2^nd Didsbury (88^th Manchester) Scout Group AGM 13-6-13

Annual Report

Chairman’s Report

The  Scout Group has had another successful year and has maintained full numbers in 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 was a barbecue at the Didsbury festival and this year we broke all previous records for income. The sunshine helped, but I would particularly like to thank the parents that helped me meet what seemed an insatiable demand for burgers, hot dogs, drinks and cakes. Thank you to all the cake makers as well – we sold out of everything. The parental help meant many of our leaders could run a wonderful Scout-branded climbing wall that helped to show the fun and excitement children can get from the Scouting movement. As one teenager was heard to say – ‘it shows that the Scouts are cool”

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 view point. Subscriptions have remained at £7 per month per child - which I think we can all agree is 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

Treasures report

Key points to note for the last financial year:

1.    The group is growing, hence more subs and membership fees;

2.    We got a gift aid claim through for £2127 – thanks to all the parents who have signed up for the scheme;

3.    We had a good Didsbury festival and made £1477 in 2012;

4.    The rotary club kindly donated £100 to us when they wound up operations in August last year;

5.    One for this year’s books Keith & Helen's wedding anniversary guests very kindly donated £405 to us in April of this year.  Thank you!

I propose that we hold subs at their current level for the year 2013 – 2014. 

Matthew Rushton

GSL’s report

We have had another good year and our numbers have continued to grow to such an extent that we are looking to open a second cub pack after the summer holidays. This will be dependent on enlarging the leadership team which we are expecting to be able to do. It is important that we can open a second pack because if we can't it will mean that we might not be able to let Beavers move into the pack when they are 8, we are trying our utmost to ensure this does not happen but it is all down to having enough leaders. This issue is explained in more detail in the cub report.

It is also expected that we will have to open a second scout troop in the new year.

We have a plan drawn up to make these additions and you will be advised when they are to be implemented. Monday Beavers will be moving to Tuesday and the new cub pack will be on Monday. The second scouts will move to Wednesday after Beavers and the Explorer unit will move to Thursday after Cubs which will start earlier.

The Metro link is now open and we are thankful to them for providing a new fence and car park.

There have been some personnel changes, Dawn has moved from the Explorer unit to the troop and Lizzie Munro has taken over as unit leader from Dawn. There has also been movement in most other section too.

We have introduced a new look website for the group. If you have not yet seen it please take a look www.didsburyscouts.org.uk

Keith Hampson
(Group scout leader)

Beaver Report

Beavers continue to have a long waiting list even though we have two colonies, if we had another cub pack I would be able to take in more children. Our current leaders on a Monday are Megan and Claire, on a Wednesday we have Pam and Laura. We have two young leaders who are James and Tom and they are doing their service for their D of E award. Sue is with us when she is in this country. We have a parent rota for both nights. Thanks go to all my helpers.

This year we have concentrated on the challenge badges, which has resulted in most of the beavers gaining their Bronze Chief Scout Award before they head off to cubs. To gain the bronze award beavers need to gain 6 challenge badges, which is creative, promise, global, fitness, outdoor and friendship so we cover a lot of information and activities.

We are currently concentrating on the outdoors, learning basic map reading, putting it into practice, the country code and conservation. They will all be put into use when we attend cub camp at the end of the month.

I am still looking for people who will become assistant leaders, as I would like to be able to have the occasional night off!

Thank you to all who assist me

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:-

Alan Robinson – Assistant District Commissioner and Assistant Cub scout leader

Richard Moss – Sectional assistant

Michael Lowe – Young explorer scout leader

Claire Wynne– Assistant scout leader

Fran Bray – Assistant Cub scout leader

Joanne Harvey – Sectional assistant

The fact that all these helpers are able to give up their time on a regular basis despite their own personal commitments to family, work and studies says a great deal about the type of people they are, and I feel privileged to have worked with them all. However it is with a certain degree of sadness that we must say farewell to Fran (hopefully only for a brief period) who is leaving us to have a fun filled adventure of her own.

The Cub pack currently a membership of 34 cubs which is proofing very challenging to manage on a Thursday evening and have moved the pack meeting to the park to give us a little more room to spread out, during the summer months.

