All good points crashndash but the system the CFS had wasn't very volly friendly, I have spoken to a number of vols who were not able to make the dates offered for re-accreds due to work or harvest or seeding or whatever. They were all told to bad so sad you are no longer BA, no ifs or buts. I was one of them, couldn't make the dates offered without pulling a sickie...
Most of those people said stuff it, not going to bother to get it back, as they clearly don't care.
Now I know its hard to plan courses etc etc etc, but to be inflexible seems to do more harm than good, we know that CFS has bugger all BA operators now, you would think a bit of forward planning would allow for more people to remain BA. The TAS system should be smart enough to allow for 12 months warning. The last BA co-ordinator at STC allowed you to do it in that year, and was well aware of the limitations of time. I am sure most people can plan forward 12 months to free up some time. I got my re-accred letter 4 weeks before it ran out, so I had no hope.
So yes you might get slight variations of things, but I have been on courses that have had just as wild variations, some downright dangerous (anyone remember South Coast Training Centre)
I applaud CFS for doing this, so we can catch up on the HUGE gaps in BA numbers, it was the only way it was going to happen, even if we had twice the number of trainers. Structure fires aren't going to wait, every day I dread that pager going off and wondering if I will have a crew that are BA trained, I know I have a crew coming, but at least 2 of those have been on the waiting list for 3 years....but they won't touch us until we drop below MINIMUM numbers!
Insanity.