OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2021-12-31-accounts

Annual Report of the Dittons Scouts for the year 2021

----- Start of picture text -----
Annual 8th
General October
Meeting 2022
----- End of picture text -----

1

Dittons Mission Statement the Purpose of Scouting at the Dittons

Our values are at the heart of all we do in Scouting:

Integrity - We’re honest, we try to do the right thing (even if no-one’s watching), and we stay true to ourselves.

Respect - We’re thoughtful of people’s feelings and values, treating everyone as we’d like to be treated ourselves.

Care - We’re kind to others, looking after the world we live in.

Belief - We explore our beliefs and attitudes with wide-open minds.

Co-operation - We work with others to change the world for the better, making friends along the way.

Group Activity Report by Suzan Baker, Dittons Group Scout Leader

Nobody involved in Scouting would claim anything other than that 2021 was a difficult year for young people. A curious mixture of online and face to face scouting, initially outdoors and then finally back inside The Shack, was a tricky combination from which to deliver Scouting! I must commend our whole volunteer team for navigating these constraints and succeeding in offering our members as much of a normal Scouting programme as possible. Each section details their activities in the reports that follow and these words, combined with the pictures, show what make us all very proud of our Dittons volunteers and young people.

The 2021 annual census shows that Dittons membership has, despite Covid difficulties, grown with nearly 180 Dittons members this year (including adults.) Why is that? I believe passionately that it is because scouting helps young people feel great about themselves. Feeling great is not a badge but comes from a deep feeling of self worth that lasts. Scouting offers Skills for Life for young and old.

I want to say a big thank you to all of Leaders who have once again put in a great deal of hard work and freely given up a lot of their time to provide quality Scouting for all this past year. Navigating the changing regulations, bringing in new Risk Assessments and ensuring the health and safety of our members has been incredibly hard work. This was recognized by the award to the group of a Commissioners Commendation which I was delighted to accept on behalf of the Dittons in September 2021. All our volunteers get a lot back from their roles, we can tell this from the years of service awards handed out both to uniformed and also to all of the members of the Group Executive Committee at the AGM. Without these volunteers and their hard work and support, the group really would not be able to run. The indispensible roles of the members of our Executive Committee (all trustees of the Dittons Scouting charity) are also detailed in this report.

A massive thank you then to our 2021 activity planners, badge capturers, cake makers, nail hammerers, lift givers, question asking and question answering, bonfire building, BBQ burning, picnic making, uniform washing, sideline cheering, email reading, form filling in helpers from every Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer at The Dittons – we couldn’t do it without you.

2

The Group Executive Committee - Kate Back, Chair of the Dittons Executive

The Group Executive Committee plays a vital role in the running of a Scout Group. Executive Committees make decisions and carry out administrative tasks to ensure that the best quality Scouting can be delivered to young people in the Group. Members of the Executive Committee must act collectively as Charity Trustees of the Scout Group. The committee also exists to support the Group Scout Leader in meeting the responsibilities of their appointment.

The Executive Committee members are legally and financially responsible for the running of The Scout Group, maintenance of the Shack, all The Dittons property and equipment along with the raising of funds and the administration of the group’s finances. It is a vital role that enables the Leaders to run the activities.

Membership is open to all through elections at the AGM or by co-option throughout the year. All Executive members are Charity Commission Trustees of The Dittons.

Scouts is just a great place to volunteer.

Trustees 2021
David Cooper Aileen Widdowson Paul Bartlett Matt Davies
Suzan Baker Fiona Ball Anthony Edwards Pamela Forsyth
Norman Goldsmith Julia Hawkins Melanie Uzunoglu Craig Behrens
Stuart Jack Diana Goodhugh Allen Widdowson Will Kendrick
Kate Back Pamela Forsyth Louise O’Gorman Phil Guildford
Annette Williams Tony Butcher Tom Wilkinson Jackie Bourne

3

Objectives of The Dittons Scout Group- Public Benefit Statement

The purpose of Scouting is to contribute to the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities. Scouting uses a method, which is young people in partnership with adults: enjoying what they are doing; learning by doing; participating in varied and progressive activities; making choices for themselves; taking responsibility for their own actions; working in groups; taking increasing responsibility for others; taking part in activities outdoors; sharing in prayer and worship; and making and living out their Scout Promise.

Under the Charities Act 2006 The Scout Association is required to demonstrate that our aims are for the public benefit. Our assessment is that we have met the public benefit criteria under both the advancement of education and the advancement of citizenship or community development headings.

