Hope you used them or offered them to the wing chaplain instead of just binning!
Kindling?
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Every Sqn Iâve had the pleasure of OC-ing has resulted in me having a massive bloody clearout. Must be moving pretty often with the military that makes my blood boil at the hoarding that goes on, when removals pack everything up every 3-4 years you become pretty good at streamlining your life. Sqns do not need need drawers full of various accounts forms, they end up out of date and in the bin, likewise Sqns do not need to keep a scribbled list of who was going to represent the Sqn in cross country in 1979. My previous Sqn was like an episode on tv, you couldnât get more than two steps into the upstairs classroom due to âstuffâ that âmight come in handyâ, as it was we had 3 Cadets and didnât need the space but as we grew we did so a massive clear-out started. Four filing cabinets were returned to Stores, 18 binbags of old, faded, stained, way too big or absolutely tiny uniform was also returned. The massive change in the Sqn earned up the Lees Trophy nomination, the comment from the ARC on looking around the building, good god you can actually see the floor - well done!
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Yep.
Unfortunately he didnât get round to collecting them pre-pandemic. I believe theyâre still in our portacabin, but will need to check when we return.
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While I agree to a point this is why ATC squadrons have no history.
The one before I took over 21 years ago, had a massive bin out and then when I wanted to do a history it was impossible.
itâs a balancing act.
a history etc is nice, but the priority must be usable space for the cadets.
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History doesnât take up much space, weâve got photos and news articles all scanned and in one plastic crate.
When my cadet sqn had itâs 70th in 2008 there was loads of pictures and other things in display that had the memories flooding back and all us old boys and girls were presented with a history which had been printed. The OC put a history in the local paper about 18 months beforehand which was pretty comprehensive and asked for old members if they had memories, photos, newspaper clippings etc.
When I tried something for my squadronâs 25th in 2013, I could just about manage 3 paragraphs. The request yielded a bit of info which as I said is now scanned and in box. I can imagine whoever takes over will throw it out, but thatâs for them. Iâve got it all saved for personal reasons and add noteworthy events to it.
It is odd that when many people ask about their squadronâs history itâs invariably a vacuum as things will have been lost. I broached the 80th of my old cadet squadron with the then OC and he wasnât interested. When we had the 70th it was lovely come as you, very relaxed afternoon with a running buffet, which we did for our 25th. When I asked one of the staff apparently the OC just wanted a big dinner type do with the usual hangerâs on invited and none of the staff at the squadron were interested, apparently it worked out at ÂŁ40/head, which would have priced me out.
Finding a free software package which enables me to upload my VAT returns without it taking over an hour to do what used to take me ten minutes before Making Tax Digital came along!
Absolutely, having a history is great. One of the first things I did at my current sqadron was to spend many hours at the local libary researching the squadrons history by looking through old microfilm and taking copies when I found stuff.
But for many squadrons, theyâve just collected âstuffâ old equipment or furniture or whatever that noone has a use for any more, nor knows the story behind it.
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My favourite ever moment for crap at unit was when I was at my Uni squadron and there was the leather block from a pommel horse under the classroom tables. Just the leather block, no legs, no handles. Utterly useless. Turns out that it had been in the old building, unused, taken out, stored during the construction of the new building, moved back in, and never used.
I finally got permission to get rid of it. (It took up a LOT of space) and stuck it on eBay, for free, buyer collects.
An Eastern European chap drove from Essex to the far South West to pick it up in a Suzuki Jimny. with two small kids and his wife. Easily 6 hours+ one way. I asked him what he wanted it for and he explained, in almost comedic fashion, that back in Eastern Europe, he had been a professional gymnast, and his son (about 3-4) was going to be one too. We loaded up the Jimny, (no mean feat, they arenât big!) insisted I took ÂŁ20 for it and headed back to Essex.
Very surreal.
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It is a balancing act, I personally went through every single item in those filing cabinets, I would never just go with the attitude of this must all be crap so just dump it in the bin, although I appreciate some might. I love finding Sqn history, in fact in my current Sqn weâve not long done a #throwbackthursday #flashbackfriday #memorymonday theme from old photos that were found, long forgotten about and we then had loads more sent to us by ex-cadets of the Sqn.
In my previous Sqn, Wing HQ hated me after the clear out as I found two drawers worth of âleaversâ from way back when so guess where they were taken, along with the empty filing cabinets as apparently only they could deal with stores, same for the bags and bags of uniform 
The only bit of real history I binned was Sir Chris on a bike pull-up but thatâs because he disintegrated when I tried to remove him from the window, so he went up the hoover!
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Old boy at church is retiring and shutting down all his companies. 36 of them. Heâs asked me to witness the signatures on his documents. At ÂŁ5 a pop thatâs a good bonus for the month
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Idiot.
I was being genuine
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It has reminded me I need a shave tbh
Same. And Iâm risking a home hair cut tonight
Iâve not had a hair cut since the 22nd of July 
Iâm pretty happy weâre not doing VPNs 
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Iâm going to have to get boss lady to do it at somepoint this weekend
I did it myself the other week. . . I keep ignoring all the disastrous odd patches that I either missed, or cut too much.
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