The pack is currently closed to any entry from outside the group; however this does not appear to dissuade people from still wanting to join the growing waiting list (now at 50+). The crunch point for the cub pack will come in Dec 2013 when the pack numbers will exceed 44 children. The maximum number allowed in the pack is 36, so a second cub pack must be in place prior to December in order to cope with the increase in numbers. We require a Cub Scout leader and 2 assistant Cub Scout leaders for this to happen otherwise children moving up from Beavers to Cubs will either have to join another group or queue in an additional waiting list for the Cub section.

The annual cub camp for 2012 was held at Dunham Massey and the theme was Indian Braves. The cubs experienced archery, shooting, making and painting tepee’s as well as fire lighting and camp cooking. The camp was well attended and despite the wet weather in the weeks leading upto the camp the weekend of the camp was “relatively” good.

The Cub pack entered 2 teams again this year into the Pike View Hike Challenge (Bolton), which is a difficult and demanding challenge for the older cubs (also for the adult walkers). However they manage to accomplish it with a very respectable placing of 5^th and 7^th out of a total of 35 teams that participated. Well done!

Plans for the future rather depend on whether or not we can get enough volunteer helpers to become leaders. I would like to be able to take the cubs on trips to the national space centre,  Jorvik, Chester Zoo, Warwick Castle and even Catalyst in Liverpool (just to mention a few ideas and not all at once). It would also be nice to take the older cubs on a cheaper and more basic camp during the autumn months (early November). However we will have to wait and see if we can persuade anyone to come along and have as much fun as the children seem to have.

Kind Regards  Kevin Lowe
(Cub Scout Leader)

Scout report

Scouts have been very busy since last Summer with troop nights including indoor climbing, sensational (and rather disgusting) smoothies, a debate night and canoeing on the Mersey.

We’ve taken the scouts on a number of camps, from climbing camp last June and winter camp at Cox Wood in January this year. Winter camp was especially memorable as it was our first camp in proper snow in years (enough to destroy one of our favourite tents!) The scouts also sent 1 team to Pike View Hike 2013, placing about middle of the results table, as well as a number of scouts who performed exceptionally at the Swimming Gala, although an unfortunate disqualification meant the results didn’t quite show how amazing the scouts’ performance was.

The leaders would like to thank all the parents and scouts who volunteered at Didsbury Festival 2013. Star scouts on the day were Martins, Sam M and Will who worked really hard all day to raise funds for the group.

As a troop we are using online and mobile tools to keep in touch with parents. We hope you’ll agree this is working very effectively. Over the coming year we will need more help than ever as we work towards setting up a second troop and will be using online tools to share more of what we get up to.

Watch this space!

Finally, I’d like to thank all the scout leaders, Brian, Dawn, Claire, Lucy and all our occasional helpers over the year. The massive rise in numbers at our troop really reflects how much work we’ve all put in.

Thank you!

Simon Jermy
(Assistant scout leader)

2^nd Didsbury (88^th Manchester) Scout Group AGM 16-6-11

Annual Report

Chairman’s review of the year

The 2^ndDidsburyScout Group has had another successful year and has maintained full numbers in 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.

The year has not been without incident for the Executive with a number of challenges. I am pleased to report that these have been successfully negotiated.

We have had to agree to a rent increase for the land we lease from Manchester City Council but were able to keep this down to manageable levels (despite the Council's initial demands).

We have also had the ongoing negotiations with Greater Manchester Public Transport Executive and their contractors about the Metrolink extension. The result has been some changes to the area outside but with little loss of land. There are plans for better fencing and a reinstatement of the areas once work is completed. We have also worked with them to ensure the safety of the children.

Finances

The subscriptions you pay and the fund raising activities we do, have ensured another stable year from a financial view point. Subscriptions have remained at £7 per month per child - which I think we can all agree is very good value. The recent increase in rent and other bills may put a strain on this and if you are in the position to be able to pay more please feel free to increase your standing order!

These subscriptions pay for the equipment/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.

I would like to ask all parents who haven’t already signed a Gift Aid application form to do so. These can be obtained through a Leader or by emailing me. The forms only take a minute or two to complete and all together could result in £hundreds for our Scout Group.

Become involved

Scouts is run by volunteers. If you have a bit of time to help out there are various ways you can do so.

