Tonight is going to be a fun staff meeting before the Cadets return 2moro. Gone through sms of all 70+ cadets and 49 haven’t even bothered logging into Cadet Portal 
Not bypasses, simply defaults to visible, the unit can then go in and hide if they wish.
I’d sooner not have people sign up then get overridden by the unit, but instead have the unit make an intelligent decision of what it is able and willing to support.
If you build it, they will come.
@james_elliott - Is CP/SMS currently able to identify if a person applies for overlapping activities?
Okay, I now understand what you mean.
Though another consideration does still come to mind.
In the current system Sqn staff have the ability to amend the details before pushing to the Portal.
A lot of what I have done in that regard is removing all the superfluous administrative content from the “details” box and updating the timings & departure/pick-up locations to fit our purpose (for example the main event for a Wing parade would list the location and start time. I would want to tell my cadets they should arrive at the Sqn HQ an hour before).
I know from my own experience that the details I include in SMS for Wing events which I run are not the details which the joining cadets need to see.
We can fix all that before the cadets see it.
If everything were to go to the portal without our intervention then it would be highly likely that cadets will see the event in it’s “raw” format, with different locations/timings and with all the additional details they don’t need to know, before we get a chance to fix it - which does not present the most professional image. That would be something which would need to be addressed.
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A lot of what I do when publishing the few things I have so far had to publish, is amending descriptions and details so they are more useful to the cadets. That will improve with practise and experience of those raising the activity but we will always need to make some tweaks.
I have some concerns with the locations fields both for the main activity and the CP page. I’m not sure if there has been guidance as to how best to fill this in. I’d be interested if I am the only one with some worries here.
For example, if we have a joint activity taking place at an RAF camp, but the transport leaves from Wing HQ, what do we put as the activity location? Where they meet the transport or where they are going? I can see the logic in either but I think we need to provide both (what if some units are making their own way, for example?) Sure, the event location will be in an admin order but should it not be clear on the activity?
On the CP page, I think some fields are mandatory when they may not need to be (again, if we aren’t providing transport as a unit, do we need to provide location info?). I also think we should have lat./long available here too, rather than just postcode.
You have a number of issues with things being shared automatically.
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You have units that add everyone to everything. This has the potential to swamp Cadet Portal with Crap that Cadets don’t want or need to see. If this happens people will stop making use of it as it will become a burden.
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Things like whether their will be Transport won’t be showing when it initially goes out out. This is something the individual unit will add before pushing it out.
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Unlike the current system it shows zero faith in is as Squadron Staff to use our judgement, hardly good for morale.
I think, on reflection, I’m happy for it to stay as is (i.e. the unit chooses to publish).
I will take the approach that units will get one notification (an email) to say I’ve created the event, please publish to cadet portal. After that, if they forget to, or choose not to, then that’s going to be tough crap. If their units cadets miss out because of their choice then so be it - I’m not going to waste my time chasing.
I believe that was a major factor in the decision to set the system as it is currently.
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Exactly, what the point in empowering us to authorise our own events and then saying we can’t be trusted to manage the workload of our units.
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It’s not about the unit, it’s about the Cadet seeing what’s available.
It seems I’m preaching to converted people who would be diligent enough to work on SMS and the Cadet Portal. Trying to convince the crusties who only check email on squadron nights will be another thing all together and only in time will the stats tell I suppose.
Only checking emails on a squadron night really ought to be a normal, acceptable way of working.
It does require those higher up the chain to get their stinky stuff together well in advance though.
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They will also get an alert on Cadet Portal
There are a lot of reasons why you might not want to advertise an activity.
You might have spent a lot of time and effort planning a weekend FTX, booked accom and food, and don’t want your cadets to drop out to join a last minute L98 course which had been published a week and a half before your exercise…
You might have planned a bag pack to raise funds to replace your essential-but-knackered projector, and don’t want the cadets to sign for an hours climbing because it looks more “fun”…
You might simply be unable to produce staff for a flying detail, and don’t want your cadets to feel they are missing out because you have to work and the slot was handed to you three weeks after your on call rota was finalised…
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Again, let’s just add a little perspective…
We’ve always had the option to advertise events or not and we’ve been able to see everything going on through SMS. THIS IS NOT NEW, this is merely different process.
If you are arguing that we shouldn’t be blocking anything, then a) I hope you advertised anything and everything you were able to previously, regardless of what and when and any clashes and b) you still can!
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We’ve got a multi activity weekend being organised by the wing which is set up on SMS which has sub-apps inside the main one - is there any way that the sub-apps can be pushed to cadet portal when the main activity is rather than having to click through each one ?
Not at the moment - but it is something we are looking in to
Replying on behalf of the VSDT on this one, and with @james_elliott’s blessing.
We have debated this long and hard (and occasionally heatedly!). Within the team we have (recently) ex-Squadron OCs as well as Wing and Region Staff Officers so can see the picture as HQ formations looking down and as OCs looking up (no Monkeys/A*holes jokes please). Our conversations covered all of the points for both sides that have been debated above, and more besides.
We do not think that what is currently implemented will be the final version for releasing Wing/Region events to Cadet Portal and we have provided our recommendations to our project sponsor for circulation with the Command Board. I won’t go in to details of what was in that recommendation; that wouldn’t be fair on us or the command board as they may not agree.
Apologies if all of that seems like a bit of a non-answer - it’s the best we can provide at present but I stress again that both (and more) sides of this have and are being thought about.
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At the moment the multi-activity “camp” event is more trouble than it’s worth.
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Thanks for the answer, it’s good to hear that fair debate has been given. Will be interesting to see what the command board come back with.
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