2023-03-31-accounts

255[th] Bristol Channel Sea Scouts Annual Report 2022/23

1

255[th] Bristol Channel Sea Scouts

Dear Scouts, parents, friends and supporters,

There are so many exciting things in the section reports below that I thought I’d mention some of the less obvious but important work in the background due to the dedication of the adults in our group.

For the first time we have a Leaders and parents section in this report to highlight our adults developing their own skills and testing out adventurous projects before running them with our young people (see our fantastic Wye valley rope bridge!).

Congratulations to leaders who have achieved permits (Laura Nights Away and Iain Canoeing) and other adults who are working towards Watersports permits by spending as much time as possible on the water over the summer.

Our pulling boat Spyglass was moved from our store to the Benjamin Perry boathouse (luckily just before the Gaol Ferry bridge repairs blocked access to the ramp). Continued renovation work means it is almost ready to launch into the harbour.

Roger Whiter who moved on from this group to be even busier than ever has done great work fundraising and helping set up the Mercy Scout group at Ikoba girls school in Uganda, featured in St Georges Day parade this year. Our treasurer helped ensure the funds raised in this country were safely delivered to the Mercy Scouts in Uganda.

A fantastic BBQ at Victoria park funday in September thanks to chefs Seamus and Bill and their many assistants raised £1000 for group funds and showed the group at its best working together as a team.

Leaders have also given extra adult help to the Spinnaker Explorer group (where many of our scouts move at age 14) and the Joint Guide and Scout Rowing and Pulling Club. We are also preparing to support the setting up of scouting in the Redcliffe area by welcoming and sharing our experience with new volunteers into scouting.

So we go from strength to strength thanks to the commitment and skills of leaders, helpers and parents, and the enthusiasm and determination of our young people – thanks to all of you!

Elaine Beckett

Lead Volunteer

Beaver Section re ort p

- By our Beaver leaders (Racoon, Bat, Otter and Deer)

Another fantastic, fun filled year with our Beaver section, with two camps and a packed programme of activities, both indoor and outdoors. Summer term 2022 involved lots of outdoor sessions including a fascinating ecology hunt in Ashton Court with Emma Luke, orienteering,

2

health and fitness activities and the obligatory end of term waterfight from which nobody emerged unsoaked.

Autumn 2022 introduced the Beavers to the traditional pleasures of conker fighting, plus Diwali cookery, a visit to a Buddhist temple and a Halloween party. Once the nights started to draw in we enjoyed an exciting night hike through Leigh Woods to the viewpoint overlooking the suspension bridge. The beavers then tried their hand at building a bridge back in St Pauls church with some very impressive results. Another highlight of the term was the ever popular chip shop hike along North St with a delicious, if difficult judging exercise. During this term we also made our first visit to the Glenny Wood scout camp near Portishead where we slept indoors but the fine autumn weather and wide range of “out of the box” activities meant we were outdoors all weekend and had a fine campfire with marshmallows and hot chocolate. Glenny Wood provided a brilliant and great value venue so we shall return.

At the end of this term we said goodbye to Sally, aka Badger, who had helped run Beavers for a number of years and who has moved out of the area - she will be missed. During the year we were however extremely happy to welcome Ben (Bat), Jackie (Otter) and Emma (Deer) to the Beaver leaders group. We have also been

supported throughout by our Young Leader Sam to who we are very grateful. Special thanks also to Elaine (Lemur) who continues to regularly support the section despite all her new responsibilities and Kate (Rabbit) for support to various activities and hugely impressive badge administration skills!

After Christmas we were mainly confined to indoor sessions at St Paul’s Church but made the most of it with learning about space for the space badge, getting involved with coding and understanding how computers work for digital maker, celebrating Shrove Tuesday in the usual way and thoroughly investigating global issues over a couple of weeks including recycling, fairtrade food and the importance of clean water.

Summer term this year started with a number of bank holidays but Beavers were represented at the St Georges day parade with a couple of enthusiastic flag bearers. After a bit of preparation, including starting camp blankets with some of our new Beavers it was time for our main camp of

3

the year, at Woodhouse Park at the end of May. We had brilliant weather for what was a first camp for many of the Beavers, and a range of activities including nature scavenger hunting, pedal go karts, soft crossbows, a camp fire with lots of raucous singing and plenty of other games. Everyone went home thoroughly exhausted but keen to return again.

More recently, and fully outdoors again we have had a number of sessions helping out in the garden with the Dame Emily Park Project, litter picking, learning about bees with Tim (aka Mr Rabbit) and taking the cycling badge with only one slight bump and a couple of exploding inner tubes.

As always we have been sad to say goodbye to some of our older Beavers as they moved up to cubs, but we were really proud of the seven Chief Scouts Bronze awards earned during the year, with more to come hopefully.

Final thanks, as always to all the parent volunteers who help out at our sessions and camps - it is always hugely appreciated.