You could join the Group Executive and become a Beaver, Cub or Scout Representative. You would be a link between the parents and the Executive and attend a meeting about once every 6 weeks on a Monday evening. We may ask you to get some feedback or liaise with the parents and occasional help out with something. If you can help, please contact me -

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. Or if you would like to help out on the occasional session do let a Leader know.

My sons are no longer in the Group and I would like to hand over the Chairman's role to someone who has. Again this is not a big commitment and requires little more than chairing the meetings and occasionally providing a bit of help. It would be better for the Group if this was done by someone with children in the Cubs, Beavers or Scouts - I would of course show you the ropes and David Leitch, President, who did this role for many years, would also be on hand to support anyone. If you want to talk to me about this.

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

Martin Woodfield
Chairman

Treasurers report

Another year of financial stabilityfor the group, with a surplus of £330 being generated.

We had a great result from the Didsbury Festival back in June 2010, which raised £858 thanks to great weather and also a well received cake stand, an increase on £693 raised in 2009. This year’s festival raised £1169. The only slight cloud has been an increase in rents to £1000 a year going forwards, however at present I am confident this can be accommodated without an increase in subscriptions in the next 12 months.

Matthew Rushton

(Treasurer)

GSL’s report

We are celebrating the 100^th year since the formation of the 2^nd Didsbury scout group this year. We are having a party on the 2^nd July to Celebrate the occasion.

We have had a number of leader changes over the year. In the scout section Rowena is only helping on an occasional basis now and Brian has taken over as Scout leader, Simon Jermy moved from the Cub section to the scout section after the summer holidays, recently Ben White joined the scout leadership team. The Beaver and Cub changes are detailed in their reports.

We had another successful camp at Kandersteg in Switzerland last summer. We have been holding camps there every 5 years since 1990.

We held another group family camp at Sandiway camp last September, this was very poorly attended on Friday night but there were a reasonable number there by Saturday afternoon. The planned programme had to be modified until the numbers became viable. This year we will be trying a group family hike.

Ivan Paul from our scouts troop and 3 Explorers from the Didsbury Viking unit are to attend the World scout Jamboree in Sweden this summer, to represent Manchester South District.

Our HQ continues to be used by the district for Explorer , Network and appointment meetings.

I would like to thank all the exec for all their work over the year especially those involved with resolving the rent and Metrolink issues.

Keith Hampson

Beaver Scout Report

As usual we have had a very busy year. Both colonies are thriving and we still have a long waiting list of those wishing to join us. Our leadership team has changed considerably since last year. Although Fran was back with us during her last year at university she has now left to work in Cambridge. Georgina, Johan, Yvette, Edna and Helen are no longer with us but we do have a new leader in Megan Lamoon. Richard who has been a great assistance at Monday beavers is now moving on to the cub section. Sue, Helen, George and I are now very reliant on parents to help on a rota, although this is not ideal we are grateful for their assistance.

Over the year we have gained beaver activity badges in Faith, emergency aid stage 1 and many challenge badges, which go towards gaining the chief scout’s bronze award. This is the highest award a beaver scout can gain. We have joined in a number of group and district activities – visit to Cadbury’s world, Pets at Home, Beaver challenge day, Christingle service, swimming gala, bowling, Remembrance service and a day visit to cub camp. These have all been extra to the regular evening sessions. Along with the cubs many gained their International Partnership award with our support of Shelterbox. We raised over £500 towards this disaster relief charity and learned of its work in other countries caused by natural disasters.

Our current aim is for the beavers to gain their fitness challenge badge so if the weather is kind to us, which it wasn’t last year, then we hope to go to the park to carry out as many fitness and outdoor challenges as we can.

Helen Hampson

Beaver Scout Leader

Cub Scout Report

The leadership of the pack had rather a shaky start last summer as I had to take an unplanned back seat on all cub pack activities in June & July. However thanks mainly to the superb efforts of Ben Bowen, Alan Robinson, Simon Jermy & James Last the pack continued to run as smoothly as ever and the children hardly noticed my absence (it must be nice to be missed).

The annual Cub camp was held at Forest Scout Camp, Sandiway, based on the theme of I’m a celebrity get me out of here. The camp activities included numerous messy & gruesome food challenges, rafting on the lake, water bomb catapulting, and last but by no means least building their own bivvies’ and then sleeping overnight in them – thankfully the weather was warm and dry and the children slept soundly.

