88th Manchester
Scout Group Annual Report 2007.
AGM 16-5-07
Chairman’s review of the year
1.
With
great regret, I must record the untimely death last summer of Ann Lole, our
President, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Ann was associated
with the Group for a great many years as parent, committee member, treasurer on
several occasions and finally as President. She was awarded the Medal of Merit
in recognition of her services to the Group. The funeral on 11th
August was well attended by representatives of the Group.
2.
This
year numbers in all of the sections have held steady or have increased. This is
a very encouraging trend which I hope will continue.
3.
Last
November we had a very successful bonfire and firework display at Toc H Rugby
Club. I think everyone agreed that it was the best display we have ever put on
despite the poor weather conditions. We are, as always, most grateful to our
very skilled pyrotechnic team led by Roger Short and Ernie Hill, who will now
have a well-earned retirement. This was the last one to be produced under the
current system, although some parents have expressed an interest in taking over
the display. It remains to be seen whether this will happen. I would like to
thank everyone who, over many years, has helped with the displays. A great deal
of money has been raised for Group funds and many people have derived enjoyment
from the events.
4. I am very pleased to tell you that, after the last AGM, Heather Davies became Group Secretary and has settled in well.
5. The Gift Aid scheme is operational and working well. This makes it simpler for the Group to reclaim the income tax which you have already paid on the subscription. The Treasurer can give you more details if you wish. For convenience records are held on a computer. There is no problem with the Data Protection Act, but we do need your permission to hold such records and have prepared a consent form accordingly. The amount recovered from the Inland Revenue venue from your Gift Aid subscriptions makes a very useful increase to subscription income. Please continue to do this.
6. The website continues to flourish. It is a useful source of information on Group activities. The URL is now www.didsburyscouts.org.uk. The Explorers now have their own website and are regularly publishing an electronic newsletter.
7. After a gap of quite a few years since the last District St George’s Day Parade, and at the instigation of this group, a local parade was held on 22nd April at St James’ church. The short service, ably led by the Vicar, Revd. Nick Bundock, was well attended and was followed by a wide game in Fletcher Moss park. Members of two other groups also attended. Perhaps this will lead to a revival of the District parade.
8.
Finally,
I would like to thank, on your behalf, all of the leaders who give so much of
their time for the Group. I must also thank the other members of the Executive
Committee for all their work throughout the year. Christine Taylor, our
treasurer for some years, has decided to retire. In particular, I would like to
thank her for all the hard work she has put in. This year we have had a greater
input from families and section members which spreads the workload. Please keep
it up and continue to help. I encourage parents and guardians to consider
volunteering to be members of the Executive Committee – as section
representatives or as officers. The work is not very time-consuming or
demanding and it helps to run the Group for the benefit of your children.
D.S. Leitch,
16th May 2007.
This
year is the 100th year of the scout movement and there are many
activities this year to celebrate the event. All sections will be attending our
county centenary camp at Linnet Clough at the end of the May.
I
am very please to report that during the last 12 months most sections have
consolidated their leadership and all section have grown. We welcome to the
leadership team, Catriona Nicolson to Beavers and Ben Campbell and Peter Dyer
to scouts. Chris Dunn moved back home at Christmas after helping the cub
section for the past 3 years as an assistant cubs scout leader. Martin Miller
who has been though all sections and a leader with the scouts left to go to
university in September Thanks Chris and Martin for all your help and
enthusiasm.
Three
of our ex-scouts, who are now in the district Explorer unit have been selected
to attend the world scout jamboree, being held at Hylands Park, Chelmsford.
Well done to Ben Bowen, David Knowles and Josh Golding.
Alan
Robinson who is our cub leader has returned to the cub section after helping
for a period with the beaver colony. He has recently agreed to take on the roll
of Assistant district commissioner for cub scouts and although he will still be
helping with our cub section Sue Bullied is the leader in charge of the section
now.
A
big thank you, to all who have helped and supported the group throughout the
year, especially to our leaders who run the sections week in week out.
Keith
Hampson
Once
again our beaver colony has had an exciting and eventful year.
