I think the other thing to bear in mind is that a lot of us put up with the crap because we accepted it was necessary due to our commission. If we wanted the privilege of having an RAF commission, we had to put up with their “command” and the yes sir approach.
Now we don’t have that, my personal appetite for dealing with it has gone. I will no longer do things because the RAF wants me to, I’ll do what I think is necessary and right for me and the cadets I support.
Which is how it should be. We are volunteers first and foremost.
Surely you should do what the new Queen’s Commission asks of you? If not, don’t accept it. Perhaps we should wait to see what Elizabeth R signs-off?
Would be nice to know what exactly the new commission asks of us before being told we’ll be ordered to relinquish the old one…
Although, I rather suspect it will ask exactly the same as the old one.
How far down does RAF extend?
I would say that the “not because the RAF” should read “not because HQAC”.
HQAC disseminate policy and tell us what to do. Sounds like insurrection but what authority is held by HQAC over any staff in the ATC/ACO/RAFAC from 0000 01 NOV 2017? We are all civilians in uniform. They can kick us out, but who loses?
As a sqn cdr you soon learn that consensual agreement between adults gets things done. Childish foot stomping and fist banging on desks get you nowhere, except people walking away. As a few over excited new OCs have found to my knowledge. HQAC should learn that from here on in, they need to ask and not demand.
I can’t do that, because no one has released the wording and I doubt we’ll even see it before the 31st.
it will be interesting to see if talk of the ‘blue footprint’ recedes into the long grass - one imagines that even the spectacularly tone-deaf HQAC will grasp that after an appallingly botched process that has removed the RAF bit and has seen goodwill towards them disapear like snow in the Sahara, the ACO can no longer be dragged out to every local event to be the RAF’s local representatives…
i mean, they couldn’t be that crass, could they?
What you mean like next year for the RAF 100 which the commandant has signed us up for, despite now having no formal link to the RAF.
It will be fun to see the AEF pilots and those 8 members of 2FTS having to run around the country doing all the parades as the last members of the footprint 
Why is it I feel there being another announcement
That there is a delay putting through the CFC,
Then after some time there is another hold up which can only be resolved by the loss of VA and expenses for staff.
Then it finally gets approved but not from the Queen (or monarch as it’s went on for so long)
Next it will be we are no longer under service rules so we don’t get to use MoD or white fleet vehicles.
Then later we get told that bases will no longer accommodate us in messes but you are to sleep and eat with the cadets as you are not officers/SNCOs (cutting cadet numbers)
Then the Camps will become more orienttated to the STEM, drill and choir stuff so that the head honchos can invite all the top staff to show off what the cadets have done but normal activity camps like AT/Blue camps will be binnned as they can’t show off really what they want
It will continue Right up to the point where the MoD will supply accommodation, some uniforms for the cadets (all MTP different beret) some Flying and gliding, everything else will be required to be funded by the units themselves, no shooting as they squandered all the money and you need to be deemed as reserves to get weapons and access to training estates will be non existent.
And that my friends is our glorious leaders 2025 vision!
To be fair I think they did originally want this to be a military role still. Just so poorly run that they failed to see the legal bars to that. Then it was discovered too late to back down. Whoever their legal advisor was screwed up badly.
CACK gets mileage doesn’t she - she can do it…
the tone of the conversation in the pub was not what some toadying creep would call constructive - the reaction to invitations to appear at whatever tedious events the intellectual and moral black hole at Sleaford have in mind will involve, one imagines, the long finger…
100% agree. Of course, once out of the RAF and out from under AFA and QR, we are civilians in uniform. As such, we are no longer part of a “chain of command” (military) and are, instead, holders of positions in a management structure, that of a civilian youth organisation. All of those RAF reservists and MOD civil servants are merely seconded to management and administrative positions within the sponsored youth groups. I would suspect that they have not yet made the cognitive leap. Sooner or later they will be challenged on the policy and processes adopted and be expected to justify them outside the closed world of HQAC and MOD.
The RAFVR commission I accepted imposed responsibilities and obligations along with the rights and protections, which I also accepted. Removal of that commission frees me from both sides.