Three of the cubs went on a high adventure camp this year with the rest of the group to Kandersteg and had a great time climbing the Swiss mountains, sleeping overnight in mountain huts, swimming in alpine lakes, climbing rock faces and tobogganing. They all survived and gained many awards for all their daring achievements and they are keen for more.

Other activities that the pack has been involved in were a winter trip to Cadbury’s world and the Sea life centre. There was also the district swimming gala event in which we had 8 very brave and keen cubs enter and do very well in the free style relay race. Then just recently we also had the sixer and seconder camp to the Pike View Hike (PVH) in Bolton. The PVH is a 9 mile walking event with approx. 6/7 challenge bases scattered along the route, the cubs must gain as many points as possible at each base and by completing an on-going activity during the event. There were 35 cub teams participating in the PVH from all around the country and our 2 cub teams achieve and incredible 1st and 3^rd place an outstanding achievement which we are all very proud of.

The Cub pack currently has 28 children on the register of which we usually get about 24 turning up to the pack meetings on a regular basis. I have set a max limit of 30 on the cub pack and expect that I will have to close the waiting list to new members joining the pack later this year as we start to gain new members from the Beaver colonies on a regular basis.

The leadership of the pack is currently running at 7 adults; however 4 are unable to attend on a regular basis due to other commitments to both work and studies. It is because of the many and varied demands upon the leadership it has proven difficult to organise a smooth flowing program over the year, although I dare say that the children will probably have not noticed. It is my intention to re-organise the program for the start of the new school year so that we can give both the children and parents a better view of upcoming activities and how they relate to badge work and ultimately the chief scouts silver award. If you would like to help in organising or delivering a fun program for the children then please let one of the cub leaders know.

Kevin Lowe (Cub scout leader)

Scout Section Report

This year has been another very successful year for the scout section. This year we had help from Simon, Ben, Rowena, Joanne, Gareth and Luke. Gareth and Joanne have finished as helpers due to work commitments. Luke has left the area and has become involved with another scout group. We would like to extend our thanks to them all. This year Rowena has stepped down as Scout leader and become an occasional helper, we would like to thank Rowena for her 5 years as scout leader and wish her every best in the future. She will still be helping but on a less frequent basis.

Last year finished with our two week camp in Kandersteg, Switzerland in August. Everyone had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the weeks. Some of the activities we partook in included Climbing, Hill-walking, alpine walking, white water rafting, Via Feratta and a fantastic day trip to the Jungfraujoch which was facilitated by the fantastic fundraising activities before the camp.

After a short break the scouts returned and out first activity was family camp. Unfortunately the weather was not as good as previous years but good time ware still had by all.

In the New Year we had our annual Winter Camp, this year’s was at Gradbach Scout camp. We were very unlucky with the weather and had almost constant rain from Friday until Sunday. Spirits were held high with hot chocolate and sitting by the fire watching Luke slowly cook a leg of lamb.

Our next camp was District camp which was held at the beginning of June at Linnet Clough. It was mainly organised by Ben Bowen, who is an assistant Cub Leader with our cub section. All the scouts in attendance would like to thank Ben for his efforts. The Camp was a success with each scout having an opportunity to take part in a selection of the on site activities at Linnet Clough including shooting, canoeing, archery, high ropes, climbing and many more.

As well as our camp the scouts have been working towards some merit and activity badges including international and fitness. This all leads to the gold scout award. Ivan Paul has completed his gold scout award and will receive it later this year,

This year we also have a scout attending the World Jamboree in Sweden. Ivan Paul will be joining over 35,000 other scouts in Rinkaby. The theme for this jamboree will be “simply scouting”. We hope that Ivan will enjoy his time in Sweden and come away with many experiences and memories to last a lifetime.

During the year we have also taken part in variety of activities including wide games in Fletcher Moss and Didsbury Parks, Climbing and geocaching.

We are currently in the final planning stages for our annual camp which will be a joint camp with the Explorers in August. This year’s destination will be North Wales where we hope to have an eventful two weeks to kick-start next year off.

