The Woggle

The newsletter of the 3rd Hayling Scout Group
September 2016

GSL's Update

I hope you all had a very enjoyable and relaxing Summer holiday and are now back in the full swing!! We certainly are.

Subscriptions

Just a reminder that for those of you who do not yet pay subs by Standing Order, they are now due for this term. Please place the £30 cash or cheque made payable to 3rd Hayling Scout Group in a named envelope and hand it to your leader in the next 2 weeks. Please help your leaders by not having to be chased for these.

Gift Aid
The Gift Aid scheme enables charities, like us, to reclaim the tax you pay from HMRC on subscriptions and donations. Whilst the majority of you have completed the form that allows us to make this claim, we want to maximise this income source. We are providing forms to everyone not yet supporting this scheme, and we would appreciate your support. If the person paying subs does not pay income tax, we can not make any claim, but we will update our records and not ask again.

Summer Camps
During the summer holidays, Eagle Troop spent a week in camp in East Sussex, Lion Troop in Devon and our Explorers joined others from Hampshire in an amazing expedition to Switzerland. A great time for all and this is one of the main opportunities for those in the older sections - something to look forward to for our Beavers and Cubs.

Thank You
To Sandra Delaney who has taken a break from Aspen Beavers after many years of support to the Beavers and the Group. As I always say, thank you Sandra, but if you ever get bored and need something to do - we are still here!!

Welcome
To Edward Mill, Cameron MacCallum and John Bray who have offered their time to help Hayling Scouts. Edward and Cameron have been young leaders with the group and are now helping with Eagle Troop and Lion Troop respectively. John has offered his time with Maple Beavers. Thank you to you all for your offers of help and we hope you will find your time with us as rewarding as our other leaders and helpers.

September always brings a number of new families into the Group especially Beavers. If you have any questions, please speak to your leader and visit our "Information for Parents" pages on the web site.

 

The Group Development Team (GDT)

In any Scout Group there are the youth sections, the Leaders and helpers who plan and execute the weekly programmes and other events such as Camps and Sleepovers for these sections all of whom are supported our Executive Committee.

On Hayling we have renamed this team, the Group Development Team to better reflect their role. This team consists of a Chairman (who is appointed by the Group Scout Leader), Treasurer (appointed by the Group Scout Leader / Chairman) and a number of elected positions from a combination of Parents and those interested in supporting Scouting on Hayling. In simple terms, we believe that the main responsibility of this team is to ensure the Leaders have the facilities and equipment required to provide exciting Scouting and the roles of the team members reflect this.

  • HQ - Peter Rowson who ensures that our HQ is fit for purpose, including the coordination of maintenance and any enhancement projects.
  • Transport - Clive Allgood who ensures that out trailers are servicable and ready for use.
  • Badge - Nigel Kenny - who ensures the the Leaders have the badges available to be presented to our youth members as they achieve them
  • Subscriptions and Gift Aid - Diane & Dave Stanway who work with the section leaders and the treasurer to coordinate this aspect of finance.
  • Wish List - Kevin Richardson - Who manages the needs of Leaders across the GDT
  • Communications with Technology - Kevin Richardson who is helping to bring us into the 21st Century with technologies like facebook.
  • Quartermaster - Pete Goddard - who is responsible for our camping and activity equipment.
  • Sponsorship - Phil Blosse - who has generated significant income for the group.
  • General Support - Andrew Harrison & Jean Bates who provide invaluable support in many different ways.

Our new Chairman, Aaron Pycroft has started his role with the GDT with a project to develop a plan for the next 3 to 5 years. Working closely with the Leaders, this plan will look at what we need to do to maintain and enhance Scouting on Hayling, what we can do to make the life of our leaders easier, to identify gaps in our leadership and support structures.

We expect this plan to modify some of the roles of the GDT and probably introduce some new ones.

A busy Term
This term is always active for both the sections and the group. In addition to the weekly meetings we have the following to look forward to:-


Hayling Scout's Quiz night

Saturday 8th October at the HQ
Teams of 8 people
Cost of £8 per person to include a hot meal

If you are interested and have a team then please contact us.


Book Sale

Wednesday 26th October to 29th October
Held at our HQ from 10:00 - 16:00 Wed to Fri and 09:00 to 12:00 Saturday.

We will, once again have about 10,000 books on offer, fiction and non-fiction.

We are always looking for additional help for this sale - just 2 or 3 hours during the week. Details are on the website.


Hayling Scouts Fireworks Display

Friday 4th November
Venue to be confirmed
Cost: £8 per family

This event is open to members of Hayling Scouts, Hayling Guides and their families. A letter will be sent home nearer the time with details of the venue.


Remembrance Day Service

Sunday 13th November
Scouts, Explorers and their Leaders
Meet Mengham car park 10:15

Further details nearer the date.


Our Xmas Card Delivery Service

Sunday 18th December 09:00 to 11:00

Please give us 2 hours of your time to help deliver some cards and raise £1000.
Bookings open 6th November

The Wood Badge

 

This award consists of 2 wooden beads on a leather necklace and originated when Lord Baden-Powell was in South Africa. For the past 100 years this badge has been presented to every Leader on completion of their formal training. Today this training consists of 19 modules ranging from the basics of Scouting to running outdoor activities, First Aid to practical skills, programming, behaviour management to International Scouting.

During the past few weeks, a number of our Leaders have completed this training. Well done to Sandra Delaney (Aspen Beavers), Linda Hunter (Redwood Beavers), Rebecca Hawke (Saturn Cubs), Simon Rigden (Jupiter Cubs), Jordan Reed (Shark Scouts) and Mervyn Haines & Tom Lincoln (Lion Scouts).

Helping Scouting on Hayling
As with all youth organisations, we are dependent on adult support. We want our leaders to focus on their meetings with the youth sections whilst others can concentrate on the management of the Group, fund raising provision of facilities etc.

We have two areas that we urgently need to identify additional support:-

  1. Minutes Secretary. To attend our GDT meetings (6 per year), take minutes and publish the agreed action plans. Each meeting takes place on a Thursday evening and lasts for 2 hours.
  2. Help with our Book Sales. 2 to 3 hours during the week of the sale (half term week) with sorting, selling, or helping to clear up.

If you are able to help us with either of these please let your leader or Ian Hawke know and we will provide more details before you make any commitment.

We need your Elastic Bands
If, like me, you are receiving a number of elastic bands with your post each day and have wondered what you can do with them - then wonder no more!
If you would like to collect these, then there is a bin in the reception area of our HQ where you can leave them in the knowledge they will be well used for Scouting activity, and also hopefully reduce the wastage! Thank You

Businessmen's Club BBQ.
Once again this year the Explorers of Hayling played a big role in the annual HIBC BBQ. They helped clear the barn and set up on the Thursday and Friday, organised the Car Parking and packed away afterwards.

Although hard work this event is always enjoyed by the young people probably because they get well fed!

I would like to thank HIBC for allowing us to be part of this event and for the very generous donation made towards the Explorer expedition to Switzerland.

VW Beach Buggy Event
This year a small team of Leaders and GDT members helped with Car Parking at this annual event in Southsea Common. The organisers estimated well over 1000 cars were parked in their biggest ever event.

Thank you to those who helped and the organisers for their generous donation to our Group Funds.


Diary Dates

September
22nd Leaders Meeting 19:00 HQ

October
6th Leaders Meeting 19:00 HQ
8th Hayling Scouts Quiz Night
26th to 29th Book Sale HQ

November
4th Fireworks Display
13th Remembrance Day
24th GDT Meeting

December
18th Xmas Card Delivery Service