That’s a bit extreme.
I was more referring to the levels of expectation, the additional requests, the entitlement, admin and time burden, CoC attitudes, and external pressure that many in many areas experience. Of course there will be outliers and it’s fair that your boundary is set within your level your level of comfort.
For others, especially those in certain roles, or with specific ambitions/passions that sit outside of where your boundaries are set, it can be a different experience.
I guess it depends on a few factors as to what VA will look like the average claimed won’t be 28 days due to the vast majority not going on camps every year or having a secondary/SME role.
If you are into AT/Shooting etc you probably are going to be up on the scale of 28 days
An Easter AT camp, Summer one and Oct half term and 3 or 4 DofE coverage and you are probably over your limit. Same with shooting more at the weekends claims but if involved in one of the SATT’s easily could use those days and more.
I think a more sensible approach needs to be taken. The big problem about camps is how long it is taking to confirm dates and if you will be selected as staff. At the moment we have 1 week confirmed for a Regional camp in August for us.
As well as VA it is the physical time off work for me that has an impact so 5 working days although paid I need to put aside if selected for a camp. At the moment there could be the limited corps camps, Region or Wing ones where I could be selected but with no dates selected it is difficult to plan ahead. Also you have midweek AEF which again needs time off work.
When you look at what can be claimed for VA if you aren’t on any camps for the year and not a shooter/AT person there aren’t many years where you would need more than 7 days VA for Squadron daily participation as a volunteer officer. If selected for an annual camp you should get the full 7 days for the camp
I don’t believe the “average” has been 28 ever.
This is a maximum allowed. While some may get a few extra every so often, the vast majority i predict don’t claim 14 days in a year.
To pick up your “average” the that is more than one a month.
Not unachievable but given not all events attract VA it takes someone committing one weekend every month to the RAFAC to a narrow field of events.
Perhaps possible in the shooting world with a Wing monthly shooting weekend but radio or First Aid training might be a greater challenge without sufficient Cadet interest/demand
(AT might work if there is a monthly climbing session but this is not typicalin my experience)
The alternative is a full weekend every other month with maybe a week camp thrown in…again possible but how many CFAVs are doing that?
Camp opportunities are so few and far between i know our Squadron Staff team haven’t all dineba camp in the last 5 years let alone 12 months
When I was in the ACF we were all hitting the 28-day cap, with months to go (and this was why I joined the TA as well). I’d have thought that, with RAFAC’s higher expectations of uniformed staff (with those not willing to make the extra commitment remaining CIs), running out of days would be a bigger problem?
Not sure of recent figures but a few years back an average of 14 days was being quoted - with some over 50 and triggering concerns about employment law.
Surely HQAC could quote the average VA per uniformed staff, quite easy really, then we would know 
They did … 14-15 days
A little unfair to CIs who for various reasons are unable to commit to more as personal circumstances are so different for each individual, but their contribution to a unit maybe pivotal to a training officer to deliver the programme.
Agreed. Not levelling this at anyone in this current chat, but the uniformed superiority vibe “martyrs to the volunteer cause” is really toxic.
My SME commitment means I did 14 days last calendar year for that discipline alone (and all our courses were full).
I’m also on another team which pretty much eats up the rest.
So I have no spare for camps and typically don’t claim for anything we run as a Sqn.
I didn’t mean that as a dig at CIs: it’s just that when I ask CIs why they’re not in uniform the answer is usually along the lines of the commitment / expectations being higher for uniform (or that the system makes it too difficult to get into uniform: but that’s another topic).
And that’s a big problem for the future of the organisation, surely?
A uniformed volunteer who can only do one day a week and no weekends is still incredibly valuable.
I’m role modelling it for the corps. One parade night a week and I pretty much only do the local community support events. Hence I have only ever claimed VA for my OIC course. It does insulate you from a lot of the grief, you do sometimes get funny looks when you say you can’t do weekends.
More power to you. I hope you call them out every time they give you a funny look.
I suspect the long term plan is to phase out all VA over a period of time, by either making it difficult to claim, reducing it gradually to cut costs or just stopping it altogether. It’s short sighted as the compensation for lost holiday time, working days, time away from family etc makes it possible for many activities to happen. The ones to suffer will be the cadets. The ones to gain will be the bean counters and budget holders, and our families who will see more of us.
It will be like all the changes that have gone before (PTS, CFC etc)…
Those from the ‘old days’ will bitch and moan and withdraw labour…
New joiners won’t know any better and will just get on with it and will be down to how enthusiastic and willing to give time etc.
Some ‘acceptable’ cyclical drop off but will recover over time…
…or so the planners hope
I’m not sure the latter applies universally. I’m pretty sure my family would pay to see less of me. So for them VA is a win-win!
If you are employed by a company with paid holiday and paid for taking time off work using holiday pay and often like in my companies case they offer an additional 2 volunteering days paid a year too which I can use for any cadet activity. If I do something VA claimable at the weekend. I can take the Monday off too. With VA I personally use it more as a compensation/sweetener type of deal with my Wife. The VA claimed goes into a savings account and we either go away for a long weekend or buy something for the house with it etc at the end of the year. In theory its a luxury being a volunteer having that as an option however if you were self employed and didn’t have holiday pay it would be the cadets that directly suffer from the volunteers potential loss of earnings as you can’t expect them to volunteer and lose out on earnings. In my case it might be having to pay for the TV upgrade out of my wage than VA but not the end of the world!
It applies to all events from now on.