Given that the first strand is of work is going to look at the way we use PIPES and other activities online, I was hoping to start a conversation about it here for people’s suggestions (which I’m happy to suggest to those who have volunteered to be part of the working group).
So, any ideas to make them fit for purpose?
P.s. be constructive please. No trolling or moaning for the sake of it (no names mentioned)…
First off, it needs to be stripped down to the very basics: why do we need to track activities and what do we hope to achieve by doing so. Different people have different ideas varying from diligence to micro-management. Is it a mechanism for wing or region to rule us with an iron fist and to grant absolute permission to carry out an activity, or does that permission already exist (as per a list in ACP300) and SMS just needs to provide a structure to guide us and a mechanism for wings/regions to observe and assist if necessary.
We need to empower grass-roots personnel and trust them to comply with policy. Those policies obviously need to be clear, logical and consistent and the SMS processes can help guide people or flag potential concerns.
They also need to be flexible - we need to be able to amend activities up to, and even during, the date of the activity so long as we still comply with the underlying regulations.
There also needs to be a selectable mechanism to allow an activity to be locked out or restricted so that amendments can be limited better than currently. Having a wing activity in place and visible but only having the activity lead able to amend personnel lists (forcing some sort of control or coordination) is one such example but there will be other examples too.
Finally, for now, the split of types of activities is a bit of a mess currently. It would be better for us to select an actual activity then have a wizard advise us and guide us to provide what is needed to support that particular activity, rather than picking a TYPE of activity and hoping that whatever random thing we want to do does fall within that activity.
I hear that some wings need a PIPE raised for any off Sqn activity, such as a Wing led event (that should have it’s own SMS event) just for the transport to be approved with the RA attached.
This seems excessive, and could be replaced with a simple check by the WSO that MT Orders / Travel RA are in place why would this need a PIPE or need WHQ approval.
The problem with SMS activities, not just limited to PIPEs is the lack of clear definition & policy from HQAC which allows for 34 Wingism’s
I can tell you, from experience, that you are very much right on this and it is one of my many issues with SMS/PiPEs
OCs should be able to approve activities and as incubus says be able to adjust all the way through without referring back to Wing or Region.
A few years ago there was much made of people having NGB tickets and not needing extra approvals for activities covered by the ticket. That never happened. This would alleviate many problems as would just being able to use commercial providers without needing a tree of paperwork from them. They wouldn’t be in business if they didn’t have it.
We need to be trusted to do things without the micro management that would not be seen in most workplaces. Do people in the Corps have more time on their hands than workplace managers?
Speak to JCCC first as their “needs” influenced lot of these issues with PIPEs.
I wonder how many are genuinely needs and are genuinely met currently.
Allowing us to amend all personnel (and even to annotate attendance times or partial attendances) would go a long way to making the JCCC picture more accurate.
Tying VA to presence on an activity further complicates the whole concept.
Indeed.
Of we are are using a commercial provider we shouldn’t need a PIPE, they are insured and qualified so we should just be able to pay them and take the cadets.
Also why do I need a PIPE or activity approval of any kind to do something locally that I can authorise locally as an OC on your average Parade night, it doesn’t make sense.
But this is one of the problems of implementing the SMS activity system as it was done.
It was done with everything as one and then they started tinkering and no one really understood how to use so the “wingisms” kicked in. With individuals playing emperor. We even see different people getting treated differently depending if they’re on the mates list, with the same activity getting OK’d or knocked back. One of my mates who knows he isn’t much liked does things with another squadron and CI there who is much beloved sets up the “PIPE” using all of his documentation and it just happens. She’s happy as her cadets get to do things and he’s happy as he doesn’t have all the aggro.
I never really understood why we have to worry about the JCCC as we’re not in the armed forces. It was another of these things that just sort of appeared and no really tangible reason why, other than we had to.
Yet again you post with zero idea of the topic.
The JCCC handle all incidents including the cadet forces. It’s something that you hope won’t swing into action, but be thankful when it does. Unless, as a volunteer, you want to be ordered to carry out actions immediately following an incident? Or have police forces dragging you out of work to supply information? No, didn’t think so. Shut up you buffoon.
A good start would be letting us change cadets on the activity at any time.
Uhh you can (other than when it’s awaiting approval). But is that a real hardship?
My question would be “what did we do before Bader, and how did they work then?” (Or did they not exist?
THey existed in another form but we weren’t under their umbrella. A few serious incidents changed that.
Fair enough. How do the regular forces work? Anyone know? How does the JCCC know which regulars are where and when?
They’re notified in the pre-deployment workup
Even for UK based day to day activities?
JCCC aren’t usually notified for ‘at home’ situations, welfare support comes direct from parent unit. But for larger events/incidents they’ll get notified beforehand
They don’t, but as they are JPA linked they can get brigade/Sqn information quickly. Also as adults there is a difference in getting hold of NoK than there is for kids. I think the nearest best fit was to “bolt on” the existing PIPE process to cover all activities. Huge mess. Huge.