Personally I prefer it as it is, since that’s how all the leave Calendars are set at work 
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Ok I will check that out, thanks
We are getting very close - Beta starts the day after tomorrow 
I have just posted an article on SPOL covering the user account authentication process the cadets will need to do to access their account. They do this once, verify their identity and after that they can login for the first time at https://cadets.bader.mod.uk.
Article here: Sign in to your account
We have done a complete dummy run of the user generations for the 580ish Beta cadets and it all went well. On Wednesday, we will run it live and the accounts will start pinging off to the cadets themselves…then we will see how proactive the Sqns have been in getting the cadets email addresses onto SMS!
Any questions, ask away
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I am super excited! Whens my wing getting it 
Find out here!
https://rafac.sharepoint.com/sites/cadetportal/SitePages/Cadet-Portal-Deployment-Strategy.aspx
Is the plan to still keep to that timetable? We are in Tranche 2 which is planned for Dec time - is that still the target, or will the slip to SMS/Cadet Portal beta shift the tranches to the right a bit?
Yes, assuming that all goes well we are sticking to the timescales. The only thing we are doing is reducing the Beta period slightly to 23 Oct - 25 Nov but we want to keep the rest of it as per the issued timetable. We appreciate that you will be getting your data sorted beforehand and we don’t want to come to you and be like “SURPRISE! We are deploying to you early” when your data isn’t ready and you are made to look silly in front of cadets and their parents/guardians
I was hoping to get all Cadets details updated by now but was basically told no need yet. So gonna leave all that to the big man in the big chair/office to sort out last minute with the other thousand things he can’t bare to let others help him with…I’m sure he’s on a commission or looking to get a gold star with his title 
I started the task a couple of months ago and made some progress, but there are still gaps in the data and those gaps are likely to remain past deployment day.
So long as there is a mechanism to “onboard” a cadet who has updated their contact information after deployment has started (hint!), then it shouldn’t be a problem. I foresee the existence of a working system acting as a catalyst to uptake.
I think cadet portal is going to lead to a percentage… not sure how many… maybe 5 or 10 percent of cadets leaving.
But that will be the bone ideal lazy ones who cant adapt to a new world where they aren’t spoon fed and have to think a little for themselves.
No bad thing!
Hopefully they will be replaced by a new Corps wide cohort of go getting cadets who enjoy their new responsibility and ability to sign up to activities!
Bottom line, I will bend over backwards for any cadets who genuinely need help getting on or used to the system. But any who just want stuff done for them can forget it.
It will develope a sense of independence in them.!
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Hope so!
Puts the onus squarely back on the cadets unlike the previous 10 years where it has slowly moved over to staff.
Makes it easier for me chasing cadets on our closed facebook groups etc
O get the impression that the portal will spoon feed the cadets more than squadrons have ever done, by putting it all out there for them to see and them picking what their experience is … ironically pretty much like it always has been.
There seems to be a naïve belief that just because you put it “on the menu” they will all try it all. Not really cadets will do what they want and how much of it they want to do. Just because the local indian does stupidly hot curries, you don’t try it because it’s there. Same with the things on the portal.
I’ll be the first to jump down someone’s throat who berates a cadet because they aren’t doing as much as they think they should be or not using the portal.
The biggest potential for discontent is cadets “signing up” to something that staff aren’t attending. Parents expecting us to be a taxi service, and the cadets not going.
We just had 3 cadets bin an upcoming DofE exped as I’m the only member of staff going and lo and behold I can’t get them all in my car and I said their parents will have to take them. I get a real sense if I wasn’t going no cadets would be. Before anyone comments, there are no other squadrons local to us attending and even if there were it shouldn’t be expected they would have room.
That’s where it’s your Job as an OC to empower your training officer to manage expectations around the events you allow cadets to see
These expectations can be managed through the portal itself which can make it clear if there are transport limitations, for example.
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I think that sort of defeats the idea of it and what we do already. So why do we need it? More correctly why has someone thought we need it?
Yeah enjoy that when you suddenly have to do it all at once 
There is and the server will detect a cadet that now needs an account because the correct information has been added and just automatically generate it for them. It does a sweep every 2 hours, so you will either have to wait 1 hour 59 minutes and 59 seconds for the account to be created or 1 second, depending on where you hit it in the cycle.
Personally, I don’t think that is true at all. Why would cadets leave just because of a computer system. They will still need to be reminded to do things, just like they need to be reminded to put their name down on a paper list.
That has not been the experience of Durham/Northumberland Wing who have SquadronBox in the majority of units and have done for the last 3 years or so…
As a general statement, I don’t respond to trolls and I actively ignore the above users posts (not you @Paracetamol, the other one who I will not name…) under all circumstances.
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Fair enough. Maybe 10% was a bit high.
I hope not anyway. But either way I think it’s a really good thing and even if a few do go, I genuinely believe the efficiency on sqns and empowerment to cadets will bring in long term more of the “right stuff”.
We are live!!!
558 cadet accounts were generated this afternoon and sent to the cadets. We had 46 instances of a cadets record not having an email address, which isn’t too bad. Once these records are updated with an email address, the welcome email will be automatically sent to them.
First official Cadet Portal platform to go live! 
National comms:
SPOL Beta release article:
https://rafac.sharepoint.com/sites/cadetportal/SitePages/Cadet-Portal-Beta-Trials-Begin.aspx
SPOL Authentication process video - from live production server
https://rafac.sharepoint.com/sites/cadetportal/SitePages/Authentication-Process---Demo-from-Production.aspx
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