The Dittons Fair – sadly, Covid stopped our fundraising fair for 2021 so instead here are more photos of the fun the Dittons enjoyed in spite of restrictions

4

1932 Committee by Paul Bartlett, Chair of Committee & Estates Manager

2021 has been a year of ad-hoc work, minor jobs and a lot of ongoing maintenance. Many hours of volunteer time were spent behind the scenes ensuring Scouting activities could continue safely for so many.

There have been several people involved in all this behind the scenes essential work at The Shack, to whom I extend sincere thanks. However, I have to single out Stuart Jack, Rowena Guildford and Aidan McGuinness for extra special thanks and recognition for all the long and hard hours they have spent dedicated to working at the Shack.

All volunteers continue to strive to provide the best facilities for the Group’s young people.

----- Start of picture text -----
Paul oversees all fire safety, locks and Thanks to Paul all wiring in the Shack uses
alarms for our building. qualified electrians!
----- End of picture text -----

Dittons love camping...Camping requires Kit...Camp Kit is now stored... immaculately!

----- Start of picture text -----
To this
From this
----- End of picture text -----

5

“ ” - Voluntary Hours Leadership Team Hours for the Dittons

The Charity Commission requires a statement of the cost of our volunteer’s time if charged at a cost of £10 per hour. For 2021 our volunteers freely gave the following time:

Group Scout Leader Suzan Baker 350 hours
Beavers David Cooper, Pamela Forsyth 2350 hours
& Beaver team
Cubs Will Kendrick, Matt Davies 2500 hours per Pack
& Cub team
Scouts Allen Widdowson, Jackie Bourne, Tony
2800 hours per Troop
Butcher & Scout team
Explorers Phil Guildford & Explorer team 3000 hours
Quartermaster Stuart Jack 800 hours
Assisted by Aiden McGuiness & Ro Guildford 300 hours
1932 Chair of Estates Paul Bartlett 200 hours
Executive Committee Chair Kate Back 75 hours
Treasurer Di Goodhugh 200 hours
Secretary Louise O’Gorman 150 hours
Executive Committee members 150 hours

These voluntary hours total an incredible 18,475 hours from wonderful volunteers to run Dittons Scout group for our members and if charged would equal a cost of £184,750

Thank you to all our volunteers – you are priceless!

Ro & Aiden: Tom: stripping Camp Store ceiling leading Explorer hike on Box Hill for refurbishment

Beavers on bikes!

6

Beavers by David Cooper

Montreal Colony Leadership Team for 2021 Toronto Colony Leadership Team for 2021 Section Leader - David Cooper Section Leader - David Cooper Section Assistant - Ollie Bath Assistant Section Leader - Pamela Forsyth Group Occasional Helpers - Dave Barnes, Neena Bimbrah, Group Occasional Helpers - Jon O’Sullivan, Annette Williams, Andrew Thompson, Jay Bimbrah, Rachel Surgeoner, Hannah Tanya Donkin, Kate Felton, Louise O’Gorman, Anna Young, Malone & Claire Appleyard Claire Marstin, Becky Lawson &Adam Barrigan

Spring Term 2021 - all meetings took place online via Zoom and incorporated several guests in conjunction with the following Activity Badges -

Summer Term 2021 saw the resumption of face to face meetings on the Shack field in April and the Beavers enjoyed a range of outdoor activities throughout the Summer, including

Unfortunately, the planned Beaver Sleepover with parents at the Shack had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Autumn Term activities - the focus of our meetings was towards badge work, both inside the Shack and outdoors, including

The Beavers also took part in sledging and mini ringos at Sandown Ski Centre, held small fireworks displays and each Colony held a Christmas Party. Another brilliant Beaver year – thanks to all who helped.

In 2021, 11 Beavers from Montreal and 9 from Toronto earned their prestigious Chief Scout’s Bronze Award , the highest badge a Beaver can earn – Congratulations!

7

Cubs by Matt Davies & Craig Behrens

Mowgli Cub Pack (Monday nights) Leadership Team for 2021 Section Leader – Craig Behrens & Will Kendrick

Zulu Cub Pack (Tuesday nights) Leadership team for 2021 Section Leader – Matt Davies

Assistant Section Leader Assistant Section Leaders
Carol Hernandez Renato Marchio, Stephen Wakefield
Section Assistants Section Assistants
Aron Stewart, Lloyd Smith, Simon Morris Cathy Oxby

Zulu Pack & Mowgli Pack

Spring term: From January 2021 we continued on zoom, working on our Environmental badge and continuing with the World Challenge badge. We certainly challenged the Cubs with online escape rooms, Lego builds, plasticine models, and drawing. We enjoyed a joint session online with Steve from Art for Everyone, an artist who worked in plasticine. All the cubs (and leaders!) created plasticine models; we were all impressed with everyone’s creations.

