## **BRAINTREE DISTRICT SCOUT COUNCIL** ## Annual General Meeting Cressing Temple Sunday 26[th] April 2026 3.30pm **AGENDA** ## **1. Introduction and welcome** ## **2. Apologies for absence** ## **3. Governance topics** - a. Approve the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 27 April 2025 - b. Adopt the model constitution from Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) - c. Note the District’s financial year - d. Approve appointed and community members of the District Scout Council - e. Agree the number of members that may be appointed to the Trustee Board - f. Agree the quorum for future meetings of the District Scout Council (excluding this AGM) ## **4.** ## **Review of the previous year** - a. The District Lead Volunteer’s review of Scouts - b. Receive and consider the Annual Report of the District Trustee Board, including the annual Statement of the Accounts ## **5.** ## **Making appointments** - a. Appoint the District Chair, following recommendation from the open selection process initiated by the District Trustee Board - b. Appoint members of the District Trustee Board, following recommendations from the open selection process initiated by the District Trustee Board - c. Appoint the Independent Examiner of accounts - d. Nominate representatives of the District Scout Council to represent the District on the County Scout Council ## **Closing remarks** **6.** DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT ## AGM 2026 This report provides an overview of the work of District Trustees for the year 2025. The Trustee board meets quarterly, and its’ role is strategic management of the districts activities in line with Charity Commission requirements and Scouting policy organisation and rules. ## **Membership** The district is made up of 12 groups, an Explorers section , Network section and adult support provision. Membership numbers and district structure at the January 2026 census is as follows. - Total Youth Membership: 780 -5.7% - Total Adult Membership **:** 281 +14.2% ## Group Breakdown - Number of Squirrel Dreys: 7 - Number of Beaver Colonies: 13 (-1) - Number of Cub Packs: 12 (-3) - Number of Scout Troops: 11(-1) - Number of Explorer Units: 6 - Young leader Units: 1 ## **Key Observations** Youth membership has decreased by 5.7% compared to the previous year, this reflects the picture across Essex and locally temporary closure of the Gosfield group and unit closure of Cubs in Rayne due to a lack of leadership Adult membership has increased by 14.2% compared to the previous year. Squirrels grew 1.2% Beavers declined -1.0 % Cubs declined -12.9% Scouts declined -8.1% Explorers declined -6.7% At census there were 103 young on waiting lists to join groups, this is a 29% reduction from 2025. There is still need for additional adult leaders to support the growing number of groups. And young person demand. ## **Governance** District Trustees meet quarterly to review and discuss strategic management of the district and to provide advice and support to the operational team as required. During this year there has been focus on Trustee responsibility, premises safety and the district camp site. We have continued to review policy and procedure and developing structures to support the wider district. All trustees are up to date with required training and have met governance checking requirements. ## **Property** The district holds some land and property including a campsite and these are all held within the Scout Trust Corporation. Condition and use are reviewed by the Trustee board. Sale of land held at Deanery Hill is still not complete, however there is willingness on both sides to pursue this to completion. 2 DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT ## AGM 2026 ## **Insurance** The districts insurance needs have been reviewed, and trustees are satisfied the insurance cover is appropriate. ## **Training** Trustees are responsible for ensuring training is completed and maintained in line with POR requirements, this is managed through our local training manager. Overall district compliance with this requirement is good. The following areas are being closely monitored; safety, safeguarding and first aid. ## **Safety** Safety is a standing item on the Trustees agenda; there have been no safety issues raised this year. District Trustees recognise the increased focus on safety and the Charity Commissions requirement to evidence all Trustees in scouting are aware of their responsibilities for safety. All District Trustees have met this requirement. ## **Policy and procedure** A range of policies and procedures are in place and maintained. ## **Finance** The financial position is reviewed at each meeting and audited accounts for the last financial year are shown below The district is financially sound. 