During
the last 12 months we have welcomed a new beaver leader, Catriona (tic tak) and
have said hello and goodbye to our 2 Duke of Edinburgh Award helper Peter and
Issy. We also say thank you to Akala for his help in the beaver colony as he
has now returned to his cub pack.
We
have attended a number of successful district events throughout the year,
starting off with a teddy bear picnic and a Halloween party held at Baguley
Hall Group. There was a great turnout for the treasure hunt a t Abney Hall and
recently we hosted the district art and craft evening. A number of beavers
attended the very first cub & beaver district camp fire a couple of weeks
ago – it was a great introduction for our boys to the camp fire sing song!!
Our
turn out for the St Georges Day service followed by a wide game was sadly a
very poor one which was a great pity.
After a short service at St James Church everyone had a great time in
the wide game searching out “Knights and Dragons”
As
a colony we have visited The Museum of Science and Industry, enjoyed a day trip
to cub camp and had a great afternoon at the Christmas pantomime in Stockport.
All in all we have followed a busy and varied programme with a number of boys
attaining their Discovery and Friendship Challenge badges. There a currently 20 boys and we do have a
waiting list.
Sue
Sunderland
The
cub pack is full at present with 27 boys on the roll. During the year 9 boys
have moved up to scouts and 12 boys have joined the pack. We have 4 regular
leaders plus one helper and this has allowed us to pursue a varied and
interesting programme.
We
have taken part in several District events, which included 5-a-side football, a
visit to the Palace Theatre to see The Jungle Book, the district quiz, and most
recently the Beaver and Cub campfire held a few weeks ago.
We
had 2 camps last year, our group camp in June at Dunham Massey plus a small
number of boys and leaders attended the District Camp at Linnet Clough. This
year we held an indoor winter camp at Bibby’s Farm with a detective theme,
which was enjoyed by all. Since September we have been following the Centenary
programme, which has included creating our own model campsites, paper plane
building, a flag night, a visit to St James’s Church and a science evening
presented by young scientists from The University of Manchester.
Two cubs, James Monk & Darrel Lowe gained their Silver chief scouts award this year. This is the highest award in cub scouting.
I
would like to thank all the leaders for their commitment and work throughout
the year to ensure the boys continue to enjoy their Scouting.
Susan
Bulleid
Scout
numbers have been rising steadily over the year and there are now over 30
scouts on the books, with weekly attendance at a healthy, high percentage of
this. We have recently been delighted
to recruit our first three girls to the troop. The troop currently has three
patrols though we may have to extend this to four should numbers stabilise at
around 30 regular attendees.
We
expect two scouts to be moving up to explorers before the summer.
Tuesday night activities have included a focused period on animation and construction in order to work towards the lads Creative Challenge badge. We have also visited the climbing wall in Marple, pursued athletics challenges and the usual backwoods cooking tasks.
Summer
camp last year, was attended by 15 scouts from the troop. Activities included
archery, climbing, sailing, canoeing, raft building and survival challenges.
The culmination of these survival challenges was for all the scouts to spend a
night in bivouac shelters they had constructed from forest materials.
The
troop has attended a number of camps over the winter period since the summer
break. In the autumn we visited Sandiway forest camp in Cheshire where
questions had to be asked of the boys raft building skills. Despite extensive
training and experience of pioneering, no scout remained dry. Technology camp at Linnet Clough in October
saw a number of badges being gained, whilst a County frostbite camp in January,
also at Linnet Clough, saw a lot more muddy faces than frostbitten fingers.
In
the next couple of months the troop is expecting to undertake three further
camps. The last weekend of this month sees us join with over 2000 other scouts
from the county for the Centenary camp at Linnet Clough. At the end of July the
troop will be travelling to London for a week to visit the Jamboree and take in
some big city culture. Finally we are expecting to hold a weekend camp towards
the end of term to allow some of our new recruits to experience the joy and the
graft of 88th Manchester weekend camping.
In
the summer of last year we lost two of our leaders to University – Martin to
Leicester and Edwin to Edinburgh. However, by a stroke of good fortune we
managed to recruit Engineer Ben Campbell and Doctor Peter Dyer to the ranks
making four leaders for the troop with regular assistance from David Knowles
one of the district explorer scouts and an old boy from our troop.
Evan
Roberts