Messing rates

So the cadet contribution to messing has gone up from £2.24 to £3.17. Still not a large sum but my back of an envelope maths says it’s just shy of 42% increase.

And it is WEF July 1st so does that apply to camps already planned?

Yeap. Unfortunately so.

BUT just to remind people that this is still a thing and nothing to be ashamed of letting your staff know about.

Cadets who are eligible for free school meals are exempted from paying cadet charges (including for food) when involved in activities with a residential element. JSP 456, Vol 2, Chap 14 refers.

Also, reach out to your CivCom if you find the cost of camps prohibitive!!! That’s what they are there for!

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Thanks for flagging - it had slipped my mind tk be fair!

I saw the notification on SharePoint today. Oddly, today is also the first time I’ve seen that notification exists, 6 days after the effective date.

Has it only been posted today?

Nope - was posted earlier in the week.

So, still after the effective date?

Of course. Would you expect otherwise?

It’s bally annoying. This year’s summer camps have been costed and prices set at a certain level.

I’m CC in a few weeks, and this means my camp fund is now going to be down an additional £300. It could mean having to chop an activity…

I get that prices go up. But why do it just before Camp??? :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

This change needed to be communicated well in advance.
Particularly since it’s such a significant jump.

Why did it take until after the change was in effect to notify?

Likely a misunderstanding of how it’s payed? I’d you’re tapping a card it makes little difference to planning. When we’re actually taking it in months in advance along with other costs, planning time is important.

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I’d be telling the Wing CO that I need £300 out of Wing funds.

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I try and use Army Camps as much as possible as unlike the RAF and RN they don’t trust local staff with cash, I’ve never ever had a bill from the army for messing.

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Worse than that, it applies to camps already started and in my case resulted in the ACLO raising a second invoice as we’d already paid the first.

CCR is an MOD central figure so it can’t be blamed on RAFAC this time.

@daws1159 you should definitely be billed the same for Army camps, so someone somewhere has c0cked up

Question is when was the change known - it seems a bit off to apply it to what’s in effect contracts already signed. Though it’s not HQAC to blame this time.

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There isn’t an effective process for it, they don’t have a bursar so you can’t pay while you are there (like you can on an RAF or RN stationand our UIN isn’t actually unit specific, so bills post camp never come down the chain.

This is the same for every Army run camp I’ve used in the last 20 years.

Surely even for accounting purposes this should have been implemented from the start of the financial year not part of the way through it?

It never is. This happens every year, and is nothing to do with HQAC. It’s set above them and usually not notified to them until now.

Everytime ive been camp com i have calculated the costs and added 25%.

I put in the JIs that expected surplus will be returned to cadets at the coach drop off points.

This way, the camp is never financially at risk.

Better to ask parents for £20 more and return £18, than be short £2 each and have to bin off bowling or the cinema trip etc.

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I usually run a surplus of 20% but yeah the same principle

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Thicko over here needs easy maths. Only reason i went 25% the first time and it stuck… :+1::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Our charges are set at Wing level, otherwise I’d have done the same.