Cubs also worked towards the Team Work Challenge badge

Summer term: it was shame there was no Esher District Cub camp, but in April we were back at the shack meeting in person and soon returned to the usual, well loved scouting activities: den building, making water filters, mini pioneering tasks, through to making shelters at Horseshoe Clump woods and venturing away from the Shack to go on a scavenger hunt around Thames Dittons We played lots of games to ensure lots of

fun. We capped off the term by visiting Skywalk Adventure at Sandown and many Cubs completed our Team Work Challenge badge.

Autumn Term: we were back in full flow with our usual activities (with the exception of the Docklands trip which couldn’t happen), we completed the Backwoods Cooking badge, Emergency Aid, cooking and Skills badge and learned how to navigate and put our skills into practice with a fire hydrant orienteering activity around the local area. Cubs cooking skills greatly improved as they made quesadillas with guacamole.

Thank you for your parent support in 2021 both online and in person, it is greatly appreciated and without your help we wouldn’t have been able to run as many activities.

8

Scouts by Tony Butcher

Scout Troop (Wednesday nights) Leadership Team for 2021 Scout Troop (Thursday nights) Leadership Team for Section Leader – Jackie Bourne & Tony Butcher 2021 Section Leader – Allen Widdowson

Assistant Section Leader Assistant Section Leaders
Jonathan Yates
Section Assistants Section Assistants
Remi Rasenburg, Richard Hunt, Martin Yates & Ben
Davies, Phil Hawkins

2021 carried on where we had left off in 2020 with virtual meetings online via Zoom. The Scouts kept up their enthusiasm and participation with the wide variety of ever increasing, eccentric activities the Leaders thought up. We had Scouts learning Pi, drinking pints (of water) in record time and making pizza at home. It is fair to say that all of the Scouts and Leaders breathed a sigh of relief when the lockdown finally ended and we were able to return to the Shack!

Invigorated with the prospect of returning to our Scouting program we packed in some familiar activities as well as some new items. The Dittons took to the Surrey Hills with maps and compass and swept away the competition to win the District Day Hike. Our Scouts continued in the same direction and showed they were just as comfortable navigating in darkness by winning the October District Night Hike too. This hike consisted of a challenging navigational exercise over 8 miles around the Ranmore area of Surrey with an emphasis on traditional map and compass skills.

This land based success meant we had to look to the water for more challenging adventures. We took Scouts on their first sailing day trip setting off from Southampton for a return trip across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. We also returned to the Thames and our friends at the Dittons Skiff and Punting Club educated our Scouts on their boat handling skills, it was indeed “Oar-some!”

Evenings at the Shack allowed us to return to some of our traditional activities and helped the Scouts to learn axe work, axe throwing, and pioneering along with caving, games on the common and learning how to propel a water rocket high into the Dittons sky.

2021 was a special year for a group of three Dittons Scouts who became the first Dittons Scouts for rather a few years to earn their Chief Scout Gold Award . Having completed all the hard work of the various challenge badges and peppering their arm with more activity badges, they just had the remaining task of completing their expedition. Starting in Guildford on a bright Saturday morning they navigated the Wey Navigations and following a camp site stopover near the M25, strolled into the Molesey Boat Club late on Sunday exhausted yet victorious. Drew, Orson and Will were then invited to the County presentation evening to be handed their certificates by the County Commissioner.

It’s been a wonderful return to proper Scouting and it’s been a pleasure for the whole Leadership team to see Scouts enjoying their time outdoors experiencing new challenges and adventures.

9

Ditton Scouts Shooting Club by Tony Butcher

Dittons Scouts Shooting Club Leadership Team for 2021 DSSS Leader – Tony Butcher DSSS Assistants – Phil Hawkins & Barry Walker

For those who have not heard of us, The Dittons Scout Shooting Club was established in 2019 to give Scouts and Explorers the opportunity to learn Air Rifle Target Shooting.

Within just a few short months of starting Covid restrictions meant we had to pack the kit away but we could finally return in 2021 following the lifting of lockdowns. Air Rifle Target shooting is a sport which promotes core strength, balance, coordination, concentration and discipline. There are Group, District, County and National competitions for Scouts to train for and compete in.

