I am only passing on the information given to me when my civ com asked me to remove a cadet for non-payment.
I enquired through the pers pillar within our region and received the above information from when they contacted the legal team at HQ Air Cadets.
The more I hear about what HQAC have to say on certain issues (what you’ve just said, their responses to disability inclusion etc) the more convinced I am that their existence is a liability rather than an asset.
This is the extract from Squadron Financial Procedures Policy which is under the civilian committee area of sharepoint (it’s like its own “wing”)
As stated, I have highlighted the discrepancy between what has been passed down by the legal team at HQ Air Cadets and these policies.
I’m just trying to highlight what I have been informed.
HQAC legal team have to be the worst legal team in existence
Considering at Sqn level we are a pure volunteer organisation & there is no right to volunteer and our volunteer can be terminated at any time for any reason, the fact a cadet cannot be asked to leave due to non payment of subs is incredulous.
Otherwise it would bankrupt the organisation over night.
So can CWCs opt out of paying their subs to wing, and onwards up the chain, as it’s only a voluntary donation…
Strangely enough, I didn’t get a response on that when I asked… 
so far the only thing I can find in AP1919.
I am wondering if the membership subscription is coded into civ com constitutions regarding membership of the association.
There might also be an insurance caveat somewhere as well.
I’m certainly open to the argument that subs should not be mandatory, as most of us are obviously forthcoming with information about financial support of all sorts to cadets.
But if there’s no support for enforcement then it needs to be possible to not pay higher bodies / HQ for cadets who don’t pay us, otherwise units are forced to pay that which they cannot recoup / cut loose.
The above obviously wouldn’t work if no one paid, so it could be “immature” policy (not in the sense that it’s “bad” as such) simply because it hasn’t really been needed.
Mandatory membership fees isn’t a controversial concept, so I doubt it would be difficult to enforce, unless I’m missing some nuance because of the public sector link.
If people don’t pay subs, then put a charge on events. Whilst uptake may drop, those who want to attend and enjoy things will pay!!
A lot of events are put on at public expense, but do parents realise what their subs actually goes towards!!
As someone has said earlier about paying Wing subs, and then up to the Air Cadet Charity, squadrons can back out of this option, but they lose son much potential in return.
Not mandatory, but expected without a reason or a chat about finances.
Agreeing you’ll pay and then not paying isn’t okay. But coming to the OC/CWC to discuss a discount or not paying as you can’t afford it is completely different and would generally be fine.
Yeh, this is the sort of standard practice that we all engage in anyway.
I think the issue above was around simply not paying subs, which obviously then causes loss for the unit, unless there’s a mechanism to have that discounted further up?
I’ve never had to ask the question.
I know there are many families currently struggling to make ends meet across the country but as my OC tells parents when their children join £5 a month is much cheaper and better value than buying a Starbucks a week especially when you consider what we provide in return.
I would suggest that this is incorrect. I can remember Wing routine orders stating what the wing, regional and corps levy was per cadets per month and it was to be paid out of cadet subscriptions. I cannot remember what the the actual value was but I do remember that if a cadet attended every night it was about a third of the subs we were charging.
ACP 31 ATC general service training. Ch1 history of the ATC showed a ADCC cadet in uniform and it stated what the subs were for that organisation pre WW2.
Subs has always been a part of this organisation and every layer of the organisation has taken its cut. I would also suggest, it is the main reason why every Sqn wing, region and HQAC has the committee pillar, for the management of non public funds raised by subscriptions.
One thing has changed recently though, that still doesn’t sit right with me. The HQ levy bit used to go into the ATC GP Fund. Money from the ATC, to be spent on the ATC.
This is no longer the case.
AFAIK, the subs still end up at the top, but now into The Air Cadet Charity. This is a charity who then gives money to all air cadets; ATC and CCF. The CCF have their own pot of money that gets paid into AFAIK.
I find it wrong that only ATC cadets are paying into this charity, yet the charity funds across both ATC and CCF. Either the ATC should stop paying into it, and they should focus on grant funding, or CCF should pay the same levy as ATC cadets do.
Now, maybe it has changed in the last year and I’m now wrong there, but I’ve not seen anything
To caveat it, I believe it’s the Air Cadet Development Scheme Bursary which is the only one available to CCF(RAF) cadets - everything else (the unit/wing etc grants) is ATC only.
Some of their biggest expenditures appear to have been things for HQAC and regional assets, though, which benefits both.