3 DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT ## AGM 2026 ## **DISTRICT LEAD VOLUNTEER REPORT** It has been another extremely busy year across the district with all groups giving our young people skills for life and lots of fun along the way too I have been amazed at the number of Nights Away across the District, and I always aim to get out and visit as many as I possibly can. What has been really good to see is we have had nights away experiences for our Squirrels all the way through the sections to Network We came together as a District with about 250 people for District camp at Skreens Park in July, it was amazing to see many groups attend and everyone together and we had lots of activities on offer. It was a great event, and we plan on running this again in 2027 with even more groups support. We held badge days for Beavers and Cubs and a day for our Squirrels which a big shout out goes out to Leigh Calder for making these happen and those groups which support and adults who ran the bases The Scout section held a back to basics camp in October at Danemead, which was well attended across several groups and those Scouts attending earnt their Survival Skills badge I was delighted that in the Autumn we had confirmation that 13 young people from Braintree District following a rigorous selection process have been selected to representative of Braintree in the Essex Contingent to attend the World Jamboree in Poland, North America, Iceland or Kenya during 2027. The young people are already busy fundraising towards the cost. Our District Scout camp site at Twinstead has been used more than before which again is great to see and makes overnights really affordable for groups. The Friends of Braintree District Scouts have been active meeting on a monthly basis and helping with craft at section nights when asked, please reach out if you would like them to come along for a night, they do a great evening of craft and badge making. We have invested a lot of time this year on Safe Premises audits to ensure our meeting places are safe for our volunteers and young people. We have an amazing team of very dedicated individuals, and I want to thank all our leaders and adults working directly with young people, our trustee board across the district and groups and our young leaders. Without all these volunteers Scouting would not be so alive in Braintree ## **Gav District Lead Volunteer** 4 DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT ## AGM 2026 ## **Braintree District Scouts** ## **Receipts and Payments Account** ## **Receipts and payments** |||**Year ended 31 December 2025**|**Year ended 31 December 2025**|**Year ended 31 December 2025**||**Year ended 31**
**December 2024**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||**Unrestricted funds**|**Restricted funds**|**Total funds**||**Total funds**| |**Receipts**||**£**|**£**|**£**||**£**| |**Donations, legacies and similar income**||||||| |Membership Subscriptions||**41,617.33**|**0.00**|**41,617.33**||**34,263.00**| |Less: Membership Subscriptions Paid Onto Essex||**-37,306.00**|**0.00**|**-37,306.00**||**-30,217.00**| |Net Membership Subscriptions Retained||**4,311.33**|**0.00**|**4,311.33**||**4,046.00**| |Legacies||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |Gift Aid||**1,615.49**|**0.00**|**1,615.49**||**1,108.96**| |Other Similar Income||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**7,965.75**| |**Sub total**||**5,926.82**|**0.00**|**5,926.82**||**13,120.71**| |**Grants**||||||| |Maintenance Grant||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |Other Grants||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |**Sub total**||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |**Fundraising (gross)**||||||| |World Scout Jamboree||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |Detail 2||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |Detail 3||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |Other Fundraising Activities||**200.00**|**0.00**|**200.00**||**3,700.00**| |**Sub total**||**200.00**|**0.00**|**200.00**||**3,700.00**| |**Investment income**||||||| |Bank Interest||**0.16**|**0.00**|**0.16**||**0.16**| |Building Society Interest||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |The Scout Association Short Term Investment Service||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |Property Rent income||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |Other investment income Closed Band Account||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0.00**| |**Sub total**||**0.16**|**0.00**|**0.16**||**0.16**| |**Income from charitable activities**||||||| |District Events||**9,184.29**|**0.00**|**9,184.29**||**492.40**| |Income from Badge Sales||**196.50**|**0.00**|**196.50**||**118.25**| |Explorer Subscription||**3,558.00**|**0.00**|**3,558.00**||**4,238.00**| |Explorer Activities||**1,840.00**|**0.00**|**1,840.00**||**720.90**| |Explorer Camps||**7,319.50**|**0.00**|**7,319.50**||**12,573.00**| |Miscellaneous Income||**1,754.00**|**0.00**|**1,754.00**||**1,317.00**| |**Sub total**||**23,852.29**|**0.00**|**23,852.29**||**19,459.55**| |||||||| |**_Total Gross Income_**||**29,979.27**|**0.00**|**29,979.27**||**36,280.42**| |||||||| |**Asset and investment sales, etc.**||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |||||||| |**_Total receipts_**||**29,979.27**|**0.00**|**29,979.27**||**36,280.42**| |||||||| 5 DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT ## AGM 2026 ## **Braintree District Scouts** ## **Receipts and Payments Account** ## **Receipts and payments** |||**Year ended 31 December 2025**|**Year ended 31 December 2025**|**Year ended 31 December 2025**||**Year ended 31**
**December 2024**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||**Unrestricted funds**|**Restricted funds**|**Total funds**||**Total funds**| |**Payments**||**£**|**£**|**£**||**£**| |**Charitable Payments**||||||| |Youth programme and activities||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |District Events||**10,423.03**|**0.00**|**10,423.03**||**866.55**| |Explorer Events||**1,592.88**|**0.00**|**1,592.88**||**1,514.01**| |Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**168**| |Explorer Rent||**2,729.17**|**0.00**|**2,729.17**||**1246.5**| |Badge Expenses||**1,636.33**|**0.00**|**1,636.33**||**908.53**| |Online Scout Manager||**2,531.78**|**0.00**|**2,531.78**||**2,456.83**| |Insurance||**773.11**|**0.00**|**773.11**||**817.06**| |Repairs and Renewals||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |Materials and equipment||**1,585.55**|**0.00**|**1,585.55**||**6003.34**| |Printing and photocopying||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |District Newsletter||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |Contribution to World Jamboree||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |Explorer Uniforms||**1,523.77**|**0.00**|**1,523.77**||**1290.66**| |AGM and trustee expenses||**211.50**|**0.00**|**211.50**||**241.39**| |Adult support and training||**335.00**|**0.00**|**335.00**||**0**| |Miscellaneous
Explorer camps (including WSJ)||**1,992.35**
**6,067.29**|**745.27**
**0.00**|**2,737.62**
**6,067.29**||**2332.25**| |||||||**14,752.14**| |**Sub total**||**31,401.76**|**745.27**|**32,147.03**||**32,597.26**| |**Fundraising expenses**||||||| |Detail 1||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |Detail 2||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |Detail 3||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |Other fundraising costs||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |**Sub total**||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |||||||| |**_Total Gross Expenditure_**||**31,401.76**|**745.27**|**32,147.03**||**32,597.26**| |||||||| |**Asset and investment purchases, etc.