# Sale Central Scout Group Annual Report 01/01/2022 – 31/12/2022 ## **The Annual General Meeting of the Sale Central Trustee Board will be held during the Group Family Camp at Waddecar Scout Activity Centre, Preston PR3 2EU.** ## **Agenda** 1. Welcome and introductions 2. Apologies for absence 3. Approval of the Minutes of the previous meeting of the previous AGM. 4. Presentation of the Annual Report and Accounts _Members of the Group Executive Committee will be available to answer questions._ 5. Approval of the Lead Volunteer’s nomination of the Group Chair 6. Election of the Group Secretary 7. Election of the Group Treasurer 8. Election of members of the Group Scout Council to the Trustee Board 9. Approval of the Lead Volunteer's nomination of members of the Trustee Board 3 ## Table of Contents Group Chairman’s Report.................................................................................................................5 Group Treasurers Report..................................................................................................................6 Group Scout Leaders Report............................................................................................................ 7 Section Reports – Chetham Beavers................................................................................................ 9 Section Reports – Howard Beavers................................................................................................ 10 Section Reports – Pankhurst Beavers.............................................................................................10 Section Reports – Kilvert Cubs....................................................................................................... 12 Section Reports – Parker Cubs....................................................................................................... 13 Section Reports – Scouts................................................................................................................14 4 ## Group Chairman’s Report - Sale Central Scouts Group is back to being busy again with many new children joining the group in 2022 and a new section opening. The hard work and dedication of everyone involved in running the weekly sessions is the same as ever. Although it’s worth noting that our area is unusual in that very few parents are now taking part in scouting. This is a shame, as there are many personal and professional advantages to volunteering with the Sale Central Scout Group. Giving back to the local community, learning new things, gaining experience and enjoying charity worker discounts are just a few. The finances for the group have remained steady and I thank Tina and Ros for their continued involvement in running this. A special thank-you to Colin, our Quartermaster, who has overseen a complete upgrade of both huts over the last 4 years or so, with new roofs, new floors, toilets and lighting to name just a few. Your hard work will make sure that both Scout Huts are in good shape for many years to come. From looking through the different section reports, the creativity and enthusiasm of the leaders is clear. Scouting is definitely a window to the world with special events celebrated such as Burns night, 4th July, St George’s Day and Remembrance Day. Visits to fire stations, Buddhist temples and canoe trips make the activities come to life in a way that the children can enjoy and remember. Thanks to everyone who has supported the Group in 2022! Gavin Stark Group Chairman Sale Central Scout Group 5 ## Group Treasurers Report The Scout Group finances are in good health. However, the cost of utilities more than doubled during the year, which has had an impact on the money available to fund scouting activities. 6 &4IECENTMLSCOUTGROUP A(￿JNIs￿PER￿EMNJ￿￿WER £43 É JJJS ## Group Scout Leaders Report 2022, the year that we truly began our recovery from the scourge of Covid-19, the demand for Scouting had grown throughout the “Lockdown Years” though sadly the same could not be said for Adult Volunteering with many pre-Covid volunteers no longer being available post-Covid. However, with the incredible dedication of our remaining volunteers, we somehow managed to not only maintain our existing provision but to actually increase it with the opening in February 2022 of Chetham Beavers. Sale Central had already emerged from Covid as the largest group in Sale & District and with our new Beaver Colony, were likely to maintain their position for a few years to come … but that is highly dependent upon Parents stepping forward … Leaders in Scouting are not always born Leaders, they usually become Parents first. Scouting in the District was still finding its feet, unfortunately our St Georges Day Parade was cancelled once again, but that didn’t stop many other events taking place including a number of County run events. Our sections are also really pleased to take advantage of some of the brilliant offerings locally, none more so than our friends at GRIP Adventure who offer both water-based activities and land-based activities. I am incredibly humbled to be the Group Scout Leader at Sale Central because I really feel that we make a difference in our local community and this was never more evidently portrayed than when we held our Family Camp in September of 2022, coming just one day after the death of our Patron Queen Elizabeth II, we gathered at Bispham Hall Scout Estate, feeling rather uneasy at having fun during a period of national mourning, however as I am sure the late Queen would have wanted, fun was combined with respect resulting in the most fantastic “Group” camp in many years. As the year drew to a close, Sale Central were once more, superbly represented at the Town’s Remembrance Day Parade. Words fail me when I look around me at the fantastic volunteers that make Scouting happen at Sale Central, and in turn, I look at the happy, confident, and skilful young people who make up our membership … it really brings it home to me why we do, what we do. Many people assume that our amazing Leaders have been doing things for so long that they are 8 irreplaceable and as much as I would never want to have to replace any one of them, they are all feeling the strain of being relied upon so heavily. Leaders in Scouting are simply the guardians of the Group … Your Group, run for Your Sons and Daughters in Your Community … We value your support but now need more than just that. We are rapidly approaching Leader Burn Out, Leaders with busy personal lives, their own family issues and the right to say enough is enough … but they don’t, because to do so would result in a particular section no longer able to run, which in turn would impact dozens of young people and their families too … all the while, those same families look upon those same Leaders and say “they do such a good job” or “I couldn’t do what they do”. We must be realistic, for over a hundred years, Scouting has survived only by the number of Parents who have stepped forward as volunteers and yet lately, we have been getting fewer and fewer Parents stepping forward, I genuinely fear for some of our sections. This is not just a Sale Central issue, my own volunteering with multiple groups shows no sign of abating and so it is with great reluctance that I must now force the issue by tendering my resignation as Group Scout Leader of Sale Central, this will enable me to focus on front line Scouting issues for a little while until I ultimately step back from those too. Several other uniformed Leaders will also be stepping back in the year ahead and the impact of this will be felt unless we already have new volunteers trained up and ready to hit the ground running. I am sorry to end my notes on such a serious point. Yours in Scouting Dave Hannigan Group Scout Leader Sale Central Scout Group. 