It’s on a slow boat to china along with ‘venture - adventure’ and ‘putting the air back in the air cadets’.
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There’s enough of the hot type emanating our leadership to get a balloon off the ground.
We just need to get everyone WCO and above in the same place for long enough. If we let them pick their favourite Sqn Ldrs* then even better!
(*The ones they don’t like are probably too sensible for this venture)
It’s that on the slow boat to China or is that mixing to many metaphors.
It’s all rocket chemistry from where I’m sleeping like a lying log.
I think we’re on a spiral of our own…
Might be mentioned somewhere, but actually WExOs are Higher Executive Officers, not Executive Officers.
If my rapidly failing memory still serves me a little I think that the original document that set up the Armed Forces complaints structure was badly drafted. It was determined that it would apply to ALL regular and reserve forces (with the understanding by the drafters that they included reserves to cover the requirements of all those who could be mobilised and deployed). The simple addition of the single word “deployable” before reserve would have solved the issue for the military legal system. The fact that there were problems in the cadet CoC over disciplinary issues could then have been dealt with separately.
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That wouldn’t cover todays FTRS Home commitment who are not deployable.
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This reminds me that I never got an answer to the question of whether a cadet who does a first solo in a balloon qualifies for ‘C’ wings.
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I remember seeing that request in the ‘To Difficult To Answer’ in-tray at 2 FTS.
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I’m not sure if your statement is meant to justify the issue of HQAC’s ‘issues’ of bad management and bullying as being not the concern of the ‘parent service’ but the simple problem is/was that certain members of the hierarchy in the ACO were ‘not suitable for purpose’ and especially 'not compatible with a volunteer organisation. (the RAF’s statement)!
If I have read it wrong, then forgive me…
My observations of the current state of the Corps (yes, I will call the ATC the ‘Corps’ as I joined in the 70’s) is that it is NOT the organisation I joined at age 13 & 3/4’s in 1975, hell it’s not even the organisation I was commissioned into in 1983, was OC of two squadrons in, or the same organisation I retired from in 2016!
That is not to say the ACO has not changed, improved(?), or matured(!)
What I do see is an organisation that has been buried in bureaucracy, red tape, and unnecessary paperwork! An organisation that has lost the pier system (partly due to the pandemic), and less logical progression from cadet to staff which was one of the most important routes to retention of staff and experience!
Has the ACO changed? YES for the better? Questionable!
Do I miss the Corps? Well, I miss the comradeship, the knowledge that we gave a lot of young people a leg up in life… I miss the ‘idea’ and the old times before bureaucracy!
Do I miss the ‘new’ ACO… NO!
True.
I did not intend to defend any abuse of position or power within the the ACO (as it was). I would concur with the elements of the RAF statement that you quote.
The Air Cadets has always been a bit naff: we don’t have anyone like Bear Grylls as our figurehead, we wear uniforms from the 1970s that were impracticable as working dress even in those days, we gladly do activities like drill and fieldcraft, which nearly all regular service personnel loath to do, and so on.
However, some thing or another keeps us all coming back into our Squadrons, which keeps our organisation from tipping into the death spiral.
We are fortunate in that the RAF still considers us relevant to them: in the days when the ATC was needed to train young people to join the RAF, the latter was at least twice as big as the former. These days it’s probably easier to become a Freemason than join the RAF. 
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it has always been easier to join the Freemasons.
all you need to be eligible is not have a criminal record* and be of 21years of age
since the internet it is now even easier, if you are interested you just register it online:
Become a freemason - register online
*used as a sign you’re a good citizen
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18 if joining a University Lodge + Belief in a Supreme Being also 
Also that’s just to get proposed, you’ve got to not get black balled by the membership. (Although never seen someone black ballled)
ah yes good point!
nope!
on the basis those interviewing the candidate did their job the trust is there that everything is been done to say “yes”
Saw it once as a visitor. Bylaws required two to exclude. WM tried to hide the one and declared a unanimous vote. That turned ugly quickly.
Normally though it doesn’t happen as if you’ve got a problem with someone joining you have discussions behind the scenes to resolve it.
I was under the impression that you had to be proposed by an existing member and believe in a Supreme Being or Deity: maybe they are experiencing a recruitment crisis as well. In which case they should rebrand as Jedi Knights or something.
Maybe we should do that - the uniform’s more modern-looking for a start. May the (Royal Air) Force be with you. 
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If you fancy going up against the Disney lawyers then be my guest……
They probably have a whole musical number for when serving a “cease & desist”
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Errr, topic?
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