2023-12-31-accounts

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

PLEASE CHECK YOUR GIFT AID STATUS WITH YOUR SECTION LEADER

2023 Annual Report & AGM

volunteers into our teams this year. Thank you to all of you. I’d like to make four special mentions in this year’s annual report;

Robert Gill our outgoing Treasurer who dedicated 29 years of his life to the 16[th] Morecambe and who has been a real support to me in my first year as a trustee.

Paul Anderton, the previous Chair, who received his Award of Merit for outstanding service to the movement earlier this month.

Alice Ball who, without hesitation, volunteered to be Camp Chief for family camp. Awesome enthusiasm!

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Chair of Trustees Foreword
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Lastly, earlier this year, we sadly lost Alan Hague BEM who dedicated more than 60 years service to Scouting in our area with over 50 years at the 16[th] Morecambe. The extent of Alan's selflessness in dedicating his time to benefitting countless young people is beyond words.

Dave Neal Chair of Trustees

I love volunteering with the 16[th] Morecambe. In my first year as Chair of Trustees I’ve had a real insight into what it takes to operate a successful youth group and registered charity, and it all hinges around an awesome group of volunteers. There’s so much to be gained and so much to give when getting involved in volunteering.

It’s an exciting time to be involved in Scouting. Over the last 18 months, Scouts have been working to transform the volunteer experience to make it easier, more enjoyable and rewarding. Over the coming months, Scouts are rolling out changes to ensure that we; give a warmer welcome to everyone, deliver better learning and to simplify how we volunteer together.

My advice to anyone who is considering volunteering in any walk of life is to be really clear about what you’re prepared to and what you’re not prepared to do, but also to be flexible and open to changing what you’re prepared and not prepared to do as you develop into a role. There will be something you can do to help, and once you start, you won’t look back.

I love working with all of our volunteers to help deliver awesome experiences for our young people and it’s been brilliant to welcome so many new

Alan Hague BEM – 1943-2024

16thmorecambescouts.org.uk

~~o~~ /scoutsassociation ~~°~~ @UKScouting

SkillsForLife

16[th] Morecambe and Heysham Scout Group Registered Charity Number 509581

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

The Squirrel Section at 16th Morecambe has now been open for a whole year, as we're still putting together a two-year programme, we have chosen what we enjoyed with the Squirrels and certainly what they have enjoyed.

We have had numerous guests come in and show the Squirrels new things and life skills they can take up throughout scouting. We taught the Squirrels first aid and what to do in an emergency. We have showed them the importance of having plants and recycling and how this helps the environment . Our favourite badge that we completed is our Exciting

Experiment badge - both the Squirrels and the leaders enjoyed learning how much mess we could make in the name of science...

I want to thank the leaders at Squirrels and for their continued support in ensuring the meeting runs so smoothly every week. I also want to thank the Parents and Guardians of the Squirrels for bringing in the most random of items when requested.

We look forward to our continued plans for the next year hopefully introducing our first Squirrel Sleepover and much more!

Alice Ball

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

Alder Beavers meet on a Monday and Willow Beavers meet on a Thursday at 6pm-7pm. We currently have 45 members across the 2 colonies and with a steady stream coming up from Squirrels and a healthy waiting list we anticipate being full into next year.

This has been a year of change for us with Jen, Sue and Andrew stepping down as Alder Beaver leaders after 22 years, we’re so sad to see them go but are incredibly grateful for everything they’ve done and for the hundreds of lives they’ve shaped over the years. We’re really happy that Simmi, Harmy and Andy have joined Koby to carry on running Alder Beavers and have come along with some amazing skills and ideas so we’re all really excited for the year ahead. Willow Beavers continues to be run by Debs, Jolanta and Leanne, with a little extra help from Tony this term too. Edward and Adam (Alder) and Oliver and Charlie (Willow) continue to be excellent young leaders, helping with planning, running activities and games and setting a great example to the younger members.

