AGM Wednesday July 28[th ] 2021 @ 19:00
Attendance
Lisa Wright (District Commissioner), Neville Jarvis (Deputy County Commissioner),Lesley Skinner, Tom Powell, Chris Stevens, Sue Springett (GSL & Chair), Kieran Pratt, Keith Coles, Tony Barber and Colin (Norwich Alpha Lions), Jay Groom, Ben Wickes, Adrian Wickes, Sue Pearson, George Mann, Matt Loynes, Ben Ashby, Richard Filer, Phillipa Sugg.
Apologies
Trish Cresswell Sam Norman Mark McCall Sarah Vincent,Secretary, Old Catton Parish Council David Church Simon Clarke
Treasurer report
The Group is now in a strong financial position with closing balance up on 2020. While there have been no opportunities for fund-raising activities of our own, the government backed Covid grant schemes meant we ended in a better position.
The bequest from Lawrence Green, who was a founding member of the Scout group and made this Scout hall happen was completed, with the committee room now being an appropriate legacy to all his efforts.
Hall Hire, which is a vital contributor to group funds, was significantly reduced last year, resulting in a drop in the revenue from local community groups. We shut down many of our utilities to help reduce costs, however the Anglian Water bill is being queried. Gift Aid also supplements our income, was not claimed this year and we will be looking to submit a claim very soon.
Across the Group bank fees have been quite significant due to the CAF bank charging increasing from £5 fee per month per account to £8. With the appointment of a new treasurer, this will be reviewed as to whether we continue to get value for money from these accounts.
We have also used this down time to complete our move to shared storage and use of our resources, which will improve the efficiency for each section to find the kit they need for their activities. Following the generous donations in 2019/20 towards new floor costs, the actual payment has been accounted for in this accounting year.
We have continued to address the amount of cash being held (at year end) and as such we have acted on this and have moved to electronic invoicing parents/guardians for all Scout activities. The remaining cash for Beavers will be banked this coming financial year.
We still paid full capitation costs for 2021 to the Scout Association and we expect there will be a significant increase in this cost in 2022 and 2023. We cover this capitation cost within our regular subscription fee requests to you and have used some of the Covid grants to help manage this increased cost.
My thanks go to John Nuthall for auditing our accounts again, we also propose that John acts as auditor again for the year end 2022 accounts for us.
Combined Chair and GSL report
The good news is that this is one report covering chair and GSL roles, as we have found no replacement for Matt as Chair and I’m hoping this will be the only report in this capacity! Anyone interested, your opportunity will be in a few minutes!
The AGM provides an opportunity for reflection and there are many things to be thankful for, so here’s my take on the last year in context of our scouting values.
I’ve experienced a year of cooperation, resilience and care. We’ve seen these qualities in bucket loads this last year, thank you. The way the leaders and young leaders helped each other, whether meeting over zoom or inside so that our young people had a continuous scouting adventure. The “can-do” support from our district team to support us getting back together safely again.
How the exec pulled together and been so very very supportive over the many different back room challenges we faced. And they left the leaders free to focus on running great programmes at an exceptionally safe level.
We had Parents rising to the additional need for safety and fully supporting us to keep everyone safe. All so that we were able to deliver approximately 1600 amazing experiences over the last year. I hope you agree that’s quite a big number of positive contacts, especially when we were in lockdown!
While just about every person here tonight has been touched by the stresses of the last year, I’ve seen a huge amount of people helping each other get through their personal challenges. Baden Powell would be pleased.
And now it's time for more change. Specifically, to the exec, it is with sadness that we say goodbye to Matt Loynes and Keith Coles. Between them, they have given Scouting over 35 years of exceptional support to our group, a phenomenal contribution. I’ll keep this short as trust you both know how much we have all benefited from and valued such service.
So much of what we see around us today and experience in the future is because of you. Thank you. That said, I do think the shopping list for the Aviva community fund was pretty awesome - Trangia, Kelly kettles, throwing Angels-wow!
As this is our first Scout meeting in the hall since March 20 lockdown, it’s appropriate to recognise some of these changes that Keith and Matt instigated and gained support by local charities such as Norwich Alpha Lions, the Paul Bassham Trust, Fitzmaurice Trust and lastly all the people that helped with the ASDA supermarket token scheme.
The floor, the toilets, the kitchen, the exec room to name a few. It has, and will, make a big difference for many years to come, thank you.
Do please take a look around and try to spot all the improvements that were magically achieved this year, with special thanks to Mark McColl, Matt Loynes and Sue Pearson.
Finally, I want to thank Philippa, Sam and Mark who celebrate their 1[st] full year as members of the exec since our last AGM. You’ve helped us make a great team alongside Matt, Keith, Chris, and our leaders and after this last year, I’m sure we can deal with – almost - anything!
