Diary Dates

District Commissioner's News

I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year. I believe that in 2005 we will really begin to make some progress in developing the new District.

 
We have some good news:
Neil McLauchlan has agreed to accept the role of District Explorer Scout Commissioner and
Keith Daly is joining the team as ADC General Duties with particular emphasis on admin. He brings a wealth of Scouting experience having recently been a GSL of a Group of over 200 for the last ten years.  One of Keith's first tasks is to assist with the production of the new District Directory so please respond promptly when he comes a calling.

I am also delighted to be able to announce four new GSL's

    Peter Treagust - 6/12th Mitcham

    David Stevens - 8th Wimbledon

    Ian Wilkins - 16th Morden

    Chris Hobbs - 8th Morden

This means that 3 more Groups will have GSLs and is fantastic news. There is another 9 to go but this is a good start to achieving one of my important targets.

Group reviews have begun again and I will be in contact with GSLs to arrange times. The general programme is to meet GSL and Chairman and whoever else you would like to bring and look at census figures, leader resources, finances, property, development plan and programme. This will greatly assist me in understanding the status of your Group and how the District can best support you and how the District can best serve the young people of our Borough.

I have recently reviewed the 20th Mitcham and they are desperately short of Cub and Scout leaders. So if you know anyone who can assist, even in the short term, please contact Margaret Pooley or myself.

I hope everyone enjoyed the All Leaders meeting. It was disappointing not having the Chief Scout with us but maybe another time. It was great to see so many Leaders and it is one of the only opportunities we can all get together.

I was able to present some outstanding warrants and long service certificates and also some wood badges.
26 warrants have been presented over the last 6 weeks. Many congratulations to all and thank you for the extra work and responsibility you have taken on.

 

Bob Prescott

St George's Day Parade and Service

Please make a note now that our St George's Day celebrations will take place on Sunday 24th April. Full details will be published by the end of February but please advertise the date now.

Wood Badges

Congratulations to. . .

  • Joanna Watson - 16th Morden

  • Clare Tweedley - 3rd Mitcham

  • Mia Patterson - 36th Mitcham

  • Robert McNally - 4th Morden

  • Julia Doolan - 3rd Mitcham

  • John Line - 5th Morden

  • Simon Mainwaring - 20th Mitcham

who had their wood badges awarded at the All Leaders' meeting.

Martin Clark and Simon Hill will have theirs presented later.

Appointments Sub Committee

The following appointments were made during the Autumn term.

CRB FORMS
Mr Robert Brumwell will be processing all CRB forms with immediate effect.    Forms will be available from Robert and should be returned to him on completion.
Robert's contact details are available on request through the web site.

Jamboree Reunion

At the Jamboree in 2007 there is to be a reunion for all those who attended the Jubilee Jamboree at Sutton Coldfield  in 1957, either as campers or as day visitors. The committee organising the  events, which will be spread over three days, are anxious to contact all who would be interested in finding out, and taking part in, what is being proposed.
The contact is Peter Dearn and his details are available on request through the web site.

Eurojam Badges

To celebrate the UK hosting the European Scout Jamboree (Eurojam) in 2005, a badge has been issued which all members can wear on their uniform throughout this year.  It costs £1.  There are also pin badges available, also costing £1. 

Our badge secretaries will be glad to order these badges for you - they will only take about a week to arrive - but they will not be keeping a stock because of the cost involved.  Contact Mary White by phone or at the District Store every Thursday, or Kath McLaughlan.
Contact details are available on request through the web site.

Appointments Scheme

The new appointment system has now started.   Full details were sent to GSLs at the beginning of December and the first provisional certificate was issued at the end of January. 

Training Advisers

This is still a problem but the training team are working to improve this.  There is a training course for anyone interested in becoming an Adviser on 27 February - if you have not already been invited along but have completed your own training and are interested, contact Joan Condon.

Adult Warrant Application Forms are available from Joan Burgess.   

PLEASE NOTE:  Only the new Application Forms are now being accepted. Old forms should be destroyed immediately.

Nights Away Permits

Just a reminder that EVERYONE must be assessed for a Nights Away permit before you can take members on any overnight activity.  Please do not approach the assessors direct - all applications must go through Brian Beckley.

Beavers - Andy Elgar

It was great to see so many of you at the Beaver Leaders' Dinner and Social evening held recently - I'm sure you'll agree it was a very enjoyable evening.

Congratulations to the 4th Morden Beaver Colony, who, with 2 new leaders have managed to re-open after some time of closure - although currently only a few in number I'm sure this will grow into a thriving colony over the coming months thanks to Lisa Eales and Chris Kolthammer - keep up the good work !!
Also, welcome to Nicolette Hamilton who has agreed to run the 8th Wimbledon Beaver Colony taking over from Katie Crabb.

Finally, a date for your diary:  Beaver Activity afternoon, Sunday 20th March, at 4th Morden, HQ, Bow Lane. Morden - details will be sent out shortly.

Cubs - Andrew Hayward

Since the last report the CSLs have had their annual Christmas meal at the Park Place Restaurant in Mitcham - thanks to Brian for organising the evening.