**||**0.00**|**0.00**|**0.00**||**0**| |||||||| |**_Total payments_**||**31,401.76**|**745.27**|**32,147.03**||**32,597.26**| |||||||| |**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**||**-1,422.49**|**-745.27**|**-2,167.76**||**3,683.16**| |**Cash funds last year end**||**28,064.74**|**7,055.00**|**35,119.74**||**31,436.58**| |**_Cash funds this year end_**||**26,642.25**|**6,309.73**|**32,951.98**||**35,119.74**| 6 DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT AGM 2026 BraInt￿e Distrlct Scouts Braintree Jisirittkwts+ Receipts and Payments Account Scouts Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the year Year•nd•d 31 Decembor 2025 Yèarendèd 31 O¢cwnbor2024 Totsitunds Unre8lW fvnd¥ ReJtr*ted fvnds Toialfund• a8hfundts a74. a¥.36 00 101.17 00 ExF*x¢f2hd￿￿t ExKtyeiwprthTnrntyAJC 11.$0 103ts.BS #￿.7T 00 OD Ttsi￿ ¢k*hfun& OthermM8taryau•ts 00 oo 00 00 00 b lot41 aoo Inve8bM8rtt*&s•ts 00 oAo 00 om QD Subtotsl Won mon•wry4weth for¢hArW own u•• 4aD OD 00 L￿d￿nd bL*• 00 00 oo OX4) OD har om 00 Sub lotal om 00 Llabllkt95 oAo OD 00 00 ooo 0.0 o.ots 0.00 00 QD Th• abovo recobts and wym•Trts •ccount•nd •t¥twI￿rtOf *tst•tsand liabl11t￿l%￿0 •pwovod tr¥thi Twsta•8 on 24AlldLIQZland tsi9Md ohthoir beham David WhlppB ¢t￿IrPIr5aTh DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT AGM 2026 INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORTS TO THE TRUSTEES OF BRAINTREE DISTRICT SCOUTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st DECEMBER 2025 I rewrt¢n the aC£￿￿tsofthe DistrLtfot Ihpy•ar8nd8d 31 D￿￿￿1202S￿hlCh¢￿￿¢gtt State￿￿tofFInaM8lAclIYl￿0S. the Bakncè￿￿afft￿ reJai)y rM)te5sei0ut(￿ pEge I to 3 This 18pDrt Is solgly 10 tyts6￿9 In actordantewrth SethDTr 145 olthe chan11es￿t20l1 MYH￿rk￿aSbÉenu￿d@th￿￿S0thal1 whtslaigiothe¢haAty'$twSteE5tho5erna￿sl2rnweqUlre￿ to state to an IndepBndenl Examine￿9 and for no Othgr purpos¢ To Int fuY*I etht rmilied by itw, I Dr aSsL¥r￿ respMsibility to anw&othért*gn lh8 chariiy and th¢ anty'stru*a8B for ry•xanlnatbThwty Ro•w￿ve rtsPOn¥lb1I￿0J0rTrUIh0S and Examlmr Ihe Districts I￿St￿Ssr8 reswsybl¢ lorth¢ WP3Qli¢n ol1he￿UrtS TWCDn￿erIhat aJJil IS Mtie4uired fotthis ye2rlunderSecknTh 144ofth8 Ch*th&Act20111tr¢ ¢hgTrb96 Ariii ndthatan n¥sd>y. . 145 ollheCharll*A¢t),' . 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MrsA S Kaléy Xgin?dirn Sojth East ￿￿1¥d. The0￿ Grarys, Warren Esta8, L￿thhIp Road, ChebThf￿d. E55e¥. CM1 3 Date 24WI 2026 DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT ## AGM 2026 ## **DISTRICT REPORT 4-14 TEAM REPORT** We have aimed to hold regular termly meetings to plan events with leaders. These have been open to all volunteers and have had mixed attendance. They have been held on Tuesdays in May and September. Our January meeting was cancelled due to poor weather and was not rescheduled. Volunteers can come together to share ideas and plan for upcoming District events and suggest new ones. It has been great for newer members to network with more experienced people and share programme ideas and resources. Unfortunately we have also been very disappointed with the amount of interest in District events, which greatly impacts how these events are run. Those that attended, very much enjoyed both the district camp and our activity sessions at Prances. The latter had to be condensed into joint sessions for Squirrels/Beavers and Cubs/Scouts due to a lack of leader support to run bases. Cub Environment and Communicator Badge Day on 12[th] October was unfortunately cancelled. Beaver Safety Badge Day on 19[th] October held at Black Notley Village Hall was a great success and was supported by Hedingham, Gt Notley, Black Notley . 1[st] and 4[th] Braintree. My thanks to the leaders who ran some great activities for our young people. ## **Future events include.** - **An activity session for each section, to be held at Prances over the weekend of 26-27/9/26 to celebrate Squirrel, Beaver and Cub birthdays.