[quote]Welcome To The 75th Anniversary Aerospace Camp
Welcome to the first National Aerospace Camp being held in August 2015 – this will be the proof of concept camp for a major flagship event in 2016 our 75th Anniversary. We have a great deal planned providing a tailored training programme specifically to match your interests and focus within the Aerospace arena, whether that is technical or pure aviation. Alongside many visits to specialist and unique MOD and RAF establishments there will be a unique flying programme and simulator time together with some traditional camp elements to balance out the fun.[/quote]
Cadets have to ask squadron staff for their BADER number in order to register, but we have received nothing through the CoC.
Is this the way national camps will be advertised in the future? Perhaps it’s more suitable for these specialist camps? But what about the cadets who haven’t ‘liked’ the right pages on Facebook?
Surely most will already have their bader number for Ultilearn anyway…
I’m more concerned with the bypassing of the CoC, the unofficial non-MOD domain and fancy website, and the possible data protection issues from the registration method!
It is also important for applications to go via squadrons so that the useless cadets who don’t turn up don’t get the opportunity to attend in preference with the ones who actually deserve it. I don’t know whether the application system they are using will loop back to the individual’s squadron so that the normal chain can be followed, but I hope so.
It has some advantages and I can kind of understand why they’d do it as I suspect there are still squadrons who will “vet” emails and opportunities will be lost.
The 2014 Drill & Ceremonial camp was similar, though without the fancy site. That was advertised down through the RWOs/WWOs and missed out WHQ entirely. While I’m not saying that wings need to get their fingers in the pie and have a direct hand in selection, they do need to be kept in the loop and they are likely to need to provide transport etc.
I think the best approach would be for a sub-site on the ACO website advertising these top-level opportunities (possibly without dates/locations for security) but with applications handled through the normal chain.
This arrived with me yesterday, via the CoC and swiftly followed by an email from the Wg Cdr, stating that the chain of command was to be followed and that cadets were NOT to make direct applications.
But that would require the ACO website to be maintained and up-to-date . . . there is only so much work that HQAC can handle.
You can have either a new events page that is won’t be updated, or the main side updated, but not both! :-p
Probably to the surprise of HQACO, not all cadets are on Facebook…
In a way, having the upper echelons doing all the work is a good idea, less for sqns, etc BUT we need to know what the basic details are in order to tell the cadets (who can tell their parents, etc). What will they be doing there? When will selection be made? Transport? Cost? Accommodation?
“Hi Sir, what will I be doing at this special camp?”
“Sorry, absolutely no idea, we only have the same web link as you.”
[quote]
Great. So no attempt to accept based on merit (as they implied), or allocate fairly, based on Wing/Region. Simply ‘the quick and the dead’.[/quote]
Well, we don’t actually know what is happening due to this “central” system. Not the best communication chain as far as I’m concerned. Are applications complete? Will they do some filtering & re-open for more applications? All unknown - with no feedback or additional information anywhere, it’s impossible to say.
I’ve emailed them via the contact as per the website, asking what is happening. If they get inundated with emails asking for information, they might take the hint!
Expect paperwork to sqns by end of May, via normal chain of command, hopefully with outline programme.
Lots of applications made, time needed to filter & work out best demographic & geographic spread of cadets.
I did comment that there has been a paucity of information to sqns, & that no coordination = no opportunity to “recommend” a cadet, say if there were 3 applications from one sqn, with one cadet standing out with regard to effort, attainment, proposed career path, etc.
Unknown, the reply didn’t say - I am assuming that as from the outset, no sqn involvement, paperwork will arrive for those applied originally & subsequently selected.
Hmmm, it didn’t happen that way! Our sqn has been allocated 3 places. I’ve no idea if we had just the 3 applications or many more; there were certainly quite a few cadets asking for their Bader details.