You can - go to your Squadron staff and ask to see your SMS record and they can print as required for you.
There is no conspiracy to prevent cadets from accessing their data, MVP is just that, MVP. Initially it will do some things and not others and the range of functionality will increase over time.
Iâm sure that is the case and fair enough.
But the law changed in May and now you have to be prepared to respond to the cadet rather than look to HQAC.
Now we canât charge them.
Iâm aware of the law, and our rational for holding the data is a justifiable business need.
You have always been able to get all data an organisation have you you but they could charge ÂŁ10 in the pastâŚ
Itâs worth remembering that any data that is to be displayed will need programming - the liklihood is simply that the stuff weâre not putting on there is just not likely to be looked at and so isnât worth the effort.
Iâm sure youâre on this like a tramp with chips, but consider a Repository Pattern for abstracting away SMS so you have the flexibility to support other data sources (like Westminster) later.
Thank you 
At the moment, SMS is the only data source that we will be using and I donât think that will change any time soon - although I completely understand your rationale.
Or even go ultra web 3.0 and make it all RDF based, with no RDBMS in sightâŚ
I wish I could find an emoticon that displayed images like the reels on a fruit machineâŚ
DunkâŚdunkâŚdunk⌠three question marks.
âweb 3.0ââŚâRDBMSââŚâRepositoryââŚâabstracting awayââŚ
the only text I understand is: âlike a tramp with chipsââŚ
Bit late to the party but - I think asking for help is a great idea, isnât that what weâre all doing anyway?
Iâm a Mountain Leader, SPA, Paddlesport coach, etc etc - paid for by myself, should I refuse to run DofE expeds and AT unless paid a standard Freelance Day rate? If I had the first clue about it Iâd give James a hand too!
Just provided @Batfink with a demo of Cadet Portal via Bader Skype for Business 
. All went really well and he seemed to like what we are designing/developing 
Edit: Feel free to shower him with queries 
All credit to @james_elliott and the team behind this. Having had the demo last night I can genuinely see this as a huge step forwards for the ATC.
Itâll also bring about a bit of a culture shift in many ways - both in terms of admin reduction, but also empowerment to cadets to help them take a bit of control of their future and direction. Theyâll be able to have a central resource where they can see their own progression without necessarily having to bother squadron staff - but also see where they could go next (and doing so without having to bother squadron staff OR wade through pages of policy nonsense buried in ACTOs and ACPs).
The portal is entirely cadet friendly and cadet focused and very rightly so. This has been built from the ground up with them - our customers - in mind and it shows through. I can see younger cadets getting to grips with this very quickly in their cadet life and embedding it in their practice as they move through Sqn life and into Wg stuff. And in one cadet generation, it will be just be âthe wayâ. Just as Ultifail replaced those horrible photocopied different coloured exam papers - and we all thought the sky would cave in and hell would get cold enough to need a hat and woolly jumper - so, the Cadet Portal could quickly become âthe wayâ for a cadet friendly way to (at the moment) access their data, see their progression, see what events are available to them and see whatâs next. In the future, edit/adjust information, sign up for things at a local, Wg, or dare I say, Corps level. No more OCs briefcases - they can see exactly whatâs out there, whether theyâre eligible and start the ball rolling for registering interest etc. There will remain an element of control for the Sqn staff to follow through and approve changes/sign ups etc - but this will very much open up and add transparency to the whole process.
Whilst there is a danger this could be seen by some as the start of a âvirtualâ cadet force (in the same way that people said the same thing about Bodger & Ultifail), Iâm viewing this very much as a digital extension of the squadron footprint. They currently have a 3822 and, if theyâre lucky a squadron website/forum/facebook group where they can keep tabs on things. This will give them all these things together in one place - and integrated into the various aspects of Bader to help them keep track of whatâs going on and when.
I can also see real savings at a squadron level - reduced printing/admin/signup sheets etc for one (giving us more money to buy our own badges!). Just think, no more blue PTS books! No more printing out signup sheets only to take them down 2 weeks later with one name on - then transferring that across to e-nominations or an email or filling in another form to send to WgHQ. Even things like the background workflows being developed for things are going to be of long term benefit to folk as they draw together some excellent best practice examples from across the RAFAC to shape policy going forwards.
Anyways. Iâm converted - and Iâm a bitter and twisted cynic. Thanks for your time last night @james_elliott - well worth it! Good luck for the demo at Command Board.
Thanks for the write up, sounds like a great product.
Do you know if the ability for squadron staff to send messages to all cadets within the entire squadron is in the roadmap? If so, I could see this replacing a squadron Facebook group. Which will only be a good thing as this will enable us to include the 12-year-olds.
