I’m with Chief_Tech on that one I think… It’s so hard to come up with a generic response that would satisfy everyone.
I’m sure that almost all of us try to direct cadets / parents towards the best deals and, whilst there are a few obvious names online, I think it probably varies so much between units. Some will maintain their own stock for sale / issue to cadets. Some have good deals with a local surplus store. Some have a very successful internal ‘hand me downs’ / sale system amongst the parents…
I know that when I was on a squadron I always felt bad if a cadet came in with a whole load of new kit they / parents had purchased for prices I know they could have found better elsewhere.
I always liked to discuss that topic at the recruitment open evening.
Really, I think that give a basic overview of the 3 uniforms, and highlight that MTP (in addition to the already mentioned footwear) is a self purchase in most cases.
Just regarding the map - would it be worth including CCF units as well?
It might help parents make school choices and reaffirm the “one body, two wings” organisation rather than reinforcing the myth of RAFAC only equals ATC.
Also would be nice if a Sqn uploaded their unit badge on SMS/units it’s then pulled to the website as well as the ATC crest.(although this a very much a nice to have)
It’s perfectly fine for HQ to set & moderate standards & put the onus to comply in squadrons. Squadrons do have to take some responsibility & not be spoon feed by HQ all the time.
I know that there is the need to “reduce the admin burden & take the pressure off the OCs” but the OCs need to have some admin responsibility. Often though the balance is skewed by adding burden that should be done by the paid staff but taking responsibility away for areas that it’s perfectly reasonable for an OC to be expected to do.
From a HQ perspective live the website needs to be a general overview & talks about the national picture & note get bogged down in the fine detail that really squadrons should do.
One thing that I can’t spot & think would be useful would be a “benefits of cadets” to the wider society & to business. I had a recruiter tell me once that they always put ex cadets to the top of the pile because they knew how to do work, follow instructions & had a bit of professionalism about them.
A page on benefits in the workplace would probably help see the big sponsorship & parents ‘ provides that strategic national input that wouldn’t work as well coming from squadrons.
So which OC’s have had emails about the new National Website Recruitment Enquiries system?
Seems the new website sends encrypted pdf’s and, because WHQ’s work on MODNET, WHQ’s can’t forward the pdf’s onto sqn’s so the new pdf’s will get send direct to OC’s and squadron multi-user accounts. Influence Hub - Update on cadet recruitment enquires via National RAFAC website
Didn’t get an All OCs notification but WHQ did send something out to All OCs Sqns.wing yesterday.
Sending expressions of interests straight to sqns should improve response time, but would suggest WHQs are still copied in though (for local knowledge about units on stand down whilst system catches up with official closures).
I think about four of us are primary HQ, of which most have secondary roles on Wings/Units.
This was sent directly using the OC mailgroup, so wasn’t meant to be passed via CoC. The media mailgroup worked, and i’ve seen the OC one as was copied in, so trying to figure out why it’s not been received. (It’s been sent from a Modnet and a RAFAC address now, including the influence mailbox this morning.)
I’ve no idea where my local CCF are, or how to contact them.
