One thing I forgot to ask was:
What is going to change on the 1st September that means that this will end?
16 Likes
I’d forgotten some of those - but certainly not the shooting / aviation issues.
I had a very positive engagement with @Cab last year, joint Teams call with him, Cmdt RAFAC & OC 2FTS.
He did say that he would not be averse to seeing a replacement policy for ACTO35 being looked at to consider possible options.
I emailed OC 2FTS about this on 13 Jun - he had stated in the Teams meeting that once the ACPS replacement had been introduced, his commercial team would have spare resources to look at due diligence matters, etc, to look at any “maybe” ACTO35 replacement. His reply was very unhelpful; he has not yet responded to my counter reply of 21 Jun (c.c.'d, as was the original email) to @Cab’s PSO.
I concur with the comments - it is a VERY brave CFAV who sticks their head up above the parapet - even for my discourse last year, it was informally suggested to me that I was well outside the CoC remit. I wasn’t, but also I have very thick skin.
Again, I concur with the “thank you” posts for @Cab coming into the lion’s den! 
10 Likes
You didn’t happen to casually drop the shooting ones into conversation during the Vizianagram at all did you 
Now all this has been exposed publicly, maybe @cab’s task is to kick over a lot of stones in HQAC and see what turns up, in particular I refer to the FOI request where he had instructed that car park marshalling should stop, and his instructions had not been carried out, one asks what other instructions have not been actioned at a lower level, and what has not been fed back to AO 22 Group.
The RAFAC will now, in the words of the old Chinese curse, ‘will live in interesting times’.
The appointment of the new CRAFAC is crucial to the viability of the organisation, maybe it should be seen as a tick in the box for advancement rather than a retirement post, (ETA) those who AOCs want out of their commands or who are unsuitable for advancement.
4 Likes
Sadly, didn’t have the time - more talk on politics at times rather than shooting!
Nice to see that Mark Garnier survived the General Election cull - he is of course very pro-shooting & did well today for the Commons team.
2 Likes
Sir, if you’re willing to be receptive to some advice, this has the appearance of being slightly antagonistic, but in good faith I suspect this was intended as tongue-in-cheek. It does open up opportunity though for a remark or two on the quality of comms. Where semantic discussions crop up tends to be when a policy or statement is ambiguous or incomplete. We are left with little choice but to attempt to interpret or fill in the gaps that are left, because what we are provided with is insufficient to adequately discuss or advertise on our squadrons. Sometimes the responses are themselves offered with a tongue firmly placed to the side.
I of course echo the sentiments of gratitude and respect for making an appearance on here. There’s not much that I can add in terms of specifics that hasn’t been said since you offered yourself to us or that you may not have already read further up this thread or in others that are related. But I can add that I have a Wing Commander that seems to only turn up when they perceive or there is a problem, and that if I were to use official channels to communicate directly with higher up the CoC I don’t have enough faith that I wouldn’t be earning myself a visit.
I can also concede that there going to be things about the machinations and structures within the CS and FTRS structure and the onward links into the RAF and MOD that we may not understand, but that is a result of deliberate obfuscation and not for a lack of desire or effort to understand.
Conversely, CFAV feel that the realities faced on squadrons, their experiences and feelings, and the consequences of decisions and policies are purposefully ignored through wilful ignorance or a lack of desire to understand. We are very vocal, through the CoC, on Social Media, and indeed forum posts about what life is like at the bottom, yet we rarely even get platitudes let alone any sense that a decision has been made with a bottom-up perspective in mind. It all just feels like air conditioned diktat from people either unable or unwilling to break out of the militaristic styles of leadership and communication to which they have become accustomed, in recognition of the different environment that they now operate within.
I am led to believe that Air Cdre McCafferty has had her eyes opened to a lot since joining a squadron as a CI, despite how public and travelled she was in her time.
We are not paid for our efforts, we are not reliant on the organisation for our existence. If you take Maslow’s hierarchy, what we do here is truly at the top: it’s optional, because we want to, because we believe what we do gives value and we do in turn get value on an intrinsic and benevolent level.
That means that the currency is time and that we are paying RAFAC, and our time beyond all else is our most valuable asset as volunteers and we want to spend as much of it as possible having the effects that we joined to have - delivering knowledge, activities, and experiences to cadets so that they grow, develop, and learn valuable skills. Anything which causes us to spend more time not doing that (a finite resource in a zero-sum system) needs to be justified - we will ask “why”. Anything that renders time already spent on something wasted (such as last minute blanket bans, cancellations, or delays) needs to be justified - we will want to know why. If a resource can’t be brought back online after removal (Vigilants) we will want to know why…
…And when that reason is “not economically viable”, but a few years later government funding is granted to a charity to attempt to do what we didn’t, it’s going to be pretty annoying.
