3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
3[rd] Buxton Scout Group Annual General Meeting
22[nd] May 2025
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Agenda
Welcome
- Introduction
2. Welcome performance – Beavers & Squirrels
(Scouts, Cubs & Beavers to leave for activities outside hut)
Governance
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Approve the minutes of the Group AGM June 2024
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Re-adopt the constitution of the Scout Group charity (see Rule 5.3) of The Scout Association Policy, Organisation and Rules (https://www.scouts.org.uk/por/)
~~5.~~ Note the dates of charity’s financial year (1[st] January 2024 – 31[st] December 2024)
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Confirm the maximum total number of members of the Group Trustee Board
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Confirm quorum for the AGM of the Group Scout Council
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Treasurer Report
Refreshments/performance break
- Welcome back performance - Cubs
Reviews & Forword look
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Group Lead Volunteer
-
Section Reports
Appointments
-
Chair of the Group Trustee Board
-
Treasurer of the Group Trustee Board
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Secretary of the Group Trustee Board
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Other members of the Group Trustee Board:
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Re-appoint auditor
Close of Meeting
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Closing Performance – Scouts
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AOB
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Closing words
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
2024 Reviews
Group Lead Volunteer & Chair of the Trustee Board
Paul Pitts
2024 was both exciting and challenging year for 3[rd] Buxton Scout Group. At the start of the year we had two Sections, Scouts and Cubs, by the end of the year we had a new Beavers Section, with plans for a Squirrels section well underway. Our Leadership teams have been through significant changes, with Paul Taylor stepping aside as Scout Leader, Rob Wilson and Adam King becoming new members of the Scouts Leader team and Karen Green joining the new Beavers Team. Unfortunately, during the year Dave Spacey decided to leave Scouts and more recently Adam King has moved out of the area.
I took over from Seth Houldsworth as Group Scout Leader in June 2024. I would like to thank Seth for all he has done for 3[rd] Buxton Scout Group and I am very pleased that Seth agreed to stay involved with the Group as a buildings and maintenance representative on our Trustee Board.
A Scout group would not run without volunteer leaders. I want to express my gratitude to all our leaders. Cath Pitts deserves a very special mention. It is no exaggeration to say that without her 3[rd] Buxton Scout Group would not have run for the last 12 months. Cath was already our Cub Leader, but in September 2024 she joined the new Beaver team and also stepped back into the role of Scout leader. In 2025 she has also been leading the Squirrels Section, while our new leaders develop their skills and experience. In case that is not enough, for many years Cath has also been our Group treasurer and is also treasurer for our Scout District.
I also want to say a big thank you to Marie Vickery who has done amazing things getting the new Beavers Section and helping with both Cubs and Squirrels. Marie has also put in a lot of work at the hut and has brought lots of new ideas into the Group.
During 2024 Scouting in the UK has undergone some significant changes in the way it is organised. The main outward sign of this is the change to our role titles, which now emphasise the fact that all our adults are volunteers. This means that my role is no longer “Group Scout Leader” (or GSL), but is now “Group Lead Volunteer” (GLV). There have been lots of behind-the-scenes changes to the training and record keeping for adults, which we are starting to get the hang of.
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
We have been working on other improvements on a local basis. We are trying to make better use of “On-line Scout Manager” (OSM), which means that we can organise many activities through OSM’s parent portal, which should make things easier for us. We are also making use of WhatsApp groups for each section for quick messaging to parents.
We have also produced a Welcome document, that provides basic information on our Scout Group. It includes information on who we are, the age ranges of Sections, our leader, subscription payment details and our policies on photos, mobile phones as well as contact information. You should all have a copy of this, if not, please ask.
One of my objectives as GLV was to encourage parents (and other adults) to get involved with Scouting at our Scout Group. One way I am trying to achieve this is through our Newsletter, where we try to tell you more about what we are doing, about our successes and about where we need a bit of help. The first Newsletter was issued in October 2024.
One area we needed help in 2024 was to carry out some works on our hut and storage container. This work was carried out in the summer break. I would like to thank everyone who was able to help. We do still have plenty of work to do on building maintenance and improvement, and I am looking to have a similar two-week attack on building maintenance issues in the summer of 2025.
At the start of 2024 we had a total of around 40 young people in our two Sections (Scouts and Cubs). At the end of 2024 we had over 50 in three Sections. As I am writing this, at the start of May 2025, we have 70 young people in our 4 Sections. We have some fantastic new leaders in our Squirrels Group, but for 2025 we do need to recruit some new leaders for the other Sections.
