The Adj has been busy setting pipes for the upcoming Remembrance Parades and Poppy Collecting and emailed me to tick the box.
He has mused at the irony that he is away for 3 weeks and misses all of the things and yet has to put himself as IC activity.
To my understanding he canāt be the I/C if he isnāt going to be present. Heāll need to have somebody else take on that role.
Agreed - heās shouldnāt be the IC Activity if heās not going to be there.
Donāt see why it makes any difference, being IC an activity seems to be completely notional. If it implies any proper legal role (not something dreamed up by Corps) then we should be able to make anyone the IC and complete all the boxes regardless. But when Iāve tried that in the past it stops me doing anything more with the application.
The fact the system is set up like it is, is a flaw in the system. It was like this at the inception of e-applications when only Sqn Cdrs and then Adjs were able to set things up. If I waited for others on the sqn to set things up as they might be there, nothing would happen and I bet weāre not the only squadron to be like this.
Iāve done things for other squadrons and being the person in charge of the activity, but they have set it up.
My RCO and Archery bods do things for other squadrons and being the āticket holderā are in charge but donāt set it up they supply other documentation on request. Iāve set up weapons training with someone from another squadron doing it so they are āin chargeā but according to the application Iām in charge, but couldnāt be IMO.
anyone listed attending can be the IC, it doesnt have to be the person setting it up.
Adj of 123 Sqn can set up a joint event and then chose ticket holder on 456 Sqn as ICā¦
that then requires 456 Ticket holder to tick the box, and 123 OC to approve it
The Activity IC is overly responsible for the activity and as such accountable, this is the person who should be creating the SMS Activity. To be selected they must be down as an attending member of staff on the SMS Activity.
Any CFAV that has been added to the activity can take on the role of Activity IC, they then need to log in and tick the āActivity ICā Box.
As a Ticket Holder I could be at 123 Sqn running an activity just for 456 Sqn, however Iāll create the SMS Activity, and as such it will be my OC that Approves before Wing, Iād just invite the relevant unit.
The important point is that only CFAVs on the unit that has raised the activity can add attachments, which is less than ideal. As if another Ticket Holder is going to exercise their Qualification, they will also need to produce the relevant paperwork, which must then be emailed to me so that I can attach it prior to submitting through to Unit OC/Wing
You donāt need a PIPE for Remembrance Parades (or Poppy collecting IIRC). There was an edict from Cranwell at least two years ago saying as much.
Please dig it out (though I do remember something vaguely about it) - it would be a strange thing to do given the expectation to have them for anything else. ACTO10 is next to useless.
Actually, can you point the finger at any documentation that gives detail on what the actual SMS activity requirements are, what counts as a PIPE and so on. I swear that PIPE really only existed in someoneās head before 357F coded it into SMS.
Stand by (may be couple of days whilst I trawl my archive)
O yes we do.
Well according to my WExO.
Chapter and verse please. Had huge problems last year getting a PIPE cleared because I did not have female coverā¦LoL
I recall a missive pre the SMS activity process that HQAC sent saying that Wings and Remembrance activities (collecting and parades) didnāt require a bit of paper (as we used to have), which seemed eminently sensible.
Now it seems we have everything online this was rescinded, everything has to be approved by Wing and commonsense has left the building. I suppose it gives someone a reason to get up in the morning.
WRT the IC activity why? If it is a general public event any bona fide staff can be IC and for AT, shooting etc as long as you have someone on the actual staff list with the appropriate qualification, what does it matter? I have noticed that when I have cadets on Wing sport teams there doesnāt seem to be anyone specifically listed with a specific officials qualification, ie referee, umpire etc, so how does that work? Iāve known AT activities get returned until a certificate is attached. If there are rules why arenāt they applied across the board?
WRT sportsā¦because a referee or umpire is not a safety aspect i am guessing?
i do second your comments on Wingās use of SMSā¦insist we (units) use it yet rarely, if at all, is there an event for Wing organised NCO training weekend, or a First Aid courseā¦
Try region or Corps-based activities!
The complexities of coordinating attendees from multiple units from across the country leads to multiple activitiy events being raised using different parameters and with little to hold them all together. SMS activities are quite well handled for local stuff but the system needs to be re-engineered if it is to work well for larger events.
[quote=āsteve679, post:12, topic:1939, full:trueā]
WRT sportsā¦because a referee or umpire is not a safety aspect i am guessing?[/quote]
Not a rugby man then? I know a couple of blokes who are rugby refs and they have said they are responsible for safety (more so when itās under 19s) and have to keep fully up to date with law changes and both did a course to recognise concussion when the head injury assessments came in. As former front row forward there is none of the crunch on the bind for scrums, crash balls, flying Vees and other things we used to do, all down to safety.
I can imagine hockey refs are a key aspect for safety as well, with the combination of hard balls and sticks flying around was interesting as I recall from my schooldays.
When weāve had the Wing Athletics the PEdO has had to get a qualified official to oversee the event and we have to have qualified lifeguards when we do swimming. But I donāt rememeber seeing these on the āPIPESā as a requirement prior to approval, like we have to have if we want to expose a little toe outside the hut compound.
This may pierced a can of worms.
This is not necessarily about specialist skills of many of these activities, though for AT activities it will tend to be the person (or one of the persons) with the qualification who is the I/C for the activity.
Where we are talking about sports, PIPEs and the like where there is not necessarily an overriding qualification required by the person in charge it is just a case of having an individual nominated to be the top guy at the event. It could be due to specialist knowledge, greater availability or whatever. It is, however, good practice for the person āin charge ofā an activity to actually be present at the activity so they can properly manage it as necessary.
Given that all staff (can) have SMS access and can very easily tick a box then (upon threatening with disembowelment) write up the post-activity report, I wonder why there would be a need for an unengaged other person to be named as i/c. Any fool can create and populate an activity then dick the nominated i/c to pass it on for OC approval.
trueā¦but that ādicked CFAVā then needs to log in and tick the box agreeing to be IC before it goes to the OCā¦
Many a time the Adj has set things up then chased the IC to tick their box. the person setting up can do it all, even assign the IC but that IC needs to log in (with their personal details) to tick the box and progress the application further
And thatās where it falls overā¦ Why faff around chasing someone to do the last bit when youāve done everything else? SMS is not as universal in its usage across all staff as I imagine Corps think it is. I imagine on most squadrons the OC and Adj do 99% of everything. The local sqns I do things with itās either the OC or the Adj that are āICā.
All of my staff have accounts when I set them up I stood over them to get them to log on and since then only 2 (outside me, the adj and TO) have ever looked at it, thought nothing here for me and never bothered since. TBH I canāt blame them, if I wasnāt the OC, I doubt I would ever look at SMS unless I had to under pain of death.
Which is clearly such a chore!
Iāve had more trouble getting OCs to do their job in SMS than I have had with i/cs
And, speaking now as an Adj, I want the staff who will be present to do a little work in the preparation of an activity and not simply hand it all to them on a platter.
On our unit the OC does feck allā¦.he is less than computer literate and really only ever goes on to tick the OC box. The Adj sets up 90% of events, the rest the āSqn Staffā complete. On occasion this is easier for the Adj to do as they have all the necessary attachments (RAs etc) to hand and easier for them to set up and upload from their pc than get files sent to Sqn Staff to do.
Like @incubus I have struggled at the OC hurdle more times than any other, and 9/10 it is the OC who hasnāt hit ācompleteā on the event post-activity than anyone elseā¦yet 95% of event he is IC.