Annual report 2018

Treasuresreport

The Group has run at a surplus of £6,640 this year, with funds available increasing to £26,457 from £19,817.  Thanks to everyone who has completed a gift aid form, as ever this is an important source of funds for the group and our 2018 claim is in progress at the moment.  Didsbury festival raised around £1200 for the group.

We’ve been in our current location for over 30 years and the hut is in need of refurbishment.  We now have sufficient funds to start work on improving access to the hut and updating the toilets and kitchen area – watch this space!

The 2017 - 2018 accounts will be audited over the summer.

Matthew Rushton
Group Treasurer

GSL’s report

We have had another successful year and all sections are near maximum size. We have had the Beaver scout waiting list closed for most of the year as the demand was too great for the number already on it.

We still need more leaders than we have, this is especially a problem in both cub sections. They both need more leaders as there are only 2 for each pack, at times we are at the minimum number allowed to run the sections. The number of leaders needed is higher for activities outside which meant on occasions we have not been  able to do them.

Helen and Rosemary are the driving force behind the garden. Last year for the Britain in bloom / Greening Gay Britain they along with the Explorers and Beavers achieved a Silver Gilt award for the garden, thanks to all those who have helped, well done. Didsbury as a whole achieved a gold award and is now in the champion of champions section for Britain in Bloom this year. You can see the garden is looking even better this year, it is hoped that judges think so too.

The lease for our HQ is due to expire next year and we have been having problems getting meaningful talks with the council about renewing it. A developer has suggested they build us a new HQ which we have now declined. We have a solicitor on the case and a section 26 has been served on the council asking for our lease to be renewed. Until this matter is resolved we are not spending any money on renovating the building which we are desperately keen to do.

Many thanks, to all leaders and supporters, well done.
 

Keith Hampson

Group scout Leader

Beaver report

The beaver waiting list has been closed since the beginning of this year as it was oversubscribed. It is likely it will reopen during the summer. The beaver scout colony remains full with 24 children on each night.

Since last year John has moved to Scotland and we were sorry to see him leave us. Sara who helps on a Tuesday will be leaving us to become a student in Leeds, Annabelle will also be leaving as she has a place to do her PGCE. We thank both of them for their help in beavers.

Claire Parker is the leader for Tuesday helped by Alistair, Drew, Annna and Karin. Harshad Mistry is the leader for Wednesday and he is assisted by James, Rowan, Dodo and Andreea. Although the leader numbers look good on paper most of my leaders are not full time and assist when work permits.

We try to make sure that the beavers gain their bronze chief scout award but this is not always possible as due to the long waiting list children often come in when they are already seven. This means that they do not have enough time to do all the work needed to gain it. To get this highest award in beavers they need to gain all six challenge badges and complete four activity badges. We have been working hard for the beavers to achieve this with a varied programme over the year. We have had talks from a reporter and a cameraman from the BBC. They were then asked write a report about where they had been during the holidays this was for their personal challenge and towards their photography badge they were asked to takes photos and make a scrap book. Some of the work we do with them but we then ask them to complete work for themselves.

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 and this is all voluntary as there are no paid leaders at a local level in scouting.

Helen Hampson
Assistant Group Scout Leader for Beavers

Cub report

Thursday Night Saxons Cub Report

We currently stand at 28 Cubs, with a regular attendance of 24 being led by two leaders.
Over the past year our cubs have earned 237 Badges

Including 76 Challenge Badges and Four Silver Chief Scout’s Awards

Monday Night Celts Cubs Report 

We currently stand at 28 Cubs, with a regular attendance of 22, being led by two leaders
Over the past year our cubs have earned 2 Silver Chief Scout’s awards and around 100 badges

Joint Pack -  Main Highlights

Eight of our Cubs took on the Pike View Competition Hike in April coming in 9^th (Celts) and 11^th (Saxons).

March saw many of us support the Friends of Didsbury Park in helping to clear the way to make a path of Poppies to commemorate the losses of WWI.

We joined other packs from Manchester South in a Camp Fire Sing Along in December 17

We successfully held our Wild West Themed Summer Camp in June 17 and was attended by 24 Saxons and 17 Celts along with much needed support from Parents and Leaders.

Rough Plans for the coming year

We are holding our next Annual Summer (Pirate Themed) Camp June/July 2018

We intend to have a Sixers and Seconders Camp in October 2018 and hope to Invite two other groups from the district to join us.