As we look to the future, we hope to gradually build up our Squirrels Section and get more parents involved, particularly with Squirrels and Beavers. There is lots of exciting activities for all Sections; for example, just in this summer term:
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our Beavers and Squirrels will be going for a District Beavers and Squirrels Day at Harpur Hill School
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our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts will be Canoeing or Kayaking at Combs Reservoir
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two teams of Cubs will be entering the Bowden Buffalo and Hex District Cub competitions at Gradbach
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• a team of Scouts will be taking part in the Taylor Trophy competition, also at Gradbach
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for the first time, be having a float in the Buxton Carnival precession and
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or Scouts will be going to Summer Camp at Kibblestone Scout Camp Site.
Of course it does not stop there, we are already planning for the Autumn term, and there will be a Panto trip again on the 5[th] December.
So, I wish everyone all the best for the next scouting year and please talk to me or any of our Leaders if you would like to get involved.
Paul Pitts
Group Lead Volunteer
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Scouts
Cath Pitts, Scout Lead Volunteer
In January our Scouts joined Scouts from across our Scouting District for the Chilly Challenge camp at Gradbach. This is a county-wide challenge to spend one night under canvas in January. Soon after the Chilly Challenge our Scouts and ex Scouts were joined by Scouts and Explorers from 1[st] Buxton for a week-long trip to Kandersteg International Scout Camp Site in Switzerland. This trip was led by Paul Taylor, and was so successful that Leaders from 1[st] Buxton are now planning a return trip in February 2026, with Scouts and leaders from 3[rd] Buxton invited to join them.
May saw another big event for Scouts, with the bi-annual District Wallaboree at Gradbach. The Scouts were able to take part in all sorts of activities including: climbing, zip-wire, assault course, crate stacking, mountain biking, bouncy castle and circus skills.
For our Scouts Section it is a time of big changes. After 18 years with Paul Taylor as Scout Leader, Paul decided It was time to take a step back and we were faced with trying to maintain Paul’s good work. After around 7 years away from being a Scout Leader, and only going on Camps, I came back into the Section on a temporary basis.
We had two young and enthusiastic leaders join us in the first half of the year: Rob (who had been a young leader helping with us in our Scout Section) and Adam King.
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
We had our Summer Camp at Walesby Forest. There were plenty of activities on offer and the weather was brilliant. The camp was a little spoiled by a stomach bug that meant some of our Scouts had to leave camp earlier than planned.
It’s great to be able to report that the Scout’s Autumn season got off to a wonderful start, with one of our teams winning the Border Hike and also collected the Johanna Knowles trophy for the highest placed local team. Our other team also performed very well, coming in fifth in a competition with over 30 entries from all over the country.
Following close on the heels of the Border Hike was the Kinder Challenge. Rob took a team of our Scouts on this challenging 16 km hike which they finished in a creditable time of 4 hours and 13 minutes (the second fasted local group).
We have recently started some work on mapping, and hope to be doing some hikes over the next few months.
Unfortunately, we have had to say goodbye to two of our leaders. Dave Spacey left in October and Adam King, who has moved away from Buxton, left at Easter. We wish both Dave and Adam all the best for the future.
Cath Pitts
Lead Volunteer – Scouts Section
Q ~~—~~ http://www.facebook.com/3rdBuxtonScouts
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Cubs
Cath Pitts, Cub Lead Volunteer
We started the year with 22 Cubs, this increased to 25 by the end of the year. We had seven Cubs who gained their Silver Scout Awards during 2024. We awarded badges for work on a wide range of topics, including Adventure, Outdoors, Skills, Team Leader, Team Work, World, Artist, Athletics, Collector, Hobbies, Disability Awareness, etc…
We started the Cub year with hobbies and collector badges. The Cubs created some posters to explain their hobbies to the other Cubs.
In May we joined our Scouts and over 400 other Scouts, Cubs, Beavers and Explorers from all over the High Peak Scouting District at the 2024 Wallaboree. We took part in all sorts of activities, one the best being the mountain biking.
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Later in the summer we worked towards our Athletics badge and the Autumn we started on the Digital Maker badge and completed the naturalist badge. Over the winter Cubs have been doing loads of interesting things, including making snowman decorations for Christmas, working for the digital maker badge, which included making Lego robots with Brick Corner and looking at programming with Scratch as well as traditional Scouting skills like map-reading and knotting. They also represented the Group at the Harpur Hill Remembrance service.
We are very lucky to have a brilliant young Leader (an ex-3rd Buxton Scout) helping us run our Cub sessions. Unfortunately, we will lose her later in 2025. We do hope to recruit new Young Leaders to help out.
Our Cub pack is now well established. Our Cub Section is currently quite full, but we do have around ten Cubs due to move up to Scouts over the next year. Fortunately, we will have some Beavers moving up, which will help to balance the numbers.
Cath Pitts
Lead Volunteer – Cubs Section
www.facebook.com/3rdBuxtonCubs
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Beavers
Marie Vickery, Beaver Lead Volunteer
We have had an incredible experience so far re-launching our Beaver section in September.
