@james_elliott I’ve noticed that after an activity has been approved by WHQ, you can’t then set the activity to ‘Bidding’ as you can’t edit anything on the main tab. Is that intentional? If not can it changed in a future release?
We’ve been doing it since about a week after release, not sure how much the cadets are actually using the QR codes though.
Must of been instructed to download a specific QR scanner
MUST HAVE*
AAAAAAAAAA
</ rant>
1 Like
Just open your iphone camera and it will show a drop down tab and take you to the page of the QR code
By the time an event is approved you should have all your cadet names in place (with some minor alterations accepted).
The logic being that WHQ can’t approve an event until there are cadets attending it - they can then check relevant qualifications and staff:cadet ratios, &c.
Bidding should close before the event is submitted for authorisation and after approval no cadet should be able to ‘surprise add’ themselves.
That’s always been the agreed logic of HQ’s, it does of course have zero logic to it but hey that’s what the organisation is all about.
I have been for years forced to add Cadets to events at random so that they can be authorised and WSO’s can see the ratios at the end of which the authoriser will write “ratio not to exceed 1:10 etc”. All of
The Cadet names then get deleted and re-added when we know who is actually going.
In fact there is no need to add any names, as long as the staff are listed and the person authorising writes a reminder of the ratios in their authorisation it makes zero difference to the process.
1 Like
I accept the premise, but this results in a scenario where you either finalise the list of attendees weeks before the event takes place, or you only give WHQ a few days to approve it - in the meantime you are sweating about whether it is actually going to get approved.
This is how I feel - activity Commander should state how many cadets they expect to attend and in what ratios (m,f, over 18s etc) rather than having to add the cadets themselves.
Does it actually matter to WHQ whether it’s Bloggs or Jones attending? As long as the nominal roll gets updated before the end is closed I can’t see the problem
Though, we can still amend the nominal roll after approval and I do regularly.
The “placeholder” cadet list is not alien to me either when it came to Sqn events. However most of those are now self-auth so it’s no longer a problem - we just authorise it a day or two prior.
Really though I would say that for many, if not most events which require Wing approval the cadet list should be finalised at least two weeks before the event. At the very least to give fair warning to those selected, and also because that’s just sensible planning for those of us organising.
Last minute changes will always occur but I’d far rather be swapping Cadet Bloggs for Cadet Jones three days before the event than waiting until a day or two before to to finalise everything at my end.
Never been a requirement for me locally to have cadets listed prior to approval.
I might wish to staff and activity and receive approval prior to advertising to cadets…
Admittedly I mostly organise shooting so hog number of staff to cadets anyway making the 1:10 ratio a moot point.
depends on your Wong/Region some require submission of activities 4 or even 6 weeks in advance.
I think we are playing fast and loose with the term “finalised” as you never know until the event starts who is actually attending. We can have a good idea or a “best guess” but expecting accuracy 2-4 weeks in advance and trying to lock things down on that timescale is a fool’s errand!
It is only events such as those requiring guaranteed attendee lists for purposes of plane tickets or similar where this is even a reasonable request and there will typically be understood financial implications for drop-outs, but even then there can still be changes right down to the start date,
Administratively, we need to know the details of the activity well in advance and lock down the logistics aspects with sufficient time (I prefer 4 weeks) so that information can get out to known attendees and parents at that time. In most circumstances we should be able to get activity approval at around that stage and not have people worrying about ratios and specifics at all - the “required” staff can be locked in as Directing Staff on the SMS activity and the ratio can be implicit in the details of the activity and the numbers it can support. An approval can be made based on the concept and the knowledge that the activity i/c knows the rules and limits, not on the names of non-critical participants.
So long as the admin instructions can get to a last-minute attendee I really see no reason why the attendee list for most events cannot remain fluid right up to the wire.
3 Likes
I’m not suggesting that it shouldn’t remain fluid, just that personally I wouldn’t want to have new cadets throwing their hats into the ring after the two week point. By that time I’ve already allocated places and have a reserve list.
I can’t really see the need to allow “bidding” up to the wire. We still have the option to manually add cadets after that approval point. If they haven’t made their bid in plenty of time like everyone else then hard luck. If there’s a particularly deserving candidate who didn’t get their bid in then we can still add them if we chose.
That is fair - bidding ends at the assigned deadline on the activity so only manual additions can be made after that point. That is really for our benefit though, so we can tweak the bulk of the numbers and advise who is chosen at that stage. However, in a world where it is less usual to be rejecting people and setting reserves at that stage (because we can be lucky to fill the activity) then I am open to taking new people onto the event long after bidding closes.
1 Like
This was the premise that we built it under - we want to try to encourage cadets to ‘own’ their attendance and meet the deadlines. In the latest version of the events dashboard (which will go live in Jan) if the event is bidding and the deadline has passed, they are prompted to speak to the squadron staff to see if they are willing to add them to the event. It’s then up to you fine people to accept them (or tell them to meet deadlines)
I’m actually a little more concerned with the process of a selected cadet withdrawing from an activity close to the start date - is that also restricted in the same way that bidding is closed down, requiring direct staff interaction?
1 Like
Yes, short notice withdrawals are definitely something to think about. In the least we need a direct notification of some sort.
No, we don’t prevent cadets from withdrawing after the deadline date. There was a LOT of discussion about this but in the end we decided that it was somewhat futile. Even if we prevented them withdrawing, they still wouldn’t actually turn up, and therefore it would be better that event commanders knew they weren’t coming, even if last minute.
What we will be doing soon is enabling an email notification that if cadets withdraw, the organisers are informed immediately. We will also be adding a requirement that the cadet says why they aren’t coming. We are also going to build some reporting in SMS that will help identify “serial withdraw-ers/no-showers” , to be used for whatever staff might want to use it for.
3 Likes
Indeed, I certainly wouldn’t want to prevent cadets from withdrawing - that would undoubtedly lead to non attendees that we simply don’t know about until they just don’t show up.
Immediate email notification and a reason why is ideal.