DCs’ Blog – January 2019

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Well we are now well into the new term across all Sections and the trickle of Nights Away Notifications is increasing showing we are delivering amazing programmes for our young people. 

We have Beavers at ‘We the curious’ in Bristol for a district sleepover this weekend as well as the Cub District Scrapheap Challenge today and the Scout cooking competition soon.  

More updates below including training which we urge and encourage everyone to embrace – we do need everyone to keep mandatory training done and meet the training requirements of their role.  A huge thank you to Guy Livingston who has been leading this as our County Local Training Manager for over 2 years now. Guy is stepping down from this role at the end of March.  Over the 2 years or so Guy has embraced this and made real progress driving training across the District including District Training Days.  So a huge thank you to Guy for this and we are looking for a volunteer to take this on – do you know someone?

Steve Ball, Ian MacKenzie
DCs, Wiltshire North

In this blog:

  1. Census
  2. Scouts moving to Explorers
  3. Training
  4. Job vacancy – help grow Scouting
  5. We need a new County Youth Commissioner
  6. Appointments
  7. Good Service Awards

Census

Census is upon us.  Can all those coordinating for groups try and complete this as soon as possible so we can get a prompt submission into County – we were one of the last Districts last year. 

Scouts moving to Explorers

We would like all Scouts who are coming to the end of the time in the Troop to b aware of the opportunities and choices open to them and we have prepared a note explaining this which Josh will send to Scout Leaders so they can use it with their older Scouts. 

All young people over Scout age must be a member of an Explorer Scout Unit (with some exceptions for non members doing Duke of Edinburgh volunteering).  They cannot continue to be involved in Sections unless they are – they would not be recognised as members and would not be insured. 

Training

District Training Days are held throughout the year at the 1st Corsham Scout HQ.

The next provisional Training days will be the 16th February & 30th March

Available Modules will be placed on the District website once the District Training Team have decided which ones to cover, in the mean time to help the team please vote on the Training Poll which can be found HERE

For a place on any of the above courses then please contact the County Local Training Manager (email ltm@wiltshirenorthscouts.org.uk).

There is also a County Training Weekend on 9-10 March – see the website for details  Most adults who hold a role in Scouting should be now have done the mandatory GDPR training.  If you have not or some of your group haven’t it does need to be done as soon as possible. 

There are a number of Groups who do not have a Training Adviser – could you do this or do you know someone who could?  We are particularly keen on finding Training Advisers to support 1st Chippenham, 3rd Chippenham, 1st Crudwell and 1st Stanton St Quintin.

Job vacancy – help grow Scouting

There is a paid job vacancy to help grow Scouting as part of the Regional Support Team. Deadline is 4th Feb.https://scouts.org.uk/about-us/jobs/growth-development-officer-south/

We need a new County Youth Commissioner 

A message from the County Commissioner…

“I am on the quest to find a new County Youth Commissioner. I am looking for someone who can continue the sterling work carried out by our County’s first Youth Commissioner, Matthew Mollart, who has to step down from his role due to his commitments towards this year’s World Scout Jamboree and the fact that, according to PORs, the position is for three years, which Matthew has now successfully completed.

I would like to ask you all to spread the news of this quest across your areas of responsibility in order to give this maximum publicity, in the hope that someone (aged between 18 and 24 years old) would be willing to give the role a try. Full training will be provided. 

If you know someone who you think would do well in the role, all I am after is a name at this stage, I will  make contact with the person and enlighten them further on the role and their responsibilities.”

Appointments

We are still looking for a volunteer to act as District Appointments Secretary to support the work of the Appointments Committee.  This involves organising meetings of the Committee to meet with adult volunteers as well as seeking references for new volunteers.  Please contact us if you can help or know of anyone who might be able to.  Filling this role is critical to the smooth running of the Appointments Process and Panels.

In the meantime, in terms of new appointments where references are required, please can you email details of who to contact for the references to the Appointments Chairman as soon as you can (email appointmentschair@wiltshirenorthscouts.org.uk).  It is quite often lack of detail of who to contact or lack of response from referees which holds up people being invited to the Panel.

Good Service Awards

Thanks for the nominations we have received – keep them coming!  It’s been fantastic to have been presenting some of your nominations over recent weeks.  Remember that training needs to be up to date.  Please use the form on the website where anyone can make nominations.

And finally

To remind us all why we do it, the scene as I write this at the Cub District Scrapheap Challenge!