Brian Cosgrove

(Scout Leader)

2^nd Didsbury (88^th Manchester) Scout Group AGM 30-5-2012

Annual Report

Chairman’sReport

We have also had the ongoing negotiations with Greater Manchester Public Transport Executive and their contractors about the Metrolink extension. The result has, I’m sure you’ll all agree, been very successful with a larger parking area at the front of the hut and high quality fencing on all our boundaries.

Finances

The subscriptions you pay and the fund raising activities we do, have ensured another stable year from a financial view point. Subscriptions have remained at £7 per month per child - which I think we can all agree is 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, which includes insurance.

I hope you will all be providing a cake for our stall at the Didsbury Festival on 16th June and will come along and try one of our delicious barbecued hot dogs or burgers.

I would like to ask all parents who haven’t already signed a Gift Aid application form to do so. These can be obtained through a Leader or by emailing me. The forms only take a minute or two to complete and all together could result in hundreds of pounds for our Scout Group.

Become involved

This Scout Group, like all others is run by volunteers. If you have a bit of time to help out there are various ways you can do so.

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.

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

Chris Pearse
Chairman

GSL’s report

2011 was the groups 100th year and we celebrated it in style with an activity day and buffet to which a number of passed members were able to attend. Because of all the Metrolink work this was held at the TocH rugby club. The cub and beaver sections are in need of more leaders as is mentioned in their reports. We really could do with starting a second cub pack but can not do this until we have at least two more experienced leaders. So until we manage to achieve that state it is likely that the pack will remain closed to external entry.

Ivon Paul who was one of our scouts and now an active member of the Didsbury Viking Explorer unit was one of 4 Explorers from our district who went to the world Jamboree in Sweden last summer

This year we did not hold a family camp and had a family hike around Disley and New Mills instead, this was well attended. This coming September we will be holding a group activity day at the scout and guide facility at Abney Hall. On this day we will do a lot of the activities we would do at a family camp.

Our HQ continues to be used by the district for Explorer , Network and appointment meetings.

I would like to thank all leaders exec members for all their work over the year.

Keith Hampson
(Group scout leader)

BeaverReport

Beavers continue to have a long waiting list even though we have two colonies. Our current leaders on a Monday are Megan and Sally on a Wednesday we have Hannah and George and Helen Perez-Luna and have recently been joined by Paul. We have two young leaders who are James and Tom and they are doing their service for their D of E award. Sue is with us when she is in this country. We have a parent rota for both nights. Thanks go to all my helpers. I will be looking for leaders for next term as Hannah will be leaving us and George and Helen are finding it difficult to make it down on a regular basis.

This year we have concentrated on the challenge badges, which has resulted in most of the beavers gaining their Bronze Chief Scout Award before they head off to cubs. To gain the bronze award beavers need to gain 6 challenge badges, which is creative, promise, global, fitness, outdoor and friendship so we cover a lot of information and activities.

We have attended a number of district activities, the latest being the fun day, remembrance and St George’s day parades. At the moment we are concentrating on the jubilee and the Olympics probably along with all the schools! Next term we hope to be outside more, that is if the weather is kind to us. We will also be attending cub camp for the day at the end of June.

I am still looking for people who will become assistant leaders, as I would like to be able to have the occasional night off!! Unfortunately so is Kevin!

Thank you to all who assist me

Helen Hampson

BeaverLeader

Cubreport

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude too 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:-

Alan Robinson – Assistant District Commissioner and Assistant Cub scout leader

Richard Moss – Sectional Assistant

Michael Lowe – Young Explorer scout leader

Beth Alexander – Student Occasional Helper

Rebecca Saddler – Student Occasional Helper

The fact that all these helpers are able to give up their time on a regular basis despite their own personal commitments to family, work and studies says a great deal about the type of people they are. It has been a great privilege to work alongside them and I look forward to their continued support in the following year.

The Cub pack currently has an all-time high membership of 35 cubs which is proofing very challenging to manage on a Thursday evening and consequently we have had to shut the pack to all admissions outside of the group and are now only able to accept children who come up from our own Beaver Colonies.

The ideal situation would be to split the Cub pack into 2 separate groups however we simply do not have the number of experienced leaders to run 2 cub packs, this I feel is a great shame as there are children who would like to join cubs and would benefit from scouting and are currently not able to.

