Author: Editorial Team

His Service at St Peters Church was a testimony of the love and respect that we all have for Lee. The church was full of family and scouting friends not only from our district but from far and wide in the County.

It was fantastic to see so many young people attend who Lee had clearly made a mark upon with his scouting. The highlight for the day for me was the very smartly presented Scouts from the 13th who came and paid there respects to Lee. They were a real credit to Lee and his group.

What we have to do now, is to look to take both the 13th and the district forward and to make sure that all that he wished for our young people is still very much delivered.

District Development Day

We have rearranged the district development day to be held on Saturday 2nd February 2013 starting at 10am to finish prompt at 4pm at the New Newlands Primary School in Millbrook.

Those of you that were originally invited are of course welcome to come and I will be forwarding to you all a reminder directly after Christmas.

Wilverley

Good News the charges for our own groups to use Wilverley have been greatly reduced. It is now recognised that Wilverley is your camp site and we want you to make good use of it. These are the charges that come into effect on the 1st January 2013.

25th Sea Scout Group

I can report that the 25th Sea Scout Group may be moving to a better home. They have been approached by a developer who wants to purchase their site and move them a few yards up the road and build for them a far better scout HQ and boat store. The negotiations are very much on going but it looks like the 25th have exciting times ahead.

What have I been up to this month?

 I have completed my first response training which was delivered by Sarah Milstead. A huge thank you for her patience with me and for her very professionally delivered training.

I also went to the Scout Walkabout presentation which was won by the 1st Scout Troop at Fort Purbrook. This is a great place for a late night exercise and clearly everyone who joined the event had a great time. Well done to all the scouts and the Leaders and Stuart for the event.

I then went to the County Conference where the main topics were the growth of scouting and the vision of scouting. Thank you to those that came along. Directly afterwards I went to Gilwell for a DC open day. This was a great opportunity to get information from headquarters and to go to various workshops on a range of different topics. The main ones I attended were again about growth and how we welcome adults into scouting and how we retain them. I also attended a workshop on safeguarding which highlight even more our responsibilities to our young people.
The following weekend I joined up at the County Network Kudo competition which was very well attended by a large number of Network and Explorer Units. Southampton City had two Explorer units enter the competition and they had a great time despite the terrible rain at 3am on the Sunday morning. A very big well done, to Kieran and Jason and Naomi for organising the event which was praised by everyone throughout the County.

I then went the following day to Exbury Gardens to join up with Geoff and Lin and the other leaders and youngsters who were helping at the ghost train. It was clear yet again that this was an event which they all thoroughly enjoyed. It is always wonderful to see scouting to be out in the community having fun. I awarded a thank you badge to Nigel who is the Manager of Exbury as a mark of our appreciation to him for years of support and encouragement.

Last night I went to the District Swimming Gala at the Quays this was a fun event for the district. Well done to all that competed and to the 22nd who won the group trophy. A very big thank you to Doreen and Carol and Graham for organising this splendid competition.

Your GSLs have a paper copy of the new 2013 district diary which is also on the district website. Please remember that you can forward all your good news stories as they happen throughout the month and then Tony will put them all together for a left hand shake publication at the end of the month. So please remember to get all your adverts and good news stories to Tony by the 25th of every month. We always need to shout loud about what we are doing.

Please don’t forget if you need to speak to me with anything your concerned about just give me a call and I am sure I can help you.

Mob Tel 07770364711 or colin.floyd@ntlworld.com

Yours in Scouting

Colin Floyd, District Commissioner

“They Founded Atlantis”   : – Naomi had been invested into Ventures the year before (an amazing ceremony at Cape Cornwall) and then Atlantis Explorers started and Jason and Naomi came together. There is a photo at the first camp with them standing side by side.

Now, ten years on, and having spent a time in Network in which they have both achieved the Queen’s Scout Award, they are married. The Wedding took place at Freemantle Church on Saturday 20^th October. The Church was full and there were many of their scouting friends in the congregation including one or two of the original Atlantis members.

OK Fly can’t do much of this formal stuff but he and Mrs Fly are very happy for them. Word has it that Naomi was so taken by Jason sticking his neck out, as the saying goes, that she had the wedding photo taken with a couple of Giraffes!

See the official photos here (including Giraffes)

p.s.
– seeing as the editor has a special interest in the marriage, the last bit may not appear. On the other hand you might even get a photo!

District Development Day

Having invited all the key people to the district development day it is really good that we will have a good many of you spending the day with us. To all of you that are going can I say thank you and I look forward to us spending the day together and looking at ways we can develop and improve the scouting in Southampton. For those of you that can’t join us I will be summarizing the outcomes so you are kept informed of the direction that the district is going.

See you all at 9.45am at Fernycroft Lodge on Saturday 3rd November.
I recently attended the Cub & Scout Leaders Council and heard of the plans that they have for this term, it is great to see and hear all that you have planned.
The 2nd & the 22nd Cubs recently held a family camp which unfortunately I could not attend due to other commitments but I hear they we’re both great successes.
You would have read in the Echo that the 1st Scouts won this years County Emlyn Competition. This is a huge achievement for Andy and his Scout Troop. Well done to Taylor the Patrol Leader and his wonderful patrol you did yourself and City District proud.

The Beavers had a great day at Fernycroft with a large amount of our beavers attending and having a great time.

Wilverley had another maintenance day which was far better supported a huge thank you from me to those that came and spent the day helping keep the camp site in good condition.

I also went and enjoyed the coffee and cakes at the 1st Scout Group Macmillan charity event which was very well supported. Well done to all the leaders and helpers that made the event possible.

I also went for a pleasant walk around Wilverley Enclosure to see all the bases at the Scout Madison hunt which was won by the 29th Scouts. Congratulations to them and all the Troops who joined in the event. A special thank you to the Leaders for the day.

I have made several wood badge awards to our leaders a big congratulations go to Mark at the 25th and Zoe & Donna at the 22nd. It is great to see the commitment that our Leaders make and for that to be recognized by such an award. Well done to the training advisers who have helped them.

The 29th & 25th Scouts joined us for the twilight race for life on the common in aid of cancer research. It was rather wet but we didn’t care it was great fun and clearly it is great to see scouting out more for these type of fund raising events. Well done to Graham and the Leaders for their support.

Finally I had a great day out with the 14th Cubs who were staying at wilverley and wanted a driver to take them to splashdown for a fun swim. That took me back to some really happy memories from my time with the 22nd Scouts and all the great camps we had and the visits to splashdown to get them clean!!

The Sports committee is planning the forthcoming swimming gala which is being held on Saturday 17th November 2012. The committee are meeting again on Thursday 1st November to settle the final plans would all groups please make sure that your sports rep attend this meeting at Doreen’s House.

I now head off to start my first aid training with Sarah for three Mondays in a row. If you’re going I will see you there!!

Your GSL’s have a paper copy of the new 2013 district diary which is also on the district website. Please remember that you can forward all your good news stories as the happen throughout the month and then Tony will put them all together for a left hand shake publication at the end of the month. So please remember to get all your adverts and good news stories to Tony by the 25th of every month. We always need to shout loud about  what we are doing.

A few leaders have recently received a membership card from Scout HQ which is incorrect. On behalf of scout HQ I would like to say sorry. If you do not have an accurate membership card please just tell me and I will try and get a correct one sent to you.

Please don’t forget if you need to speak to me with anything your concerned about just give me a call and I am sure I can help you.

Mob Tel 07770364711 or colin.floyd@ntlworld.com

Yours in Scouting

Colin Floyd