From all of my SharePoint alerts… No.
Heard via Wing Civ Comm
Is that just in England as charity law is different in the devolved administration areas.
Did anyone find out what happens if a sqn in England just registered with the charity commission in their own right?
I asked our Wg Chair about that and his opinion (based on lots of experience with other charities) was that, if it came to conflict, the Charity Commission would support HQAC in how they want their sub-branches to be managed. Ultimately that could lead to the Sqn charity being deregistered.
This came via the Wing Chair over the weekend.
During the week X, as Regional Chair, attended the National Council Meeting and F&GP Meetings.
Among the many updates a particular one from the Commandant, which I gather was announced without prior warning, is that BADER e-mail role accounts are being terminated on 31 March 2023 for all Squadron Chairs and Treasurers.
Despite members of the National Council speaking out about the matter it was to no avail. The Commandant considers that the cost to the public purse of these Microsoft licences is unacceptable, resulting in the decision to not renew the Squadron Chair and Treasurer accounts from 1 April.
I understand there had been discussion over time at HQ RAFAC level about the fact that, according to their data, many Squadron Chair and Treasurer accounts were not being used at all and the cost of maintaining these was unsustainable.
So looks like we’ll go back to our CivCom stuff all going though private emails. A GDPR nightmare if something goes wrong…
Also how many Chairs/Treasures have set up things using their RAFAC email which they’ll now have to faff around with to transfer over to their own private email. Or make up a random new email. Things like SumUp accounts that are currently registered with their RAFAC email?
Also also "according to their data, many Squadron Chair and Treasurer accounts were not being used at all " I bet the number of CFAV personal accounts that don’t get used vastly out-numbers the number of Chair/Treasurer accounts.
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I’ve only used mine in the past two months after about 11 years as a CFAV…
Didn’t even know I had it until you told me 
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This will be a cost saving of circa 1000 licences assuming that the same is applied at Wing & Region level.
But the actual role accounts have no cost so the 100 accounts will surely go as well completely cutting them off from the organisation.
I had an e-mail from the WExO on the weekend say chair and Treasurer account being deleted. It also said that the people holding those accounts will as a result not need BPSS.
If they processed resignations properly then this wouldn’t be an issue
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I don’t want to be “that guy” but surely if registered in their own right, they wouldn’t be a “sub-branch” as they are now?
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I am working on the basis that this is what is meant but it isn’t clear.
I’ve probably got the wrong terminology and I’ve got no knowledge of charity law, but I think the logic was that the Sqn charity only exists to deliver its aims within RAFAC. If RAFAC choose not to work with them, the charity could no longer deliver and wouldn’t have a purpose or reason to exist.
It sounds extreme and confrontational, but from the discussion I had, I could see how it could apply.
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That’s just incorrect though. The aims of a CWC are to support a specific squadron. In the same way I could create my own charity called ‘1234 Sqn AT fund’. And I could go out a raise money to buy equipment for 1234 squadron…
So there’s nothing stopping a CWC who is a fully registered charity just carrying on as normal?
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So given that there’s no structure to replace the orgs yet, what’s happening in the meantime?
No, wait, don’t tell me… There’s no plan?
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Agreed, they could independently fundraise, but without access to enhanced DBS, collecting subs, liaising with Wg or Region CivCom etc it would be far from normal.
My main takeaway from the conversation was that a national charity could require their local branches (Sqns) to work within a certain charity structure and the Charity Commission would support them in that.
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I believe the term ‘local charity branches’ has a specific meaning in law, (maybe mainly for accounting purposes from what I just looked up?) that CWCs separately registered would not fall into.
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That doesn’t make sense.
Are we really going back to civ com using own email for stuff.?
Absolute madness
863 Squadron all over again.
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