"Dear Volunteers,
we’re pleased to exclusively announce that the new CAC will be…<insert copy paste of his achievements 3 pages long>
We’re sure you’ll join us in welcoming the incoming CAC in September, in the meantime we hope you have enjoyed “volunteer week”
thanks for all you do
HQAC"
I’ve seen quite a bit on social media - but I follow quite a few third sector organisations.
I can not stand ya’ll yall etc. I have a Floridian friend who knows it annoys me when they message asking how ya’ll are 
Cuz that’s how they speak ya’ll
There is now a SharePoint Announcement which was added ~48hours after it broke on Social Media.
I have to say that this is actually useful, and I’ve been able to schedule 2 x Facebook posts as a result, one for DMCs retirement date and the other for TK taking post.
I must say I don’t envy TK with this job, it was probably a very appealing FTRS post when he applied, but coming out Covid-19 is going to create it’s own issues in addition to the ones we already had, mostly 19th Century processes.
The problems we have already are very much late 20th / 21st century ones, related to an organisation that has been hamstrung by admin and inability of our management to take any sort of beneficial initiative as they are effectively institutionalised by having been in the RAF.
Or a very good opportunity to put his stamp and thoughts into the org!
True, there are going to be few opportunities greater than this to grip the organisation and re-shape it…
Hence expect the strategic review to be promptly implemented…I would not be suprised if we see mergers and units permanently shutting
Why do we always talk of unit closures? There’s always talk of this where I am… Even though there is almost no benefit going through the process of closing one or two - financial, staffing, cadet numbers or otherwise… yet all the OC’s obsess about closures.
Current CAC put a brief out 18 months ago around a review of the estate which may include mergers and/or closures. Plant that seed and roots will spread!
Then stoke happened which proved it was being looked at
Several units have closed or merged in my wing already, with varying degrees of success.
@AlexCorbin But what does that actually achieve?
The ATC is a community resource for teenagers and regardless of size if nothing else squadrons are social meeting point for a lot of teenagers who would go home and sit in their rooms. In the current shutdown the thing that I’ve heard most from parents that I’ve spoken to, is their kids miss their mates and similarly wrt school, they say their kids miss seeing their mates at school and that all the SM “meetings” and chats don’t make up for a bit of messing around with their mates.
Take a look around your Wing and see where you think people (staff and cadets) would travel to if their squadron shut (be that ‘merged’ or just closed), in the short term and in the longer term future and what that would do for numbers. Once its gone its gone and in the modern era it would be difficult to re-establish an Air Cadet unit in an area where there is not real purposeful RAF presence. What we really need is an ATC that actually means something and offers the sort of experience it likes to suggest it does, rather than a Scouts/Army cadet hybrid we have morphed into and not doing particularly well at in respect of either. An old Wg Cdr said we attract nice, well mannered, overall more intelligent youngsters. Something he’d seen as a sqn cdr in the 70s, cadets would transfer from his local ACF as they were to quote the parents ‘rough’.
Personally I think we need to chop quite a lot off the top, as that is where the waste is like in all organisations.
The Stoke thing was in a city context of several sqns close to each other and IIRC someone other than the MOD stumping up the dosh. Put that into a suburban / rural context where things are more spread out.
@angus What he needs to do is see what the fall out of the shutdown is, as I can see a number of dishabituated staff and cadets not returning, even with the virtual ATC to try and keep things ticking over.
Come into it heavy handed and staff who have lost the habituation of 2 nights a week and weekends, could look at it and think “not missed for this for these past months” and I don’t this BS, so do a smart turn to the right. Our cadets started off a bit slow with the virtual stuff, really got into it through April (I surmise because of Easter) and early May and in the last couple of weeks have started to drift. Like all things we can’t force them to do it. I know they’re looking at what’s being put up and would seem just not interested. To this end what we need is a Corps wide getting cadets doing something so long as we don’t have onerous restrictions to deal with.
This might have previously been covered but is the new appointment an FTRS position or are we back to regular serving officers taking CAC as one of their ‘tours’ for a couple of years?
It’s still FTRS, the new man has to retire and join the reserve list first I think.
Purely for curiosity then, does that mean it’s a more normal type of job that people apply for rather than a military posting based on rank?
No, you still need to be a group captain eligible for promotion or an air commodore already to be eligible I think.
But you no longer need to be a pilot to be CAS so who knows if RC/CAC will remain FTRS or become CS with CFC…
Sorry, I think I confused 2 things. I probably meant that the job advert would contain that as requirements.
Given that, is it a job that anyone who holds that rank and is eligible to retire can apply for, or are they posted / head-hunted for the role?