When I used to run courses out of Northolt they wouldn’t let Ci’s on base, but would if they were escorted by a Cadet with a 3822.
I remember being on a CWO course at Uxbridge, we came back drunk to the transit accommodation and woke up to find a CWO who wasn’t on the course (but who we had met in the pub) had just wandered onto Camp and taken a spare bunk. No ID, no checks no anything!
Also none, though I did get into Woodvale while I was on the UAS by using just a slice of toast…
Ahh the old official “slice of toast held to the car window because it too early and I’m running late for work” ID. Sure that’s still in policy.
Im not suggesting this isn’t a valid arguments but how many times do people genuinely find themselves critically low on battery?
As a society we’re so dependent on them [phones] the idea of running low simply doesn’t take place i cannot think of an occasion its happened to me while out and about catching me out and 99% i know when I’m visiting an MOD establishment so will have the foresight to consider a “boost” charge
I can confirm that it will be for ALL cadets ATC and CCF. They have made it so BADER and Westminster WILL talk to eachother.
I hate to strike a cynical note, but have they really?
I’d love to think so but I’ve been burned too many times before…!
Thought I would just add some clarification.
The app has been designed so that it can allow access for both ATC and CCF cadets. We are currently looking in to a means of sharing data between Westminster and Bader which is essential for this to be successful.
At point of launch, the app will only be accessible to ATC cadets and as soon as we are able to get the data sharing arrangements in place, we will launch it for CCF (RAF) cadets as well.
Ah! That aligns more closely with my expectations.
Be warned - data interchange between the two systems has been promised fairly continuously since about 2010. Those of us in CCF have become a little weary of the two systems being run in parallel, with double entry of data. We thought we were making progress when it was announced that Westminster would be the primary MIS for CCF and event management, qualifications, inspections, etc. would all be run through that and not BADER, but ASTRA, the cadet portal and now the app do seem to imply that we will need to use BADER or face our cadets missing out.
Data interchange is vital, as CCF staff simply can’t do everything you are doing, but twice on two separate systems. But it has proved tricky in the past to get the relevant approvals from both sides for data interchange. I hope it’s genuinely been solved this time…
Would it not make sense for the ATC to transition to Westminster rather than upgrade to units? Then it would work for all & increase joint working.
There are significant cost implications of doing this, it has previously been explored.
My cadets downloaded this last week, as part of the trial. There were obviously a few without a phone, but more of an issue was those whose phones only run an old version of iOS which won’t support the app. So there followed a lengthy discussion about how they don’t need to go home and ask for a new phone as provision will be made and they can still access portal on their browser. Hoping the alternative will be pushed out soon, before I’m confronted by parents whose kids are pestering for a new phone 
I appreciate there are sunk costs but it’s hard to imagine how renting additional capacity on Westminster would be more expensive than running our own dedicated team for Bader…?
I think the concern was the cost of data transfer - however due to the natural shrinkage after covid this is probably the best opportunity due to there being less personal to move.
The cost of CS personnel vs buying in professional services differs hugely and are ultimately different budgets. We only have 2 people that are employed to develop bader systems and one of those leads the other areas of the Digital branch that we would still have even if we didn’t develop our own applications.
Is that because the corps is skint on money or something else? As I’m sure a lot of our tech problems with Bader stem from how 2 people can’t keep up with the demand of a country.
Would be easier and far cheaper to spin off the CCF into its own, purple cadet force.
But the reality is, bader is here to stay AND the more volunteer work that goes into it the closer the reality is to approaching and modicum of what we need from it.
At this point, we are so far down that rabbit hole that we aint changing.
Concorde…
To paraphrase a popular film from years ago… just how deep does the rabbit hole go…
Evening all,
Thought I’d drop a quick update here, as some of you may have seen, IBN 010-2022 has been released, detailing the RAF Form 3822 retirement and the launch of MyRAFAC and can be accessed with a Bader account at https://rafac.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/interim/QM/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc={E142A5F4-A5CE-4913-A136-5F8811B0BF57}&file=IBN%20010%20-%202022.docx&action=default&mobileredirect=true
The MyRAFAC beta has provided lots of valuable feedback and the app is now ready for initial release, this will take place on Tuesday 28 June for all ATC cadets, work continues in the background to explore data sharing opportunities that will enable us to offer the app to CCF (RAF) cadets as well.