Last Autumn we completed our My World Challenge badge. The Beavers learned about the local area and tried some local foods. We had a visit from the Police Community Support Officers who brought down some equipment and their van, and a further fire safety visit from the Fire Service.

In the spring term we worked on the Skills challenge badge; the Beavers learned to light a candle, tie their shoelaces and iron and roll their neckers. We also had a visit

from Super Ball Paul and did a great treasure hunt in the hut. We also returned to Silverhelme for a brilliant Beaver sleepover and campfire sing a long thanks to the Scouts. Hopefully this is the start of many Nights Away badges for the Beavers.

We’ve moved onto to the Outdoors challenge for the summer term and hoping the weather holds out for us to enjoy sandcastle building on the beach, Happy Mount Park and tomahawk throwing as some of the activities. Trustee Darren Moss brought some of his trainee paramedics down to the hut to run a brilliant first aid night, we’re very grateful for their help.

Thank you to all the parents who came along and helped on the parent rota or helped run a session, we are all volunteers and are grateful for those extra skills people can bring to help us run a fun programme, if you have talents or contacts that you think our Beavers would enjoy, please do let us know.

Debs White

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

Cubs started the year with our Cub Pack forum, held around the campfire, giving the Cubs a voice with what new activities they would like to do. We then launched straight into badge work and hosted student paramedics from the University of Cumbria to work on our Emergency Aid badge.

Another guest to the Scout Hut were EDF Energy where the Cubs learnt all about how electricity is made at a nuclear power station.

Life skills are so important for our Cubs and the new Money Skills badge was completed where the

Cubs learnt all about how to budget for holding a Sausage Sizzle. We also learnt how to take good care of our Mental Health with some guided meditation, positive affirmations and a mindfulness journal.

Another camp to Waddecar called to celebrate 70 years of Waddecar and for the first time in what feels like years, we were blessed with glorious sunshine. We still have our annual sausage sizzle and football tournament to come!

Our work in the community continued with the Cubs collecting a massive 86 chocolate tubs to donate to the Tub2Pub scheme, whereby they will be recycled and profits going to the Macmillan cancer charity.

This year also saw our leadership team increase with Dan, Charlie and Oliver (young helper) joining the 16th Morecambe Cubs family which will allow us to meet the exceptional demand for places.

The beginning of 2024 saw us celebrate Burns Night followed by Spring Camp at Waddecar. We held a mock election so the Cubs learnt about the election process - More badge work in the following weeks and the warmer weather Ruth Holmes meant that we could go out on visits to the Church of the Ascension and Happy Mount Park.

All in all, the Cub family has had a fantastic year and look forward to exciting new adventures ahead!

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

The last year has been a very successful one for the Scout Section, with 11 Scouts achieving their Chief Scout Gold Awards! We also placed highly in the Bowlander Expedition Competition, Crew Challenge and came 2nd place in the Lonsdale Knight Hike.

We spent our summer camp last July in London, camping near Watford with 21 Scouts and participating in adventurous activities on and around the site, as well as two full days in central London seeing the sights and visiting the Tower of London and London Dungeons.

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We have participated in several Lonsdale District events, including the Helme Challenge expedition, Jamboree on the Internet sleepover, Master at Arms Day and most recently County Rally, where almost 1000 West Lancs Scouts descended on Waddecar for a weekend of fun, freedom, friendship and adventure.

We are very much looking forward to the remainder of our summer programme which includes kayaking on the Lune, camp Olympics and a water fight. We are attending Red Rose Jamboree in August for an epic week with over 4000 Scouts and Guides from around the UK and the world. We can’t wait!

As with the other Sections, the Scout section have also had leadership changes over this year,

with the sad loss of Josh, Jack and Oli and the gaining of Danny and Teresa.

We have four excellent Young Leaders – Josh, Ashton, Freddie and Arman supporting us, but we are desperate for more help if anyone fancies joining the adventure!

Sian, Alex, Sophie, Olly, Danny and Teresa

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

Group Lead Volunteer’s Report

This is to allow our volunteering to become more flexible and more easily help Leaders get the support they need to run their amazing programmes, to help keep the young people in our group safe and to more easily welcome new team members to our section teams.