We also intend to return to Pike View Hike in April 19

We also hope to introduce the cubs to some new sports and activities over the coming year

Rolando Johnston (Thursday cubs), Claire Lydon (Monday cubs)

Scout report

Griffin Troop (Tuesday)

We  have had another successful year with a number of residential and outdoor activities which always prove to be a hit with the scouts.

Throughout the year we have had between 23 and 29 scouts within the section with a regular attendance of between 18 and 22.

This year we have had a number of cubs join us from the cub section and they are settling in well. We have a nice mix of ages within the section and will be focusing this year on increasing the amount of badgework we complete.

Currently we are developing our leadership team as we have lost three leaders. We currently have four leaders but will be looking to recruit some more in the coming year.

I would like to thank all the leaders within both the Griffin section, Phoenix section and the wider group for all their support throughout this year.

Brian Cosgrove

Scout Leader

Phoenix Troop (Wednesday)

Phoenix troop have had a great year. At a recent troop forum, our young people told us they enjoy scouts for the firelighting, wide games and break away from the stresses of regular life.

We've been on spring camp already this year and are looking forward to summer camp with Griffin troop.

Here's to another year of youth shaped scouting

Simon Jermy
Scout Leader

DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)

2017/18 has been another busy year for the explorer unit. Our numbers are down slightly since

last year, mainly to members turning 18 and leaving the unit. We now have 12 members of

the unit most of whom are regulars to the meetings. We also still have a number of young

leaders helping with other sections within the group, although some of the members who

were young leaders have now turned 18.

We continue to have a very active program which, as always, is created and run by the

young people themselves. One of the highlights of the past year was the unit’s trip to the

Gilwell 24 camp (a weekend camp at Gilwell park that features 24 hours of continuous

activities) for the first time. Unfortunately it clashes with a number of other events this year

but a couple of the members are attending. Besides this we have also continued to be

active with the garden in the scout hut, helping to replant the beds ready for the summer.

This summer we have a team taking part in the County’s explorer belt expedition in the

Netherlands. We also continue to have a large portion of the members enrolled in the Duke

of Edinburgh's Award and the Chief Scout or Queen’s Scout Awards, and who are working

their way through the requirements. We are aiming to run expeditions for these awards in

Autumn as well as having the first unit camp for a number of years.

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 241^st and 306^th 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 3^rd 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)

Annual report 2017

Treasures report

The Group has run at a surplus of £6,241 this year, with funds available increasing to £19,817 from £13,576.  Income is in line with last year -  thanks to everyone who has completed a gift aid form, as ever this is an important source of funds for the group.  Didsbury festival raised around £800 for the group.

This year we’ve replaced the wall at the back of the hut with a fence after the wall fell down due to trees encroaching on it and bought some new tents for the group.  We’ve been in our current location for over 30 years and the hut is in need of refurbishment.  We now have sufficient funds to start work on improving access to the hut and updating the toilets and kitchen area – watch this space!

The 2016 - 2017 accounts will be audited over the summer.

Matthew Rushton
Group Treasurer

GSL’s report

We have had another successful year and all sections are near maximum size.

We still have issues with the number of leaders we have, this is especially a problem in both cub section, They both need more leaders as at times we are at the minimum number allowed to run the sections. The number of leaders needed is higher for activities outside which means we might not be able to do them.

As you will see from the front garden we are fully involved with the community in an attempt to win the urban section of  Britain in bloom for Didsbury. The garden project is sponsored by the RHS “Greening Grey Britain”. Many thanks to Helen and the team of helpers, who have got it to this stage.

We are still wanting to upgrade the toilets, kitchen and Den . This project had been ongoing for too long, it is hoped to get it done in the near future.

The troops did an accessibility survey last year which highlighted several short fall to our HQ we are hoping to remedy these as soon as possible.

We are in discussions with,  Greater Manchester East scout county with a view to the feasibility of opening new sections at venues remote from our HQ. The driving force for this is to try and reduce our waiting list.

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 241^st and 306^th beaver scouts as they have shorter waiting lists. We have the maximum of 24 on each of Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

We are furthering our links with the community and Didsbury in Bloom specifically by continuing to look after the planter on School Lane. With assistance from other members of the group and finance from the RHS we are developing the scout hut garden.

Amongst the many things the beavers have been doing was an activity day and sleepover. The beavers made their own packed lunch and then went to Fletcher Moss park to do outdoor activities. In the evening they put up their tent and we had a campfire which the parents were invited to.

The two district events the beavers attended were Remembrance Sunday parade and the Christingle service at Emmanuel Church.

