Agenda – AGM, 1st June 2021 at 19:00 over Zoom
| 1. Present, Apologies, Absent | Chair |
| 2. Adoption of previous minutes | Chair |
| 3. Chair’s Report | Chair |
| 4. GSL’s Report – available below, any questions only | GSL |
| 5. Section Reports – available below, any questions only | Leaders |
| 6. Adoption of Audited Accounts | Treasurer |
| 7. Nomination of Group Chair | GSL |
| 8. Election of Group Executive Committee | Chair |
| 9. Parent Representative nominees | Chair |
| 10. Invitation of District team to address meeting | Chair |
Chair’s Report
While I sit to write my first Chair’s report, I have reviewed past reports and the final paragraph of Anne’s 2020 report reads: –
As I write this report the world is going through an unknown experience, but you can be assured that Scouting will weather it through and will be here to welcome you back when life returns to some sort of normality.
I am delighted to report that Scouting in general and 1st Broughton Gifford & Holt Scout Group in particular, has eventually re-opened and face to face scouting has commenced across all sections.
A huge thank you must be given to the Giles family for ongoing use of Seend Park Farm as our interim headquarters for meetings until The Scout Hut returns, fit for purpose and, when social distancing relaxes to allow entire sections to meet at the same time.
Ongoing works are taking place at The Scout Hut to keep the building weather tight and rodent free. Thanks, in particular, to John Lister and Toby Crawley for either doing the work themselves or managing contractors.
A working party has been setup to look at the future of the Scout Hut and, potentially, a complete rebuild. This has started with renegotiating the lease with Wadworth’s who own the site. I am pleased to report that a verbal agreement to extent the lease has been agreed and waiting for contracts to arrive. The next stage will be fundraising and exploring the route to a new home for our Scout Group.
As with every other charity and club in the UK fundraising has been a massive challenge. Our treasurer, Alison Crawley, has done a wonderful job applying for grants and we have seen over £20,000 added to our funds. Charlotte Yates has taken on the role of Fundraising and has activity planned during the remainder of 2021. First off is Rags to Riches with bags being dropped of on 22nd June 2021. The annual Chalfield 10K Run is set to return in June 2021 for which the Group support with marshalling, car parking, and the managing of the registration of the hundreds of competitors. Refreshments are always appreciated, and I hope we will see lots of lovely donated cakes from our parents and help on the day. Thanks in advance go to Darren Wrintmore, the organiser.
Our Annual Group Camp is hopefully returning (pending removal of current restrictions) again this year and will take place in September with details to follow. All sections attend 1 or 2 nights depending on age and a wide range of activities included Rifle shooting, Archery and Hiking, as well as all the traditional scouting activities.
My personal thanks go out to Sharon Butler, our secretary, for all her fastidious work this year and also to Alison Crawley, our Treasurer, for her expertise with the figures and, as previously mentioned, in securing the grants has helped keep the Group financially sound. However, it is with sadness that I have to advise that Alison is standing down after 6 years as treasurer and 16 on the Executive. Also, Anne Cranham (better known as Chil) also stood down as Chair in 2020 but is still assisting with Beavers in her capacity as Assistant District Commissioner Beavers. Thank you to you both for years of dedicated service with the Executive Committee.
My sincere thanks go to the GSL and ALL the section leaders and helpers who, once again this year, gave up their time virtually and then planning for all sections to bounce back with fabulous programmes and bringing such enthusiasm to so many young people within the group.
Membership numbers within all sections of the group have remained strong and re-enforces the wonderful reputation our Group has for good content of meetings.
Thanks go to all the Executive committee members and parent helpers who have supported us this year. Without your support we could not provide the young members with such amazing activities and skills for life.
Guy Mason (Chair)
Financial Reports
Group Scout Leader’s Report
Like all walks of life, this last year’s Scouting has been dominated by the Covid pandemic. And despite the enormous restrictions it placed on being able to deliver anything like a near-normal programme of activities, the group has done a fabulous job.