As mentioned before, we also had transformation within our section teams too. Unfortunately, over this year we had some long serving leaders hang their neckers up across nearly all our sections. I can’t do them justice in thanking them here for their time and effort they have donated to the group, to make our group not only the biggest but

the best in the district (in my opinion at least).Luckily some have continued other roles outside of our group so the Scouting movement haven’t lost some good people, and others have taken up more background roles in our group

It brings great joy to see Family Camp back on this year’s calendar, and I can’t thank Alice Ball enough for all her efforts with taking the lead and organising it! Thank you to all those who have supported her and helped run this event.

Family Camp is not only a chance for our young people's families to experience a small part of their young person's journey through the various sections of Scouts, but also gives you the chance to get to know our other leaders from other sections your young person may not have reached yet. In previous years it was a highlight of the 16th Morecambe calendar that families looked forward to, and from the programme Alice and the team have put in place, this is going to bring that excitement back.

This year at 16th Morecambe has been about transformation, not only in the background but also with our section teams. In the background, the Scouts UK movement is modernising, I won’t bore you with all of it, but role titles are changing, and Leader training has been simplified, to name a couple of changes.

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

…continued

either as a trustee or part of a sub-team which help ensure our leaders can bring the best programmes to their respective sections.

On the other side of that, we have been fortunate that some new leaders have joined our group. These new leaders that have joined us have brought new perspectives and skills that will enable us to continually grow and evolve as a group and to keep our focus on teaching our young people skills for life and providing adventure.

We are always looking for more team members in our Section teams, if you feel like you are missing a bit of adventure in your life or if you want to give

something back to the community and help mould our young people of the future, please speak to one of the section team members. I’m sure all the Leaders will agree, being a Leader is incredibly rewarding, and enables a lot of personal development too.

If you would like to help but can’t commit to a weekly basis, we have plenty of sub-teams behind the scenes who also require more help, including the fundraising sub team and building and grounds team. We are also always grateful for members of our group that have an interesting hobby or job that could help us run an evening – Beavers and Scouts have recently undertaken First Aid

with Darren, one of our Trustees. members of our group that have an interesting hobby or job that could help us run an evening – Beavers and Scouts have recently undertaken First Aid with Darren, one of our Trustees

Our group is unable to function without our Leaders, our Trustee’s, our sub-team members and our young people and their families, so I would like to say a final thank you for all your efforts and support and let’s make next year even better, with continued growth and development!

Alex James

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

BECOME AN ADULT VOLUNTEER WITH THE 16[TH] MORECAMBE, YOU WON’T REGRET IT, IT’S GOOD FOR YOU!

Volunteering with young people

Team player? Love supporting young people? Great at planning?

Most of our volunteers work directly with young people aged 6-18 through our Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer groups, known as sections – helping young people gain skills for life through activities and adventures.

Working in teams, they might:

• Welcome young people and families to sessions and events

• Make sure everyone's safe, supported, included and having fun

• Help to plan and lead activities

• Get involved with days out, camps and expeditions

• Share and learn skills – from coding to cake decorating to canoeing

• Celebrate young people's achievements big and small

No previous experience with young people? No problem. Whether you'd like to help out week-after-week or whenever-you-can, we provide training, learning opportunities and cups of tea – every step of the way.

Making it all happen

Want to make a big impact behind the scenes? Your time and skills can make a difference in so many ways.

Not all volunteers work directly with young people. Locally, regionally and nationally, many help out in other ways.