The other thing about CFAV, is we spend a lot of time planning and problem-solving to make things happen. We like to make as much happen as we possibly can and are incredibly proactive in pursuing this goal. So when something stops we will begin to consider what mitigations could have been made, when should contingencies have been considered, why was a better plan to mitigate this scenario not found?
“SW had staffing issues, move to the pillar system”. Ok, not a fan of that idea for a few reasons, but if needs must…
“While we transition we ask for patience”. Sure.
“We need additional time so temporarily ask that you don’t put in anything that requires our self-inflicted CACE system, but here’s the date that you’re good to go by”. Ok, this is an annoying restriction, but at least it’s temporary and we can plan to get things moving again after that date.
“Oh, you wanted to do stuff? Sorry the ban on CACE is now indefinite.”
“Oh, you wanted to do stuff that doesn’t involve CACE? No, now you can’t do that either, because despite knowing we are short-staffed, despite already pushing our initial deadline further out, despite changing our entire working model to be more efficient, we are (completely unpredictably, definitely didn’t see this coming) short-staffed and over worked and don’t have a better plan to stop this becoming your problem and we’re not going to explain why this is now your problem”…
This is how it looks to us and at this point, we declare a shambles. Your view may not be that your final decision is a shambolic one, you may not even think that the contingency planning was chaotic or indeed absent. But the result is that the entire region now has (at least) the appearance of being a shambles.
1/6 of the organisation is practically dead in the water and has seemingly been left by the rest of the organisation to sink. It’s going to take a lot to rebuild our faith that this is going to be turned around positively having already lived through 6 months of a progressive decline, including missed deadlines, on top of the issues we’ve seen over the past 10 years.
To be honest, it’s a relatively light jab to receive by this being described as a “shambles”. It’s fortunate that “South West Region” doesn’t rhyme with “muster”.
10 Likes
Can we just clarify this comment. Are you saying that the decision to effectively close SW Region (as per perceptions on the coal face) was your decision?
3 Likes
Still trying to understand why low level and low risk activities, can not go ahead. Ones that require No CS involvement.
A day trip to a local museum, or a fundraising event at a small local fete? These activities are reviewed and approved through the delegations laid down in ACTO10.
The summer is our busy off squadron time. Squadron camps, day trips, supporting local community events (and building community relationships), training camps.
6 Likes
Is there the full and proper understanding even at OF5 level of how the org works at a granular level?
@Cab it is most original and i believe good news to see someone of your level engaging with the grass roots.
I would offer a few thoughts.
-
Please afford yourself an afternoon and a large number of teas or coffees and read through in total the last 100 threads in full. It would take time, but would offer, singurarly, the best insight into the state of the org you can get.
-
All members of the RAFAC have access via BADER and TEAMS to a channel to raise their concerns and or use the CoC in a number of ways.
People do not. Because the CoC is at times and in places highly toxic, there is a poor display of leadership from the highest levels within (FTRS, CS and CFAV) and volunteers fear having their card marked simply for asking the hard questions.
-
All the points raised by @pEp are correct and accurate.
-
The recruitment freeze in MoD and wider CS should not be a factor…
- option to use contingent labour.
- option to manage move staff.
- option to temp promote or move people
- option to request fast streamers funded by cabinet office into RAFAC CS roles for a years rotation.
- option to use appretiship levy to cover E1 and E2 postions.
I simply do not accept the arguement that has been made that nothing could have been done to replace staff.
There are plenty of us here who work for other TLBs and have still managed to get the task done.
- A succession of OF5s in SW Reg have dropped the ball whilst OF6 has left the ball at home deflated and badly damaged.
All power to you if you can help fix this.
4 Likes
I don’t think it is though, it’s mixed in with people who aren’t in any more, who are only aware of the issues through here and it can self circulate. It would give a starting point but it’s the view of a handful of active ones (a large handful but absolutely not all)
For me a series of workshops would be the best route - the types we use in change management and planning in the workplace. I know the RAF does these and they can work fantastically - it does take a bit of give on both ends but is a much more realistic view. Some changes will be unpopular that’s the nature of decision making.
