2016 Annual report
Chairman’s Report
Treasures report
The Group has run at a surplus of £6,718 this year, with funds available increasing to £13,576 from £6,858.
Income has increased after the increase in subs to £10 a month in January 2015, continued increases in member numbers and a good result from the Didsbury festival. In terms of expense the group subsidised activities and also repainted the hut over the summer. Thanks to everyone who has completed a gift aid form, as ever this is an important source of funds for the group.
With the increased funds available we’ve been able to invest more in the group since the accounts closed at the end of March with work being carried out on the grounds following the wall falling over and new tents being purchased – watch this space as plans are being drawn up for a refurbishment of the interior of the hut.
The 2015 - 2016 accounts will be audited over the summer.
Matthew Rushton
GSL’s report
We have had another successful year and all sections are near maximum size.
The main hall was decorated over the summer of 2015 and is looking good.
Issues with our new mess tent have finally been resolved by the manufacturer.
Following the pushing over of the rear wall by the council “to make it safe” we have had two trees removed and a fence installed to replace the wall.
We are still wanting to upgrade the toilets, kitchen and Den but that has taken a back seat after the issues with the wall at the rear of the HQ.
Many thanks to all leaders and supporters, well done.
Keith Hampson
Group scout Leader
Beaver report
Beavers continue to have a very long waiting list and it’s likely that a number will never get into our group. We try to encourage the enquiries for older children to apply to 241st and 306th beaver scouts as they have shorter waiting lists. We have the maximum of 24 on each of Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
This year we are developing our community links especially with Didsbury in Bloom. The beavers are planting up the planter on School Lane and looking after it over the summer.
We have had a visit to Pets at Home so that the Beavers can work towards their animal friend badge. Last year’s sleepover was at Catalyst Science Discovery Centre in Widnes. This year we will be at home concentrating on outdoor activities.
All the activities go towards the beavers gaining their challenge and activity badges. If they gain all 6 challenge badges and 4 activity badges they will earn their Chief Scout award, which is the highest award beavers can gain.
The only district event the beavers have attended this year is the Remembrance Parade to Didsbury cenotaph and the following service of remembrance. There is talk of events for beavers within the district but these have not yet materialised.
My thanks go to all my leaders for all their support and effort so that we can run a fun filled programme for the children. It takes commitment to give time for preparing and attending each evening but at times we still need a parent rota to help us especially when we are away from the scout hut.
Helen Hampson (AGSL Beavers)
Cub report
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the leaders and assistants who have helped in the running of the cub pack this year. Without their continued support the pack would not be the success that it currently is. The leaders are: -
Rolando Johnston – Cub Scout Leader (CSL) (Thurs)
Claire Lydon – CSL (Mon)
Alan Robinson – Assistant CSL (Thurs)
Ralph Bolton – Parent Helper (Mon)
Matthew Cameron – ACSL (Thurs)
Hanna Matt – ACSL (Mon)
Alastair Turner – ACSL (Mon)
Writing this report can actually be both very interesting and reflective to see how things have changed and then again also how they have not changed over the period of 12 months.
The number of children between the 2 sections remains unchanged at 58, with the Celts (Mon) being the larger of the 2, but only just. There are 4 leaders helping to run the Monday night pack but only 2 with an occasional 3rd leader on a Thursday, 12 months ago this situation was reversed. Unless we can get more people to help out on a Thursday night we will have to limit the Thursday night pack size which may mean running a Cub scout waiting list, which will have to also apply to children coming up from Beavers. There is no doubt that as the pack sizes increase it becomes much harder to run a program that is both enjoyable for the children to participate in and is easy enough for the leaders to deliver.
I am constantly having to turn down requests for children to join the cub pack who are not already part of the Beaver colony and this does not feel right. I try to pass these enquiries onto other scout groups in the area, but it is now clear that they are also full and have no room either. If this is something that you feel needs to be addressed (as I do) then please come and talk to me.
