Hello folks, yes I know this is an old topic but one I wanted to pick folks brains on.
Anybody got any fresh insights?
Is there a clearly defined role for sectors and their staff written down anywhere? If there is a link or a pointer would be welcome.
Ta in advance.
In my view - and experience - the concept has been doomed to fail from the offset: it’s a role called Sector Commander, but what works is a Sector Coordinator.
If it’s carried out in a way that facilitates joint efforts/projects, acts as a discrete source of advice for OC’s and staff, mediates, encourages and negotiates, then it’s a useful and productive role - but if someone actually tried to act as a Sector Commander and starts bossing very independently minded OC’s about, it will end very badly.
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Our sector commander has been the WSO, however as said it became a coordinator role.
We had a meeting when they set it up the sector and the problem was we all do fixed community events and we all build in time off at weekends, so we had as I recall 4 or 5 weekends, where we could have done joint things, but the cadets weren’t up for it. So trying to coordinate joint activities was a non-starter. The sector meetings now are a Chinese or curry night and more social. Things get pushed out as sector events and sqns attend if they can.
I’ve worked over many years jointly with one squadron in our sector and 2 others from across the wing, which we have continued to do so, as the staff get on and work well together.
I always felt the sector model was forced on us and not going to work as HQAC/Wing/Region thought it should. Like so many things in life you develop your own networks.
Sector Commanders (SC) in our Wing has resulted in a few Sqn’s losing their OC. A few SC’s have stepped away from the role due to too much faffing about or it wasn’t what they signed up to resulting in a few more Sqn’s losing their OC’s.
The way I see it is this: imagine a pyramid. You take OC’s from Sqn’s and put them in higher up positions and maybe give them a promotion. Now Sqn’s are struggling to fill their OC spot which may result in WO’s etc filling that spot.
That pyramid is now upside down with the tops spots filled and at Sqn level you are balancing on the pointy tip. (I know what I meant when it came into my mind) 
We’ve seen our SC 4 times in the last 6 months or so and each visit that I’ve seen has him checking health and safety folders and the main parade board where the H&S Officer has his hundreds of H&S forms in plastic sleeves that no one reads.
We were told that SC’s would be arranging sector days getting the 5 Sqn’s in our sector to do various activities together and getting DofE rolled out. Has anything like that happened? Nope! A thing I have noticed is many Facebook sector posts trying to arrange activities but hardly any staff making the effort.
Have we seen any benefit of a SC? Nope! We do our thing and Cadets are happy.
Why try and make sqn OCs the “sector commander”? It would be as it seems to have been found, a recipe for disaster.
The most important thing
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Seeing as sector commander is one of only a few routes for.promotion. for those its important to (and I cannot stress how little I give a shiny turd about promotion Sqn Ldr) that’s the reason they take it.
If you were suddenly to say, “hey you non Sqn OC Officer working not nearly as hard as your average OC, here’s a promotion above the boss you used to volunteer under…” how do you think that would go down?
I already treat SCs with the utter contempt they deserve, as health and safety box tickers and new CI checkers.
They serve no purpose and the layer of management at this level should be removed asap.
If Sqn Commnders cant get H&S stuff right they shouldn’t be an OC.
Hard core for 8am I know.
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Apparently we have a SC. Seen them at my unit once in the 3.5 years I’ve been with the squadron. Utter waste of time and a rank.
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We always had Sector Commanders, they were just called Wing Staff Officers, how much has really changed?
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When I first took over as OC, sector commanders were just being rolled out in the wing. My first sector commander (Sqn Let unpaid) was brilliant, and did exactly what you described. We had sector courses, and a sector camp. It was really useful.
But then he started being assigned to WSO jobs - investigations, inspections, etc and the sector stuff started to suffer, because there wasn’t enough time in the day to do the 3 roles (OC, SC, and WSO). In fairly short order he resigned from sector commander, and binned off of the ATC. So we lost a dedicated OC and brilliant sector commander because our wing ‘leadership’ team couldn’t understand the difference between a WSO Sqn Ldr (paid), and SC Sqn Ldr (unpaid).
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When we first started using sectors we had OC Wing, Dep OC Wing, 4 Senior Wing Staff Officers as the Senior Leadership team. We also had 4 unpaid Sqn Ldrs as Sector Commanders, who were also Sqn OCs. Plus we had the Secondary Wing staff officer - shooting, AT etc.
The idea was that the SWSOs would deal with the investigations, inspections, boards, etc, whilst the Sector Commanders would coordinate training between squadrons in their sector.
How many investigations, inspections, boards etc do you have in your Wing, to make dealing with them a “full time role”. This is why our sector WSO is in effect the sector commander, not that anyone takes any notice and we largely all do our own thing.
I know a lot of WSOs who go onto Wing for an easy life.
We had 2 in our sector who disliked being squadron staff and only did Sqn OC for as short as time as possible just to get onto Wing Staff as long as it wasn’t area/sector WSO, as they would mean dealing with people. Both are obsessed with getting a scraper and they chase any stick thrown, not realising that people just laugh at them.
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It’s very Wing Dependant, in my Wing being a WSC isn’t an easy life, I took one look at the terms of reference and went “no way I’m applying for that” it’s at least as much work as being a Squadron Officer.
However in my old Wing there was plenty of dead wood who had gone to be a WSC as it was an easy life. (12 months in post and my WSC who was appointed with no process hadn’t even visited my Squadron).
This could be said of across the organisation as a whole … but you know jobs for the boys and girls come first.
So I have seen a further 2 Sqn’s offering OC positions in the last week with those moving on to sector roles after the 1 resigned out right and the other has chosen to take time away from all things cadet related.
I could imagine it happening were Sqn’s are run by SNCO’s and OC’s filtering through the sector positions before leaving or taking time off and before you know it…no officers left 
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Who would interview candidates for Cadet FS if there was no WSC…
the same people who don’t hold interviews for promotion…
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Let’s not ignore the fact that Sector Commanders can be pretty useful at squadrons where there aren’t many staff members. Ours comes around once a month and helps keep us on top of admin and guides us with the training programme etc.
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Sector commanders are as useful as the people who hold the post.
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This is everything.
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Exactly!