We are one of these squadrons. We’ve really struggled with recruitment and I’ve done presentations in all the local schools on my days off.
Staffing has been an issue too.
You’re limited to what you can do depending on cadet numbers but I do agree. However, as I’ve said a struggling squadron is difficult to attract new staff as well as new cadets when compared to nearby thriving ones. You also have to think of the wider context of staffing in the wider organisation. Its all well on paper having 10 staff but only 2 of these may come down regularly and/or be uniformed.
As I said above, you must consider the wider context. We are volunteers with lives. Staff may not want to travel further, especially to a struggling squadron.
otoh, it’s easier to treat it as a clean slate for those who want a fresh challenge
I’ve never been a fan of the term viable as it means nothing, it’s just a bean counter phrase. But people bandy it around in the organisation as big stick. I doubt many will be “viable” in both ways.
When we are going to have to go and recruit we need something better to sell the Air Cadets.
Currently the offer promises a king size Mars Bar but only delivering one that comes out of a tin of Celebrations. This is where the HQAC glitterati need to step up and get talking to providers be they MoD or not and make sure we are Ronseal.
It cannot be down to us to sort this out as not one of us has the ‘authority’ to do it. We can’t speak to providers to organise contracts etc, on behalf of the whole organisation. If we don’t have a decent offer to put out there that we can believe in, recruitment will be difficult.
I’d very much like to see what the responses would be if we ran the survey that went out this time last year, again now. I remember I think it was ~a third of staff were contemplating leaving at that point, I can imagine it would be a lot higher now. Just the survey and not all the extras that were put into the report, I’d just be very intrigued by a direct comparison of this time last year and right now in figures. I know from talking to a lot of other staff, not many of us feel valued at all, less so than last year, that there’s barely any uptake from cadets, that some are still working full time coming into contact with covid on a near regular basis and some are still on furlough/still unable to find work. We haven’t been parading for almost a year, we’ve spent this time either bettering ourselves (or in my case, fattening myself, whoops) or spending more time with family, not losing weekends and parade nights, do we really want to go back to having what feels like no free time now? With all the admin, planning, parade nights, weekends, is this not more like a full time job than a volunteering role now? How many squadrons haven’t yet managed to contact all their cadets? How many squadrons are going to be returning to less than 50% pre lockdown? The organisation needs to change and adapt and now is the time to do it.
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A quick note on this… communication went out yesterday that contained this and notification that it would be sent out to everyone else at 1100hrs today.
Credit where credit is due the notification hit my inbox at 1100hrs. It’s almost as though things are getting better.
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Definitely!
I received a copy from my Civ Com Chairperson of all people at 1030 this morning. Followed shortly after by the Bader Announcements email at 1101.
Same.
Nothing heard here until I saw the Sharepoint announcement. Am a Sqn OC 
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Thats expected, the earlier notification was for line managers to be able to see it before units so as they can plan ahead. Seems some forwarded that on anyway.
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Not sure I am fully grasping.
I am a line manager - I am the one who has to be communicating to cadets and parents whether we are allowed to open.
I know in this case it was blindingly obvious that we are closed and going to remain so, but I don’t get why OC Wings etc need to know a day before I do
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Got to agree with you on this one! This letter was addressed to all and doesn’t have anything specific that anyone needs to do. So no need for OC Wings to see it before anyone else.
That said, it was sent out to everyone the next day when they said it would (almost to the minuet!). So it’s another good step forward.
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The same reason we complain when something is released saying “speak to your squadron staff” - time to read and digest before all the questions come in.
My wing pinged it down the line (to some) in advance, in this instance they maybe didn’t need to, but it’s appreciated that they went to the effort.
Perhaps you could label this as “over-effective” comms, but I’d rather the system be more efficient than necessary than just find this letter pop up on SM.
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It’s about reducing the question chain. If the OC Wing has seen it and had chance to ask questions of their CoC then when they are asked the questions they can respond without the RHQ or HQ staff being overwhelmed with responses.
If the OC Wing is transparent and forwared the email on then good on them and the effect is similar, it drip feeds the questions in and an OC Wing just needs to respond to their ~30 units.
It’s also noting there is a CoC and letting them know ahead of time is polite, if your CoC failed to forward it on and let the OC Units know then that’s their issue and one that the OC unit should take up with OC Wing.
Impossible to please everyone but this is a big step forward.
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Thanks, you have adjusted my perspective 
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So. Who is starting to plan any activities for Apr and beyond?
I normally run several big events in Apr, May. But wondering if I should put the effort in to it?
I was firstly, looking at scaling back the delivery of larger events, and focus on smaller targeted training packages. Like a day of Fieldcraft training on my local Training Area.
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God knows… I know alot of people have basically said no to planning activities until at least Sept. Only stuff in my Diary is stuff that was planned 18 months ago
Read an article the other day from professor lockdown (Neil Ferguson) and he’s suggesting October before any major relaxations of restrictions 
I would at least wait until the February half term before putting in any serious effort
Wait what?
