Group Scout Leaders Report

Welcome

The Here & Now

The group at the January 2006 census consists of around 85 people from the youngest Beaver to the oldest leader; this is a small drop on last year's census which totalled 93.

Beavers    age 6-8             Wednesday       Holden Clough   5.45pm to 7.00 pm

Beavers    age 6-8             Thursday           HQ                   5.45pm to 7.00pm

Cubs        age 8-10½         Wednesday       HQ                   7.00pm to 8.30pm

Cubs        age 8-10½         Thursday           HQ                   7.00pm to 8.30pm

Scouts     age 10½ to 14    Friday               HQ                   7.15pm to 9.15pm

Explorers  age 14 to 18      Friday               HQ                   7.30pm to 9.15 pm

We are always willing to welcome new members; boys or girls are accepted in all sections, just turn up on one of the evenings or call me on 0161-308-4299 to discuss

Bring a Friend

Leaders and Helpers

click the title to be transferred to our How to Help Page

We find that the more people that are available the easier it is to run a successful group. The good news is that we have 2 new helpers with the Beavers on Thursday and 2 new helpers with Scouts on Fridays. The latter were both ex scouts with the group and we find that quite satisfying. The bad news is that Anne has retired from Thursday Beavers after many productive years. We wish her well and look forward to seeing her at our social events.

We will never turn down an offer of help and here are just some of the ways you can help:

• Help a couple of hours a week assisting one of our sections, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts or Explorers
• Help by offering a special expertise you have, any skills, hobbies or interests you have can be put to good use as we try to develop a varied and interesting portfolio of activities, events and experiences for our young people, and that could be a once a year event.
• Help with the administration, finance, secretarial etc.
• Help with maintaining and upgrading the building. We have continued during year to upgrade the building to enable us to continue providing a facility for your children to meet. We still have much to do, doors need repairing, heating needs to be replaced and lots of cleaning!
• Help at our fundraising events, or even better organise a new one.
• Complete a Gift Aid form, this costs you nothing, is simple to do, takes a matter of minutes and the Government gives us money back in return, for every £1 donated by Gift Aid we are able to claim back 28p. Just see any leader
• Assisting with travel to camps and activities

Social Events

During the year we have tried to improve communications and liaisons with members, parents and helpers, through a number of events where the primary purpose was social and to try and create a more inclusive atmosphere. These events included a

• quiz night,
• bonfire night and the
• Christmas sing-a-long-a-cub.

We are continuing this with a camp fire for the AGM tonight which we hope you enjoy.

Please join in and if you have any other ideas just get in touch.

Feedback

We welcome feedback on all our activities good or bad, the Group will take anything you have to say into consideration. You can provide your feedback in the following ways

·         Verbally to any leader

·         In writing to the Group Scout Leader, 142 Kings Road

·         Telephone 0161 308 4299

·         Email via hurst2nd1st@yahoo.com

·         Through the contact us tab on our website

Thanks

I want to thank everyone who has supported and helped the group over the past twelve months, now that's a lot of thanks, but I would like it to be more. No matter how large or small your support it is greatly appreciated.

I want to give special thanks to the leaders and helpers who turn up regularly to provide the Balanced programme to the members of all our sections, who without their help and support we would not have a group. You can see just how much time and effort these people put in to scouting and the Hurst community from their individual section reports, and the monetary value we have tried to attribute to this in our financial review.

• Thanks to all those people who have helped the group in past year.
• Thanks to all those people who have assisted in our fundraising efforts.
• Thanks to the leaders and helpers who turn out every week.
• Thanks to the back room staff whom we could not do without.
• Thanks to all those who have assisted with our building maintenance programme.

This time next year I would like to be thanking YOU personally, so please get in touch soon.

The Future

2006 is the 90^th Anniversary of cubs, and NO I wasn't around when it started, and 20 years of Beavers. There will be a number of events to celebrate this over the year. Looking forward to 2007 sees our own Diamond Jubilee, 60 years, and NO I wasn't around for that either. I know the sections have a lot planned including stopovers, camps, days out and a whole lot more, so get your friends along and join in the fun.

And Finally

I want to remind everyone that the group belongs to ALL its members, from the youngest Beaver to the oldest leader, parent or grandparent. We need the support, not only of the members but also parents, relations, friends, partners and everyone else associated with the group, to enable us to flourish and grow.