Cub Section Re ort p

4

Another year of great activities and fun over, we’ve had well over 30 cubs through the pack over the course of the year – sending many onto scouts while also acquiring some from beavers. It’s been another year of varied and wonderful weekly activities – cooking nights galore, science night carnage, bike rides, walking through Ashton court in the dark and so much more – we even tried teaching the cubs to navigate!

The camp back in March was a highlight – lovely venue, walks (well some walking, lots of climbing over trees covering the paths!) magic shows and so much more! Think the highlight for me was probably watching the cubs taste the every flavour beans they’d made the day before – chilli was surprisingly popular!

Next year we’ll look to continue with the great weekly activities while also trying to get onto the water a bit more (we are a sea scout group after all!) and increasing the number of nights away. Do shout if you have any interest in getting involved with any of it.

As always a huge thanks to Dale and Chloe for all their help over the last year, we really couldn’t run things without you. Same goes to Kate for taking on the badges – finally the cubs are going to get everything they’ve earned! It’s been great to also have the support of 2 young leaders over the course of the year – Ben, Agnes keep up the great work!

Finally thanks to any and all the parents who’ve helped us out on any of the fantastic (or chaotic!) evenings over the last year! Here’s to another year of fun, chaos and adventure while hopefully teaching them a few skills for life.

Matt Hill

Cub Section Leader

Scout Section Re ort p

We kicked off the year in September preparing for our first camp of the year, the expedition through the Wye Valley. The Scouts were dropped off at our muster point and made their way to their campsite carrying all of their sleeping equipment. After setting up camp (and what a camp site), feeding themselves and a good night's rest we had an early reveille, breakfast and off they went towards Tintern. Apart from one leader getting lost navigating by car a very successful start to the year.

Continuing the previous year's emphasis on a youth driven programme, we have continued in this vein leading to a good variety of activities on our Wednesday evenings. These activities included, cooking competitions, knife/axe/saw training, skating at Bump, camp sketches (stories to tell around camp fires) a craft competition, practicing knots and their uses, patrol Olympics, and water safety to name but a few.

Following last year's success with the gang show our very own Dante Basma-Craig was part of the show again this year and all that went to see him were very proud of him. It was also a real pleasure to see him with his red necker (the red necker is awarded to gang shows

5

which meet required standards a prestigious award indeed) to the following scout meeting and the pride he had wearing it.

The Green Beret competition in the dark (wet and cold) of November was attended by a team of the 255th Scouts who did themselves proud coming quite high in the rankings. The Green Beret competition in Hertfordshire is attended by thousands of Scouts and has over a hundred activities. Each activity awards points for how well they are completed the team with the highest score wins, this is announced at the closing ceremony on the Sunday.

In May some Scouts and a few Leaders were whisked away sailing for a weekend with the Scouts "Discovery Sailing Project" a fantastic adventure sailing a yacht in the English Channel with an Ex-Scout, now young leader, as a member of the crew.

This spring we took Scouts camping locally again asking the Scouts to walk (only about 3km this time) to the campsite at Brockmead for a weekend

of pioneering and archery. Our pioneering projects on this camp were rope bridge building and the floating flag pole. Quite large projects not seen by the Scouts before, a real sense of achievement to complete these with/by the Scouts.

With our summer week long camp on the horizon and water sports to the end of term we are certainly still full throttle.

None of this would be possible without our terrific team of leaders who all contribute their time, can do, team work and skills to the troop. Sadly, we said goodbye to Roger Whitter who had a role within district to attend however seemed to be diverted to assist a different Sea Scout Troop in the District, about the same time Becky Porter left following a career path though I hope one day Bristol and the 255th will lure her back. We welcomed Lauren Mulvihill from Ireland with a Guides background, Tony Goring a friend of the troop who previously had volunteered as Scout Leader with Windmill Hill, Bill Bennet-Clark and Lou Spellward both joined as occasional helpers with both having great camping and water skills hidden up their sleeves.

Iain Timmons Scout Section Leader

6

Leaders and arents Re ort p p

This year we have found that the leadership teams and parents have been finding and doing their own activities underneath the Scout flag (or umbrella).

In October 2022 a team of Leaders (Laura, Tyler, Matt, Tim and myself) all decided about a week or so before the Sodbury Challenge that we would attend and compete as a Leaders team. The Sodbury Challenge was a very new concept, arrive at a Scout Hut in Sodbury, have a kit inspection (no cheating), plot 30ish grid references and plan a route in about 30 minutes, (each point was a checkpoint with various points awarded,) some other fun rules thrown in the mix. If I remember right our night navigation exercise (22:00 to 06:00) of eight hours we covered 23 miles though Tyler is definitely the best to talk to about our route and distance. We came first of the adult teams (and last year we were the only adult team).

