Continuing the discussion from Summer Camps 2018 - Cyber, Parachuting & STEM?:
What exactly are super camps!?
Our wing has not filled our “super camp” allocation, probably because nobody knows what they are… It feels like a shame because somebody has probably spent a lot of time and effort on organising them.
Can anyone shed any light?
Imagine it as a normal blue camp, but instead of staying on the station you are visiting you are staying elsewhere and visiting the facilities on various camps in the area.
Now add 4 (for example) more camps just like it, staying at the same location but rotating round a programme so that each visit location is dealing with a manageable number of cadets at one time.
Best - and only- definition ive ever seen!!!
Appreciating the benefit to cadets with this (in that bigger camps were always way more fun than smaller ones), but with that aside, are there any staffing/resourcing benefits?
And is the long term plan to sack off “traditional wing blue camps” and replace with these? Is it a corps or regional based approach?
I hear that the RAF appreciate the benefit of not having to accommodate the cadets locally, or have to feed them for every meal (though some meals may be taken at the station). I suspect there are a lot of horror-bags involved. I’ve not attended one because I didn’t want to have to go back to Norfolk!
These are HQAC camps and I suspect we will be dragged this way due to the RAF’s inability to support us as opposed to our desire to do this.
They only really work in areas with a lot of stations quite close together, so don’t hold your breath for a Scotland Supercamp! I think we can accommodate both types of camps
Whatever the size staffing has become a problem.
The specialist camps seem to attract their own brand of anorak and some of these will want to run around and be seen and get into selfies with the supposed great and the good.
I personally like the smaller camps as if they are too big the logistical tie up has to be good or it goes wrong really quickly. I’ve done a few camps where we haven’t been billeted on the station and one where one of the minibuses went u/s Sunday morning when we had an educational visit. Also larger camps remove the developmental aspect for cadets, which was always to my mind the biggest thing with annual camp. As annual camp places decreased it was interesting to see the correlation with cadets ‘developing’ decrease as well. We only have two NCOs who have been on an annual camp.
Bigger camps might be the model to make it easier for the RAF, but the number of places will always be limited and location will increase transport costs and if they are specialist you will only get one a year. So do the cadets really benefit?
I heard and understand that the first supercamp (2016?) was supposed to be a trial for a Region but someone over addressed the email to the Corps!
I don’t remember seeing anything in 2016. The first one I heard of was 2017 and the admin order for that (05 Apr 17) had allocations for all 6 regions.
my question mark was accurate then…it should have read 2017. my error…
Anybody from no2 welsh wing going on supercamp this year?