Zoom featured predominantly in our Sections been able to “meet”. Online games, challenges and cookery were among the inventive ways we kept things running. Whilst it was a godsend to be able to communicate, I think I speak for all our Leaders by saying we are thoroughly sick of Zoom now.
In the brief spells we have been able to meet this year, we’ve generally done so over at Seend Park Farm – the family home of our Beaver Leader, Brock. It has outdoor space away from the village and a barn with lots of ventilation. It’s been a godsend
As we emerge from restrictions now, we have pencilled in some overnight camps for August and September in the hope that restrictions will lift fully by then. We really have our fingers crossed as last year saw all our camps cancelled. The expedition to Tanzania that three Explorers and myself were preparing for was also cancelled
To close this, I must commend our outstanding team of volunteer Leaders. They have really held this Group together this year and kept things running. Also, in the background, we have our Executive of volunteer trustees that provides support and governance to the Group. Thank you all.
Kaa
Because of the pandemic no face to face meetings were possible for the whole of the summer term. Zoom meetings were considered but these were felt unsuitable for Beavers. Accordingly, various online badge workshops were offered; a mixture of general ones for the whole colony, and some specific Bronze Chief Scout award ones for the oldest members. The Bronze workshops were well received and several awards were subsequently presented by Chil, ADC Beavers, via WhatsApp groups all hosted by Brock, BSL. Similarly, 8 virtual ‘Swimmings Up’ were carried out via WhatsApp – 3 taking place in May, 2 in June and 3 in February
Although 2 members quit this year (probably because of Covid complications/concerns), continued pressure on numbers had forced us to block applications to our waiting list the previous year. However, with a few of the scheduled new joiners failing to take up their places recently, applications are again being accepted for consideration.
The Colony is in good health comprising a total of 24 Beavers (19 boys, 5 girls)
The only change to the leadership team has been the loss of Chil, but in her official capacity as ADC Beavers she has attended many of our section meetings by invitation, and continues to be a valuable asset to the Colony. Warranted leaders thus now comprise myself, Rosie, Alicia and Archie, and we continue to work with our 2 DoE volunteers Alex Hoad and Benji Morley (who have both now completed their DoE volunteering but still help out when they can).
Sleepovers
Last years planned Brownsea sleepover was cancelled, and no bookings are being taken for 2021. Alicia is in communication with the National Trust with a view to securing a provisional date for 2022. No sleepovers have taken place at all this year, but there is a possibility that a Group camp may be held in September, and/or that the annual District sleepover at Boomerang may resume in October.
Autumn Term.
Face to face meetings resumed in September, all based at Seend Park Farm, and with the Colony divided into 2 separate bubbles meeting alternate weeks (ie members attended once per fortnight).
3 weeks in November were cancelled due to regional Covid restrictions
Activities comprised archery, cyclist badge, ‘hike ‘n cook’, morse code, green cross code, and finished off in December with Christmas games and chocolate coin hunt in the Millenium Barn.
Spring Term.
All face to face meetings cancelled. Online workshops for badgework recommenced but very little engagement from the members this time around.
Summer Term.
Face to face meetings resumed once more, commencing with archery at Seend Park Farm which has proved very popular during the pandemic
Because of continued social distancing/sanitising requirements all summer term meetings are scheduled to take place outdoors using Scout HQ and Seend Park farm as bases, as both have well ventilated outdoor shelter in case of bad weather.
Brock
As we are all aware scouting was a little bit different this year. The cubs have managed to get out during these uncertain times. Currently the cub pack is still split into two bubbles with 16 in each. Each meeting we have about 15/16 attend which has been fantastic under the circumstances. We currently have 3 leaders but only 2 of us can meet regularly. Very kindly Lisa from scouts has offered to come and help when she can but the cub section still need more leaders to run effectively especially when we can start having them back at the hut. But as the cubs numbers remain so high we would like to continue with two groups of 17/18 (beavers moving up) as we feel 36 is way too many to have at one meeting.