From June 5th we will have 20 Beavers in our section.
Thank you to all the parents for their support and to Cath and Karen for their invaluable experience and commitment.
We are very fortunate to have an excellent young leader who is competent, caring and capable!
We put regular photo/video updates on Facebook so you can keep up to date with all the activities your Beavers are enjoying.
Highlights so far were our indoor fire back in September, the wonderful turn out for The Remembrance service at Harpur Hill Cenotaph, The technology hunt in town, The Pantomime; Jack and the Beanstalk. OH YES IT WAS! The fantastic work carried out completing the Digital Maker Badge. Our rescheduled winter camp held in April and canoeing Tuesday just gone.
We have so much to fit in before the summer break, sports, nature walks and of course the carnival which we are all so excited to share as a whole group.
I will be organising sign-up sheets for parent volunteers and sending information out soon for this!!
Finally, until next year’s AGM, it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you all, your children are a credit to you and I look forward to the adventures ahead!
Marie Vickery
Lead Volunteer – Beavers Section
www.facebook.com/3rdBuxtonBeavers
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Squirrels
Paul Pitts, Group Lead Volunteer
When I started as Group Lead Volunteer, our new District lead Volunteer asked me if I would consider starting a Squirrels section. At that time, there was only one Squirrels group in the District at 1[st] Chinley Scout Group. They had been running for one year and it had been very successful. We decided to run a trial session with support from County in November. The trial session was popular, with lots of interest from parents. Importantly, we had some parents who were prepared to put themselves forward as Leaders or helpers.
Running a Squirrels section does need a lot of help and support from parents and other adults and we have been very fortunate to have some excellent new Leaders start with us in the Squirrel’s Leader Team. They have completed the essential safety, safeguarding and first aid training and gone through the necessary DBS checks. Cath Pitts volunteered to temporarily act as the Team Leader while the new Leaders gain skills, experience and confidence.
Squirrels actually started on 4th March 2025. We have started small, with 8 Squirrels to begin with, but as we develop, we want to steadily grow the Section and we had some new Squirrels start very recently.
So far, the Squirrels have been making bird-feeders, Easter cards, fie lighting, putting up tents (the photo shows ten Squirrels in a tent that would normally take at most three Scouts) and planting flowers and seeds as well as playing fun games and (of course) making lots of noise. it has been great to see our new Leaders also enjoying themselves and also making lots of noise!
Paul Pitts
Group Lead Volunteer – on behalf of the Squirrels Section
Page 10
3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Summary of Group Accounts
3rd Buxton (Harpur Hill) Scout Group Treasurer's Report of Accounts from 1/1/2024 to 31/12/2024 Scout Group
| Scout Group | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Income | Expenditure |
| Subscriptions | £ 6,483.00 | £ 2,376.50 |
| Donations/Fundraising | £ 218.00 | |
| Grants | ||
| Training | ||
| Badges/Uniform | £ 177.50 | £ 1,303.42 |
| Activities | £ 675.00 | £ 1,167.23 |
| Camps | £ 2,908.40 | £ 4,635.57 |
| Group - Beavers | £ 13.50 | |
| Group - Cubs | £ 252.00 | £ 318.87 |
| Group - Scouts | £ 2,283.30 | £ 4,065.51 |
| Equipment | £ 5,652.66 | |
| Cleaning | £ 103.91 | |
| Building maintenance | £ 527.78 | |
| Rent | £ 1,817.50 | £ 900.00 |
| Insurance | £ 2,511.24 | |
| Utilities | £ 1,681.88 | |
| Interest | £ 311.04 | |
| Other | £ 650.00 | £ 675.68 |
| Total | £ 15,775.74 | £ 25,933.75 |
| Balance brought fwd 2023 | £ 27,205.63 | |
| Income - Expenditure 2024 | -£ 10,158.01 | |
| Balance end 2024 | £ 17,047.62 |
This Balance at the end of 2024 is represented by the Group's accounts:
| End of Year 2024 | End of Year 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash | £ 17.17 | £ 207.72 |
| Current (Cheque) | £ 182.42 | £ 103.82 |
| Savings | £ 1,350.64 | £ 4,943.46 |
| Number 2 account | £ 15,497.39 | £ 21,950.63 |
| Totals | £ 17,047.62 | £ 27,205.63 |
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Section Accounts
| End of Year 2024 | End of Year 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| Beavers - Petty Cash | £ 185.81 | £ 185.81 |
| Cubs - Cheque Acc. | *Not accessible | |