The annual cub camp for 2011 was held at Linnet Clough as part of the South Manchester Districts celebration of having been formed over 5 years ago. The camp was well attended and the weather was particularly good for an activity fun filled weekend.

The Cub pack entered 2 teams again this year into the Pike View Hike Challenge (Bolton), which is a difficult and demanding challenge for the older cubs. However they manage to accomplish it with a very respectable placing of 10^th and 14^th out of a total of 35 teams that participated. Well done!

There are quite a few parents who have volunteered to join a rota to help with the running of the cub pack and I am very grateful to those who have put their names forward. I expect to have a rota in place shortly, however I would like to encourage anyone who is able to take up a place as a leader then please consider it, there are so many ideas and activities we would like to run for the cubs but Alan and I simply do not have enough hours in a day to organise them all.

KindRegardsKevinLowe(CubScoutLeader)

Scout report

This year has been another fantastic year with the scout group growing following a number of older scouts leaving the section. We now have 24 scouts with a regular attendance of 20.

Since the last AGM we have had a number of successful activities including our annual camp which took place at Cornel Scout Campsite in Wales. During this camp we succeeded in climbing Snowden, a first for many of the troop and also took part in Coasteering. We also ran an activity to see if the scouts could cook a meal over a wood fire using ingredients won from a quiz, unfortunately the answers to the quiz were hard coming and so also were the tastier ingredients. Following this a huge bar-b-que was enjoyed by all on site. During this camp our leader Simon completed his Nights Away training and is now qualified to take scouts on overnight activities. Also during the camp Brian completed his Scout Leader training. Simon did an excellent job organising his first camp with assistance from Brian, Dawn, Keith and Helen.

Following a restart in September we had a busy programme including wide games in the park, climbing and in January we had our Annual Winter Camp. This years camp was well attended and although the skies were clear we had temperatures of minus 6 to contend with. We would like to thank all the leaders that helped out especially those from other sections, Dawn and Megan.

We had a number of scouts take part in the district swimming gala which was again organised by the Network section and held at the swimming baths at Stretford.

We entered a team this year to the Pike View Hike after a break last year, this years team came 16, a very well down job. We have also recently been canoeing in the mersey which was enjoyed by all and will shortly be spending 5 days on a climbing / expedition camp in the peak district.

Once again I would like to thank my fellow leaders Simon, Lucy, Claire and George for all their help throughout the year and and also thank the leaders of the other sections for all the help and support they have provided us this year.

Brian Cosgrove (Scout Leader)

2^nd Didsbury (88^th Manchester) Scout Group AGM 30-6-10

Annual Report

Chairman’s review of the year

Iam pleased to report another successful year for 2^ndDidsbury (88^thManchester) Scout Group. I am also pleased to report that the numbers in all Sections (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers) have remained high throughout the year.

It was an action packed year for lots of the children with many camps and trips in addition to the weekly activities held in the Scout Hut.

I hope all the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts have had a great time and learnt new skills.

The Scout Movement

In the relatively short time I have been involved in the Scouts I have grown to appreciate it's true value.

It gives our children the chance to have new experiences, learn new skills, have fun, spent time away from the home (and us parents!). They also meet other children from different schools and of different ages and it gets them away from the many tempting screens.

This is all made possible by the Leaders and their Assistants who all do it voluntarily and with such enthusiasm.

Become involved

If you want to help out there are various ways you can do so.

You could join the Group Executive and become a section Representative - You would be a link between the parents and the Executive and attend about 10 meeting a year on a Monday evening. We may ask you to get some feedback or liaise with the parents and occasional help out with something etc.

If you can - please contact me - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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.

Or if you would just like to help out on the occasional session do let a Leader know.

Finances

The Standing Order collection system has proved to be a secure and resulting in a more stable funding base. Subscriptions have remained at £7 per month per child - which I think we can all agree is very good value.

These subscriptions pay for the equipment/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 such as insurance cover and the fantastic camp facilities.

I would like to ask all parents who haven’t already signed a Gift Aid application form recently to do so. Again, these can be obtained through a Leader or by emailing me. The forms only take a minute or two to complete and all together could result in £hundreds for the Didsbury Group.

