Category: Events

Well at long last the summer weather looks to be here even though Kent has just had an Earthquake!! That means we can get our young people out and about and enjoy Wilverley and our nearby scouting activity centre’s and the New Forest. We are so lucky to have such a wide range of opportunities on our door step. For those of you planning a camp can I please prompt you to send me well in advance your nights away notification form and a full list of anyone over the age of 18 years old going on the camp. We must insure the records are correct and our safe guarding measures are upheld.

I had a wonderful evening with our members of SSAGO with a ball on a boat. This was organized by the SSAGO members in Southampton inviting other members from all over the UK. It was a wonderful dinner and a great time was had by me and all those that attended. Thank you for inviting me.

We had a great weekend again at Biblins in the Wye Valley for the scout Explorer and Network activity camp. A huge thank you goes to Ian Budd who yet again organized this event with ease and great efficiency. The young people climbed, walked, floated, and aimed and had a wonderful time. This weekend has always has been the highlight of my own scouting and long may it continue.

It is with great regret that it was decided at the last moment that we best not hold our St Georges Day Parade this year. The Centre of the City was closed off due to some crazy people wanting to run not walk. That made it impossible for us to hold our event safely and easily. Fortunately the 29^th, 2^nd and 1^st Scout Groups assisted the race by volunteering to be marshalls and man the water stops. This was a great opportunity to again see scouting helping in the community. I have received several letters and emails from some of the runners saying how grateful they are to the scouts for helping and what a great encouragement they were. Well done to those that helped you did us proud.

The AGM season is upon us and so far I have attended the 1^st, 9^th and 14^th AGM’s which have been wonderful events and well supported by the parents and everyone in the groups. Well done these formal meetings are a great way of shouting load how good we are and to also ask for more Parents to give us a helping hand.

The District AGM is being held on the 2^nd July at 7.30pm at the 11^th Scout HQ Kentish Road. I hope you can ALL come and join us for the evening and celebrate our scouting. We don’t often all get together so this year let’s try and get a full house. Please bring a dirty car the young people going on international trips are still fund raising and they will clean your car and you can buy a burger.

Don’t forget to ask for more adult volunteers, we have a Southampton City wide adult recruitment page if you have anyone at all who would like to get involved in our scouting please refer them to southamptonscouts.org.uk that will tell them of a range of different opportunities to join us and our adventure!!

We will be launching very soon a District Youth Council. I have asked Mike Langford and Heather Porter our new District Network Commissioners to help me by leading on this initiative. They will be guided by Keiran Brackley Ben Hibbert and Taylor Watson who are all young leaders. In partnership with Stuart Ganney and Dave Bowers on behalf of the scout and explorer sections. The format will be to invite two scouts from each group and two explorers from each unit to form the District youth Council. We will be asking for nominations soon. It will be wonderful to ask the representatives to help us shape our scouting going forward. Look out for more details soon.

We are also looking to recruit more adults to help us with the Tuesday morning maintenance team at Wilverley. If you know of anyone who would like to get involved please ask them to contact me or Laura Dyer the camp Site Manager. We would love to hear from them.

Recently I asked the District to look for the next DC as I would like to stand down in July next year. My thoughts were it would be a great help to me if the appointment was made now and they could help me in my last year. Several people were suggested as being well placed to take on the challenge but to date no one has put themselves forward. So be it, no worries I will crack on for my final year in my own peculiar way and see what we can achieve for our scouting.

I will be reviewing my position over the summer and will update you later on what the long term plan for the district management will be in the future.

Yours in Scouting, Colin Floyd, District Commissioner

Congratulations to Pat Davies for receiving her long Service Award, very well deserved. Also, a big well done and congratulations to Toby Parker on his Queen Scout award. This concludes the remarkable achievement of the Parker family, three Queen Scouts from the same home. Well done to Toby, Hannah and Ben and family.

I am really grateful to the 29th Southampton (Immaculata) Scout Group for the wonderful celebration event for our Founder. I am so pleased to get such positive feedback on the event and that is down to Russell GSL and his excellent team and the 29th young people, thank you.

Congratulations to the 2nd Scout Group on winning both the cub and scout district football six a side competition. Well done to every group who came and joined in the competition. A big thank you to Graham for helping set up the event and to the Students of Solent University for running the event and refereeing on the day – fantastic support.

We have a Southampton City wide adult recruitment page if you have anyone at all who would like to get involved in our scouting please refer them to http://www.southamptonscouts.org.uk that will tell them of a range of different opportunities to join us and our adventure!!

We will be launching a District Youth Council very soon. I have asked Mike Langford and Heather Porter our new District Network Commissioners to help me by leading on this initiative. They will be guided by Keiran Brackley Ben Hibbert and Taylor Watson who are all young leaders. In partnership with Stuart Ganney and Dave Bowers on behalf of the scout and explorer sections. The format will be to invite two scouts from each group and two explorers from each unit to form the District youth Council. We will be asking for nominations soon. It will be wonderful to ask the representatives to help us shape our scouting going forward. Look out for more details soon.

We are looking to recruit more adults to help us with the Tuesday morning maintenance team at Wilverley. If you know of anyone who would like to get involved please ask them to contact me or Laura Dyer the camp site Manager. We would love to hear from them.

We have a swim test evening at Regents Park swimming pool on Tuesday 24th March at 7pm. Especially arranged for those going to Wye Valley but if anyone needs a swimming permit please come along.

Wye Valley is almost here ( 1st.2nd,3rd,4th May 2015), I can’t wait. It is a highlight event for our district, so please encourage all the Scouts and Explorers and Network members to come and enjoy what will be a fantastic bank holiday weekend.

St Georges Day parade will be taking place on Sunday 26th April 2015. This year it will start at the Bargate and assembly at Hoglands Park. Further details on the website very soon.

Don’t forget you need a new DC, the process of appointing the next DC is happening 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

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 20^th 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 26^th 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 1^st 2^nd 3^rd 4^th May 2015 A swimming test evening has been arranged for Tuesday 24^th 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 27^th July 2016 which will be my 60^th 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