| Cubs - Petty cash | £ 98.42 | £ 8.42 |
| * At the time of this statement, following | the departure of a previous Cub leader, information from the | |
| Cub's current account is not available to the Treasurer. Named account holders | for this account are being | |
| changed to provide full access. | ||
| Scouts - Cheque account | ||
| Income 2024 | £ 19,826.32 |
|
| Expenditure 2024 | £ 25,195.87 |
|
| Income – Expenditure 2024 | -£ 5,369.55 |
|
| End of Year 2024 | End of Year 2023 | |
| £ 5,182.56 | £ 10,552.11 | |
| Approval of Accounts | ||
| Account prepared by: | Cath Pitts | Signed: |
| Role: | Group Treasurer | |
| Date: | 22-May-25 | |
| Approved by (#1): | Catherine Moore | Signed: |
| Role: | Trustee Board Secretary | |
| Date: | 22-May-25 | |
| Approved by (#2): | Paul Taylor | Signed: |
| Role: | Trustee Board member | |
| Date: | 22-May-25 |
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
3[rd] & 1[st] Buxton Scout Groups Kandersteg Expedition 2024
(account activity covering the financial years from 2022 to 2024)
| Income | Expenditure | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refund from Venture Abroad | £ | 225.54 | Initial deposit to Kandersteg | £ | 225.54 |
| HPBC donation | £ | 300.00 | 1stpayment to Venture Abroad | £ | 2,350.00 |
| Open Gardens donation | £ | 200.00 | 2ndpayment to Venture Abroad | £ | 3,525.00 |
| Football cards fundraising | £ | 423.00 | Neckerchiefs | £ | 356.95 |
| Donation Wayahead training | £ | 400.00 | 3rdpayment to Venture Abroad | £ | 29,228.55 |
| Donation S. Hollick | £ | 50.00 | Sundries | £ | 77.69 |
| Refund from Venture Abroad | £ | 94.00 | Kandersteg train | £ | 635.35 |
| Fundraising S Ward | £ | 630.00 | Kandersteg scout camp | £ | 9,419.99 |
| Buxton For Youth donation | £ | 400.00 | Kandersteg scout camp | £ | 1,997.13 |
| Bingham Trust donation | £ | 2,000.00 | Phone package | £ | 15.00 |
| Payments by scouts & leaders | £ | 46,530.00 | Badges | £ | 70.50 |
| Camp badges | £ | 118.32 | |||
| Kandersteg scout camp | £ | 21.55 | |||
| First aid & admin | £ | 40.58 | |||
| Cards & postage | £ | 16.90 | |||
| Refunds | £ | 2,000.00 | |||
| Refunds | £ | 720.00 | |||
| Knives | £ | 376.71 | |||
| Total | £ | 51,252.54 | Total | £ | 51,195.76 |
| Total Income | £ | 51,252.54 | |||
| Total Expenditure | £ | 51,195.76 | |||
| Income - Expenditure | £ | 56.78 |
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Web : www.3rdBuxtonScoutGroup.org.uk Email : info@3rdBuxtonScoutGroup.org.uk Group Lead Volunteer : Email : GLV@3rdBuxtonScoutGroup.org.uk Scouts Email : Scouts@3rdBuxtonScoutGroup.org.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/3rdBuxtonScouts Cubs Email : Cubs@3rdBuxtonScoutGroup.org.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/3rdBuxtonCubs Beavers Email : Beavers@3rdBuxtonScoutGroup.org.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/3rdBuxtonBeavers Squirrels Email : Squirrels@3rdBuxtonScoutGroup.org.uk
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3[rd] Buxton Scout Group
AGM 22[nd] May 2025
Addendum (October 2025)
Charity Commission Return
The Charity Commission return (due for submission by end October 2025) requires total income and expenditure figures for the whole Group.
The reports included in the report to the AGM present data for the Group band accounts and the Scout bank account separately. There is no adjustment made to account for the transfers between the Group and Scout accounts. These transfers should not be included in the income and expenditure figures for the whole Group.
In 2024 the Group account recorded £ 2,580 income from the Scout account and £ 3,834.00 payment out to the Scouts account. The Scout account records corresponding payments in from the group and out to the Group. The table below shows the adjustment calculations to achieve the Charity Commission return.
Group account: Total income and expenditure
| Group account: Total income and expenditure | ||
|---|---|---|
| Income | Expenditure | |
| AGM totals | £ 15,775.74 | £ 25,933.75 |
| Transfers to/from Scouts account | £ 2,580.00 | £ 3,834.40 |
| Adjusted totals | £ 13,195.74 | £ 22,099.35 |
| Scouts account: Total income and expenditure | ||
| Income | Expenditure | |
| AGM totals | £ 19,826.32 | £ 25,195.87 |
| Transfers to/from Group account | £ 3,834.40 | £ 2,580.00 |
| Adjusted totals | £ 15,991.92 | £ 22,615.87 |
| Overall Group totals | ||
| Income | Expenditure | |
| Total of AGM totals | £ 35,602.06 | £ 51,129.62 |
| Adjusted total | £ 29,187.66 | £ 44,715.22 |
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