** - Essex Weekend for leaders and their families 15-17/5/26 Skreens - County Survivor Camp for Scouts 12-14/6/26 Skreens - County Big Beaver Birthday 20-21/6/26 Skreens - Extra Jam for Explorers 26-28/6/26 Belchamps - County Squirrel Day 13/9/26 Skreens We hope to form a team to help organise these events but as always, will need the participation of Dreys, Colonies and Packs, to run successfully. Watch this space for meeting dates. ## **Leigh Calder and Clare Darch 4-14 Team Leaders** 9 DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT ## AGM 2026 ## **DISTRICT REPORT 14-24 TEAM REPORT EXPLORER UNITS** We continue to operate with five Explorer Scout units and a Young Leader unit. All units continue to provide a brilliant programme on a weekly basis to all of our members. ## **Network** Scout Network in Braintree continues to run with regular meetings happening roughly once a month for its members. Patrick continues to drive forward Network and helps to coordinate its members into running activities and also speaking with Explorers who approach 18 and getting them involved. ## **Census** In 2026, our total explorer membership figure dropped by 6.7% down to 83 explorer scouts across the district and network dropped by 43.8% to 23 scout network members. ## **Events** We had seventeen Explorer Scouts attend Voice in March 2025 – a county run event giving Explorers across the county their opportunity to speak up about what events and activities they would like the county to offer. We also participated in the District Activities Camp at Skreens Park in July, along with the district events for St George’s Day and Remembrance Parade. Our Seax unit attended Scare fest in October – the national Halloween themed camp held at Gilwell Park, and Vortex ESU had some members compete in the County Marathon in September. We had a Christmas sleepover at Thorrington Scout Campsite in December which was offered to all the Explorer units. Four of our units also headed into London in March to compete against each other in a Monopoly Run which we organised ourselves. Looking forward, we hope to hold a Chill Out Camp in June for all units in the district, Seax ESU will be attending WINGS in the summer too. Unfortunately, an alternative summer camp for our other units was offered to the New Forest, however this has been cancelled due to not getting enough interest. ## **Young Leaders** We have 32 active young leaders within the district all providing valuable support to the leadership teams across the district in the younger sections. We continue to offer the Young Leader training modules to help our Explorers in their Young Leader roles and hope to offer more and more of these training opportunities going forward. Clare Darch has been pivotal in making Young Leader opportunities available to our members and made links with other districts to help offer modules and also set up the ability for our Young Leaders to complete their training online. ## **Duke of Edinburgh Award** We have 15 members working towards their Duke of Edinburgh awards (6 bronze, 6 silver, 3 gold) and in the past year we have awarded 2 Bronze awards and 1 Silver award. ## **Top Awards** We have issued 2 Chief Scouts Platinum Awards over the past 12 months. I would finally like to take the opportunity to say a massive thank you to all of the adults who volunteer their time, effort and commitment to providing Scouting opportunities to the 14-24 age range within the district. Without these leaders, we would be nothing and their continuous hard work, ideas and enthusiasm makes them a pleasure to work with. ## **Jason Barnes 14-24 Team Lead** 10 DISTRICT TRUSTEES REPORT ## AGM 2026 This is my first report as Volunteering Development Team Lead. ## **Training** There has been a great effort to bring training up to date. All leaders are reminded of the far tighter timescales required for completion of our basic training. We have improved our training position during the past year, the main area of difficulty remains First Aid Training. Some local courses have been arranged, and I am currently recruiting a local First Aid Trainer to assist with this to increase the number of local courses. There is a move towards local delivery of face-to-face training, so I am looking into courses which could be run in parallel to our First Response courses. I am also looking for potential new trainers and presenters for other courses. ## **Welcome Conversations** There are (at the time of writing) 36 incomplete Welcome Conversations. We do need to recruit and train more Welcome Conversation Volunteers to ensure that all new volunteers are ‘Welcomed’ under the new system, which is currently being established. Ann Quartermain TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT TEAM LEAD ## **ANN QUARTERMAIN** 11