News and Blogs

As you may be aware, HQ have made changes nationally to the make up of the District Trustee Board, who the trustees are, how trustees are recruited and how they are appointed.

The AGM of the District Scout Council will be held on Tuesday 9^th July at 7:30pm at the Rhydd Activity Centre, Rhydd Covert Camp Site, Bewdley, DY12 1LE.

At the District Board on 25^th March the Trustee Board approved the following and also the process to be followed:-

There will be a Trustee Board of 10 Trustees. The District Commissioner (Lead Volunteer) and District Youth Commissioner (District Youth Lead) are ex-officio Trustees.

There will be 8 appointed Trustees. Of the 8 Trustees, there will be a Chair and a Treasurer. (Chair and Treasurer must be separate individuals).

If you would like to be considered for the position of either Chair or Treasurer, please submit an application by email to the Secretary of the Trustee Board, Mrs. Beverley Drew by Friday 10^th May at 4pm.  beverleyjdrew@gmail.com

In your email, please attach, in a side of no more than A4, your skills, experience (if any) and what you can bring to the role of a charity trustee and in particular the post you are applying for. Please also include the name of a proposer and seconder who are a member of the Scout Council to support your application and whom are prepared to be a referee. In addition, you may wish to include up to two another names of external people who would be able to provide a reference for you.

The Trustee Board at its meeting on Monday 20^th May at 7:15pm at the Rhydd Activity Centre will formally interview the applicant(s) for these positions. On the assumption that there is a suitable applicant for each of these positions, and indeed if there is more than one for each position, the Trustee Board, on merit and following a fair interview process will select the successful applicant for the role of Chair and the role of Treasurer. This will be by way of a secret ballot if there is more than one appointable candidate. These will be the names that the Trustee Board put forward to the AGM for the District Scout Council to formally appoint. Both of these positions will be for a 3 year term.

The Trustee Board also invites applications for the remaining 6 Trustee positions. Therefore, again, should you wish to apply,  please email Mrs. Beverley Drew by Friday 10^th May at 4pm. In your email, please attach, in a side of no more than A4, your skills, experience (if any) and what you can bring to the role of a charity trustee. Please also include the name of a proposer and seconder who are a member of the Scout Council to support your application and whom are prepared to be a referee. In addition, you may wish to include up to two another names of external people who would be able to provide a reference for you. The Trustee Board should endeavour to have two Trustees between the ages of 18-25 (one of which will be the District Youth Lead) and therefore would you indicate on your application if you are in this age demographic. If you don’t indicate we will assume you are not. We also, need to appoint Trustees for either a 1, 2 or 3 year term, and will be appointing 2 for a 1 year term, 2 for a 2 year term and 2 for a 3 year term at the AGM and therefore please indicate if you have a preference of how long you would be willing to serve for. If the term of office cannot be agreed by consensus the drawing of lots will take place. If there are 6 or less applicants, all will be considered for their suitability. If they are all deemed suitable and approved by the Trustee Board, these names will be recommended for appointment by the District Scout Council at the AGM. If there are more than 6 applicants, if they are all deemed suitable and approved by the Trustee Board, these names will go forward to the AGM for an election to then appoint 6 Trustees. For example, if 8 applicants went forward for 6 positions, every member of the District Scout Council would be issued with a ballot paper with the names of the 8 candidates  on and each member of the Scout Council would vote (by way of secret ballot) for up to 6 candidates. The 6 candidates with the highest votes would then be the 6 names proposed to the Scout Council for the 6 Trustee Board positions. 

We are keen to secure Trustees from a variety of backgrounds, especially those that can add to the skill set of the Board, for example, Lawyers, Accountants, Insurance Brokers, HR Officers, Surveyors, Architects, people in Business etc… this list is by no means exhaustive. If you are therefore aware of anyone in the wider community who may be able to fulfil this role and have the requisite skills then please do pass this information on in order that they may apply.

Kind Regards,

Marcus J. Hart

Trustee Board - Chairman

Our DC Julie passes this message on from the Chief Scout:

"Celebrating your kindness and courage. I always look forward to this time of year. Why? Because it’s when we celebrate you, our incredible volunteers and young people. You’re the inspirers, the roll-up-your-sleevers and extra-milers. The ones who make it all happen. And what makes our movement great is that we all offer something different. It’s our differences that make us stronger. And we never forget the superpower that really counts is our kindness.

Whether you’ve been helping us for years, or only recently joined our team, thank you for all you do helping young people gain skills to prepare them for the future. I’m so pleased and proud to read your names in this Roll of Honour. This is a moment to treasure and one to remember. Let’s not forget the courage of our young people either. To all of you receiving Meritorious Conduct Awards, you have my huge respect and gratitude. All of you have gone above and beyond and your Scouting spirit shines so bright.

Thank you and well done".

Bear Grylls OBE, Chief Scout

Celebrate our leaders who have been awarded honours:

As we approach the busy camp season, a reminder for all those involved in organising camps, particularly camp leaders:

Nights Away-reminder to include all adults attending & RA when sending information –including programme, to Sarah Bennett, if possible, more than 14 days before the camp starts.  Any adult sleeping over MUST have completed Safety and Safeguarding modules & have a DBS, suggested applications should be made 3 months before the event.

Remember to keep updating RA’s and share with all adults attending camp.

Sarah

District camp

Draft programme for now, timings not yet confirmed:

Friday night - Campfire

Saturday breakfast - own groups provide

Saturday AM - bases/inflatables

Saturday lunch - own groups provide

Saturday pm - bases/inflatables

Saturday tea - BBQ provided

Saturday evening - talent show - idea is for individual WF sections to put on group performances rather than slots of individual performances

Sunday breakfast - own groups provide

Sunday AM - Costume parade for musical chosen & awards ceremony

12 noon home

For the bases on Saturday, these will be ran by groups and we are looking for an activity to last around 15/20 minutes. Suggestions so far are puppets, masks, learn snag & dance routine but we are happy for groups to plan a completely different activity, as long as it's Theatre themed! There will be a budget from District of £25 that you can claim back but anything more spent will be at the groups discretion. The aim is for the Beaver & Cubs bases to be the same so less stress for the groups.

Cost for the attendance of the camp have been confirmed as £35 per child, payable by May DLM - For Cub Groups, please send this into the account detailed below - Other sections please contact your ADC.

Account Name: Wyre Forest Scouts

Sort Code: 30-94-70

Account Number: 02158761