STOP 🛑 Car Parking

Might take you up on that offer Sir. It’s probably the only way I’ll get to an AEF this year!

I think you’ve somewhat missed the point.

The money is an issue for sure. But it’s the implementation, the lack of empathy, the knock on impact to reputation and relationships and if you’re in the south west, the fact you might have renegotiated a role with no car parking only for a week later to have to pull out completely. It’s the embarrassment that those making these decisions don’t have to deal with and never will, but foist upon the mere mortals having to enact their whims. That is why there are 430+ posts.

10 Likes

This.

No OF 6 or 7 has to deal with local committees or do gooders hammering on at you when we have to pull out at no cause of our own.

Nor do they have to deal with the local reputational damage or long lasting bitterness that can result.

One day a do-gooder is the next a letter writting maniac…

Remember these people who run fetes etc are often highly ‘focused’ individuals.

Im sure the CoC would love the opportunity to engage with them all.

1 Like

But it isn’t going to change, so explain the reason (even as simple as policy change - don’t need to go in-depth) and say we do want to help, what other areas do you need assistance in.

Just because you can’t do car parking doesn’t mean you can’t still help at the event. See my earlier post about what we did to switch (although it was 2018 as staff we choose to stop car parking.

You’ve missed this bit for the SW:

3 Likes

It doesn’t. It stands for Air Cadets Paused!

It was never about the money for me.
What’s got my back up is the fact that we are now at a point, in this diminishing organisation, were one person can wake up and think, “That activity seems a little bit risky to me, I’d better pop into the office and ban it.”

No proper assessment, no consultation…just ban it.

Gone in the blink of an eye and the click of the fingers. Never coming back. That easy.

I will be less frustrated and critical when somebody in the senior management wakes up one day and, instead of adding to the banned list, does something tangible that will result in the return of the following;

  • Parachuting
  • Motor Gliders
  • Air Cadet Pilot Navigation Training Scheme
  • Air Cadet AEF Course
  • Air Operations Acquaintance Center
  • AEF progression through sorties 1-6
  • Regional Aerospace Courses
  • BTEC in Aerospace Studies
  • Sir Michael Knight pilot scholarship
  • Crab football
  • Paragliding
  • The LSW
  • Outdoors drone flying
  • Aircraft recognition
  • Nitex at local country park.
  • Assault courses
  • Microflight flying
  • Popular Flying Association Rallies - where cadets could get seriously close to aircraft by marshalling on the taxiways.
  • Staff drinking post activity
  • VA
  • Car marshalling

P.S. Don’t shoot the message with the above list, it was taken from It's Not What It Used To Be (Lost Activities)

12 posts were merged into an existing topic: It’s Not What It Used To Be (Lost Activities)

I do feel that the answer to this question weighs more heavily than it might appear…

If only because any route of alternative funding equally could be cancelled “tomorrow”…

Grants are great but having just annoyed the local community where the chances are someone from the event you messed around also sits on the board of Lion’s/Rotary/Mason’s doesn’t really sit well.

I know on a previous unit where we helped on a Christmas town event volunteers for that organisation were so impressed they our in a good word and the Rotary club offered us money…so hardly a stretch to suggest that the opposite could happen too.

My worry is if volunteer car parking a staple for many has been banned what is next for the chop? What keeps senior management awake a night…the “unknown unknown” is great…until it gecones known and banned.

Alternative funding sourcing? Yeah sure…but it will take 2-3 years of reputation damage fixing to sort out and maybe the same again to build the trust and to a level that sees the same funds coming in again…only to find out that volunteering at the town’s fireworks display working on the entry gate (or insert other event) is now not viable…

If these “alternatives” were easily topick up in the place of car parking chsncesare we’d already be doing it…i know our unit does a handful of different activities in the community already. We’re not turning away offers or invites to help out at events

1 Like

totally agree, beside being RAFAC I am member of a club that puts a small event on, at less than 4 days notice i had to advise them that the local RAFAC unit could no long do Car Parking/Traffic control, then followed for SW Region a total ban on activities away from unit (except national events) so a double wammy. Another youth organisation came to our rescue, and yes they will be asked to assist in next years event,

SW Region not able to participate due to “pause.” Terrible PR.

