"Bring along a friend"

Next month, as a recruitment drive the powers that be in our unit are going to ping certain members of our illustrious ship to "bring along a friend" in the hope they'll join.

I don't know about anyone else but, after I joined I went on an on about the RNR to anyone/thing with ears to the point of boring them senseless. I can quite honestly say they KNOW I’m in the RNR and have expressed zero interest in joining.

The RAF and Army advertise – the army even advertise the TA on TV – but the Navy seem to nothing. On more than one occasion, when telling someone about the RNR, they’d never heard of Naval Reservists.

My point is; instead of “press ganging†people who know about the RNR, why don’t they spend money on attracting to people who don’t know about the RNR.

Any views…???

 

The Navy has always been the poor relation as far as Ad spend is concerned....and as usual are obviously trying to adopt a bargain basement approach....sadly typical !

 

A lot of it has to do with plain old geography. Anyone who lives more than 50 miles from the coast knows bugger all about the RN and even less about the RNR. It would be good to see some TV coverage to promote this side of the senior service. It all comes down to cash though as the media need us to be doing something really crunchy like disaster relief or drug busting before they take a real interest.

SF

 

There used to be, many years ago, a very effective billboard ad on the Birmingham middle-ring road within a hundred yards or so of HMS Forward (the previous one, not Tilton Rd). It read "The Royal Naval Reserve sweeps 85% of all mines in UK waters - the Reserve Forces, the truth is we need them". It was punchy, it contained a strong message about what we did and it was well sited - anecdotal evidence suggested that it was also responsible for getting people through the door and leaving the rest (i.e. keeping them) down to us.

I'd imagine that billboard posters of this nature are cheaper than TV and, with the right location and message, can probably increase the public's awareness of what we do and more importantly increase the interest levels. All we've got to do is ensure that they don't find RR and all these drips!

 

The only place I've seen adverts for the RNR is the navy news, homeport ( families mag for royal navy) and the Sunday independent ( Gus local paper)

Talk about preaching to the converted

 

It's true, i've just come back from bupa, having a works medical. During the medical, bit of chit chat going on about hobbies etc, and the nurse doing the medical had no idea that there was an RN equivalent for the TA.

Never going to get people to join if they don't know we exist. Until a few years ago, a lot of people in the RN didn't know about thr RNR, (not sure about these days)so if that was the case, how can we expect the general public to know about us?

Come on your lordships, if you really are serious about recruiting people to the RN/RNR, speak to TB, and get him to puit his hand in browns pocket and pay for some decent regular advertising.

 

Surprisingly although HMS FORWARD is in BIRMINGHAM it has the finest bunch of Sea going people you could ask for , AND I am not at this unit now >>> But this is known throughout the RNR world

 

Sounds like we are in the same unit Prochnow (or by coincidence, by unit is also running a "bring a friend" night next month).

It's probably aimed at the new entries or new JRs to get them to bring along a friend, since they are relatively new themselves and a) are probably enthusing about the RNR to their friends, being quite new and b) any friends that join will have friends in the unit already.

For the rest, though, it's probably pretty pointless. But the evening itself might be a bit of light relief. :lol:

 

Well, Brum has more canals than Venice, and there's a big lake in Sutton Park so we're not totally devoid of water on which to practice.

 

You mean my friends can join as well? For years the've been begging me to let them join, but I have always told them we only accept complete strangers. Get real.

How many RNR WO's and Officers in Senior Staff Positions and THIS is the best they can come up with!!

Perhaps we could appear on Blue Peter, Songs of Praise, The Chris Evans Radio show, ......Oh, that Idea has been used already.

On that train of thought, maybe TB would like something to do with his forthcoming spare time..... :twisted:

 

Why is it when we are asking people to commit to primarily weekends and evenings, we ask them to take time off work and go to AFCO during the working week?

 

well did you know that wherever you are in the British Isles you are never more than 74 miles from the sea

 

That old chestnut again eh! RNR recruiting on the cheap.

I very nearly jacked it in this year after 10 years, but one thing that stopped me was seeing the rats deserting a sinking ship. So i stayed and decided to start making a positive step towards helping recruit.

My employer has 4000 people and I'm trying to get them to help us out. Talk about pulling teeth. They don't want to be biased towards RNR and if they do a recruiting drive for us, want to include the other reserves in the dit. What do you think anyone whos interested is going to plump for. My money's on the TA.

Fact - Army invests HEAVILY in recruiting for the TA AND the Army Cadets. Yes guys, the ACF get better funding from the MoD than the RNR. Kinda makes you feel really wanted don't it :evil:

In fact, the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association, that is actively involved in publicity and recruiting is funded almost ENTIRELY by the Army. Guess who they concentrate on? Clue - they wear green and stamp their feet and don't like the sea!!

Sort of shows where the priorities, but beefing about it is like flogging a dead horse are. Recruit a friend is a nice, fluffy idea, but my mates and coleagues are too busy taking the p*** to want to join.

 

I won't actively encourage my friends to join but I do enjoying looking at the envy in their faces when I tell them what I've been up to when I go away with our fleet.

Most of them are tree hugging, anti war, liberal war dodging b**ta*ds anyway.

 

Why don't the high and mighty advertise within Government Departments, Civil Servants etc ........ they have the same employer !!!!
If staff knew they would be guaranteed a min of 8 days extra special leave, fully paid each year.....two pay slips for 2 weeks work!!, the odd jolly to warmer climes with the possibility of a bit of craic going ashore somewhere different with a few shipmates.....who could refuse !!!!
oh and the pride of being a member of an unique exclusive organisaton and a free uniform!!

 

GSSR?

 

ooooooh that's nasty.......even i know the GSSR don't stamp thier feet

 

Oh yes they do..... usually accompanied by a teddy being thrown

 

Funny - I thought this was a serious discussion about the lack of recruitment support. Obviously I was wrong. Trust a Comms SR to turn a discussion on recruitment into a dig against GSSR. :lol:

 

There is more fundemental issue.

The RNR has a tiny footprint, the TA has a vast footprint.

I live in the Thames Valley, my nearest RNR unit is 54 miles away. I have 8 TA units within 10 miles.

So if someone is interested in the Reserve Forces, do we really think they are going to be willing to travel the longer distances (which is now capped and there is no longer a TE allowance to add insult)?

I know that CMR does not like the idea of opening satellite units, unless we increase our visibility in the areas of the country that have high levels of population, I think the RNR will continue to decline.