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guidelines issued by the Government and proceeded to ensure all projected work was carried out in a timely manner.
September arrived and another ADE, this time it was myself who deployed to STANTA for a few days Wild Camping.
So, to summarise it’s been another busy year in the REME world, and we continue to provide the best ES support within our capability to the Regiment. At this present time we are actively looking to fill both ES vacant posts at 210 Battery if possible.
Regimental Journal 2018-20
The Quartermasters Department
A civilian’s view By Mr David (Dave) McGivern
Civilian life within the QM-T Dept is a varied one, with no two days being the same - there are definitely some repeti- tive motions that we go through, starting firstly (and most importantly) with the first team brew of the day, where we set out our stall and what we are planning to accomplish during the day. That first brew is almost always interrupted by a delivery driver turning up well before they’re due but given a stomach full of coffee and biscuits the team are always in high enough spirits to take a delivery in early. Working in the QM-T Dept can bring about a hectic workload for some, and a quiet day for others, but everyone knows that tomorrow might have the roles reversed, and so are always available to lend a hand to one another in whatever aspect it’s needed.
Roy is certainly always accompanied by his trusty clipboard and diary, and faithful dog Ollie in tow to keep staff in order, and to provide a bit of emotional support when contractors are forever turning up unannounced – meaning that Roy has to go above and beyond to protect the safety of the ARC and its people, but to ensure that all the essential repairs go ahead so that we can all enjoy coming to work in a safe and decent environment.
Colin’s always fielding requests for White Fleet from staff, be it people who want to take a short trip across to one of the sub-unit’s or for staff who are travelling long distance for educa- tional courses, but there’s never been a moment that Colin’s left anyone short as his system for managing the vehicles available is impeccable. He also arranges for all the maintenance of the vehicles, making sure that all Service/MOTs are up to date to provide a wide array of vehicles to suit everyone’s needs.
Paul is the one who maintains the
Green Fleet to ensure that they are always available for operational use and for transporting staff to/from/around exercise. Just recently we’ve had two separate Regular Army units come to us for vehicles as we were the only unit within the Brigade who had the correct set-up within a vehicle, that was also ready to go on the road at a moment’s notice, all thanks to Paul and his system of managing through JAMES to make sure that all vehicle checks are up to date with current safety regulations.
Nicky and Becky job share the AO role 50/50, carrying out a huge variety of duties from ordering stationary all the way through to preparing the Dept for audits, but each of them have under- taken specific tasks within the job role to ensure they’re done to the highest standard.
Nicky does a lot of work on Driver Compliance – making sure every- one’s records are up to date and that they’re legally entitled to drive military vehicles, and supporting the MT Dept in this manner. Becky does a lot of work on managing the fuel card spends and making sure that paperwork and receipts marry up for financial auditing, as well as being our resident Brew Fund manager, making sure all the staff are kept plied with the coffee and biscuits mentioned earlier.
Dave working in the stores handles everything from Recruits getting their initial issue of uniform and exchanges of clothing to ordering in Expense items for the sub-units – if you’ve ever replaced the batteries in your radio with MOD batteries, you’ve got Dave to thank. He’s also responsible for annually stock- taking the Clothing Store and investi- gating any discrepancies to make sure they’re reported correctly up the Chain of Command.
to request that urgent Readiness Admin Checks were completed by Reserve units to ensure troops were ready to deploy. 103 Regt RA administrators had no need to panic as all Reservists had already been administratively prepared for deployment over the preceding months. This adminis- trative preparedness resulted in Reservists confirming their administration detail held was still correct, a far less time consuming process for all.
Now in Autumn of 2020 we know what it is like to be locked down in our own homes, work from home and stay 2m apart from everybody, wear masks, wash our hands while singing happy birthday all in order to try to ‘stay safe’ and COVID free.
Zoom also became the new way of trg virtually with the AGC detachment becoming fully involved holding 2 trg weekends and Tue nights when possible. We have 2 new members of the AGC (SPS) Cpl (Zoe) Stewart to 208 Bty and Pte (Amy) Robinson 209 Bty; Sgt (Sharon) Higgins 209 Bty attended her ALDP as the only non RA student and achieved
an outstanding pass from the course DS. ADE was a challenge for Sgt Higgins and LCpl (Martin) Chadderton RHQ as they not only were the day to day administra- tors but also the Ops Room COVID-19 managers. The professionalism of the unit administrators has demonstrated our ability to deliver high quality personnel
administration to the Regiment. A chal- lenging but rewarding year, spread far and wide. The Detachment, Civil Servants and PSAO’s have endured a prolonged high tempo administrative readiness period, operating towards demanding outputs in a challenging socially restrictive period of time.
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