Winter 2020- At the beginning of this term face to face scout was given the go ahead once again. The cub scouts continued to meet at Seend Park Farm with an outdoor program to suit the government guidelines. During this term we talked about fire safety which led to building fires and cooking s’mores. The cubs also did team building in the woods. This term was cut short due to going into another lockdown. But this did not stop us from scouting. Once again we did online scouting. For this term we used the badges at home section to set the Cubs with task to complete. With this we had a few fantastic responses but we found that some of our cubs weren’t enjoying this as much as they had just completed school online and didn’t want to be set cub work as well. The parents kindly said they would rather wait until it was back face to face but appreciated the tasks were there and could be completed at any time.
Spring 2021- This term again started online for those that wished to complete the set work on the badges at home. The cubs were set task like, the astronomer badge, cyclist, personal challenge badge and the world challenge badge. About half of the cub pack responded well to these tasks.
Summer 2021- once again with this term face to face scouting has resumed. For this term we have lots of exciting outdoor activities planned such as archery and a hike. So far for this term we have practiced are knots, made a blind trial, explored the woods for sticks to make miniature camp gadgets and part of the athletes badge.
In the next year we plan on going to Braeside for a Sunday ( this was arranged for 2020 but got cancelled) and a cub camp in the summer 2022 if guidance allows.
Jade/Akelah
This year we have mostly been using, surprise, surprise – Zoom! It’s not quite been the year we imagined, or hoped for, but the Scouts have certainly embraced what we have offered them each week.
Since the beginning of Lockdown 1, we have taken part in many varying online activities, including cooking sessions, tin can candle holder making, quizzes, Kahoots, Pictionary, Patrol and Young Leader led evenings, map work, scavenger hunts, mechanic badge, escape rooms and many others.
Online Scouting has been well supported by our members, with a core group logging on each week.
We currently have 25 Scouts on role and are fortunate enough to have 7 dedicated Leaders.
During the Lockdown release times we have been able to meet Face to Face, albeit in a restricted manner. We have had fire building, pioneering and lots of games in the woods which have been welcome changes to the Zoom meetings!
On that note, we would like to express our thanks to Jon Giles and family for the use of Seend Park Farm for our outdoor meetings – it has given us so many more options for activities at this time, and really is such a stunning setting.
Recently we have been back to meeting in the flesh and will hopefully continue to do so through the coming months.
We are making tentative plans for a Summer Camp in South Wales towards the end of August, with all but 2 signed up to potentially attend. Rest assured we are as prepared as we can be, just patiently waiting for official approval to camp, all our fingers are crossed it will come before August!
Whistler
The Explorers section has 15 members and two leaders and continue to meet most Monday evenings come rain or COVID.
This year has been memorable for different reasons, we held our first zoom meeting the evening that Boris locked down the country for the first time and continued weekly with Zoom until the summer holidays. Zoom meant that we got to see the Explorers lovely faces each week and for many of us kept us sane and having fun as a group. We completed on-line cooking, Pictionary, escape rooms, scavenger hunts, quiz’s and more Kahoot’s than I can count. We also had discussions about Black Lives matters with one of our dedicated Explorers even joining in from their break at work.
In the autumn we were able to meet with COVID controls and were able to go for a walk as group, carry out photography around the village as well as have BBQ’s and fires at Seend Park Farm which has become our new HQ. Getting everyone together after being stuck inside was much appreciated and our events were filled very quickly, our final event of 2020 a Ho Ho Ho Christmas gathering in the barn even bought out some of Explorers missing from our screens over the summer which was fabulous to see.
After Christmas we returned to Zoom meetings with perhaps less enthusiasm than first time round, we carried out quiz’s and cooking and various online challenges. We were able to end this term on the date the restrictions eased for a group walk to see the lambs at Chalfield and a chance to plan for more face to face activities.
We would like to thank the Giles family for allowing accessing to their land as this has meant we have been able to meet properly again and thank you to our Explorers and Leaders for sticking with us this year.