That sound great and if it works as you say it will lead to a step change in how the way the RAFAC does businessâŚ
A couple of observation, i hope the cadets get access to the ACPs as now and again they do need chapter and verse when things go wrong. The second is a lot more contentious. There are many COs out there who control their units bu limiting the choice of activities that they offer to their unit. The COs briefcase syndrome, or this sqn does not do shooting or local rules like only NCOs can wear stable belts. Information is power and there will be a small group who will push back against this.
Iâm glad to hear that one of our IT projects is giving the cadets and staff what they want/need!
Good luck selling it to the Seniors!!
Sounds good, although I hope that your comparison to Ultilearn doesnât mean that itâs as crap as that! Iâd still rather have the exam papers TBH.
No. It was more about how - sometimes - change doesnât break stuff and it becomes a good thing. Probs shouldnât have used ultifail as the reference point. Maybe letting females cadets wouldâve been a better benchmark⌠perhaps not for @teflon though!
Nice to have such a positive post. As someone that has been involved in two Squadron websites that allow cadet logins and Sqn based activities this is really positive. I wonder if there are plans to add parents 
that are linked to their young people⌠One of the biggest benefits of having a site that shows activities coming up is with the parents being able to see, in advance, what is on offer. Couple that with a notification for when their young person signs up, that would stop last minute cancellations. All really good.
As long as we make sure itâs not the parents who can sign kids up to things.
We get enough grief off parents when their kids didnât sign up for activities (because they didnât want to do them, or havenât attended in a couple of weeks so missed the notice). Explaining to them that its up to the kids to do it themselves is necessary - and necessary on a regular basis!
Completely with you there!
Thatâs in the pipeline for the next release i.e. the ability to make announcements directly to the cadets including functionality for urgent announcements like âAEF cancelled because ofâŚetcâ.
Once SharePoint Online (SPOL) has been implemented, we will be able to provide annon links from Cadet Portal directly to the source documentation which includes ACPs, ACTOsâŚanyything on SharePoint basically. The Cadets MS Office 365 account will not have an associated SharePoint license (due to license costs) but we can get around that issue with the above solution.
Yes, we fully appreciate that. There could be a very good reason for OCs to prevent an event from appearing on Cadet Portal e.g. it clashes with a higher priority event or something like that. In that case, the Staff will have the ability to switch that events Cadet Portal link off through SMS.
However, if you had a Sqn that was basically limiting what a Cadet could do consistently and repeatidly over time, we will be able to identify those units and push that intelligence into the Chain of Command to be dealt with as appropriate. The Chain has a strong desire that cadets be granted the opportunity to have a âgood ATCâ i.e. access the full spectrum of activities available to them and the âfilteringâ that we all know is taking place at the local level to be limited or eliminated where possible.
Reference things relating to dress regulations, I am actively engaged with the CACWO and his cadre and I have set them a challenge of producing high quality drill, ceremonial and dress video content which will only be available through Cadet Portal. This will allow the senior WOs in the Corps to cut through the crap that is made up in the heads of Squadrons and their staff and communicate directly with the cadets on such issue.
I full appreciate that supplying cadets with transparent information is a risk - but the plan is that it helps drive improvement, access to events and information that the cadets have never directly had access to before.
Many thanks and I will feedback how things go in November
No, Cadet Portal actually has an intuitive user interface and experience which is, as @Batfink has said, is entirely aimed at Cadets.
The Cadets will get it and navigate around it straight away, I donât have any doubts about thatâŚ
Negative Ghostrider ⌠The MOD will not even contemplate giving access to parents and Cadet Portal will be based on the MOD infrastructure. Believe me, we have had those arguments and it isnât one I can win at the moment. Baby steps!
All of that is the plan with notifications both in the tool itself and transmitted to a Cadets email account if they wish (they will be able to switch this on and off) - notifications will be post the initial version but it is very much on the roadmap.
Yes, that is key. There is a lot of culture to cut through hereâŚabout 76 years of it to be honest. Moving onto this kind of system is going to allow the cadets to put their names down for activities and the parents can look over their shoulder to see what is available.
With SquadronBox, we try and encourage Sqns to run a âtraining briefâ to show them what is available to them which works very well on a lot of Sqns up in the NE
Thank you all for your entirely constructive feedback and, as ever, very happy to answer any questions.
Once we have Command Board sorted and gained their approval, I will be looking at recording screen demoâs of the tool and posting them somewhere (probably Youtube) and putting them up here. Then you can listen to me droning on about it instead of reading 