The last weekend of March we returned to the Wye Valley with a troop of Leaders and Parents. We aimed to practice our own delivery of skills and discuss best practices. The highlight of the weekend being the catering by Tony and Bill, thanks again to both. We also pushed our pioneering skills building the rope bridge and floating flagpole for the first-time allowing a good test and risk assessment of the bridge as almost all adults had more than one go across the bridge. A great taster for the parents to see what Scouting is all about including a pair of true Scout Leader investitures with the climbing of the oars for the Leaders to boot. Well done Lauren and Tony.

Iain Timmons Scout Section Leader

7

255th Bristol Channel Sea Scout Group Executive Committee 2022-2023

Chair Al Sweetman [e-mail] Deputy Chair Andy Luke [e-mail] Treasurer Christina Ransom [e-mail] Secretary Lynda Keeys [e-mail] Group Scout Leader Elaine Beckett [e-mail] Scout leader Iain Timmons [e-mail] Scout section Tim Smart [e-mail] Cub leader Matt Hill [e-mail] Beaver leader Ed Hodge [e-mail] Scout parent rep Jazz Basma [e-mail]

Sarah Maplestone wiginsamoa@yahoowiginsamoa@yahoo . co . uk

Scout parent rep Sarah Maplestone wiginsamoa@yahoowiginsamoa@yahoo . co . Scout parent rep Mary Fuller mary . fuller@blueyonder . co.uk Cub parent rep Nick Vaughan [e-mail] Beaver parent rep Kate Myers [e-mail]

8

255th Bristol (Channel) Sea Scouts

Year ended 31 March 2023 financial summary

It is lovely to have had a full year of post-covid meetings and activities for all 3 sections. This has meant that income from membership fees and events have largely returned to their pre-pandemic levels after a couple of years of reduced-rate subscriptions with limited opportunities for camps and events.

We are all aware of the rising cost of living, and unfortunately, the group has not been immune to increased prices. We have seen our rental costs go up, and activities become more expensive. During the year, we were pleased to be able to absorb these additional costs into our existing budget and did not have to pass them onto families.

We are fortunate to finish the year with a healthy bank balance of just over £37,000. Around £15,000 of these funds are designated for use on the Spyglass site. Although plans for large-scale development are on hold, the site is a valuable storage facility and meeting resource, and the funds will be used for its modernisation and continued use. The group is also holding around £9,000 in its bank account as stage payments for the 2024 Scout trip to Kandersteg.

As trustees, we must keep a close eye on our finances to check that the group remains sustainable. To ensure that the day-to-day running costs were covered, we took the decision that from April 2023 the membership fees for Beavers would be increased to match those paid by Cubs and Scouts. Our leaders endeavour to provide a varied and enriching programme that we hope you agree still represents excellent value for money for parents.

I would like to finish by thanking our wonderful families for your continued help and support in making the financial arrangement for the group run smoothly. By making payments via Online Scout Manager on a timely basis it frees up valuable leader time allowing them to focus on organising activities and events. Thank you too for all those who have completed the Online Scout Manager gift aid declarations (and a gentle reminder for anyone who hasn’t done one to log on and tick the box!) Gift aid is a valuable source of income that is worth around £2,000 per year for the group at no extra cost to families.

Christina Ransom (Treasurer)

9

Financial Reports for year ended 31 March 2023

Financial Reports for year ended 31 March 2023

Income and Expenditure

Income and Expenditure
	2022-2023	2021-2022
Income
Bank Interest	0	0
Donation	1,065	1,256
Donation - buildingfund	0	1,028
Events - Beavers	735	504
Events - Cubs	2,005	0
Events - Scouts	18,388	15,867
Fundraising	1,162	2,333
MembershipFees	11,122	8,801
Uniform	287	286
Expense
ActivityEquipment	532	378
Admin	264	148
Annual Fee District South	3,639	3,758
Badges	671	56
Bank Fees	45	16
CampingEquipment	2,036	0
Council tax	199	174
Events - Beavers	405	471
Events - Cubs	1,751	0
Events - Scouts	10,040	16,078
Groupevents	1,671	42
Insurance	454	302
Meetings - Beavers	190	123
Meetings - Cubs	101	28
Meetings - Scouts	47	296
MembershipCosts	389	95
Rent	4,560	3,365
Training	145	190
Uniform	550	459
Utilities	138	171
Venue Maintenance	293	23
Account balances
Lloyds current account	17,148	8,866
HSBC savings account	0	4,978
HSBC current account	0	16,730
Pettycash	134	66
Lloyds Fixed Term Deposit 96LS	20,000	0
Summary
Account balance brought forward	30,640	26,737
Total income	34,764	30,076
Total expenditure	28,122	26,173
Net income	6,642	3,903
Account balance carried forward	37,282	30,640

10

Fund movements by type

Fund and type	Fund balances bought forward from 2021/22	Incoming resources	Outgoing resources	Transfers	Gains and losses	Fund balances carried forward to 2023/24
Buildingfund
(Designated)	15492	0	-630	0	-630	14862
General fund	15148	34764	-27492	0	7272	22420
(Unrestricted)
Totals	30640	34764	-28122	0	6642	37282

11