well if you really want to try and do more paperwork 
Surely it just needs to be a generic one about safeguarding and security that they can pump out to everyone to attach if they really want it.
We canāt ensure cadets maintain correct posture or use a fully adjustable chair with a monitor at slight tilt and the top at eye level or hold their phone at eye level looking straight ahead blah blah blahā¦
You donāt need a risk assessment for a virtual meeting.
Policy clarification to follow.
Thank you for all of your kind words - itās been a busy few days!
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Could someone remind me, Links and QR codes for events on Cadet Portal; are they the same for all squadrons on an event, or it the link unique to the squadron?
New data published by the Bader Team:
The wording of that really worries me. I may be behind the times but it reads to me as though virtual parade nights are compulsory and those not delivering will be having āconversationsā?
I know James has done his best there to make it sound politically correct but the availability of the data will no doubt set some our mini hitler Wing Commanders right off.
We have been told that there will be repercussions for staff members not engaging with online training, and without a āvalidā excuse.
Who decides what is valid, and what the repercussions will be have not been outlinedā¦
Lucky itās a well paid job, eh?
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And the Wing Commander wonders why weāve lost so many staff members!
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Have it from the horseās mouth that the W&W RC doesnāt see it that way and has told the Wg Cdrs that All that is needed is best effort, whatever can be done us good enough. Seemingly no pressure from the topā¦?
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Good on RC W&W for being vocal about that. Sounds like the message isnāt the same from other RCs or that message is not making it past the Wing Commanders to the units as needed.
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Story of my life
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I did the first phase of the reports and from that I know RCs have briefed their Wg Cdrs not to challenge Sqn for low Virtual Parade Nights.
The reports are simply a tool to highlight the usage to help wing level management of the training plan and hopefully build a business case for the long term need for the extended licenses.
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long term licences scare me. For staff meetings fine, but not for virtual parade nights. Give each Sqn 1 licence - plenty
Ideally, we will want the E1 licenses for all over the long term. The T&E savings alone are absolutely massive; we did an analysis of the commanders forum and that meeting would have cost around Ā£150,000 to deliver face-to-face as opposed to just the VA/overtime which is a far smaller number. Going into the future, there is very little need to drag WSOs to face to face routine meetings when they can just be done virtually.
Also, if we think units are going to magically open for all cadets at the same time, we are deluding ourselves. I think it is far more likely that we will have small numbers of cadets at the unit and the rest on virtual sessions into the foreseeable. But there is little point speculating on it to be honest because the guidance changes almost daily.
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From what Iāve seen of Microsoftās roadmap they are rolling out some useful new features - like breakout rooms - but they are coming to the academic licences before commercial (I donāt know if as a āyouth trainingā outfit we could have academic licences.
VA is an interesting one as the way the hours are counted works a bit against delivery online, there arenāt many people who would sit through 8 hrs online. And whilst thereās no travel time there is still IT prep and testing time.
Aside from the occasional Wing staff meeting I canāt imagine that Iāll venture back into Microsoft Teams once weāre back to face-to-face. At least, not by choice - itās bloody awful.
On the surface one might think that it should be a great way to bring together all the useful MS appsā¦ But in typical MS style it does half a job and half duplicates several of their their products.
But the ability to use Outlook alone is probably worth the cost of the licences.
No, Microsoft refuse to recognise us as an academic establishment ābecause MODā no matter what we do. Which means we neither benefit from the discounted rate per license or any of the other stuff - which would include free O365 accounts for cadetsā¦
In what sense? Do you use it at work?
They do my Squadron and I have no idea how my predecessors predecessor swung it.
Indeed - your individual units can be recognised, but not HQ where your licenses where get issued from because it is RAF/MODā¦