Did you see the email about outages for this week?
That’s the underlying work that is blocking Learn & Units, I expect them to both arrive by the end of September now.
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I agree, all too often Wing and Region run events are signed off the night before or even on the day of the activity. I need to be comfortable the activity is being run safely and can only do that when signed off.
IMO activities at this level should be signed off a minimum of 7 days before the activity is due to start.
Completely agree, but this approach doesn’t give the Squadron a chance.
My concern is that the Sqn Commander has no way of knowing what their cadets are signing up to without going into each event to check. Lets not forget the OC is probably going to be the first person parents call should something go wrong.
I can see no benifit for Wing/Region/HQAC being able to publish activities to my cadets. We are a large and very active Sqn that needs to be allowed to run our Sqn.
So no need for Wing or Region to advertise Annual Camps, Silver level courses, Gold DofE expeditions, NACATC Camps, development courses for Staff Cadets like Lowland Leader for your Cadets?
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It has to be longer than 7 days for Parents/Guardians to plan their weekends.
I have had a number of Wing run events where the cadets are still listed as bidding 2 days before the event and then complain to me as OC as if it is my fault!!
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Not saying that. Advertise through the chain of command in the usual way but let the Squadrons decide what they publish to their cadets on the cadet portal.
I thought the original post was proposing mandatory publishing of activities to the cadet portal.
The flaw in the system is two fold IMO.
Firstly the parents (and OC for that matter) do not have visability of what their young person has signed up to. They (we) don’t even get an email. Cadet forgets to tell parent and they withdraw at short notice. OC gets a grumpy email and blame for the short notice cancellation.
Secondly, some parents are using their young persons login to cadet portal and sign them up to stuff they don’t want to do. Same thing happens and OC is blamed for short notice cancellation.
The above will get worse if Wing & Region publish activities directly to the cadet portal.
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I have had grumpy parents complaining about criteria around age & classification & why can’t their 15 year old go on a particular event.
Another reason why OCs are best place to manage this. They are meant to be the buffer/1st stage between the parents & rest of the organisation
If wing / region want to override and force it onto portal then I would have no scruples in providing the activity IC phone number for the parents to contact & have that conversation re eligibility & how disappointed little Johnny can’t go & why is the eligibility set in that way & who the parent needs to appeal to to change the eligibility criteria & yes they can write their MP but etc.
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This IS what they SHOULD be doing.
We have portal for a reason.
I wish wings, regions and corps would stop with the old method of acticity by email.
Portal for everything.
One place for all.
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Except we can’t.
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With good reason for the most part.
I am fed up of sharing an activity from wing or region or HQAC, only to later find they’ve changed the details and not told anyone. That means what i entered on cadet portal is now wrong and has been for a while.
Got caught out on several activities recently with this. Either the dates change, the cost, the eligibility or other important details. I’ve now got cadets signing up for events that are closed, or they’re no longer eligible for. I then have to discuss with them and parents why this is the case.
As soon as we start letting those units share directly with my cadets this will increase drastically, cause me more work. No thank you.
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Maybe swing it around so higher level event organised can automatically invite appropriate units, OC can then opt Out if activity is not assessed as doable, or option C a simple yes or no tick box invite to save trying to log on to SMS everytime
Sending an email to request OCs add their unit to cadet portal seems another unnecessary layer of admin when workflow could do it
OCs (& I think Adjs) automatically get a. Notification that “ your unit has been added to this event” as such it’s simpler that the OCs/Adjs opt in to portal events then opt out - particularly as if a few days past before the OC & Adj see it then ineligible or inappropriate cadets may sign up before it can be reviewed.
The OC & Adj are the only ones who know all the events they’ve been invited to. It’s important to manage this as if you have too many events on portal at the same time it can become over whelming and events get no sign up.
As stated above, just because it’s not being advertise on cadet portal doesn’t meant it’s not being advertised or offered to cadets through an alternative route or being staggered to avoid a clash of events.