Before I hand over to our section leaders for all the phenomenal things they’ve achieved with our beavers, cubs and scouts. I have a few celebrations specific to some of our leaders:
Ben Wickes as the 1[st] of our young leaders to complete his young leader training before becoming an Assistant Beaver Scout Leader
Welcome to our new Assistant Cub Scout leader – Liz Downing and our new Section Assistants for cubs – Esther, Gary and Steve
A huge thank you to our young leaders who made the zoom meetings happen when us old leaders were feeling rather deflated and how you simply keep driving us forward. Yes, Jay Groom as the driving force behind our trip to Denmark in 2022.
And now to Tom and Lesley.
Scouts AGM Report
A mixture of online and in-person scouts over this last year. Unlike other groups which either didn’t do online scouting or saw significantly reduced numbers, we actually had consistently good attendance and I hope offered some welcome relief from the seemingly endless periods of restrictions. Thanks to the leaders, young leaders and scouts for coming up with new and interesting ideas each week. There was a time when I wondered what we would do next but everyone’s collective enthusiasm kept us going. We did activities like Jeopardy, Taskmaster, Bingo, Master Chef and cooking in our gardens.
Moving to face-to-face scouting on an outside-only basis, we had a couple of great nights at Hautbois doing archery, abseiling, rock climbing and zip wires. Then, with our base at Catton Park, we have done cooking over fires (started with only sparks), walks, wide games, hikes, a fashion show and a chip shop challenge, to name just a few. Every activity has needed a risk assessment which has to be signed off at several levels before we are allowed to run the night. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to these weighty documents, which are not easy to get passed by the approvers.
We have also had an amazing activity day at Eaton Vale which saw Scouts and some siblings and some parents getting involved in rifle shooting, canoeing (very wet), climbing and axe throwing. Thanks to the organising team and the leaders on the day for persevering and making this event happen against a challenging set of circumstances. Thanks also to our parent helpers who had a fun day too - it is worth getting involved even if only occasionally.
Looking ahead to next term we have lots more activities planned which should become easier as restrictions are easing. The exec team have also purchased lots of new equipment to support our adventurous outdoor activities. Special thanks to Matt Loynes for his hard work on this. We will be trying our best to help the older scouts complete the remaining tasks to achieve their Gold Awards. We are a bit behind on badges this term but there are tons that have been achieved this year and we will have them ready for the start of next term.
See you soon Tom & Lesley
Cubs AGM Report
Cubs Activity Since September 2020: Tigers Pack size - (14 at start of Autumn 2020) 23 At the end of Summer 2021 +9 Jaguar Pack Size - (11 at start of Autumn 2020) 15 At the end of Summer 2021 +4
Tiger’s nightly average - 18 Jaguar’s nightly average - 13
Badges Awarded: Badges Awarded in Tigers - 24 Badges Awarded in Jaguars - 31
Badges Awarded Over Cubs - 55
Badges they have achieved: Road safety, Naturalist, Home help, Backwards Cooking.
Silver award - 1 (Tom Filer)
Hours Participated - 58 and a half hours
Best bits: Fire Lighting Hiking to mousehold Cycling Denbuilding.
Presented by Ben Ashby and George Mann (Young leaders)
Beavers AGM report
What a difference a year can make – this last year we have definitely done it all. We started the year with half a term face-to-face before moving back to Zoom with a bang – and by bang I mean a spectacular firework display. When we got back to Zoom, things didn’t slow down. There were lots of experiments (including making ice-cream – highly recommend), a virtual visit to Norwich airport thanks to Wings (highly recommend), and sessions showing off our pets (again, highly recommend).
This last term was the return of face-to-face Beavers; and in my opinion was one of the best terms in a very long time! After a good few months of being cooped up, we spent every evening outside (and the weather held up for us – the Cubs weren’t so lucky)! We’ve had multiple trips to Eaton Vale (big thanks to all involved with the organising of the activity day), the return of campfires & all the other fun Beaver stuff we’ve missed. We had loads of fun completing our sports badge and if our Sports Evening is anything to go by so did the parents!
This year we’ve given out over 250 badges, and had amazing fun; so here’s to the next 250 badges!
Presented by Kieran Pratt
Appointment of Exec Committee
John Nuttall proposed as auditor for next year by Chris Stevens, seconded by Lesley Skinner
Sam Norman nominated as Secretary by Chris Stevens, seconded by Lesley Skinner Phillipa Sugg nominated as Treasurer by Lesley Skinner, seconded by Chris Stevens Chris Stevens nominated as QM by Phillipa Sugg, seconded by Lesley Skinner Sue Springett nominated as GSL by Tom Powell, seconded by Keith Coles Tom Powell nominated as Scout exec by Sue Springett, seconded by Keith Coles Kieran Pratt nominated as Puma Beaver exec by Lesley Skinner, seconded by Sue Springett
Trish Cresswell nominated as Cougar Beaver exec by Lesley Skinner, seconded by Sue Springett
Group constitution
Sue Springett presented the group constitution, which will be presented to the District with the minutes for approval.
Thank you & presentations
Lisa Wright awarded Chris Stevens the 15 years long service award.
AGM meeting closed
44[th ] Norwich (Old Catton) Scout Group HQ: Lodge Lane, Norwich, NR6 7HL Charity No: 1022330 Visit us at: oldcattonscouts.org.uk
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