KILTED REGIMENT'S WORKING GROUP MEETING

I attended the Subject meeting held through MS Teams which was an all day event. My thanks to Dan who got me the invite.

It was a long day!

The entire morning was taken in Regimental updates which covered their stats, key training activities, Pipes & Drums, and concerns. I will highlight some of them later, below.

A significant piece of time of the meeting was dedicated to the Pipes & Drums related to, relevance, qualifications, all courses are being reviewed, qualification badges ( only 2 types; wear 00166 or none at all), a potential Highland Drum Major Course in Halifax similar to the one run in the UK, their role in attracting potential recruits and being the face of the public in communities, the re3striction on wearing CADPAT, the paying / not paying civilians in P&Ps, strict rules related to "Association" bands CAO - 11 - 10, Bands of the Canadian Army), operational use of bands, PLAR documentation, and the importance of annual band and semi-annual band reports.

Maj Chris Blencowe, DLR, gave an excellent session on the 'Kilted Dress Program". This is a short summary and not as detailed as he presented and hopefully, I got it right:  He reinforced what he has told many of us before. There are budget issues but his projects are fully funded. That means what he has been working on and was approved will move forward. The Unit RQMS is the key person in the kit issue process. All persons must go to their designated clothing stores for their initial issue. No special FIN Code will be needed as the clothing store people know, or should know exactly what to issue (there are some issues happening though which the RQMS can clear up). Clothing stores are required to declare when they are open as well as the tailor services for PRes personnel. Tailoring is fully funded. After initial issue clothing is handled, services are online including for rank badges when promoted, etc. Those promoted will order online and have to take their "badges" to their own promotion ceremony. Again, non infantry persons in the Units must wear their own Unit or Corps uniforms and insignia. The present Grant system is still valid.  CANEX is the only allowed and legal provider of badges. Units,if they want to see what they are allocated in dress can contact the DHH Archives and should to make sure their Unit document is accurate as some aren't. If you need have any questions, etc contact: Chris.Blencowe@forces.gc.ca

There was a session on Culture, Recruiting, and Retention. Using the definition of "culture" from the CDS. The definition and scope included : values, greater community,knowledge & stories,language,traditions & rituals, techniques & skills,tools, objects,the arts, food and drink.  There was a lively discussion. There was supposed to be identification on what are the best practices involved but personally I didn't see any "best practices" that would apply to all come out of the discussions. The leading questions to start the discussions were:

• What is Scottish Regimental culture?

• Why is Scottish Regimental culture important?

• How can we leverage the culture?

As noted the discussion was lively and I don't think there were any truly defined outcomes but a lot of experiences and ideas thrown on the table. What was a theme was that the P&D was a great attraction to the public and needs to be leveraged. The pros & cons of the "kilt" and Scottish culture were varied and all over the place from my perspective. Where some thing worked for some Units they didn't work in others.  The Chair of the meeting is supposed to be putting the ideas together and sending them out to the 'kilted" Units. 

In regards to the Unit presentations they covered the following key concerns which may not be universal to all Units:

• Vehicle maintenance problems

• HR & Fin -  too complex

• Getting people on courses 

• Promotion ladder barriers

• Having extra regimentally employed people a stressor

• People being posted with no replacement 

• Tactical grouping and maintaining both Regiment's culture

• Role of cadets and how they can be leveraged

• Challenge to provide pers to NATO taskings

• Positions in Units being filled by inexperienced pers

• Centralizing clerks

• Some courses being cancelled due to a lack of candidates and in some cases qualified instructors

• Reduction of Unit Exercises over IT requirements - cultural issue

• Getting ammo to qualify pers on the weapons

The RHF of C has volunteered to host the in-person meeting next year. The topics may be: clothing supply issues, pace stick competition discussion, a RQMS breakout session, and best practices in RegF integration. They asked for other ideas.

Cheers,

Robin

DUCIMUS