There will be dozens of people out there capable of meeting the standards required, it’s just a question of people nominating them and the CoC actually helping to get them across the line,
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Can’t wait to watch that investiture 
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And that’s the big problem.
We’re an organisation filled with people who blow through the criteria, and so with limited available per year (generally speaking), that’s the answer as to why it’s normally someone older who’s done all the things for a sustained period of time— the competition is so tight.
There is obviously the issue of people being nominated. But when competition is so tough and the process is, to put it mildly, an absolute PITA and time vortex, there’s no wonder many people never get nominated.
I’ve tried to nominate various people a few times and it’s hard to keep plugging away. Each failed attempt is a correction to perception of how strong a candidate needs to be, which is exactly why people don’t nominate, generally.
We need a system that better draws in nominations and then filters people out at the right level (and asks for further info if they’re considered particularly strong).
Someone dedicated to the awards process would be really positive, but it’s a question of what you’d take that person away from.
I’d love to run a national process to help support strong nominations at all levels, but it might not be something you want a volunteer managing.
We do obviously have processes for things like comdt’s commendation, L-L certificate etc, but drawing these things together and aligning the style of nominations could be helpful.
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Fun fact, he was in the restaurant on my street last night!
Heraldic badges? 
Sorry. Just gentle teasing 
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Fake laughter, hiding real pain. 
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Could be extended to something akin to ‘RAFAC Honours and Ceremonial’…
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The only thing that irritates me about NYH.
In the RAFAC They’re mostly Sqn Ldr and above. SNCOs and Junior Officers never seem to get a look in and I’m not entirely sure it’s a nomination issue.
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I’ve seen Jnr officers & SNCOs be listed for BEMs & MBEs in both the sea cadets & ACF.
I think you may be right with RAFAC with the lower ranks just getting a commendation/pretty piece of paper.
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It amazes me how many volunteers we have and we get 1 award.
Something has to be wrong with how this organisation is recommending people for awards.
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I think we have too many layers.
Nomination through wing then region then corps and what ever made up honours and awards BS process is in there.
We need a national board that reviews all impartially and proceeds as required. If region and wing want to add they can but the nomination should be an inform only to them
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This could work - an awards & nominations committee but composed of permanent staff (both uniform & civil servants , Snr volunteers, Jnr officers, NCO & CIs so there is a balance & triaging.
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The real challenge is that we as volunteers are writing them and that takes time away from delivering activity.
The compare us to the regulars who have a the time and are encouraged to produce citations and have the experience to lean on with the writing
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This is an area where AI could really help if we create something that requests specific details, impacts etc and then churns it out with the correct style.
For someone who knows what they’re doing (creating reliable prompts etc) it could be quite impactful.
The info going in still needs to be credible, but it could really help improve the output and guide a volunteer through what to input.
It could also compare to previously successful citations.
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If only I could connect Claude AI into the SMS Database I could get it to write a monster of a nomination
To be honest, the most useful info isn’t really collected by the system. Even our volunteer hours aren’t truly tracked unless you physically turn up to a parade night or event.
It’s all about “Bloggs did X and the effect was Y”, which is stuff that needs to be regularly recorded on someone’s profile in case it’s ever useful, even if we self-report it.
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Maybe it should be part of OC Wg TORs to identify and nominate a sufficient quota of staff for consideration for state honours?
If each OC Wg nominated their top 3 performers each year (by whatever metric they determine) that would be over 100 prospective candidates for HQ to “investigate” and write up citations for?
Even if only a tenth of those citations make the cut, that would easily be 10+ MBEs or BEMs? And for those that don’t, they can always be amended and resubmitted if they were close to the mark but not quite there that year.
It would be interesting to see RAFAC share (with individuals consent) more details, or the full citations of successful awardees too. The internal and external comms on this year’s honours were quite thin and vague. I’d like to hear more about the good work my fellow volunteers are getting up to, and citations are a part of that.
I’ve said this before and with a caveat that 2 out of the 3 must be Squadron staff.
I’m pretty sure this was asked in VoV or somewhere before (maybe one of the 6 monthly threads here), I think it was around the idea of moving to the Civil list and the suggestion was that we get what we are going to get and if we moved over we would probably get less (using scouts as a the example).
I know our Region definitely pushes H&As through the pillar system. We are constantly being asked to nominate candidates up the CoC.
Had heard that new CAC challenges more on level of award and doesn’t raise higher to 2* as much!
Does seem ridiculous that other CFs are getting higher levels, MBEs, BEMs, and we have to put up with 1 or 2* if you are lucky!! So much for celebrating what our staff do!!