The money is an issue for sure. But itâs the implementation, the lack of empathy, the knock on impact to reputation and relationships and if youâre 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. Itâs the embarrassment that those making these decisions donât 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.
But it isnât going to change, so explain the reason (even as simple as policy change - donât need to go in-depth) and say we do want to help, what other areas do you need assistance in.
Just because you canât do car parking doesnât mean you canât 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.
It was never about the money for me.
Whatâs 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, âThat activity seems a little bit risky to me, Iâd better pop into the office and ban it.â
No proper assessment, no consultationâŚjust 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.
I do feel that the answer to this question weighs more heavily than it might appearâŚ
If only because any route of alternative funding equally could be cancelled âtomorrowââŚ
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 Lionâs/Rotary/Masonâs doesnât 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 moneyâŚso 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 nightâŚthe âunknown unknownâ is greatâŚuntil it gecones known and banned.
Alternative funding sourcing? Yeah sureâŚbut 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 againâŚonly to find out that volunteering at the townâs fireworks display working on the entry gate (or insert other event) is now not viableâŚ
If these âalternativesâ were easily topick up in the place of car parking chsncesare weâd already be doing itâŚi know our unit does a handful of different activities in the community already. Weâre not turning away offers or invites to help out at events
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,
Again, do we know if âhelping outâ 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 âdonations cascadeâ thing is real - my Sqn pulled out of car parking for a major, local to us, agricultural event at two weeks notice. We lost ÂŁ1500 for that day - as well as the engagement/recruitment stand, the free food and drinks, free admittance for 30+ cadets and their families (ÂŁ80 for a family ticketâŚ) and all the schmoozing - and guess what?
Local YFC have said of course weâll put you in the draw for next yearâs designated charity - but there are lots of strong contendersâŚ. The actual meaning was 'NFC mate, you stuffed us all.
Weâve had about ÂŁ6k off them in the last 6 years.
In terms of our community engagement, reputation etc⌠weâre in freefall.
This is my great concern. Itâs not just the direct money gained from the events. Itâs 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 canât 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 couldnât 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.
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 doâs HQAC notify us sooner rather than later.
Depends on the event, we used to do the cad parking for the local Rugby club (not sure if they still did as Iâve moved on), was a regular income stream and community engagement, there wouldnât 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.
On my local squadron weâve 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 âI suppose you can give out some programmesâ - 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.
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. Itâs not the way the messages are sent out itâs the content. We have a broken system of trust. Paid staff donât trust volunteers with young people and volunteers donât believe that paid staff have a clue and are so disconnected with reality itâs laughable.
