STOP 🛑 Car Parking

Therechad been no reported case, we had a cadet "rammed’ in purpose, however the police constable too great pleasure issuing him a ticket gor all his illegal tyres and no mot :grinning: (WHQ were notified)

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Presumably you stopped the activity on safety grounds, until the issues you had were resolved? ‘If there’s doubt, there’s no doubt!’

Press on itus

My first time at the event that had happened for years and dealt with the task…

Just highlighting that perhaps the AOC has a point, and it’s easy to highlight the failings now on reflection

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There are also ways to address it short of a outright ban.

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Not hypocrisy, flying rightly has a lot of mitigation and post incident more mitigation so flying can continue, as you are experience in CAA you know that sp may wish to consider another example. Plus flying is considered as primary activity, car parking is not. You may want to read chief techs post, you may see where cab is coming from

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What you’ve highlighted though is not something that is fixed by banning car parking. The problem you have identified is either staff lack of awareness, or staff not caring about safety. That may well apply to any activity delivered by those staff.

We shouldn’t ban activities because a minority don’t know how to do it properly. We should support those who need support to make it safe for all.

Let’s remember that RPAS was banned because a few people were operating outside the CAA rules, and effectively that ruined it for everyone, even those who were following the rules.

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Which is where the disconnect between the people running the organisation and those at the coal face is most stark.

For many units no car parking = no funding, no funding = no SOV / no support for those cadets from under privileged back grounds / no kit for use on expeditions/exercise.

Plus the reputational damage that has been done with countless local groups, which considering the way many local groups operate units may never recover from. (We all know how hard it can be to rebuild a community relationship).

It’s all well and good saying “get funding from elsewhere” but the local funding streams will often have people on the committee who we have just dropped deep in the you know what (nature of committees people aren’t just in one).

When you consider the other funding streams that were staples of Squadrons such as bag packing (killed by self checkout) and quiz/race nights (killed by the new alcohol policy) and you start to see why so many people on so many units are so worried and angry at this decision. (Especially when the other Cadet Forces who should be working to the same risk management policies aren’t affected at all).

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Very well put, aside from whether for or against i think everyone ( i may be wrong) acknowledges how poorly it was communicated and the speed. Took 5 days to get from hqac to units in dww. Whilst it may have been considered a blow, if announced in say January, then that would give time to inform organisers and look at possible solutions.

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“Hey everyone, you’re friendly neighbourhood AOC here. I appreciate some of you will be disappointed and angry at the decision to ban car parking. It’s not one that I’ve taken lightly however insert above. There will be hundreds of occasions this thing has not happened but when we have cadets directing unknown members of the public, even one of these scenarios should have been too much. There will be anger and resentment but if I’ve seen it three times and no near misses on the reporting I am forced to presume that reporting isn’t happening. In my position I must to what is right and not easy but hopefully you can all appreciate my reasoning.”

Personal opinion but maybe starting with something like this? Shows us you’re here, how the decision was made and the logic behind it and tries to include empathy towards the volunteers. Most importantly it is showing what has been missing, a reason rather than a whim!

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Funding for the course is available and it results in a recognised qualification!

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Should be a no brainer, HQAC are constantly bleeting on about qualifications so I’m sure they’d fund it.

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Did you say the “f” word? :no_mouth:

@daws1159 's point about the disconnect at senior levels about the fundamentals of how Sqn’s work is perfectly made - and to have some beef-witted idiot jabber about fundraising being non-core just illustrates it.

Without community fundraising, nothing happens.

Beginning. Middle. End.

It’s like thinking that taxation, or economics, or budget aren’t central to the RAF’s operations: see how many air intercepts those F-35’s do over Iceland if there’s no fuel. See what force protection the RAF Regiment provides with no 5.56 or 7.62.

See how many of the aerospace battle managers at Boulmer, or engine techs at Lossie, will turn up for work after they’ve not been paid for 3 months…

Without ‘non-core’ we have no equipment, we have no fuel, we have no transport, we have no campsite fees - no nothing.

We can do maths in a classroom for 5 years, and the cadets can hope they’ll get one week’s camp out of it, and perhaps a flight every couple of years - but if anyone genuinely thinks that cadets, or staff, are going to hang around for that, then…

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Not sure I agree with this. Car parking is just one way to raise cash for the Sqn, there are many other ways and it needs committes to be more innovative in how they fund raise. Their are lots of grants out there, as others have pointed out, so they just need to think outside the box and accept that times change and what they have always done, isn’t possible now.

Yes, but once you remove viable options of fudning and force more people to compete for the same funds people lose out.

Fundraising is hard enough if you know what you’re doing and can write bids. If you suddenly make more people apply for the same funds that becomes harder, and you are less likely to get it.

Fundraising also often requires you to be a registered charity which 99% of sqns aren’t, so it’s not even like we have access to the whole pool anyway.

It’s a bit like fishing in 1 small bay, and then having 5 more boats turn up all trying for the same catch. All good in theory but you can’t all get it and you’re risking destroying the shoal to the point of disappearance.

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Now list the life skills cadets can gain from staff spending hours and hours of their own time filling out grant forms in triplicate.

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You dreamer!

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Not the case, Get funding to start a charity - GOV.UK. You can raise money even before you become a registered charity, so long as you make it clear that you are not yet registered. For example, you could raise money from the public by holding events or sponsored activities. As long as you use the money for the purpose you raise it, then you don’t need to be a registered charity.

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I haven’t suggested the cadets need to do anything, just the Sqn be more innovative!

Did you not bother to read the rest of my post where I explained not only the knock on effect that this ban will have on those other funding streams (I bet you good money that someone from the local Rotary committee will also be on the committee for the local fete), and that lots of our other traditional funding streams (bag packs etc) have already dried up.

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