Congratulations to Graham wide for receiving his 30 year Service Award and to Richard Jacob for 25 year’s Service. Very well deserved.
Congratulations to Adam Higgins on receiving his wood badge.
A big well done and be proud message to Sophie Baldwin, Heather Porter and Thomas Bourner who have just completed and been awarded the Queens Scout Award by Adam Jollans the County Commissioner. They will now go the Palace to parade in front of the Queen. Fantastic
I am delighted to welcome Mike Langford and Heather Porter as the new Leaders of Network Scouting. With the able support of Joshua Smith as Network Chair this section I am sure will continue to grow. They have written a development plan that has a number of key objectives:
- Get the finances sorted agree a membership fee and open there own bank account with at least three signatories.
- To be self- sufficient for camping equipment.
- Develop close links with Itchen North and South Networks
- To develop close links with all our Explorers making sure that they get a taste of Network Scouting BEFORE they are 18 years old.
The district web site is presently under a thorough review and I hope the new improved site will be up and running for you all very soon. Please remember that the web site is our main vehicle for communication between us all and it acts as the face of our scouting in the community. If you have any group events or those that are held by the district please shout load about them and send some pictures and words to the media team. They look forward to receiving your good news.
The Compass data membership system is now live and we have a lot to do to get our data as it should be. We have completed a clean up operation of our adult data and everyone is working hard to get our young people data entered. Compass it is fair to say is experiencing some issues and can I just say how grateful I am to you all for your patience with the system and thank you.
We are holding our founders day on the 20th February please come along and enjoy the evening all the details are on the district website.
St Georges Day parade will take place on the 26th April starting at the Bargate and finishing in Hoglands Park further details will be available soon.
The planning and publicity for the Scout Explorer and Network Wye Valley weekend will be going out soon it is taking place on the weekend of 1st 2nd 3rd 4th May 2015 A swimming test evening has been arranged for Tuesday 24th March 2015 7 – 9pm at Regents Park School
I have met with a representative of the Forestry to start the discussions on the renewal of our licence for Wilverley this must be concluded this year.
The leaders of every group have been considering where they would like to hold our district camp in 2016 the choice was Broadlands, Cricket or Braggers Wood. The majority have plumped for Broadlands so we have confirmed our booking with Lord and Lady Romsey who have kindly agreed that we can hold our camp in their back garden!! The challenge now starts to make the camp a huge success.
Dave Bowers and I have met and having now spoken to Adam Jollans the County Commissioner we must be clear that Explorer Scouting is to remain District led. All finances and management fall under mine and Dave Bowers DESC responsibility. We will provide Explorer scouting where the demand requires and the accommodation is available and the leaders are willing to work on a day of their choosing. It would however be better if we could hold explorer scouting on different nights to give the members more choice and an opportunity if they wish to go to two or more units. If anyone has any thoughts on Explorer scouting please share them with Dave and me we would welcome your views.
My term as the DC ends on the 27th July 2016 which will be my 60th birthday in fact I see my last scouting event to be at the District camp in 2016. I would like the District to start the process of appointing the next DC now. The person of your choice will work alongside me in my final year making sure that the transition is well managed and seamless. We ask please for anyone who would like to put themselves forward to contact Graham Meering. If you would like to nominate someone who you think would be ideal for the role please check first they would like you to put them forward. And if so then send your nomination to Graham Meering in writing.
Yours in Scouting,
Colin Floyd
District Commissioner