As a civilian, I am indifferent to military custom and practice and will go along with it only if it suits my purpose. Granting exaggerated deference to people I would not trust to run me a bath is not something I’m going to do any more, and I certainly won’t be giving up my weekends to “represent the RAF” so RAF personnel don’t have to.
Having spent eleven years in the uniform of a national voluntary ambulance organisation prior to joining the Cadets I have no problems with being a civilian in uniform. I have a real problem of being a civilian in a civilian organisation being obliged to accept military command and regulation in the absence of corresponding military safeguards.
Any revised process that allows the people who make the rules to then interpret and apply the them, and then enforce them and also act as arbiters of complaints is going to be unacceptable to most - HQAC military personnel as Legislature, Police, Judge, Jury, and Court of Final Resort?
Postie has just been and no letter.
OK, I’m struggling with some of the logic here. Which ‘RAF bit’ has been removed? One presumes you mean the Air Force Act because we actually now (will soon) have RAF embossed on out uniform.
So, taking the shambolic implementation aside, what are we losing? We’re losing disciplinary and personnel administrative measures written by the RAF for the RAF. I don’t think there is anyone (sensible) here who thinks that the AFA is best placed to cover a youth organisation. Meanwhile, we still get uniform, buildings, service support (MT, rifles etc) predominately on the back of the tax payer. To me the very fact that we still wear the uniform of our parent Service, including for Commissioned Officers the cap badge which represents our Sovereign, clearly indicates that in all practicality nothing has changed.
Why have we gone through the whole painful process? I guess it is to align the three cadet forces and to stop the occasional nonsense of multiple service complaints landing on CAS+ desks.
I got my letter yesterday - they could have emailed out the FAQ’s to all accounts. I have nothing else to say on the letter - its already been said pretty much.
Any delay in CFC at this point would cause real problems. Official notification has been sent that VRT commissions will be cancelled from a specified date and time. Transfer to CFC will be automatic - but only if the CFC exists. If it doesn’t, you won’t hold a commission and won’t be entitled to wear the uniform, as you won’t be an RAF Officer. If you do wear it, you’re breaking the law.
I’m sure that HQAC would swiftly point out that the CFC would be back-dated, but I suspect that that wouldn’t accurately reflect the legislation.
Now this is getting into the nuts and bolts mucky end of this.
In order to align the cadet forces properly and not in an half-backsided manner there has to be a single cadet forces HQ. This is where I see the 2025 vision leading as do a number of people I’ve spoken to, including those from the ACF.
Now if this was the proposal, snow would settle on the sun before HQAC / 22 Gp went along with it, as I doubt many of them would be at the top table. It may also rain on a few parades at ACF County level.
I guess in that scenario the board could refuse to accept the VRT relinquishment they ordered?
The problem is that there is no assurance that we are actually losing inappropriate processes and rules, at least in the short term. What appears to be happening is that HQAC is acquiring the ability to write the rules to suit itself, irrespective of the AFA and QR. That may be good or bad. How they go about that remains to be seen, but the current Warrant for the Air Training Corps refers to implementation of regulations adapted as necessary. I am not sure what authority HQAC will cite.
For the CFAV, the change seems to leave responsibilities and obligations unchanged, whilst removing rights and protections. The principle loss would appear to be the right to appeal HQAC decisions outside the Corps or to make complaints about HQAC actions.
Given a “Command”-type rather than a “Management” ethos, the absence of checks and balances is likely to cause friction (in the Clauswitz sense).
Jointery is not new across the Services. I’m thinking JHC, JFH etc. For sure it has been tricky but they have made it work.
Put yourself in AOC 22Gp’s seat, staring at a balance sheet and some major league holes. If there is the opportunity to spread the cost across three Services you will jump at the opportunity. After all, why would the cadet forces need three iterations of Flt Lt Ian Priestly (HQAC Casework)? 
There’s actually a lot of sense in combining back-office stuff.
ACF - well you then get into the never-ending cap badge and trouser colour willy wave.