Volunteer Software Development Team - New Cadet Portal

Thank you for taking the time to answer :slight_smile:

Maybe my Cadets are just better than yours? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

But on a serious note just attach the JI’s to Cadet Portal, the Cadets can then just prong it out so that Mum & Dad have a copy rather than creating an unnecessary admin burden for your staff.

I didn’t email parents details before and I sure as hell won’t be doing it going forward. (Most queries from parents are going to get the response ā€œask your son/daughterā€)

Perhaps - although, I’d argue cadets are something of a constant :wink:

Yep - done that - the expectation that ā€œthe adults provideā€ will always be there. Whilst additional admin yes, I feel the dialogue is of use as - show the parents you care (and of course we do) - and you may well benefit in ways as yet unknown, fosters that community spirit etc.

Out of interest, do you have many parents enquire? Always useful to compare effectiveness of approach :slight_smile:

People become expectant and become dependent on what you offer them, they will expect you to do what you have always done, if you make it clear to them that the information will be provided to the Cadets and that’s where they need to get it from they will get used by to it.

For me since one of our key aims is to prepare our Cadets with Skills which can be used in both Service & Civilian Life the more responsibility we put in the Cadets the better. When they go out and get a job at 16 their boss isn’t going to be emailing the shift pattern out to Mum & Dad.

Very few, I have trained the parents so they know to speak to the Cadets in the first instance.

I did get some push back when I changed Cadet Portal to the sole way of reporting absences. However I asked said parent if they intended to notify the employer of their child’s sickness for the rest of their life and informed them that they were quite welcome to email me but that it would then still be recorded as unauthorised (which is a Stat I use come promotion time) as they hadn’t stuck to the policy. Strangely enough they stopped whinging and they use the CP.

Yep. Equally, a very brief ā€œwe are running XXXX at YYYY on ZZZZā€ notice shows all parents the range of activities on offer. A cadet might only be advising** their parents of the event(s) shown on Cadet Portal that they have a specific interest in.

** Yes, a good life skill to develop, but even for the older cadets, one that is sometimes sadly lacking. Maybe in a few years when cadets / parents have only ever experienced the Cadet Portal, but ā€œCTIā€ (regardless of the methodology) has never been a strong point - Cadet Transmission of Information!! :wink: Cadet Portal is the 21st Century version of letters via cadets to parents…

It is interesting watching these discussions because all we have done is provide more and better access to information.

That is not in doubt - the weak point is the cadet → parent interface, there ain’t any software / hardware in the world that is going to change that! :rofl:

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Yep and that’s exactly what I’m sticking to, I didn’t email or post letters to parents before so I’m not going to start now.

Yep and by making the parents deal with the Cadets to get the information I’m not only reducing my Staff’s admin burden I’m actually helping their family to learn how to communicate. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I just think we do our Cadets a huge disservice if we treat them like Children, they are yours adults and they should be given responsibility for themselves.

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I completely agree. We seem to be moving backwards in this area.

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Whilst I agree in principle to most of above…

We still insist on signed TG21 for all events as proof that parent is aware and consented to cadet being on an event
I hate organising event/transport for 20 and only 6 turn up on day because they forgot to ask parents, forgot they were going to Grannies for tea, on holiday, etc

The organisation doesn’t. You might do that but there is no need. SMS tells you if you need consent forms now :slight_smile:

wait, does it? where?

In the event, the row of green or red circles at the top that include things like Staff Ratios and whether the Driving box has been fixed.

One of them says whether you need TG21 or not.

ahhhh. cool.

And wearing my Wg hat I can see which units have - or have not - cascaded info on events down to their cadets. It makes for interesting reading.

There is still much misunderstanding around the requirement, or not, for TG 21…
I hear of plenty of people still expecting cadets to bring them for events which haven’t required them for some months now.

It’s almost as though many people still haven’t completed the mandatory ACTO 10 training module on Ultifail… :wink:

Some of us have been with the organisation for 3+ years and have never been given log in information, nor chased to do those courses :wink:

This x1000. Not only does it prepare the cadets for the real world, it prevents you from demotivating your older cadets by speaking to them like children. I think a lot of people (especially outside the organisation) would be surprised at how 17/18/19 year olds are treated by some staff.

Want to find out how your Squadron, Wing and Region are doing…look no further:

https://rafac.sharepoint.com/sites/cadetportal/SitePages/Cadet-Portal-Usage-Reports.aspx?fbclid=IwAR2m8dzczOlRNx8CVuaZ84OeJDZPM74Tx7Qq3O7cKIrwnGTxq1hSUvmToZY

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Interesting stats.

Skewed a bit based on % of cadets using. Bit trickier if you’re a large Sqn!

But pleased none the less to see my Sqn is well in the top.

Total shambles some out there though with only 1 or 2 cadets accessing CP etc.
Also the Sqns not putting events on portal. I mean come on.

Still, hopefully some wing commanders can now use this to beat the weak OCs into submission.

I will sit back and watch.

#Schadenfreude

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