Working in teams, they might:

• Get the best out of volunteers, using their people and leadership skills

• Spread the word about Scouts to attract new members

• Help with admin, fundraising, finances, operations or governance

• Keep everything running smoothly on the ground – from serving tea and coffee, helping to tidy up after meetings or sessions, driving or keeping meeting places in tip top condition

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

Annual General Meeting Agenda

Date: Saturday 22nd June 2024 Time: 1800

Location: Silverhelme

Invitees: 16[th] Morecambe Trustees, 16[th] Morecambe Adult Volunteers, Parents and Young People plus Tony Andrews (Lonsdale District Chair) & Mandy Sweet (Lonsdale Lead Volunteer) Apologies: Robert Gill

1. Welcome, introductions & confirmation of apologies – DN

2. Governance Topics - DN

• Formal adoption of the model constitution from Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR)

3. Receipt and consideration of the annual report – DN

4. Review of the previous year;

• Section Leader reflections and look-ahead

   - Squirrels - TBC
  
   - Beavers - TBC
  
   - Cubs - TBC
  
   - Scouts - TBC
  

• Group Scout Leader reflections and look-ahead - AJ

5. Presentations & Investitures

6. Receipt & confirmation of the annual accounts – PT

• Trustees to sign accounts post meeting.

7. Making appointments;

• Appointment of the Group Chair, following recommendation from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board

  • Nomination – Dave Neal

• Appointment of the Group Treasurer, following recommendation from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board

  • Nomination – Phil Tarbun

• Appointment of members of the Group Trustee Board, following recommendations from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board

  • Nominations include;

  • Ex-officio trustees - Alex James

  • Appointed trustees – Andrew Blenkinship, Susan Blenkinship, Tony White, Fr Damien Porter, Roger

  • Crewdson, Darren Moss, Steph Stephenson, Alison Brown

• Appointment of the Group Secretary, following recommendations from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board

  • Nomination – Claire Roberts

• Appointment of the Independent Examiner Ongoing recruitment effort noted

8. Closing Remarks - DN

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

Accounts for Year Ending 31[st] December 2023

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham

Annual Report & Annual General Meeting Agenda

Treasurer’s Summary Report;

My apologies, I am not able to attend the AGM.

At year end the Exec account receipts total £14,262.62

Payments £ 13,404.21

A positive outcome of £858.41 which is a better situation than last year where we had a deficit of £2956.25.

2024

Facts to consider when assessing income V outgoings for 2024.

• The current gas contract ends on the 24th of May.

• The period of contract was 4 years at 4.89p/Kwh, zero standing charge.

• The new contract is 2 years, 10.6p/Kwh and 25p standing charge.

• 2023 gas cost = £271.10

• Estimated cost for 2024 is £481.50, using 2023 Kwh, an increase of £210.40

• Estimate for 2025, £683.50, a full year on the new contract, an increase of £412.40 on 2023.

• No doubt there will be increase costs of Building, Leader and minibus insurances.

• The minibus MOT, servicing and repair work was gifted to the group last year, no charge. MOT and service estimate £200

• Survey of the HQ for Building Insurance, £250 but gifted to us £0.

• We obtained a substantial discount on the boiler and landlord’s gas certificate. Charge £118 we paid £36. If you don’t ask you don’t get.

• The ground rent is estimated to cost £2800 including initial legal costs, £500 per year thereafter.

• • The water bill account was credited £225.00 in January 2023, recompense for failure of supply. The credit was held on account consequently the accounts do not reflect actual water cost. Cost of water in 2023, £252.03, £25 per month.

• The minibus unexpectedly broke down and cost over £1000 to repair. This could happen again considering the age of the bus.

• The foregoing equates to roughly £5040 increase in outgoings but does not take account of inflation.

Fund Raising

The only regular source of additional funds comes from Gift Aid

2022 Gift Aid Claim, the group received a payment of £1800.78 from HMRC.

2023 Gift Aid Claim, currently being processed and will probably generate a similar amount.

Gift Aid remains the group’s only regular fund raiser. A volunteer is required to continue as the HMRC registered person to submit claims on behalf of the group.

This is my last report as treasurer and I leave the 16th Group to venture north across the border. Thank you to all the sections for your perseverance in providing receipts on a regular basis and rescuing me by supplying copies when I misplace them.

I wish you well and I know the group will go from strength to strength with such strong and enthusiastic team.

Robert Gill

Scouts - 16[th] Morecambe & Heysham