No. Make HQAC the ddh.
That and the to be created sme ddh.
I say bin off the WHQs and move the staff in to RHQ and manage it as a station HQ with specialists. We should also bin off the civil service and recruit admin directly as an external employer.
The new RCs are a different breed to the old and are having a bigger influence on the organisation than most understand, HQAC wonāt get rid of them.
RSOs is a bone of contention for most, a lot of the posts could be removed and HQAC policy element talks to WHQ delivery element directly.
SATTs could be removed from a Regional structure to HQAC managed and just have 3, North, Middle and South. Seen as you can apply to any SATT for courses anyway it would make it more efficient staffing wise.
Wales and West have just moved away from this model to a separate OC SATT/Shooting/SACO model and I wouldnāt be surprised if most Regions do this now.
Sorry if you think Region Sports Officers only put 6 events on per year, you are very much mistaken on what the role entails
1 Like
It is 7, isnāt it 
4 Likes
I think there will be some difference Region by Region. Be interesting to know from yourself what the work load is like.
In a previous ATC career I was a dep reg sports officer. The biggest challenge with the sportsnofficer role is that the workload is lumpy; there are some periods when youāre not very busy (over the summer after Corps athletics and before swimming/winter sports starts in late sep, early Oct) and there are some very active, tightly time boxed activities in the run up to inter-wing events and immediately following them when you have ~3 weeks to get cadets sorted in to teams and deal with coaches, dropouts etc. From memory Oct and Jan thru March/April could be damned busy.
Iād also add that sports is one of the only areas where it is visible to your bosses when you are doing a poor job as results are clear and immediate. From that respect it is one of the only jobs where you canāt easily hide.
I have to admit to seeing less point in regions as the years go on. There was IIRC a number of organisational changes put forward bringing the whole of the cadet forces under one top level umbrella, all of which saw a reduction in the number of RHQs and one which was just a North and South area, with the āarea commandersā based at HQAC. Rejected by HQAC as they seem to regard themselves as being all things to all people.
It seems bizarre that businessā everywhere seems to lose middle management, except it seems the ATC and probably the MoD.
You need more 3 SATTs so that people donāt spend hours travelling.
I have maintained for years you could lose RCs and not notice. Iāve witnessed 3 RCs talk over the years at OC Conf, say nothing and the most banal answers. For me the problem is they are like CAC too far removed from any real influence. Playing 3rd or 4th fiddle. Lord knows where the current RCs have more influence ā¦ biscuit buying? If their influence is within the ATC sphere, thatās not really real.
As for SMEās ā¦ one office 3-4 desks if that in HQAC.
Sportsā officer is the one job that I know people on Wing donāt want as itās the ONLY Wing job that as mentioned has a high workload that canāt be ducked, especially from Sep to Jun. Which doesnāt appeal to those who see Wing do something once in a while hidey hole.
1 Like
Donāt be sorry.
Iām entitled to my ignorance.
I guess so as I missed athletics
Ok so that was a bit tongue and cheek but the role is not very visible in what is done.
By the sounds of it Richard17173 it is 7 events with some follow on to coordinate the next level events.
Apologies for your upset but its still a role without viability for Cadets a d Staff on Squadrons
Out of curiosity though as you were the Deputy what was the Sports Officer doing while you were working so hard??
2 Likes
It was Mike that said he was a depā¦
So effectively 14 weekends activities a year.
To be fair itās one of the Wing or Region jobs I wouldnāt touch with a barge pole as it is easily the most thankless task. They have to do a lot behind the scenes, booking venues, arranging suitable levels of staff cover, arranging transport and teams and certainly above inter-Squadron level they get very little buy in from Squadron Staff. (Because we are all too busy and see it as easy/unimportant).
1 Like
While an argument can be made for getting rid of Regions anyone who thinks that would lead to staff coming back to Wings is deluded. It would lead to staff going up to HQAC.
Itās all well and good saying that we can just have SME at HQAC to sign things off (or not) but in lots of areas Regions do far more than that, so if you lost those Regional SMEās you would be expecting HQAC to take up the slack, which would entail those Corps Officers having Regional Deputies to provide local Training.
Best example is in the AT world, aāt least 1 RATTO is providing HML courses locally (over and above the 2 per year that Windermere can offer). If you disband that post what happens to those opportunities? Does he go back to Wing and just offer it to his Wing Staff or does he go to HQAC and work out of Windermere/Fairbourne. I think we all know what would happen.
Does anyone know what the Regional Training Officers actually do?
Come on, when even @Teflon accepts that a wing/regional job involves actual work I think we can all agree it must be a damn hard role
I think all the ToRās are on Sharepount. Certainly for AT and DofE they are written into the respective ACATI & ACTO.
Iām pretty sure that Region Training are responsible for Silver Leadership and for auditing the Wing Bronze & NCO Courses to make sure that they are standardised. (Again if you got rid of them that Standardisation role would go up to HQAC so you would just be moving the staff not cutting the job).
Iām just wondering because I have at times seen stuff done by all the other RSOs but not aware of anything the RTO has done.
Certainly arenāt any silver leadership courses being run by my Region.
1 Like
No idea.
They certainly dont provide any training!
They were also busy - we split the sports between us. It is fair to say that I am busier in my current role, and was busier as an OC, but if there was only one Sports officer there is likely too much ālumpyā work for them to do on their own
In the right circumstances - secondary is key, but not to the extent of detriment, never this.
Everyone associated with RAFAC should be attached to the ground level (Squadron) to a degree - I still cannot fathom why perm staff working conditions are not aligned to facilitate such but I note the recent letters from OCRAFAC do encourage local Line Managers to facilitate this. On the same theme, Wing and Region staff should have a presence also.
Effectively - I agree with your post 100%
From the volunteer cadre :ā)