A good number of Packs attended the District Badge Day at Bow Lane.  We have lots of budding young scientists now!

It was also good to see most Packs represented at the District Leaders meeting at the Wimbledon HQ.  Please don't forget to pester your GSL or SIC if you are not getting the information, or let us know and we can either post or email it to you.

Scouts - Paul Atkins

Our Section meeting in mid-January was well attended and it was good to welcome some new faces.  There are still a few Troops yet to make their debut at our meetings and you will be made very welcome. If you haven't made an appearance yet, your next opportunity is on 23rd March at the 8th Morden HQ.

We are a year into the new District and it is good to see the way that everybody is working together for the benefit of the Scouts regardless of which of the former Districts they are based in.

If you think that the Section team of Andy Edmonds, Tim Kerridge & myself can provide any support or advice, particularly if you are new to running or helping with a Troop, please contact us.

Tim & Peter Hutton have agreed to organise a Table Tennis Competition at some point over the next few months. If you have access to any table tennis equipment it would be helpful if you could let me know so that we can identify what scale of event we can accommodate.

A few Scouters have suggested that we should have an event or training activity especially for the older Scouts. I plan to explore the level of interest in this over the next few weeks to identify the sort of thing that is wanted. We can then decide whether we wish to proceed with the idea at the next Scouters' meeting.

I wish Jim Anning and his team good luck with the recent re-opening of the 36th Mitcham Troop in Kingsmead Avenue, Mitcham.

Unfortunately the Troop at the 1st Wimbledon has closed for the moment, hopefully it won't be too long until arrangements can be made for it to be restarted.

Network - Chris Dean

The Christmas holidays were a busy time for Network members throughout the County - social events, the launch of the new International Expedition Scout Network, Local SNet meetings, and that small matter of renewing membership for 2005. We will be commenting on our Census figures in the next issue.

The Winter Meet, held at Dewerstone Cottage over the weekend of January 7-9, was most enjoyable. Simon Keen led us on a day's walk across the remoter parts of the southern section of Dartmoor. We experienced sleet, hail and those boggy bits or mires, practiced micro-navigation and a river-crossing, and took loads of photos some of which will be posted on the website. Sarah Hounson, Stuart Richardson, and Hilary Sutton meanwhile had spent some of the day in Tavistock, and the rest preparing a delicious candle-lit Christmas meal - our thanks to them. Sunday was a little disappointing as the weather conditions curtailed rock-climbing, and instead we spent the morning splitting logs for the warden. Next year there is some talk of going to the Peak District, which also has excellent rock-climbing as well as walking, cycling, and..... shopping !

Our future County programme is action-packed, and looks something like this 

More information about forthcoming events from Chris Dean www.glswscouts.org.uk/network

The Network Committee finally reached a decision to re-brand the Local SNets and chose the theme of Gods and Goddesses. Sutton has become 'Saturn' Network - clever that - and I am sure the rest will follow with equal imagination !

As for New Year's Resolutions perhaps we could all make an attempt to collaborate and share each others' activities as we seek to promote the corporate Network image in GLSW.

First Aid Training

There will be a First Response course held at the 4th Morden HQ, Bow Lane on the evenings of 21st and 28th February and 7th March, from 8.30 - 10.00pm.  It will cost £20 a head but this may be recovered from the District.  It is essential that you attend all three sessions.
For a place on the course contact Allan Woolsey, details available on request from the web site.

Cable Drums

Dave Bixby has been asked to find 70 cable drums in time for Eurojam.  Can you help?  The drums should be no more than 3' in diameter and must be solid as they will be used for wheels for a pioneering project at the Jamboree (the all cardboard drums ordinary electrical cable comes on are no good).
Dave's contact details are available on request from the web site.

Thank You . . .

from Linda Vaudrey, David, Graham and Robert

"A very big thank you to everyone who made a donation in memory of Bill. A staggering £938.50 was collected and this has been sent to the Macmillan Cancer Relief Fund. The boys and I were extremely pleased, and proud, that people cared so much and showed their appreciation in this way. We were very touched."


www.macmillan.org.uk

From June Waro

"To all my friends at the Scout Fellowship,
I would like to thank everyone of you for sending me your get well cards, your prayers and your thoughts for my recovery from my operation, which I must say has been a success.  I haven't quite finished my treatment yet, but hopefully by the end of February I will have.  Thank you all very much.

Ron and I wish you all a Happy New Year."

Thank you June, we hope your recovery continues apace and we wish you well.

Eurojam 2005

The 22nd Wimbledon has got a couple of places left for the European Jamboree due to be held at Hylands Park from 29 July to 10 August. These have become available due to late cancellations so they are prepared to offer the places to any Scouts in the District that are between the ages of 11 and 18 (as at July 2005).
If you are interested please get in touch with Alan Maloney urgently and he can send information directly to you.
As all places have to be paid for by the end of February he needs to know expressions of interest urgently.

Alan's contact details are available on request through the web site.

Census and Membership fees

Did you get your census figures and membership fees to John Young on time?  If your Group's figures are still outstanding, please send them in immediately.