Hence why it would be useful to have this listed on portal 
1 Like
Why not have a free text field on Roles that the CO adds to the staff record in SMS which then pulls across to the portal?
Allows flexibility with minimum effort & CO gets to add roles as needed.
Personal I would just publish the Sqn organagram onto the portal as a download.
2 Likes
Could even be a mostly drop down so that the naming convention is the same across units.
Again.
Dont want a centrally controlled list of job roles.
Itâs not for HQAC to tell Sqns what job titles we are are limited to.
This piece of work seems entirely unnecessary.
1 Like
I donât think anyone is suggesting limiting titles. They are suggesting a drop down list of common titles but with a free text option if you want to make up your own
1 Like
But why?
Just draw up an org chart.
Upload to download section of cadet portal.
Done
1 Like
Seconded.
Given our manning crisis, it seems a bit optimistic and quite silly to create a list of expected roles, especially when itâs the same name that is placed next to all of them.
The advice should be: Got any questions? see the Adj, or failing that, see the OC.
Why does it? How many sqns are lucky enough to have someone who is interested and motivated enough to choose that as a role on a sqn? How many sqns have enough kit to justify the role? How many sons are able to get on the air on regular basis?
If youâre on a squadron that has none of these things, then whatâs the point? You may as well have had a sqn gliding officer role during the âPauseââŚ
1 Like
Because cadets wonât download a PDF.
Iâve had the OC/Adj/TO email addresses on a contact details sheet in the downloads section since we started. Still get asked it.
I donât really understand why youâre all so dead set against it. No one is saying you MUST assign roles, but why canât squadrons who do have the staffing to facilitate it have access to it? For example, due to the numbers of junior cadets we have on my unit we have a dedicated âFirst Class Training Officerâ whoâs whole focus is on delivering first class training. While I as the TO work closely with them I donât have all the answers to queries about first class and it would be much better if they went directly to the other member of staff rather than me.
If you donât want to add supplementary roles then just do nothing and it stays as OC/Adj/TO/SNCO. As you all keep banging on about a one size fits all solution doesnât work. Why not have a tiny bit of flexibility in the text that appears under someoneâs photo - thatâs all it is.
1 Like
simply as a Point of Contact - see the rest of my post after the part you quoted
Every Squadron has a topic-Officer, even if it is the Adj who emails the Wing Topic officer.
in the Cadets minds, âWe donât have a topic officerâ = we/I canât do that activity
which i feel is wrong.
On one occasion, on a Wing Radio Course i was teaching, a Cadet asked if i was the same CFAV involved in shooting, the conversation went on about discussing with their Sqn Shooting officer the next Wing dates for training, another Cadet overheard the conversation and said âoh, we donât have a Shooting officer so donât do shootingâ and believed that the lack of visible shooting officer meant shooting was a âblockedâ activity for them simply because there was no one to ask.
I am not suggesting a Sqn Topic officer should be a expert, qualified and experienced in that topic (see above and below my Sports officer experience) , but be someone who is at the very least visible to the Cadets to ask as the Sqn POC
As i put above, I have been a Sports officer in the past, despite more likely to be found playing pool than in studded boots, but hasnât stopped me knowing enough about age brackets and Wing trial dates, or find the time to sort the admin side of things for the unitâŚ
On one unit this was purely to ease the workload on the already overloaded Adj who was was basically
seen as the go to for âeverythingâ and the OC wasnât keen on that so split some of the roles out, such as sport - no one on the Staff team was âinterested and motivatedâ about Sport to take it seriously as a specialism but it was a role which was easy to pick up and ease off the Adjâs work load.
I completely agree that not all Squadrons have sufficient Radio kit to justify a Sqn Radio Officer role in the full sense, and even fewer will have someone âinterested and motivatedâ enough to specialise, but that doesnât stop one of the CFAV knowing a little more than ânothingâ and when approached by an interested Cadet (as the Sqn POC for Radio) have an answer more than âi shall email the Wing Radio Officer for youâ
Why not, surely we should be keeping job titles the same at all levels of the Organisation. You would be the first to come on here bleating that your Wing Radio Officer had changed their job title to âWing Radio Communications & Shiny Technology Guruâ.
Most of the ACTOâs actually stipulate that Squadrons will appoint a Squadron CFAV or Staff Cadet to the role of Squadron X and some even provide ToRâs. Now just because the option exists on SMS/Portal doesnât mean that you have to use it, but it would be useful for those Squadrons that do have staff.
Why should the advice be see the Adj, they are already the busiest member of Staff on most units and can do without having a line of Cadets asking questions about something another member of Staff is responsible for.
