No comms of the sort here and nothing on Bader Hub, but why would they have been the ones to find out first anyway?
I’d initially been upbeat as we had been assured of an available alternative during planning, and even since had been trying to remain level headed about it, but with further reflection it’s harder to support the path taken. Upon release the only statements have been:
As an organisation we already have considerable charitable funds that are available to support cadets and this should include, where necessary, access to technology…
Which, considering the removal of financial support to committees (albeit minor in this context) by stopping the admin grant, the required upgrades elsewhere with tech to keep pace with the digitisation of training and admin, and looking further back examples such as the direct purchasing of squadron identifiers is merely another financial burden that HQAC expect squadrons bear alone… while ensuring that subs are kept reasonable and sufficient fundraising occurs - there’s only so much that can be done and the list of required funding keeps growing.
In light of the recent IBN about fundraising and subs as well, this attitude appears to be anti the ethos that committees are expected to follow.
HQAC have “framed it” to use the wording of the IBN as
…in support of our Air, Space and Cyber skills development priorities with digital literacy playing a key role.
Which is a really lacklustre justification and call to action. Committees exist to support the training, development, and opportunities for cadets and must balance expenditure against benefit - the benefit to purchasing phones is actually minimal and certainly difficult to justify as “in support of our Air, Space and Cyber skills development priorities with digital literacy” considering the lack of any role that phones actually play in these areas.
Should a cadet not have the app and therefore not have a digital ID, they will be able to access MOD establishments using their pre-existing processes for escorted young persons.
Which isn’t really a solution and taking cadets to the guardroom will increase the attention and embarrassment.
Data surfaced through the app is also available via Cadet Portal and other Bader applications.
I guess this bit is referencing proof of qual more than ID, but why not have “printable temporary ID”? If there are concerns about reuse, date range it like station passes are which could even be populated from the event, including event name/type so it can only be used at that time.