Amongst the evening activities the junk modeling always proves very popular which develops imagination (possibly on our behalf!) team work and construction skills. We try to get out as much as possible and the summer term, when the weather seems to be at its worst, is when we attempt to go to the park and do outdoor activities. We have also covered serious aspects and most of the beavers gained their first response badge level 1and have done safety in the home, garden and by water. We also covered disability and dementia awareness.
My thanks go to all my leaders for all their support and effort especially to John who will be leaving us in the summer to go to Scotland. We also welcome our recent new leaders Karin, Sara, Alicia and Rowan, also our young leaders Dodo and Joaquim without them all we would not be able to 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
The cubs have had another busy year, with 11 chief scout silvers from the Celts and Saxons have awarded 218 badges this year. There are 23 cubs in the Celts and 28 in the Saxons. We have all completed the Athletics, disability awareness, local knowledge and artist badges. We also did the DIY badge, making bird boxes, which have been put up around the hut.

The cubs have been out and about, with a canoeing trip on the Mersey last July, and a sixers and seconders camp in September. The cubs very much enjoyed learning some traditional scout skills, from tracking to firelighting, with lovely weather helping things along. There was a sleep over in the hut in December, with a viewing of the new Jungle Book film and a small campfire, to round off a year of cubs 100. Earlier this year, some of the cubs went to Didsbury park and helped to do some litter picking and tidying, so that it is nice for everyone who goes there. Celts were also involved in the consultation about the park, and as a result, directly influenced the decision to install a zip wire.

In April, the cubs went to annual pike view hike competition, with one team from each pack competing. The cubs put in a strong effort, coming 11^th and 22^nd out of more than 30 teams, which is pretty good considering we didn’t do a practice this year!

Coming up this month is the annual cub camp, with both packs, which has a Wild West theme and promises to be an exciting weekend. We also hope to run another sixers and seconders camp and make the next year just as exciting as this one.

Claire Lydon
(Celts CSL)

Scout report

Griffin Troop (Tuesday)

We currently have 24 scouts in the Griffin troop with regular attendance making for lively meetings. We have run a varied programme this year supported by our six leaders. One of which is currently travelling around South America and we are looking forward to him returning with some exciting stories.

We have had a number of activities and camps away from the scout hut this year. We had a number of very successful camps in the spring/summer of 2016 including a summer camp held at Gradback campsite in the peak district. This included a trip to the Roaches for some outdoor rock climbing.

We have just had our first camp of 2017 at Sandiway campsite where we had  28 young people taking part. We completed some climbing and Norwegian crane activities.

The troop is going from strength to strength with a dedicated leadership team that I would like to extend my thanks to for their efforts throughout the year.

Brian Cosgrove

Scout Leader

Phoenix Troop (Wednesday)

Since the 2016 AGM, Phoenix and Griffin scouts had a fantastic summer camp at Gradbach in the Peak District. Activities included climbing, geocaching and building and sleeping in shelters (on possibly the worst night of the year in terms of rainfall!)

In October, Phoenix scouts were joined by Griffin for Access Didsbury, part of the national campaign ‘A Million Hands’. Our scouts, parents and members of the public performed an accessibility survey of shops, restaurants and public buildings to identify areas of potential improvement and to raise the profile of accessibility issues. The worst performing venue was our own scout hut.

Notable troop nights include a visit from our local PCSO team, Crystal maze themed assault course, and customizing, distressing and decorating jeans. We also managed to design and build fires floating on water.

Already in 2017 we’ve had a joint camp with Griffin troop at Sandiway scout campsite and we’re planning a 5 day backwoods camp in August (details coming out very soon).

Simon Jermy
Scout Leader

DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)

2017 has been another busy year for the explorer unit. We now have 18 members of the

unit and regularly have double digit attendance at the meetings. We also have 5 young

leaders helping with other sections within the group as well as others who are interested in

starting.

We have had a very active program this year, including a fencing lesson, a trip to Awesome

climbing wall, a quiz night and also the usual scouting activities such as first aid, map

reading and pioneering. Over the last couple of weeks we have been very active in the

garden project helping to design the layout, build the raised planters, lay the anti-weed

sheets and install the gravel borders. The unit also had its largest presence yet at the

annual Greater Manchester explorer winter camp. As well as competing in Pike View Hike

for the first time in a number of years, where the team came a fantastic 8th overall. Also in

July we will be attending the Gilwell 24 camp (a weekend camp at Gilwell park that features

24 hours of continuous activities) for the first time.