Anyway, no car marshalling by air cadets, but Sea Cadets get to help out.

Again, do we know if “helping out” included vehicle marshalling?

This is a valid stab at PR implications of the SW pause, but unless there was vehicle marshalling then it does nothing to add value or momentum to this conversation.

The ‘donations cascade’ thing is real - my Sqn pulled out of car parking for a major, local to us, agricultural event at two weeks notice. We lost £1500 for that day - as well as the engagement/recruitment stand, the free food and drinks, free admittance for 30+ cadets and their families (£80 for a family ticket…) and all the schmoozing - and guess what?

Local YFC have said of course we’ll put you in the draw for next year’s designated charity - but there are lots of strong contenders…. The actual meaning was 'NFC mate, you stuffed us all.

We’ve had about £6k off them in the last 6 years.

In terms of our community engagement, reputation etc… we’re in freefall.

This is my great concern. It’s not just the direct money gained from the events. It’s the local community exposure that is very badly hit. We used to have access to a good source of revenue within the County but this has been restricted by Wg Co pet projects. None have worked well! We are also a laughing stock locally within the youth groups. We can’t play because of CS who are probably all on their Summer holidays. When the call went out from RAF stations to support events because Air Cadets couldn’t surely this rang a bell with someone. These other units like scouts or sea cadets will just get priority visits over us and who can blame the stations. Feel like if the RAF want us put up or shut us down.

4 Likes

I can assure you that is not the case. Please use the Town Halls to raise your concerns. Better to do this face-to-face (albeit virtual). There are many competing challenges and we are working tirelessly to fix them whilst maintaining a safe environment for our cadets.

But community engagement isnt just about car parking, organisers have other duties, stalls etc, granted this year a bit too late but got plenty of time to plan for next year… the event we missed the organisers already have a plan for us without involving cars and we community engagement Think by now it is time to accept that car parking / marshalling os not going to return, and start liaising with thecl organisers to find alternative ways of helping enabling fund raising and community engagement to continued. (Yes i know this wont be 100% possible) but where there is will.

My only plea is thatcis there are anymore no can do’s HQAC notify us sooner rather than later.

1 Like

Depends on the event, we used to do the cad parking for the local Rugby club (not sure if they still did as I’ve moved on), was a regular income stream and community engagement, there wouldn’t be another role that we could move to and that will be the same at many of the events that have just had the rug pulled out on them.

4 Likes

On my local squadron we’ve now gone from paid marshalling (I refuse to call it car parking, we never parked a car, we loosely held an arm out as a means of giving direction at the side of the road, never in front of or in control of a car), to “I suppose you can give out some programmes” - although they had that covered already.

They now have to bring in others to do the marshalling.

So we get the engagement, all the grief of setting up and staffing the activity, but alas, no pay cheque.

Brilliant.

Edit to add: substantial pay cheques that on two or three events a year funded the squadron.

Second edit: the squadron was well established on these events that I enjoyed as a cadet over 20 years ago, and was happy to run as staff all these years later. With never once a safety issue related to a car.**

** other than the one time a cadet alerted authorities to a car with the windows up and a dog inside on a hot day… where the police forced entry damaging the car. Well done that cadet.

7 Likes

We were safe before hand. And as for town halls I have no faith in them at all if the SW one was anything to go by. It’s not the way the messages are sent out it’s the content. We have a broken system of trust. Paid staff don’t trust volunteers with young people and volunteers don’t believe that paid staff have a clue and are so disconnected with reality it’s laughable.

2 Likes

And back to car parking, there are other threads about towns halls.

This popped up on my feed today…

4 Likes