Finally I would like to thank all the Leaders, Assistant Leaders and all who have volunteered to help the Group for all their hard work throughout the year.

Martin Woodfield
Chairman (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Treasurers report

A good year financially for the group. This year the accounts show a small surplus - in reality there are some Kandersteg deposits in the total and the group broke even.

The main fundraiser was Didsbury festival, which raised £693 for the group. This year we also submitted a gift aid claim raising £251. Thanks to all the parents who have provided their details for the claim, if there is anyone who hasn't and would like to please ask a leader and they can provide you with a form.

Matt Rushton

(Treasurer)

GSL’s report

Our numbers have increased in all sections and the Beaver section even opened a second colony this May, they meet before the district Explorer unit on a Wednesday night. It is intended that both colonies will only have 15 in each so that meeting nights will not be too chaotic and the cub section will not get overwhelmed.

All sections have had children gain their Chief scouts award, the beavers have nearly all gained it, cubs TomRushton & scouts Darrel Lowe. It does get much harder to gain as you work though the sections.

We had a very successful family camp last September. The same venue has been booked for this year on 17-19 September.

The Cub, scout and district explorer sections combined camping and catering again for this years Pike View Hike. All sections were well placed in the results tables but we did not win anything this year.

Rowena and Brian from our scout section have both gained permits to take the scouts hill walking this year.

Unfortunately Kevin Lowe our cub scout leader has had to stop attending meeting for the time being due to health issues. He hopes to be back after the summer break, in the mean time we wish him a speedy recovery.

Eight of the district explorer scout unit are attending the Japanese Jamboree this August and 2 of the unit and one from the troop have been selected to go to the world scout jamboree in Sweden next year. The group is also going on it’s 5year trip to the International scout centre at Kandersteg in Switzerland this August, this will be the groups 6^th trip there.

The Didsbury Viking Explorer Unit which is the district unit continue to meet on a Wednesday at our HQ, there are 14 on the unit books at present.

The District Network, which is the section for 18 to 25 year olds. Now regularly uses our HQ for meeting on a Monday night. We now have a formal partnership agreement with them.

The HQ is also used on a regular basic by the district for leader training and appointments evenings.

A google calendar has been set up on the group website to try and avoid clashes of Monday evening meetings.

Keith Hampson (GSL)

Beaver Scout Report

Beavers continue to have a waiting list even though a new colony was started in April this year. Fran has left us to go and work in Austria but we hope to have her back in September. Caroline finished in the New Year to have a baby boy. We have two new leaders who help on a Monday, they are Ivette and Edna who are both from Mexico. Sue has been away in Australia and during that time there were several parents who helped out on a regular basis. Thank you for all your assistance and also to Georgina who is assistant beaver scout leader.

There is a totally new team on a Wednesday. We have George and Helen Perez-Luna, Johann Rowan and our young leader is Helen Robinson. We were very pleased to have the District Commissioner come to the first investitures in the new colony, which happened in May.

During the summer term last year we carried out outdoor activities but these had to be swapped round at times due to the inclement weather. We attended the county activity day with the theme of Animania. We also attended the cub camp, which was held at our county campsite, Linnet Clough. Thanks to the parents who helped on the day, I think they enjoyed having a go on the high ropes! At least they all came down safely! During the winter term we carried out the Air activity and Creative activity badges, IT stage one and the Join-in-Japan badge. This is in addition to the challenge badges that are gained throughout the year. Most of the beavers gain the highest badge in the beaver section, which is the Bronze Chief Scout award, this is gained by gaining all 6 challenge badges.

Over the year we have tasted food from different countries, got to know our patron saints, carried out experiments, learnt how to be helpful at home (honest!), craft – making a photo frame, Easter chicks, tiger masks. So we really have been busy.

This term we have been supporting Shelterbox and the group raised £292 by selling Easter chicks and rabbits. We have been learning about natural disasters and the role of Shelterbox. Along with the cubs we are hoping to gain our International Partnership award with our continued support of this charity. We also wrote poems about the devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti, these were submitted to the competition organised by Oxfam.

We have had a very busy year and plan to continue doing so.