We have a significant proportion of the unit that are signed up for the various levels of the

Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the associated Chief Scout or Queen’s Scout Awards. Over

the summer and into the autumn we are going to be looking to work on the expeditions and

the extra requirements that are part of the Scout Awards.

Will McGenn
(Explorer scout leader)

2015 Annual report

Chairman’s Report

The 2^nd Didsbury 88^th Manchester Scout Group has had another successful year and has maintained full numbers in Beavers, Cubs and Scouts.  We now have two evenings of Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. It was another action packed year for the Group with many camps and trips in addition to the weekly activities held in the Scout Hut.

Our main fund raising event of the year is a barbecue at the Didsbury Festival. Following the record breaking event of 2013, we had a day of very heavy rain which meant we didn’t sell anything like the number of burgers we would normally expect to sell. It also meant we couldn’t run the highly successful climbing wall that had impressed us all so much in 2013. Let’s hope we get the sun back this year.

I would like to thank all the Leaders, Assistant Leaders and the Executive members for all their valuable work throughout the year. 

Become involved

This Scout Group is run by volunteers and  it’s success is totally dependent on volunteers. If you have a bit of time to help out there are various ways you can do so. We have a great demand to join and we need leaders and assistants to help meet this demand.

If you have any great ideas, or know anyone with particular talents, that would make for a great session for the Beavers, Cubs or Scouts we would love to hear from you.  If you would like to help out on the occasional session do let a Leader know.

Finances

The subscriptions you pay and the fund raising activities we do, have ensured another stable year from a financial point of view. Subscriptions have finally increased to £10 per month per child - which I think we can all agree is still very good value. 

These subscriptions pay for the equipment and resources used, plus the rent and other bills.  A proportion also goes to the national Scout Association which helps pay for the resources they provide, including the fantastic camp facilities.

Chris Pearse

Chairman
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Treasuresreport

This year has been one of significant investment in the group’s buildings and equipment with a new heating system being purchased for the hut at a cost of over £3,300 and a new mess tent being purchased for the group for over £2,500.  Didsbury festival was a bit wet in 2014 and this, combined with prepayments for the 2015 summer camp has led to our year end balance being down on last year by around £2,300.

As an executive team we’d like to continue with this kind of investment in the group over the coming years so have elected to increase subscriptions to £10 per month.  This is the first increase in eight years and not a decision taken lightly but one which will benefit the group as we become better equipped and able to offer more to members.

We received some very generous donations this year including £1,000 towards the new boiler and a contribution from the Scout Association of £400. plus some prize money from the Pike Hike!  We’ve also continued to give to the wider community, with the Beavers raising £400 for the RNLI in Rhyl.

As ever, thanks to everyone who has completed a Gift Aid mandate on joining the group.  A claim for over £2,000 went into HMRC last week on last year’s subscriptions where we have a Gift Aid mandate.  As you can see, this makes a big difference to the group.

See group accounts for a full breakdown.
Matthew Rushton
Treasurer

GSL’s report

Another good year but tinged with great sadness in September of last year, with the death of Lizzie Lowe, one of our scouts.

All sections have continued to thrive but as mentioned  in all reports, more adult leaders are needed for us to continue the good work.

Congratulations to; Sam Michaels, Will Simkins, Martins Vitolins and Lizzie Lowe from the scout sections on gaining their Gold Chief scouts Awards and Finlay Lowe from the cub section on gained his Silver Chief scouts award.
Also to Brian (scout leader Griffin troop) & Vicky Cosgrove on the birth of their first child Fin.

After last year’s summer holidays the Explorer scout unit became fully administered by the group, previously it was administered by the District but the arrangement did not work well. At this time all the existing unit leaders with the exception of  “the new boy on the block” Will McGenn moved away from the area. We were relieved when Will McGenn agreed to take over the running of the unit with support from the rest of the group, thanks Will.

It is hoped that the main hall will be decorated over the summer holidays and that we will get funding to enable work to start on modernising the kitchen, toilets and den.

Many thanks to all leaders and supporter, 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 have the maximum of 24 on each of Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

We have had a very busy year,  packed with fun activities. The highlight of last year when we went to Rhyl to the sea life centre, the lifeboat station and built sandcastles followed by a sleep over when we got back. The beavers raised £420.00 for the lifeboat station by a sponsored sandcastle building competition. We also had a great day when we visited cub camp, the sun shone over all the activities. The activities in the evening, during the day and the sleepovers all count towards the beaver badges. These have all changed this year and we are just coming to terms with how we need to change some of the activities and incorporate others. There are more activity badges and we encourage the beavers to do some of them at home. I fear that there will be less bronze chief scout awards awarded, the highest badge that beavers can gain, due to these changes.

