The summer has finally arrived we have some light evenings and we can at last get the young people out and about on a section nights. Enjoy the summer term.
District Camp 2014
Well what a great District camp I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I hope you had a great time too. The weather was very kind to us and Lyons Copse proved to be an excellent camp site. A big thank you to Ian who worked so hard making sure everything went as planned.
I did not see any young people lost for things to do and I hope that the additional activities that we had brought to the site helped that to happen and it also enabled you the leaders to have a bit of easier time,
Thanks to all the groups for the effort they put into the sites and the space theme you were all remarkable.
We are starting to think about where to go in 2016 so any suggestions would be appreciated.
St Georges Day
At 10am on the day I was sat in my car with the rain pouring down on Guildhall Square at 11.30am it stopped dried up and we had a wonderful parade. The event really gave us a good opportunity to be seen in the centre of the City shouting load about Southampton Scouting. We were very lucky!!
Thanks go to Chris Davis and Active Support for helping on the day. The Mayor of Southampton was very pleased to be invited.
Thank you to those that came and joined in with the event.
District Six a Side Football Tournament
This year we held the district competition at Test Park and were very much helped by the wonderful Students from Solent University. They ran the whole event for us and it was a great event very smoothly run. Sadly the attendance from the Scout and Explorer sections was low and I hope that next year many more groups will join in on what is a competition but more importantly just good fun.
Wilverley District Camp Site Improvements
The substantial investment in Wilverley continues thanks to the district exec and the wilverley sub committee. We have now a fully regulated fire evacuation and emergency light system along side the new generator. We are also next week improving the drainage on site three which for many years is far to wet for full used throughout the year. These improvements along side the good work of Arthur Jonathan Steve and Graham and Charlie gives us a camp site that we can all be proud of. Our next improvement is to refurbish the cottage kitchen when funding becomes available.
Please support the camp site maintenance weekends they are a vital part of us maintaining the site. Don’t forget if you help you get points to camp for free.
This year’s Membership Annual Census
This year’s census tells us that for the first time for many years we have over 800 children and adults in our scouting district. That is wonderful but we need to get many more involved. Of course to enable us to grow we need more Adults as leaders and more Parents on the group exec committees supporting our groups and raising funds.
I Challenge you all. I would like many more Parents to be asked to get involved the more we have the more fun it would be for us. I challenge all of you to ask one person to get involved. I often get told that Parents would help if they were asked.
Scout Association Compass Membership System Data.
When we migrate to Compass later this year, all existing adult records on the membership system will be transferred into Compass. Are your details correct on the system?
If you are registered as a user on the membership system, why not log in and check if your details are correct in the “My details” window. Check the following:
• Is your name spelt correctly?
• Are your address and phone number correct?
• Is your e-mail address correct?
• Are your roles correct?
• Is your Default Location set to the District/Group/Section of your main Scouting role?
• Are all your activity permits recorded correctly?
If you are not registered as a user on the membership system, we need to be told urgently
If everyone quickly checks their own records then when we transfer them into Compass they will be correct and you will be able to access all the appropriate features for your role.
( Please Contact Lyn Westerman Appointment Secretary if anything is wrong)
District Web Site
If you have looked at the district web site in the last week you will see that we are making a substantial amount of changes. The main one being that the district diary is now on the home page. Mike and Nico look forward to you sending them lots of information about up coming events and remember to shout load and tell us how the event went afterwards. Be very proud!! Everyone loves a good news story. Please send all your articles to Mike by the 25th of every month.
Minibuses
The district now has two district permits these are held by me. Every group that uses a minibus from time to time must get the “section 19” permit from HQ. One certificate for each minibus being used. Information here: http://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/3413/minibus-permits?moduleID=10&cat=55,400
District Diary and Directory 2014
Graham has completed the task of producing this year’s directory which is now available in hard copy. We can also send you an electronic version for you to keep. Please make sure you notify Graham of any changes to your details such as a move of house and changes to your contact numbers and email addresses.
I now look forward to attending all the groups AGM’s over the coming few weeks. again remember this is great opportunity to get those Parents involved don’t let anyone out of the room without signing up to a job no matter how small that may be. The more the merrier!!
If anyone wishes to talk to me and clarify anything, I am always pleased for you to contact me by email or by phone or in person just ask away.
Yours in Scouting,
Colin Floyd,
Southampton City’s District Commissioner
Mob Tel 07770364711 or colin.floyd@ntlworld.com