Unless it’s residential and probably for a weeks duration it has little effect outside a 50 mile radius, if not less.
Had a quick google £2m accomodation for air cadet activities…sound just like a home for the aerospace camp clique
If RFCA is involved £2,000,000 is peanuts.
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There’s a couple of local authority activity centres in our area that have been put up for sale in recent years and I’ve always thought the best thing would be for us to put in a bid to take it over. Along much the same lines mentioned above give priority to RAFAC units but allow external bodies to book the place too.
It would provide us with accommodation (something we’re desperately short of in my Wing), classroom space, somewhere to store Wing assets (kayaks, bikes, etc.), and could provide a useful additional revenue stream too.
These places were being sold for peanuts but I doubt the opportunity will arise again any time soon.
@MRAR When I’ve used Scout sites while I imagine they get preferential bookings, it seems to be more of preferential rates for Scout groups
The problem would be RFCA would be the ones running anything and the money not being used efficiently. Staffing would be a problem as well as I imagine we’d have to create an SMS activity and all the paperwork that goes with it if a member of staff ran something.
Don’t hold your breath on anything happening at the college. I hear a certain Grp Cpt J M is going to be the principal…
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I hope I heard wrong though
I would gladly accept that in return for being able to use a decent, fairly local facility. A SMS application really isn’t the much work and I don’t understand why people make such a big deal of it.
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Especially since once you have done it once it’s mainly just a case of cloning and proof reading.
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And it’s no different to running any other activity at any other site…
As a bog standard thing no, but I was looking at it in terms of running it as a commercial activity, like the Scouts do.
is it not better to challenge the problem in that case than work out a solution around it by creating fewer units??
unfortunately the proposal to reduce the number of Units, keeping only those in key areas is familiar with the RAF’s mandate over the last twenty years, slowly (or not so in some cases) reducing the number of Stations and Squadrons…
The merger of units is the very last thing that we should be doing. We are not the military, we can’t just stand up new squadrons on demand then get rid of them again when the budget runs out.
We need 3 things.
1- An effective staff recruitment, development and retention strategy.
2- Empower Wings to setup Activity Centers independent of RFCA’s.
3- A strategy of growth, where new Detached Flights are formed in existing estates in X travel radius of Squadron, and in new planned estate developments.
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My former Wg used to use that facility quite a lot (and pay handsomely for the privilege) until the ACF got all bent out of shape over it and started putting a lot of restrictions in place.
We had to start providing chefs and kitchen porters as we weren’t allowed to stay in the WETF and eat on camp. We had to bulk order the food via official channels and that wasn’t cheap either. We could use that office but not that one and we could go here but not there.
In the end, we just started booking the camp again as it was too much of a ball-ache to use ACF premises. I don’t know if the Wg have used it again since but I’m sure wdimagineer2b will know.
But not until they have got into why people DON’T volunteer in general and for the ATC specifically. They should get out around the country with pull a random group give them a tenner each for their time and employ a MR company to do it.
In different parts of the country give people 3 volunteering opportunities maybe Scouts, ATC and local community group with the process and expectations for each, ask them to rank them, comments as to why they ranked them as they did and if they had to do one which one would it be. With lots of questions about things that prevent them from volunteering etc. With this sort of information a proper strategy to attract, recruit and retain staff could be formulated. Rather than just wasting money on some corporate bull poster and leaflets.
You have to know your market, it is a basic principle especially if you want people to ‘buy into’ your product or organisation.
Thanks for breaking down the roadmap for getting an effective staff recruitment, development and retention strategy.
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However Liverpool is getting a number of CCF units, which could see them killing off more Sqn’s if they become unviable especially with OC Wings new plan of attack, I am also MSW.
Don’t forget they basically shut 7F (ok merged with 90) and they did close Wavertree.
Can’t find any detail about Kings Academy CCF RAF section on their website, in Dingle, which was established less than 1 mile from 7F at least a couple of years ago and nobody said anything to the Squadron. A new CF RN unit at Belvedere on Belvedere Road and a new CCF Army unit in the Baltic Triangle. There has always been a CCF at Liverpool College on Queens drive as we used to in the past borrow their LMGs to go to Altcar.
7F had a regional staff officer posted in as OC for at least a year before the merger/disbandment, what did they know and said nothing, plus another WSO as well, same question applies.
Go and and look at ‘what do they know’ the FoI site.
You’re welcome, but HQAC will, if they do a an adult recruitment drive, just do posters, leaflets and maybe some adverts, expecting people to come flocking in as the Air Cadets provides such an easy access volunteering opportunity for adults.
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