For me - the issue regarding releasing / withholding activities, was primarily centred on one particular activity.
But before asking the group, I asked within my own squadron… and got various comments etc, regarding the behaviour of other squadrons and the fact that there were several, well known to WHQ that would frequently fail to share.
When contacted directly, in an effort to establish dialogue, it was brushed off Along the lines of “don’t challenge me on what I feel is right for my cadets - and I’LL be the one who decides what they see” and some less polite comments.
In terms of which activities - and how “interesting / exciting” they were - and hence likelihood of interest to the cadets, appeared to make no difference.
When discussing the matter behind my Sqn / Wing, one of the more common reasons given was due to prioritisation by the OC - from choosing between which activities occurring on the same weekend to advertise as well as their own sense of due diligence, to wade through all the paperwork attached, to satisfy themselves of the event’s suitability, viability and safety.
This would lead to a bit of “favouritism” in favour of activities / commanders of which they know already - as a matter of simplicity.
The danger of this is the potential for lack of variety or innovation.
If we stick to just communicating with those closest, we run the risk of creating echo chambers
Obviously( this isn’t the place for trying to create change - but it should be the ideal forum to seek opinions beyond your own circle of friends / sphere of influence etc
For anyone trying to create change / improvement, this forum is a great place to get input across the board - albeit, only from those that are regular users of the forum - whom by nature may already be predisposed to one opinion or another…. But for someone squarely sat on the fence so hard, that I’m getting splinters… it’s an easy place to hold up a hand and ask a reasonable question - and get lots of reasonable / sensible questions.
(Thank you to everyone for not making silly remarks!)
RAFAC is a voluntary organisation and one that heavily relies on the goodwill, enthusiasm and sacrifice of its volunteers.
But it is also reliant on teamwork and cooperation between those volunteers.
I do think that it should be made even simpler yet for the volunteers to deliver activities.
I’ve tried making the point that there should be three standards applied to how an activity can be delivered:
Minimum Viable Product - what’s the least we can do, to ensure safe delivery
Acceptable Norm - probably how we’ve need doing things for donkeys years…
Ideal Standard - where we should be evolving the activity towards, to make it safer / better.
Countless risk assessments by thousands of volunteers across the country is a gross waste of time!
Far more suitable would be the creation of Safe Standards of Delivery. It may well be that a “one size fits all” policy doesn’t work 100% of the time, but with a simple checklist and sign off, you could easily forego an enormous tranche of unnecessary paperwork - and then show work around as / contingency plans for specific issues affecting the event.
I think it’s probably fair to say that the greatest admin burden is shouldered by squadron commanders - hence, let’s look at ways to make life easier for them!
That should then trickle down to their staff - and enable more time to be spent by all, delivering activities to cadets - which is what it’s all about!
If the role of Squadron OC is made simpler, we will get more staff being prepared to take on the role - with more candidates, there creates better options. / choices.
By making activities less admin burdensome, the activities become more pleasurable for those leading them.
This is preaching to the choir, I know - but, without discussing ideas in forums like this - the opportunity for creative solutions is limited to just those people that are approached by the Head Sheds!
Many thanks everyone for your input!