This year has been quite a celebration for the Cubs with it being the centenary of its founding. The celebrations started with a County organised trip to Blackpool pleasure beach. Despite the rather inclement weather the cubs seemed to have a good time and after the log flume ride it was not possible for them to get any wetter anyway. The annual Cub camp was again a rather large County organised affair with over 1000 people attending a 3-day camp held at Linnet Clough. The camp was a great success and made so much better because of the glorious sunshine that blessed us for the whole weekend.
The leaders have set up a closed group Facebook page that allows them to easily upload any photos of the events that the cubs are involved in. If you wish to view these photo’s then you must apply to become a member of the group.
Because of the longer than normal annual camp this has been the first time in many years that we have not attended the Pike View Hike. We will return next year and endeavor to reclaim the trophy. However, there are plans a foot to run a sixers and seconders camp later this year in the autumn months.
The previous year we awarded 200 badges between the two sections with one chief scout silver award. This year the Celts Cubs were awarded 243 badges and the Saxon 232 badges a grand total of 475 badges of which 6 were chief scout silver awards and there are a further 7 chief scouts awards about to be presented shortly. This I would say is an incredible improvement on previous years and a credit to the hard work of the children and leaders…………….Bravo!!
I would like to thank all the parents for their continued support and encouragement in the running of the pack, our community is only as rich and diverse as what we are prepared to invest of ourselves into it.
Many thanks
Kevin Lowe
AGSL - Cubs
Scout report
Griffin Troop (Tuesday)
The troop has gone from strength to strength, following the split to two groups a number of years ago, the numbers are now in the low twenties for the Griffin troop. There has been an active year with a good number of leaders.
This year we saw one of our younger leaders, Venla, finish with her studies and move to London, she will be sadly missed. We have a number of newer leaders join the section in the last number of months Lauren and Hanna.
We have had a number of joint events with the Phoenix scout troop including a Christmas party in Didsbury park and a Patrol Leaders camp just recently.
Last years annual summer camp at PEAK 2015 in the grounds of Chatsworth House was a success and I would like to thanks all the leaders for their the efforts in arranging it.
The activities being run continue to be an exciting mix of indoor and outdoor including trampolining and climbing. Upcoming event include kayaking and fire building.
With the increasing number of cubs coming up to scouts we are likely to reach of capacity over the coming 18 months.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the leaders in both Griffin and Phoenix troop along with all the other parents and volunteers that help throughout the year.
Brian Cosgrove
Scout Leader
Phoenix Troop (Wednesday)
Since the AGM in 2015, Phoenix and Griffin troops attended Peak 2015, an international camp in the grounds of Chatsworth House, a training weekend for Patrol Leaders and Assistant Patrol Leaders and a weekend camp just this last week.
We also have a weeklong camp in the Peak District this July.
Phoenix troop have opted to support the Scout Association's Million Hands project, to mobilise half a million scouts to support four key causes. We chose to run a community project in support of disability and even had a visit from the UK's Youth Commissioner, Hannah Kentish.
The scouts have been paintballing, played disc golf, lit plenty of fires and learnt many new skills. We hope it continues.
Simon Jermy
Scout Leader
DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)
The unit is in a good state and has continued to expand this year, we now have 17 members and a couple of new leaders. We have had new members this year both from within the scout group and also from other scout groups in the area.
Highlights of the past year include
Last summer we went on a joint summer camp with the explorer group from Wythenshawe to the Ae forest in Scotland
In February we went on the Manchester Explorers Winter camp at Linnet Clough, which was once again a great weekend (if a little cold!).
We have a very active program for our Thursday night meetings, the majority of which are organised by the Explorers themselves (with whatever help is needed from leaders). This has included cooking nights, watching films/anime in the hut, making smoothies and most recently a number of 'graffiti' nights to make art work for our notice board, all this as well as the more traditional scouting skills.
We are currently in the process of organising our first unit camp and will be back off to Scotland with the Wythenshawe group again this summer. The aim is to keep this momentum going and to have another great year.
Will McGenn
(Explorer scout leader)