If people want an annual camp like they used to be run, then each sqn has to organise it themselves.
