The Badge Newsletter No 1 – 1st August 2012 The Royal Air Force Specialisations: Physical Training Instructors Parachute Jumping Instructors Association Adventurous Training Instructors Remedial Instructors Hello, welcome to the first email edition of The Badge Newsletter. As usual the contents will depend on you and your stories. The lovely Denise has agreed to proof read the newsletter and copies will go to all committee members before sending the newsletter out to you all. I will be looking for information to be published from our Area Representatives, general information from RAF and WRAF ex PTIs, PJIs, ATIs, and RIs. Last but not least of course are the current serving members of the RAF PEd Branch including the specialisations. Some information is confidential and will only be sent via emails to members of the RAF PTI Association after the committee has cleared the contents. Can anyone remind me of the PEd motto please? I hope you enjoy the read and support the idea of the newsletter. Phil Moyse The PTI Reunion Another successful RAF PTI Association reunion was held at the Grays Hotel in Telford on the 21st of May. This followed the ever popular golf competition organised and run by Dave Percy. This competition is bringing more and more PTIs to the reunion so many thanks to Dave for all his hard work. The AGM was also held at the hotel due to other commitments at RAF Cosford. John Slinger with his raffle prize? Dave Percy gives the Golf results The evening was very enjoyable for all, I had a few comments about the length of my hair, (Worsal Gummage springs to mind) but all in all it was great to see such a good response to the reunion this year. The RAF PTIs Associations Patron Wg Cdr Chris Cornish, and his parents, father Tony an ex PTI and his lovely mother was on our table together with John and Cherry Weedon and it was also good to see more ex PTI ladies there including Sarah Johnson, Paddy Johnson, Denny von Roritz and Sue Zwart Woodward. The fantastic work is recognised by all within the Association of Denise Street Brown who puts in tireless hours for the members. Thank you to the hard working Committee who help bring it all about. Well done all and I for one am looking forward to next year‟s event. Denise has published the AGM 1 The Badge Newsletter No 1 – 1st August 2012 minutes so you will see some new characters on the list of Area Representatives they include John Weedon - West Midlands, George Whitecross – Scotland and Geoff Diggle – Wales. Good luck gentlemen and I am sure members will be thankful to you and for your efforts. John Doran and Denise Chris Beadel & Tony Betteridge Many thanks also go to Danny Downs for his work with the Association; Danny has retired from the RAF and is settling in Scotland where he has his own business, all the very best Danny. Stepping into his place is WO Clive Martland who took over at the AGM. Clive still has 11 years left in the RAF so hopefully we will have a Chairman who will be with us for some time. The creation of „The Badge‟ In 1989 while serving at RAF Shawbury I came across a PEdOs‟ newsletter which was very interesting. It was then I started to wonder why we (PTIs) didn‟t have such a publication. In 1990 I returned to Cosford on promotion into the Course Design Team. A new team was bought together to develop new Physical Education syllabuses and instructional specifications. The team was headed by Flt Lt Paul Beak and the rest of the staff included WO Darrald Jones, myself FS Phil Moyse, Sgt Pat Corfield and Mrs Kate Deakin the typist. In 1991 we were moved from one wooden hut to another and moreover we were provided with computers, Mick Murphy also joined the team. This was when I started to think more about providing a newsletter. We now had computers, resources in the Regional Printing Centre and staff there who were very helpful. For the newsletter to be a success we needed a good team who were prepared to do that bit extra. As editor I couldn‟t have asked for a better person as deputy editor than Pat Corfield.Our first newsletter was issued in April 1991 and we had a positive feedback. We aimed to get useful information for the PEd Branch with the hope that our other specialisations would get involved. December 92 Christmas edition – the current Group Captain PEd G P Carson was invited to write a few words for The Badge. His letter was very informative about the Options for Change we were 2 The Badge Newsletter No 1 – 1st August 2012 going through at that time. This started the View from the Helm articles which kept us informed of what was going on in the RAF PEd world and its specialisations. We had regular articles from the Specialisations and had started to achieve our aims as more and more information started to come in. On the formation of the RAF PTI Association copies of the „The Badge‟ were posted to ex PTIs as part of their membership. Unfortunately due to the workload and tight financial restraints this is not now possible. During the 21 years of The Badge we have had several sponsors/printers who have kept us going. My last issue as editor of the magazine was in 1995 when I was posted to introduce the new PEd Syabuses of training at Cosford. The task was extremely busy with me working many hours a day trying to get the system of the ground. This gave me no time to spend on the magazine, Pat Corfield the deputy editor was swamped with Course design work and a secondary duty of working on the Sgts Mess committee. Thankfully Paul Moorcroft volunteered with Pat still willing to be the Deputy Editor. In the winter 2000 I once again became the editor only this time I was a WO with Pat now a FS as the deputy. In the summer of 2001 I retired from the RAF and after many years as the deputy editor Pat Corfield became the editor. Alas the last copy I saw of The Badge was in 2006. There have always been problems with the distribution of the badge, cost of postage etc and now the economics of it all has taken its toll. Sgt Sy Booth-Lyons was the last editor of the magazine and was trying to find a way of getting The Badge to its readers. Email seems the obvious way these days but there is a problem with the amount of content and pictures. There was a „The Badge‟ web page but was not maintained and is now defunct. If anyone out there has any idea on how they can help please let me know. In this day and age the Association should have its own web site, I have looked at the Proboard set up on the computer but it is too restricted. There are some free web sites that I am looking into, Sgt Sy Booth Lyons was going to send me some of the later editions of the magazine, so that I can put them on the site if I can get one up and running. Unfortunately he has been posted and I haven‟t heard from him since. Since the AGM Clive Martland has organised a version on facebook. With the creation of „The Badge‟ came other offshoots including having a first reunion in the Sgts Mess (1992) on this led to two more very successful reunions. Eventually, the RAF PTI Association was formed in February 1994. In 1993 Wg Cdr Jim Field OC Sof PT had a chat with me about setting up a PTI museum in the S of PT. I discussed with the Course design team and they were all for it. Pat Corfield was at the forefront once again. We asked readers of ‟The Badge‟ to send in material for the museum. WO Phil Hockaday designed the cabinets and had them made, while me Pat and Mick Murphy collated and itemised all the photographs, information and equipment. The S of PT museum was opened in 1993 the 70th anniversary of the PEd branch. Over the years many people have been involved with maintaining „The Badge‟ and I thank them all for keeping an idea alive and well. Particular thanks go to Pat Corfield and also to Rita Brennan who I think has copies of all „The Badges‟ and who did an incredible amount of work for us and therefore is quite rightly an Honorary Member of the Association. It was good to see Rita and Paul at the reunion. There was another lady in my latter days of the RAF who also did typing for us but unfortunately her name escapes me. Phil Moyse 3 The Badge Newsletter No 1 – 1st August 2012 Fitness in Tap Dancing by Alan Beattie I was sorry not have attended the last reunion due to taking part in the ITV Age UK promotion advert (tap dancing). We are on the website, yours truly is in the volunteer section. I am still working part-time teaching tap dancing for North Yorkshire Education Authority and Age UK at Bedale Leisure Centre, North Yorkshire. One of my groups has included teaching footballers at Colburn, Catterick Garrison, and I soon found, that some of them had two left arms and two right legs, with little or no co-ordination.