I think because we are looking at this all wrong. Maybe our lords and masters have played a blinder…!
Maybe the CoC have made the whole situation so incoherent you can feasibly do whatever you like… with no repercussion or consequence as no-one could possibly tell what the company line is…!
What are we going to do in the winter months inside a big shed that is going to make it an attractive thing to do, for cadets and staff? What happens if a cadet or member of staff flagged they are +ve? do you want to be the one contacting schools, employers and families, with possibly being asked to justify you’ve been meeting?
Two of the girls on our squadron have had 3 2 day closures at their school, the local schools have had whole 2 day whole school closures, years told to isolate for 10 days which has included teachers. Where does that leave squadrons? This doesn’t even get into the squadron staff, which regardless of what our overpaid management might say or think, are not immune to this in what they do in regard to this.
Too many on here seem to want to be part of the problem by saying lets go back. We cannot get moist about the future of sqns or even the Corps. There are far more important things going under than a youth organisation. A number of small businesses have gone locally as well as some big names and the impact of this is far greater than us closing. The future of our organisation lays fair and square at the feet of those at the top put in charge. This doesn’t mean saying who can go back and when, this means ensuring we have appeal. It’s about time they earned their money, rather than expecting volunteers to do it all for them.
We have been in a position of falling rates before and large swathes of the UK completely unaffected by anything, yet the rules apply equally, ;like they should.
If you have concerns raise through your Sector Commander 
Wear the uniform, challenge the situation!
Part of this is true, but I know for some squadrons, they have cadets that physically rely on being able to parade to keep them out of trouble, to help them make friends with like minded people when they maybe don’t have many friends at school, to be themselves, to escape home life for a couple of hours a week and these squadrons that have these cadets honestly know that they need to go back. As much as corona is such a big thing and we need to be aware of those risks, the risks that present to some cadets by not being with us is way greater, but these are the cadets who are struggling, that we are best placed to help, that may escape the notice of their school or local authority without having us there. Personally, I know we have cadets who fall into the category of struggling but are just above the poverty lime so never get any help, cadets who have problems at home and more, and having seen them develop in the squadron over time, I can tell that we help them even without doing anything, just by giving them that time away from home, time with like minded people, activities that they’ll never be able to experience, and absolutely no worries about if they can pay for anything. These are the cadets that need to be back, because these are the cadets who can’t and don’t interact with VPNs because they can’t do them around their home life, whether that be due to family, or internet or lack of access to a computer or phone and some of these cadets turn out to be some of the best cadets, adult staff and people that you will ever meet. We need to go back and give them those chances to just do things.
This is something that has been worrying me a lot over the last six months.
I have a cadet who has been open with me via email that he does not want/is not able to join in with VPNs because of Rocky home life and not wanting to draw attention to himself. Which I kind of get.
My experience of VPNs that is that majority of cadets are unwilling to put cameras on or use the microphone unless they really have to. My take on this is that they just don’t don’t want others in the house hearing them and asking questions. I’m sure a lot of it is teenagers not wanting to have to go to the trouble of explaining what they’re doing, but some of it might not be.
I find that this is the most prominent thing for my cadets at least, and I know for a fact that some of then just aren’t comfortable with the fact that especially on nights where we were running things as a full squadron, every staff member was on the call, whereas physically on squadron, it would have been myself or another staff member running the activity, with the NCO team helping (depending on the subject) and the rest of the staff team would have been in their offices doing the work they needed to do, and that’s not the case now, and that can be very daunting, especially for newer and younger cadets. And this can be difficult, because before when f2f, if a cadet had an issue, like something was wrong at school or home or they just wanted to chat, they could do that, and now they can’t and we’ve lost that ability of care over our cadets to help them get into better places and give them that advice.
I know for some cadets, they’d have needed that chat with a staff member, especially a younger one, about what to do with GCSE and A-Level results, to be able to let them openly talk about what they want for their future and how to get there. Because that’s a massive part of us helping them. Our cadets this year missed out on that opportunity, and I know for a fact that some nay be on paths now that their family want which isn’t what they want, and not saying that we’d force them to go down any path, but we’d get then to talk out what they want to do, their options, their pros and cons of each options and let them make their own decision about their life and if they do have family pressure to go down one route, we might help them find a way to explain what they want to do. But we help then be who they want to be and do what they want to do and just make sure that they’re happy and confident and get these opportunities.
I think people forget that yes, we’re a youth organisation, and yes we don’t have a massive impact on all of our cadets lives in the same way other youth groups do, but we’re an amazing organisation for those cadets that use it to the best, especially those that don’t have particularly great backgrounds. So as @Teflon might say, that other places closing has a greater impact than us closing, remember that we have just as much of an influence over our cadets to give then the best opportunities and that f2f activity is most definitely the best way for us to provide that. Covid is going to be around for a very long time now, and we just have to start working in this new normal, and that includes f2f where we can to support each and every single cadet and staff member to achieve what they can.
Anyone trying a Battle of Britain Control Room mockup? Maps on the floor, get some model aircraft, big sticks and any online records of particular battles - and it’s distanced!
I really feel for big Sqdns in small premises where a 1way system’s only possible if someone kicks a hole in the wall… nearly crashed my car last week when I realised how undistanced everyone is off Sqdn, while staff bust a gut to make our space safe…
Wonder what “revise the risk assessment!” will look like as a Latin motto? Sadly it looks like the latest price an OC (or whoever!) has to pay to enable Cadets to have fun and learn cool stuff… I’ve done loads of engineering ones, and recommend sticking your head in a bucket of water between each - esp. if you haven’t had a break since Christmas, and are going straight into risk assessment from Death By Teams…
Current progress resembles a particularly bumpy takeoff
Yep takes the liquid urea.
recensebimus periculo taxationem
CCAT have been directed to canx all residential course until Mar 21. Sigh.
Ccat?
Cadet Centre for Adventure Training I believe.
Just seen OASC has been temporarily binned off and back to Gp Cpt interviews
Where did you see that?
IBN 056 - 2020
Kind of think they could have made this decision a long time ago when it became clear the situation was not going to resolve itself quickly…
They’ve made it now though, and interesting to see normal service is expected to resume as of April.
Since all the latest announcements has anyone heard anything about how we continue to return F2F in England as of next week?
Does this mean that they are actually going to do the boards though? If so could really clear the backlog in theory