Thank you to all my leaders for all their efforts and to the parents that have been helping this term but it would be nice to have more permanent leaders!!

Helen Hampson
Beaver  leader

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; Saxon)

Claire Lydon – CSL (Mon; Celts)

Alan Robinson – Assistant CSL (Thurs)

Vicky Morrison – ACSL (Mon)

Ralph Bolton – Parent Helper (Mon)

Emma Roberts – CSSA (Thurs)

Rachael Longhurst – ACSL (Thurs)

Fran Bray – ACSL (Thurs)

Matthew Cameron – ACSL (Thurs)

We have now been running 2 cub sections for 18months and the packs are still growing in size and attracting more and more interest for people wanting to join. The main issue that we have is attracting enough leaders to be able to provide an interesting and challenging program for the children to enjoy. The Monday night section currently has the largest pack and the fewest leaders which needs addressing.

Between the two sections we currently have 58 children, because of the large numbers it made it difficult to manage the Online Scout Management system (OSM) with regards to attendance and badge records etc so we have now split the packs and each pack now runs with its own OSM system. We started to implement this late last summer but its full roll out was not completed till later that year and I apologies for any difficulty and confusion this may have caused anyone.

The annual cub camp for 2014 was held at Bowley and the theme was “Spy Camp”. The activities included weapons training (Archery and Air rifle shooting) and gadget making along with finger printing, false ID’s, camouflage and building a forward OPs. The camp was well attended with 43 cubs attending and over 50 Beavers joining for the Saturday making a grand total of nearly 100 children! The Saturday night wide game was a scream (quite literally)

The Cub Section entered 2 teams again this year into the Pike View Hike Challenge (Bolton), which is a difficult and demanding challenge when the weather is good, when the weather is bad the difficulty increases tremendously. Both cub packs distinguished themselves this year by achieving a result that we have only equaled once before in 2011. The Saxon cub scouts came 3^rd overall out of 32 packs that attended the event and the Celts walked away with 1^st Prize and the trophy.

Over the last year we have awarded more than 200 badges between the 2 sections and one Chief Scout silver award to Finlay Lowe. We would like to award more badges next year, but that is up to the children.

I would also like to express my thanks to all who have given me and my family their love and support over the last 10 months and also to all the leaders who have held things together in my absence and shown me that I am dispensable after all. However my biggest thanks go to the children who welcomed me back to cubs which has always been and will remain a constant source of joy and pleasure.

 Kevin Lowe
AGSL - Cubs

Scout report

Since last year both  troops have had the opportunity to attend the County “4zero”  camp at the end of May last year and a number went on to spend 4 days rock climbing. We had  a very cold Winter camp in January and entered a team  from each troop in the Pike View Hike in April.

Phoenix troop (Wednesday)

The Phoenix troop is now 18 months old with 26 troop members, a very healthy number with scouts bringing their friends in from outside the troop, as well as coming up from cubs. Our average age is lower now since an influx of new scouts last September from cubs.  We're working hard to build their skills, knowledge and confidence, all the time having good fun.

We're sending 11 scouts to PEAK 2015,  looking  forward to a great camp.

Over the next year we aim to get away on more camps, with some Patrol Leader and Assistant Patrol Leader activities and training too.

PTO

DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)

I have been involved with the explorer unit for just over a year and took over the running of the unit at the end of last summer. To begin with other leaders in the group would kindly come and help run the evenings which helped to ensure that we had the necessary 2 leaders, since Christmas Rolando has joined the explorer group as a permanent leader. For most of the year we have had between 6 to 8 explorers at the meetings, and about 10 to 12 on the books. This should increase steadily as hopefully more scouts will continue onto explorers in the next couple of years.

We are starting to run joint explorer events across the 3 units in the district, we went along to the explorer winter camp this year that was great fun and we will be hosting the other units for a bbq in July. We have also been invited on the summer camp that is being run by the Wythenshawe unit. Other stand out activities for this year have included a self defense class, a paper plane making competition, a cooking evening and most recently building a catapult. We have also begun looking at doing the expeditions for the bronze DofE and chief scouts awards and had our first 'camp', a sleepover in the hut.

Will McGenn
Explorer scout leader