Helen Hampson

(Beaver Scout Leader)

Cub Scout Report

The Cubs pack this year has seen a few major changes firstly with the departure of Sue Bullied our Cub Scout leader who has moved away to Glasgow. Sue was an excellent leader and has been missed by both the cubs and the remaining leaders. Kevin Lowe has stepped in to take on the role of Cub Scout leader supported by Ben, Alan & Alex. In addition to the existing leadership we have had the pleasure to have James Last & Simon Jermy join the leadership team who have both brought fresh and new ideas to the pack meetings.

The pack currently has over 30 cub members with a regular nightly attendance of over 25 on each pack night. The pack meetings are very lively with all the children participating in the games and activities enthusiastically. There is currently a waiting list for new members to join the Cub pack which is only likely to grow since we now have 2 Beaver Colony’s feeding into one Cub pack.

The focus of the Cub pack at a group level has been to cover some of the challenge badge work required for the Cubs to attain their Chief Scout Silver award. Consequently the activities have been looking to help them achieve their Community & Creative Challenge badges, this has involved such activities as First Aid training, Building Bird Boxes, A visit to St James Church, Magic Show, Fair Trade trading post game, Shelter box, Semaphore Signalling and Map reading.

The annual Cub Camp at Linnet Clough in July 2009 was a great success. The camp theme was Robin Hood’s merry cubs. The weather was excellent and the children enjoyed all the many and varied activities that were laid on by the equally enthusiastic leaders. The highlight of the camp was undoubtedly the high ropes course on the Cube and having experienced the activity personally I was amazed that the children found the courage to complete this challenge (I very nearly turned back however my knees were knocking too much to be able to turn round)

The District laid on a few events this year that unfortunately due to limitations in availability of leaders we had to take the decision not to participate in, these were the Japan Day at Linnet Clough and the swimming gala. However the group did participate in the annual district 5-a-side football competition and the cross country running in which the children did very well and enjoyed. This year the group entered another team into the Bolton district event “The Pike View Hike Challenge”. This is a very demanding event that requires the cubs to plan and navigate round a 7 mile course whilst also completing a number of challenges on route. The 4 cubs who participated in the event rose magnificently to the challenge and showed skills in both map reading and team work that were praiseworthy. The Cub team finished off coming 5^th out of 28 teams which was I believe a fantastic achievement for their second attempt at such an event.

At the beginning of the summer term we will be looking to take the Cubs to the park as often as possible (weather permitting) for activities such as Frisbee football, Water Rockets and Orienteering.

Kevin Lowe

(Cub scout leader)

Scout Section Report

This has been another action packed year for the scout section, helped by Brian, Joanne, Yolander, Jon, Gareth and Rowena. Sadly we will be losing Yolander who is going to Hong Kong to work and Jon who has moved to London. We would like to thank them for all their hard work.

The year started with family camp, quickly followed by Technology camp at Linnet Clough, where the scouts could gain their IT and electronic badges.

We then had another very successful Winter camp held at Boarfold campsite, a very remote and basic campsite where the scouts learnt survival skills. They enjoyed learning how to pluck pheasants, cover them in mud and cook them on an open fire.

We then took the troop on a training weekend for the Pike View Challenge, starting off at Barnswood and hiking across to Wildboar Clough. We all enjoyed bivying out on the first night and eating muesli and custard for breakfast. The scouts thought it was part of their training when Brian fell over hurting his leg. However they soon realised it was for real when Brian had to retire and the troop carry on without him. The hike ended with a stay at the remote and individual Cumberland Cottage.

Ivan, James Pearse, Max and James Whitmore represented the troop at the Pike View Challenge and we would like to thank them for their hard work over the weekend.

Our next camp was a climbing week at the Roaches in Leek. We were lucky enough to stay in Rock cottage at the foot of the rocks and could get full days climbing in. We had fantastic weather and it was an excellent camp where we were able to learn new climbing techniques, we would like to thank Keith for running the climbing for us. We are looking forward to our two week activity camp in Kandersteg, Switzerland this summer.

As well as camps we have worked towards many of the activity badges which has allowed the scouts to work towards their Gold Scout Awards. Darrel Lowe will be collecting his award later in the year.

Other highlights include having tea on the 23rd floor of the Hilton, Canoeing, Didsbury Festival, cooking, talent competitions and wide games.

Rowena Kidd

(Scout Leader)