My original point was that if we are going to have a tab (as we now do) saying what the staff roles are it should be all of them, as only showing 4 of them isnât actually of any use. (As itâs the 4 you would expect Cadets to all know anyway).
4 Likes
Also now it is Radio & Cyber, Sqns can get Cadets to watch the introductory videos (this is mandatory as part of 1st Class anyhow) and start with the iDEA award. Again no expertise needed other than finding the content on SharePoint. (Granted that is not always an easy task).
They do, but why? Do we actually need them anymore?
Now Cadet Poral has arrived, you donât need a Sqn Shooting Officer to collate bids for a wing/sector shoot, or record CLF/badge progress - itâs all done by the instigating RCO.
Do you need a Sqn Flying and Gliding officer anymore? Slots are reducing, and events can be created on the SMS by the Wing role.
Do we need a Stores Officer? Some wings have taken control of sqn inventories.
Do we need a Sqn Security Officer? What do they do, aside from deliver a HQ created brief and review SSOs twice a year?
Do we need a DofE officer, now we have EDofE?
Do we need AT officer now we can publish and organise bids electronically. Same Radio, BTEC etc etc.
Weâre moving to EWOW, which will make a lot of these roles rather redundant anyway. If if that doesnât, the lack of opportunities will (see gliding officersâ roles during the pause).
Letâs look at where we see our roles in 2026, and ditch everything that serves no purpose. I respect James and his team, and feel like this would serve little practical purpose. Quite frankly, we have enough obstacles to get over, without getting bogged down doing irrelevant tweaks to CP.
Edited to add, EWOW will hopefully reduce the admin burden on the Adj, so I see no issues why they canât be a POC for most events? They are the ones who probably know most about them anyway.
Based on that logic what do you need a Squadron Training Officer now that we have VONâs the Wing Training Officer can do it all be video link.
If you think that the job of a Squadron SME simply to take down lists of names then quite frankly you arenât doing it properly.
Corrected that for you.
Oh you young little scally wag you.
I saw what you did there.
Thatâs a good question. Certainly, in my Wing, the SLT are pushing to centralise a lot of training anyway. During non F2F, they have run some VPNs on subjects that you would normally see delivered at Sqn level. Weâve have subjects that are delivered only by HQAC approved presentations⌠Perhaps it isnât as far away as you think?
That said, there is certainly a need for coordination of local training - thatâs the training officers job. And definitely a need to manage the admin and recruitment - sep forward the adj.
Being an SME isnât the same as holding that named role.
For example, on 321 Sqn, Plt Off bloggs is the Squadron shooing officer, despite having no qualifications.
All shooting activities is created and run by Flt Lt Jones, who is the sqn OC and a SAAI and RCO.
From application to post shoot admin, the RCO doesnât need any input from the Sqn Shooting officer. Thanks to the CP, he can now create the application, get approval, share it around his neighbouring sqns, run the event and then award the badges and updates individuals progress. Why do we need a shooing officer?
You donât even need them to organise staff applications anymore. We have the training portal, and soon we will have he volunteers portal.
The same can be said for pretty much any SME role, especially now weâre moving towards having to have qualifications for pretty much any off sqn event.
Anyone with a qualification can set up an application, publish it through cadet portal, manage the bids, and do the post activity admin. You donât need a named role anymore.
We need to look forward - use technology to reduce the need for administrative roles like SShO, thus letting our staff concentrate on delivering activities, and developing themselves.
Iâm sure itâs been said before but what would help enormously is for SMEs/Wgs/higher to be able to push activities directly to Cadet Portal.
At the moment we rely on Sqns to do so and it is patchy at best. Iâve seen events where fewer than half of Sqns have added to Portal. I firmly believe Cadets should have the opportunity, not have it blocked by Sqns.
Yes once we are f2f there could be an option for OC/Adj to remove an event and advise the organiser - if thereâs a clash or another good reason.
The same Sqns that donât advertise are often the first to complain Wg doesnât support them.
This.
But with Sqn OC override to avoid local event clashes. Obviously with a flag to wing that this has been done.
Having WSCs be able to release activities to a sector would help immensely as there are many Sqns not letting their cadets see any activities at present. Sad.
100%.
Also, in cases where this is happening, it should be followed up on.
There are no excuses for not sharing all virtual events at present.
1 Like
Almost certainly a (very) local issue, but Iâve never interacted with Cadet Portal, I have no idea what it does, who itâs for, or whether anyone else on my unit uses it / uses it in the way itâs meant to be used. The whole introduction of it has totally bypassed me somewhere in my 15 yrs of being a CFAV⌠
The clue is in the name 
2 Likes