This mentality was beaten out of the services even in my day - post and devolved responsibility trumps rank every time if the TORs are correctly written.
Plus we are all volunteers - the rank/uniform is dress up for the cadets - I dont care whats on your shoulders/shirt front, I only care about responsibility and role/experience - but I will play the 'yes Sir No Sir ’ in front of the cadets as required
As a gentle counterpoint - the rank indicates the level of responsibility someone has volunteered for. As a person who signing off an event needs breadth of knowledge rather that expertise in a specific area it make sense for them to hold rank.
Sigh… FOI submitted about this, despite the open and honest comms from HQ, they can’t win.
Well, the decision-making process could be important to know - how did it flow, who were the main players, what were the main factors looked at & why, etc? What did they miss & why? Were things directed as a “this is the way it’s going to happen?”
It will just cause them to pause work on it. Deal with the FOI of no information held other than doing a review & then go fwd with it after they have supplied the information.
Quick check of bader email, it looks like only three people in the org with that name of which two people have left.
Agree, pointless FOI that has been sent in too early. There will be little data at the moment and they would have been better waiting until after the review is complete to understand what happened and why.
They will likely find that out anyone after the review as part of the changes. I hope so anyway.
What if people dont want to be ‘moved’?
This National volunteer org worked because it had/has good National coverage.
Close too many units or move things around tok much and that geographic link / necessity will.be gone.
Sector adjutant?
Off the wall stat I know but I wonder what the concentration spread breakdown for each area
Adult volunteers per county?
Adult volunteers per adult population?
Adults per km^2?
Cadets for likewise?
I’d like to perhaps see the Wing Training Officer removed from the establishment and replaced with a Cadet Development Officer and Staff Development Officer
That is already happening in some Wings. Part of the problem in the organisation, no consistency which then means there are variations on how it all comes together both good and bad.
Create a structure that creates an environment where both cadets and CFAV feel valued and are able to get excited about attending parade nights and activities.
Stop allowing empire building which can either encourage CFAV to put maximum effort in for the benefit of all, or push CFAV to the point where they exit the organisation.
We have both a WTO and a Staff Development Officer.
The WTO (and “training team”) seem to focus on being blockers towards staff delivering activities (see my post from several months ago about how long it took for me to convince a member of the training team that I already had authorisation to instruct MOI).
The Staff Development Officer pretty much only seems to focus on AVIPs and getting CIs through uniform boards.
Development of our volunteers just isn’t something we seem to want to do as a wider organisation. Either that or we just don’t realise how much of a blind spot it is for us.
interesting how this is measured. one of the best Squadrons in the Wing has remained so despite changes in the OC - why? because success is a team effort.
see VGSs for an example
Indeed, but ultimately it’s the person who is thinking strategically who should be running the show.
When I was offered the post of Reg First Aid by the then Reg Cmdt LaSER Group Capt Hakin, I said to him I would only accept the post if I could remain as OC 78 Wembley Sqn as a secondary duty, he sort of laughed and said “normally Sqn Cdrs want to dump the OC post as quickly as possible”.
So I wouldn’t say make it policy to have a single ‘hat’, but instances should be considered carefully and on their individual circumstances and merits.
Back in the day when I was on a squadron, working shifts and weekends and had a young family I couldn’t really commit to 2 nights a week. On top of that I had a difficult and demanding professional role. What I could do was mid week flying, schools visits and all sorts of liaison roles with partners. Sadly my OC wing didn’t see the value in flying hours going through the roof, school recruitment being a major factor in our DF becoming a squadron, which it still is, and the benefits of working with partners to enhance the cadet experience. The sole focus was, “ You’re not attending parade nights as much as I would like”.
I was only granted a 12 month extension on that basis. During that time I was involved in some other stuff that meant I would not be binned off at the end of that period regardless of OC wings recommendation and in fact was promoted to a more “flexible” role.
We all have our ways of contributing to the organisation but not necessarily two evenings a week.
Far better to have someone one night a week or every other week who is able to keep CoS Home Command and the rest of the family happy, and then there is work as well, which after home is the most important. That someone who is free during the day on weekdays is an advantage not a disadvantage, just some people can’t see that.
A former ‘CO’ tried to accuse me of lack of commitment during a social gathering as I could only attend 2 out of 4 parade nights due to work commitments, he was lucky there was somebody between us, at that point I left, never to go back as a CI. Said CO has never worked a day in his life and has since retired with a state pension with other add-on benefits. I suspect some here may know him.
I suggested this a while ago but got shot down or the conversation moved on.
The actual regulations state that it’s 12hours a month volunteering not necessarily parade night volunteering.
What we are not mapping as an organisation is the non-parade nights we are doing.
A simple bit on volunteer portal where people can add start date, start time, end time, type of duty , free text description to map what exactly everyone is doing outside of parade nights.
Without it the paid staff at HQ & Region don’t have the data or evidence to actual make appropriate decision.
Any interaction with Bader, whether updating files in OneDrive / SharePoint, reading emails, or collaborating on Teams, should be trackable without recourse to mandraulic logs.