Everything we do follows the stance from NYA, this is their latest update on Twitter.
My expectation, based on reviewing the Covid Winter Plan is that we shall return to NYA Amber level as we were before, and this applies across all 3 tiers.
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I’ve met Gp Capt Vorderman when she visited our sqn. Very down to earth, the cadets loved her.
As to the staff… same for them. 
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I reckon, open for a couple of single nights in December for an Xmas party style run down and try again in Jan.
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Have had the pleasure to meet Carol a few times. Always engaging with the cadets and takes pics when she can.
I think she is a great ambassador and
A bonus she looks great in a flight suit.
I live in what will, from next week, be a Tier 2 area; however I parade at a unit in a Tier 3 area - the intention is to return to F2F before Christmas.
The government advice is not to “travel to or overnight stays in tier 3 areas other than where necessary, such as for work, education, youth services, to receive medical treatment, or because of caring responsibilities”, now - perhaps this is obvious- but is RAFAC a ‘youth service’ in this context?
Yes. We count as an Organised Youth Activity Provider.
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The National Youth Agency will be hosting a Live Stream via YouTube on Monday 30th to explain their guidance with regard to these new tiers.
HQAC take their guidance from the NYA.
I’d encourage anyone to watch their webinars / live streams. Very well explained and sensible. Some of the content, obviously, is not relevant to us though so be aware of that.
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I was just wondering whether anyone else is postponing their return to face to face until after Christmas?
We’ve not had permission to reopen yet, but are close to submitting our application. Given the numbers of cadets we have there’s no way we could get through everyone in the time we have left before Christmas. (This is particularly true when you consider the two week warning you have to give parents before the first parade night.) My OC came to the conclusion (and we agreed as a team) that we’d be better off starting fresh in the new year for a couple of reasons:
- It gives us more time to properly plan and ensure all of the staff are up to speed on procedures (and compliant wrt mandatory training).
- It means we won’t have 25% of the cadets able to parade before Christmas and the remainder having to wait until the new year and the questions about fairness that raises. This would be exacerbated if there was a hard lockdown in January.
- Should anybody come down with Covid whoever’s in the same bubble won’t have to isolate over Christmas.
- It reduces the pressure that’s on the shoulders of very few members of staff to get everything sorted.
I’ve been in two minds about it, I can see the value of postponing until 2021, but at the same time I think throwing away the opportunity to get cadets on the squadron before then could be something we regret if there’s a particularly hard lock down in January.
I was wondering what you all thought about our thinking?
N.B. Our unit is on an Army Reserve Centre with MGS and we have no say over their Christmas closure.
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I’ve literally only 5 minutes ago had the same conversations about the unit I help on. We are waiting for the NYA guidance before making a decision, but broadly I agree with your approach.
Yup, we’ve made he same decision. Trying to get going before Xmas is going to be a great deal of work for little over all effect, and with big downsides.
The long grass of January just gained another ball.
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Yep, we’ve decided the same. We’ll get the unit ready, but aim to kick off in the new year.
Yeah we decided this week to wait until the new year before doing f2f.
My aim is to be signed off before the end of the year and return on 14 Jan with cadets.
Glad to hear we’re not outliers on this then. There seems to be a massive hurry on some of the other squadrons in my wing to get straight back to it as soon as the green light was given.
One of my neighbouring units is parading this week (yes, really, legally), but we’re not even considering going back till post Christmas
We can’t really use our building anyway, so we plan to continue with outdoors stuff.
Contemplating a virtual dining in night to close the year. I fancy getting out the 5s and eating a Happy Meal.
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We are thinking about reopening before Christmas, however we did get F2F parades in before lockdown 2.0, so its not a totally new thing.
Having said that, being in tier 1, there is also a strong temptation to go to the pub with the staff instead one evening…
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Lucky sod 