There is absolutely individual (not just on here, in wing positions, or OCs downwards) who aren’t willing to even participate in the discussions, whose every which move is crazy negative and it pulls the rest down.
Everyone knows the SW is not in a good place at the moment and hasn’t been for a little while. But the Comms need to be on what can we do next, how can we do next, and stop comparing it to what it was 5 / 10 / 15 years ago - because it’s not the same. Just like 10 years before that wasn’t the same. Girls were only allowed to join without permission 35 years ago - which in the grand scheme of things was tiny. You see some article the staff at the time submitted to local news papers about it - let alone what went on behind the scenes. Or when the CWOs went from 22 down to 20, or the introduction of Adult Sgts.
I’m really not disagree with all of the points on here, some are very valid. Some could be with better Comms - but where it is could be argued, if they wanted briefings on the coal face then it’s normal to expect your Wg Cdrs to then go out and brief (for example I suspect the reason it’s all been cancelled is not because it’s any more dangerous the physical activities, but should something happen - be that an accident, a safeguarding concern, or a near miss there isn’t the staff to deal with it.) What I’m disagreeing with is this forum giving an accurate view - just a good starting point to form workshops/discussions around.
2 Likes
Only attract a certain type of person.
Here is a melting pot.
But i hear your thoughts.
Maybe a mix?
Either way, here is a solid starting point.
3 Likes
Would need to be outside of region and wings to select also otherwise the party line towers would be selected.
I think all/most of the gripes above could be fixed with better context when communicating.
I.e. alcohol ban was communicated as its just banned. Rather than having the why behind it, which when i found it out , brought me into agreement to the ban
3 Likes
Perhaps randomised blind ballot - put all our service numbers into a pot & see who’s selected?
Like jury duty but for RAFAC CFAVs
Perhaps have a red team & a blue team that are independent of each other to see what solutions or ideas that can be come up with then critically assess each others.
Command need to find away to avoid garbage data in that results in garbage out that’s just causing things to stagnate.
9 Likes
Agree it would need to be some sort of way so that you get the full selection not just the party liners, encourage those who don’t go because they don’t feel they’ll be heard etc.
This could work really well, as it would start to identify what are actually common themes and what are just gripes of the loudest ones. And the spark of an idea on one but the group couldn’t expand on it might open up a thought path on another
3 Likes
Don’t get too excited. Senior engagement on here will be fleeting at best. No real change will be forthcoming, and it’ll be forgotten about as quickly as it was thought to be a good idea to engage.
“Make the most of it!” I hear you cry, sorry, seen them all come and go; they just get worse. No evidence of any kind of positive change or fix for years.
Peps assessment is accurate and damning. Mike has tried to engage at top level and has been pushed back. This organisation will never learn.
Why am I here? You ask, I often ask myself the same thing. But just every now and then as a WSO, between the politics and nonesense, I get on a sqn, engage with cadets and actually enjoy myself.
Never anything to do with our structure, the embarrassment of the CoC, or the latest rubbish HQAC spews - but always engaging with the cadets is what makes it worthwhile.
@Cab get out your uniform, turn up at a sqn in jeans and t-shirt. Talk to cadets and staff as an unknown, realise the issues and help us. Please!
9 Likes
To be honest this is what I would expect. Yes come on here drain the swamp challenge the pre conceptions but at the end of the day the paid staff are there to be enablers & put the infrastructure in place so we volunteers can deliver.
Once the ship has stopped heeling violently from side to side then I would expect paid staff to sit back a little in here & lurk in the background whilst we chunter, quietly nudging things here & there every now & then.
Polo top & chinos please - we do have some standards to maintain 
5 Likes
Any is better than none, and everyone has the right to defend themselves and their teams.
If no one with alternative perspectives or experiences ever came in, or if they were not accepted and welcomed (albeit they may be rightly challenged and debated) then we may as well be a private Subreddit echo chamber.
The forum is here to enable discussion, debate, and the sharing of knowledge and experience. We may be cynical, but that doesn’t mean we’re closed off to new (tangible) evidence and well structured logic that may generate dissonance between what we thought we knew or believed.
8 Likes
Correct. So let’s see some then.
Reading some of the garbled comm, it is not just about assurance,its about the melodramatic effect of needing rhq to sweep up the mess should, in extreme circumstances, something goes wrong, appears we have enough broom but not enough operators.
1 Like
Why don’t we just close this outdated organisation - we have lost most of the RAF links and the original reason for our existanceso let’s just cut our losses and be badged as AAC within the ACF !!
1 Like