The Future of the Army Reserve - Discuss

[DeV]

I was reviewing the white paper on defence released recently and it stated that the current effective strength of the AR is 2,159 personnel. That seems to be a massive drop from the 4,554 of 2012.

Would this not suggest that everyone should now have a position or is what remains of the RDF basically Officers, a large over establishment of NCOs and larger under establishment of privates?

Even for an organisation hemorrhaging members, a drop of 2000 would seem extreme.

It depends on the non-effective numbers

in most units, you are correct in your findings.

my own company 35 out of 99 on the books including some SWA's parading
We have a pile of non EFF's cluttering the books

14 - 3 stars (should have 69)
6 - cpls (should have 20)
6 - sgts (only need 3)
2 - CQs (should only have 1)
2 - CS's (should only have 1)
3 - Lts
1 - Capt
1 - Cmndt

Plus recruits and 2*s ?

I've seen far worse!

From my reading of the above, the numbers seem to reflect more of a depleted platoon rather than a company. An establishment of 1 Lt, 1 Sgt, 3 Cpls and 20+ pvts would seem more appropriate!

Playing devil's advocate here but it's not impossible to imagine a potential recruit encouraged to consider joining looking at that structure and coming to the believe that he/she is solely being recruited so that the long term members have a few warm bodies with which to remain playing soldiers. I don't know the age demographics of your company but I imagine that could be off putting as well.

If they are there there is a chance to expand. But it can be demotivating.

[koppiteal]

Same callsign as Morpheus. We dont have any 2* or recruits. They are being trained centrally

[trellheim]

Transcript of RDFRA pres to committee.

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/committeetakes/JUJ2015110400002?opendocument#H01100

Opinion.

RDFRA supporting GP medicals is ruining us. WHAT THE FK are they doing supporting this ? What stupid people came up with taking the pressure off the DF to sort it and putting it back on individual reservists who a lot of the time end up paying out of their own pocket

FK ME the stupid is rife here. We now see the PDF Med Corps jumping eagerly over it because why the fk wouldn't you get out of bagger medicals. has no one any, ANY corporate memory here . GPs have NO business certifying military medical grades and that mets thing - its bollocks. complete and utter bollocks. As soon as you see the first cardiac on a three star course and the relevant court case will pin the blame on a GP when its the DF's fault. Get the fk back in the box and support members to get their military medicals . Policy here is NOT RDFRA's to consider. KPIs meeting if people can't get mil medicals its the DF's problem

No-one will be discharged for missing KPIs.

The rest of the transcript is overshadowed by the above - I cannot believe how out of touch RDFRA is here

I went looking for S7 on RDFRA's website - and oh look its vanished.

As has payscales and R5 ...

I'm a founder member and never has it been as far away from its members

Edit : I'd like to say some people are doing excellent work on strategy and employer engagement. BUT the primary focus is being lost, guys.

[DeV]

RDFRA supporting GP medicals is ruining us. WHAT THE FK are they doing supporting this ? What stupid people came up with taking the pressure off the DF to sort it and putting it back on individual reservists who a lot of the time end up paying out of their own pocket

FK ME the stupid is rife here. We now see the PDF Med Corps jumping eagerly over it because why the fk wouldn't you get out of bagger medicals. has no one any, ANY corporate memory here . GPs have NO business certifying military medical grades and that mets thing - its bollocks. complete and utter bollocks. As soon as you see the first cardiac on a three star course and the relevant court case will pin the blame on a GP when its the DF's fault. Get the fk back in the box and support members to get their military medicals . Policy here is NOT RDFRA's to consider. KPIs meeting if people can't get mil medicals its the DF's problem

In fairness, there is good an bad on this.

Someone (RDF/RDFRA/PDF someone) came up with this good idea. After all, the MO doesn't have your complete medical history. Your GP does/should. And medical wise no one should know you better.

No RDF should be paying for them out of their own pocket, the GP invoices the DF (who also has to fill in a PO3 form to get paid).

However, an absolute clusterf*ck was made of the implementation. I know of someone who has had to get the GP form sent to the CMU 3 times. For whatever reason, the SMO refuses to sign. The unit is saying that without a MCC he won't be put as fit for ITs on PMS, and he can't then do ITs.

In fact, all this was supposed to do was add another layer of bureaucracy (in that you had to do it before FTT) instead of actually solving the issue with medicals. This implementation actually created more problems than it solves.

No-one will be discharged for missing KPIs.

The DF & DOD has a history of legislating/ordering something at the drop of a hat when it suits them.

No medical - no ITs - no FTT

The rest of the transcript is overshadowed by the above - I cannot believe how out of touch RDFRA is here

i know someone was in touch with the GS who got clarifications from the DF on issues surrounding it.

I went looking for S7 on RDFRA's website - and oh look its vanished.

As has payscales and R5 ....

It's on the website you need to be registered to access it

[trellheim]

Oh stop multiquoting it makes it illegible

On the issue of the GP, its a clusterfk from start to finish. No one enlisted the IMO or any of the rep organizations. Look at the shit they had to do to get the free under 6 care.

GP has no idea of the issues or problems surrounding military fitness grading, GP doesn't see AF30 or any disposal sheets for his records

It is rank bullshit from start to finish and just adds a layer of incompetent bureaucracy that an individual reservist has to handle without knowing the reality, talking to a GP who knows even less about the subject.

it is fking my people and badly all because the "Good Idea Fairy" decided to land somewhere in an RDFRA committee. FK OFF GOOD IDEA FAIRY.

Lesson 1: Stop giving individual reservists problems that are rightly the DF's to fix.

As for hiding R5 and S7 and payscales [ all three security unclassified documents ] behind a registration wall it just reinforces "out of touch bureaucracy" vibe I'm talking about.

[DeV]

My AF30 only has passed medicals on it (and thankfully I've only had to go LD once for 24 hours - but that isn't on it and isn't on many peoples).

The DF have known for a long time that they can't provide annual medicals to the PDF, then they rightly decided that the 1500-2000 RDF should do them too, but forgot they couldn't resource it). That set up the SFC to fail.

I don't know if the whole METS thing is a medically recognised term. It could be.

But I absolutely agree it is a completely ill though out cluster!

It could have said on the form, for example, this is what ITs consists of, is person medically fit to attempt it.



There is other info in the same area that is private.

[trellheim]

Of course there is private stuff, not simple publicly available stuff that people need to see.

My AF30 has 29 years of entries on it. and the multiple stapled shite on top

FK I'm in my 30th year in this kip

[Bam Bam]

Whats the logic behind not having the RDF on LA30's?

[trellheim]

You mean AF30 vs LA30 and LA30 Admin ?

[Cryos]

Next time in ikon im going to tag the shit out of that #af30andla30 #yolo

Can we start a project to decrease the amount of acronyms.

[trellheim]

If you don't like acronyms the military is definitely not for you. GTFO.

[na grohmiti]

TLA or GTFO.

[Cryos]

If you don't like acronyms the military is definitely not for you. GTFO.

Harsh!

[trellheim]

What percentage of the current RDF intakes are people heading straight to the PDF after passing out . I am seeing strong numbers. and good luck to them but for small recruit intakes its a big pity for the Reserve side.

[AC182]

What percentage of the current RDF intakes are people heading straight to the PDF after passing out . I am seeing strong numbers. and good luck to them but for small recruit intakes its a big pity for the Reserve side.

Seeing a lot of this alright. A certain portion of this is a natural consequence of RDF recruitment, but a big challenge faced by the reserve going forward is targeting recruitment at a demographic that want to join the reserve for what it is in it's own right.
Particular issue for units with a local major PDF element. It's almost a natural progression.