Working on the principle that the decision should be taken by those with the most information, the decision to advertise on portal should rest with the OC (or probably the Adj)
I see you point a do agree but everything filters to the OC and for 99% of activities opt in is fully justified, however this could be in some instances be a single point failure. A thinkbthe key word is 'mandated in this instance this should pass direct to sqn from the higher echelons and the OC needs to justify if they want to opt out.
Any configuration will have +ve and -ve, probably no different in past when OC ‘forgot’ to out z notice on the noticeboard.
It still relatively early days for cadet portal so would be expected to develop, 2 things I would is
- Cadet portal goes to cadet AND parent
2.Cadets can’t flip on/off/on/off etc as I had a few accept on portal only to reverse d
ecision night before without telling staff
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- Never going to happen. It’s called cadet portal, not parent portal. Suggest that your cadets share their log in details with their parents if you need to.
- Any app or software is not going to stop that. That’s down to you discussing good etiquette and discipline with your cadets, the code of conduct and maybe having a system of banning them from events for a period of time if it happens repeatedly without good reason.
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Ok so mandated is a straight “no”.
They are already a load of reasons above why an OC may decide not advertise on cadet portal (either at all or straight away)
Turn the question on it’s head a little - what is the need for wing & region to insist that an event is advertised on Portal? What greater information do they have that they are in a better position to decide that the event can be advertised at that time?
Often the need is purely keenness for their event & that cadets don’t miss out.
However they don’t have the greater knowledge & that rests with the OC. Interesting we have had wing nco courses put on SMS with the request we don’t advertise them on portal.
Basic principle of the volunteer management is that it’s ground up rather than top down & you shift the decision making to as low as level as effectively possible. This increases engagement & avoids volunteers feeling bypassed.
What will happen if you have all the events auto advertise? OCs will then probably automatically take all events off portal until they’ve had a chance to look at them. This is more likly to cause longer term issues.
Keeping thins as simple as possible, what is the greater need for events above Sqn level to be mandated to advertise without the OC Sqn or Adj or training officer, reviewing assessing & deciding?
We have to allow for the human factor & every human works very differently.
I could live with a simple check box
‘Event Advertised’
‘Event seen but not advertised’
Optional free text to say why not but not compulsory to justify
Then I can focus on chasing the units that have missed it rather than bothering those that for whatever reason aren’t sharing.
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Cadet Portal is excellent and reduces admin if used properley
Rant On…
However,
Cadets are Cadets
- Cadets don’t read more than 2 lines - if the eligibility/requirements etc are not in the 1st 2 lines of the info box they don’t find it and therefore we have to police their applications
- Cadets will bid/apply without checking with parents - them 3 days before event when I remind them they are going they realise they can’t and withdraw and I get it in the neck from Activity Cdrs
- If the timescale is too long they apply and forget…
- Multiple applications on same dates…
Activity Commanders
- Put the pertinent information in the 1st 2 lines of the info box - then you wont get so many ineligible applications and or questions
- Don’t expect OCs to re write your brief when we put it on Cadet Portal - only edits we should have to do are any ‘local’ information we need to add
- Get it complete before you add units
- Don’t make changes without telling us by email - we need to update CP - it does not auto pick up amendments
Cadet Portal
- Can we get CP to pick up amendments automatically from main SMS Event page so we do not have to
- All CP page info is on SMS main tab so when we copy over to CP we do not need to add/amend
- Eligibility checker to stop ineligible applicants
Probably more but enough for now
Rant Off (or polite suggestions depending on how you feel) 
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I think you could either have a check box when editing saying “notify change” that acts when you save it or there is a notification through the SMS dashboard that an event has been amended.
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- It could happen, half cadets don’t have personal email so it is the parents email anyhow.
2.You are speaking as if we don’t engage already, you are talking to the converted, I have 1 cadet who us bottom of list for activities, however prevention us better than cure so its simple cadets can enrol, but need staff acknowledgement to unenrol or face the consequences.