In 2021 we had 15 Scouts as members of the club when we returned to our range at the garage by the Shack, with 3 Scouts participating as part of the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Scheme to use shooting for their skill requirement.

Our 2021 season saw us run our club competition in the autumn, where under the fading light Harry Straw won a very tight competition with a total of 166 out of 200. This led to the club sending 4 Scouts to the County competition final in December at Bookham Rifle Club. We had a wonderful result on our inaugural entry having all 4 Scouts finish in the top 11 and the team finished 5th in the County. All the Scouts earned their Marksman activity badge and some Scouts were invited to join up with the County Scout training evenings at the National Shooting Centre in Bisley, Woking.

We finished the 2021 season under the warm and dry cover of the indoor range at the Surbiton Postal Rifle Club which provides an excellent facility to continue practicing without the threat of wind, snow and rain at the Shack. Our Leadership team for the club is made up of enthusiastic and knowledgeable adults to help run these sessions and train the Scouts to improve their skill.

If you are a keen Target Shooter from the past or now, or you are interested in the sport and want to help out, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Tony.Butcher@DittonsScouts.com

10

Explorers by Tom Wilkinson

Explorers Leadership Team for 2021 - Section Leader - Philippa Guildford

Assistant Section Leader - Tom Wilkinson, Steve Baird & Stuart Jack Section Assistant – Aidan McGuinness, Julia Hawkins Group Occasional Helper & Network – Ro Guildford

In the year January to December 2021 we had a full house of thirty Explorers.

Seven Explorers moved on at the end of this year and we will be taking on four this September. This puts us at twenty seven Explorers. In 2019 the Explorer team put out a plea for more leaders owing to the growth created by such demands and the recognition that Explorer numbers would continue to grow. I am happy to report that in August 2021 Steve joined the Leadership team and that in October 2021 Julia stepped up from an Occasional Parent Helper to be a uniformed Section Assistant allowing us to continue to provide for an Explorer section of this size.

Compared to 2020, 2021 was a much more exciting year for the Explorers as we were able to meet face-to-face again, initially outdoors and then in The Shack once more. With the Explorers having missed out on so many outdoor activities we focused on hikes, campfires and other outdoor scouting activities. We even managed to return to camping with a short summer camp at Boiderhurst near Box Hill.

District activities also started up again and we managed to win both the fishing competition (taking home this rather snazzy wicker fish trophy – right!) and the cooking competition which was held at Claygate. This hopefully puts Explorers in a good position to hold onto the Scope Trophy in 2022.

As restrictions lifted, we have once again been able to send Explorers on Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions with both Silver Practice and Qualifying expeditions held in the New Forest.

Nine Explorers have also been able to return to participating in the Young Leader scheme. This works well as the Service section of the Duke of Edinburgh Award while providing much needed support to the younger sections and The Dittons Scout Shooting Club .

We look forward to many more Explorers taking on the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards as we move into 2022 and beyond!

11

8%X8 ja!11 iais. V f4 ffl 8888888888 88 88 8888 888 gggg

8888 888888

88 88 l il

CHARITY COMMISSION, Independent examinerfs FOR ENGLAND AND WALES, report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to tho trustèesl members of THE DIThONS SCOUT GROUP On a¢counts for the year ended 310ECEMBER 2021 Charlty no (If any) 1038983 Set out on pages I report lo Ihe trustees on my examinat￿n of the accounts of the aboN charityllhe Trusll lor the year ended 31112r2021. Rosponslbllhles and As the tharity trustees of the Trust. you are respon$*)le for the prep8r8tion ba•1• of r•port of the ac£ounts in xcordrn wilh the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 llhe Act). I report in respect of my exaninatson of the Tnjst's accounts carried cwt under sectiM 145 of the 2011 Act and in Carr￿ng out my examinats'on. I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Chanty Commi8810n under section 1495){b) of the Act. I have ￿MPleted my examinats'on. I confimi that no material matter3 have come lo my attention (other than Ihat di$do$ed belthv ) in connecbon with the examinatscw) which give$ me cause to believe that in. any material re8pecl.' aLxounllng records were not kept in aC￿[danCe wllh section 130 of the Act or the accI￿ntS do not aw)rd with the aCc(￿nting rec: FAIA ff I'A Address: PPh&X S(1 LIT ItIK IER October 2018