9 Section Reports – Chetham Beavers We opened Chetham Beavers in February this year and welcomed 15 new little blue ninjas to the Sale Central family. Our 1st badges were the membership badge and Teamwork, the perfect badges to start their scouting journey. It's been a busy 11 months for badge work, we have covered activity badges such as Faith, Health & Fitness, Disability, experiment plus more. Challenge badges include, Teamwork, Outdoors, Skills Staged badges have been worked on such as Time on water, nights away and 1st aid. All the fun has not just been in the hut, we've explored Dunham Scout Camp, visited the Adventure Cave, and had a trip to a fire station. All these visits go towards badges as well. We've started to learn new practical skills such as putting up tents, lighting fires and tying knots and preparing food. Chethams also took part in the Sale & District remembrance parade, we were incredibly proud of them. To ask them to parade and stand in silence isn't the most natural behaviour for our ninjas. However, being the stars, they are they did. We ended our year with a Christmas party, thank you to Col our Scout leader for providing the entertainment. I would like to end by saying Thank you to all our amazing families that support us. Without your help we wouldn't be able to have the fun we have. Emma (Rainbow) Chetham Beaver Scout Leader 10 ## Section Reports – Pankhurst Beavers January 2022 saw us welcome three new Beavers to Pankhurst and we had a log chew and games evening for our first meeting of the new year. Later that month we worked on our Cook badge and celebrated Burns night with traditional Scottish food and games. In February we tried a variety of Chinese foods as part of our Chinese New Year celebrations and we also continued with the Cook badge, along with the Air Activities and Community Impact badges. Lightning sent the ideas that the Beavers had to help climate control to the local MP Mike Kane and later in the year had a reply from his office. The rest of the term saw us work on our Disability Awareness and Faith badges, some Easter activities and we finished the term with a trip to Total Ninja. At the start of April Pankhurst Beavers, along with other Beaver colonies from our county, went on the Beavers Go Bananas trip to Blackpool Zoo for a day out. After the Easter holidays we worked on our Teamwork and Skills challenge badges. May saw visits to the Buddhist Temple in Old Trafford and also to Sale Fire Station and we concentrated on the Outdoors challenge, Builder, and international badges. In June we did a local walk to visit the grave of Richard Pankhurst, the husband of Emmeline Pankhurst as she is – the person that our Beaver colony was named after we combined this walk with the Explore and Navigator badges. A number of the Beavers attended the County Beaver and Cub Camp in July at Bispham Hall Scout Estate and had an amazing time judging by all the great photos that were put on the Group Facebook page. Other badges that we worked on for the rest of the term included Skills, Teamwork, Adventure and Personal challenge and Health and Fitness. We ended the term with a visit to the Adventure Cave in Sale to do canoeing. September started with a nature walk around Sale Water Park where I think the Beavers favourite activity sheet was the ‘spot the different types of animal poo’ one! We carried on the animal theme by having a visit at the hut from Dylan’s Reptile Time who we had seen on Zoom the previous year. The Beavers and Leaders took turns to hold a variety of creatures, some of 11 us even braving the tarantula and snakes! Some of the Beavers attended Family Camp with their parents and siblings, again at Bispham. We had a number of Beavers attending the Remembrance Parade in November which was lovely to see. The remainder of the term was taken up with lots more – badge work Experiment, Global Issues, Cook, Safety, Digital Maker, Space and World and Skills challenge. Christmas crafts were made, and we had a Christmas party and the Beavers brought in donations of festive treats to make up three hampers that we donated to the Trussell Trust Foodbank in Altrincham. Over the year we were extremely pleased to be able to present Chief Scout Bronze Awards to eight hard working Beavers. I would like to take this opportunity, once again, to thank all of the parents that helped out at meetings and events in 2022. We really appreciate your support, and we will continue to try and persuade you to join us as Leaders! A big thank you to Hawkeye, Lightning, and Bubbles from me for everything you did in 2022. We still have an ever-growing waiting list, so we are obviously doing something right! Ros Bryan (Bobtail), Beaver Scout Leader 12 Section Reports – Kilvert Cubs Kilvert Cubs had a fun packed 2022, working on lots of badges and taking part in competitions and camps. Our first term saw the return of Akela. Her Wednesday evenings had not been the same since she left so she decided to come back and join us. We – covered a number of badges Fire Safety, Global Issues, World Faiths, International and DIY. As part of our international badge everyone tried a variety of Chinese foods as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations. The Cubs showed us their dance moves one evening in March and we had another evening at Sale Fire Station. Everyone had a great evening at Total Ninja to finish the first term of the year. In April we started the meetings with an evening of activities for the Skills Challenge badge before working on Home Safety, Gardener, World Faiths, Air Activities, Hobbies, Athletics and Outdoors Challenge badges over the rest of the summer term. Our World Faiths badge saw us visit the Buddhist Temple in Old Trafford. The Cubs enjoyed another evening at the Adventure Cave in Sale taking part in kayaking as well. Kilvert entered a team in the Canoeing Competition before the Summer holidays, unfortunately we did not win but everyone had a great time. Some of our Cubs also took part in the County Beaver and Cub Camp in July at Bispham Hall. One of our Occasional Helpers Gary stepped down from helping every week with his son moving up to Scouts, but we know we can still count on him for those times we do need another pair of hands. We started September off with a new Young Leader joining us – King Louis. Some of our Cubs and their families took part in the Eggstreme Family – Camp. Lots more badges were earned Artist, Scientist, Communicator, Astronomer, World and Skills Challenge badges. In October we had a team of Cubs enter the Cub Mudder Competition – they were all amazing and had a great time at Bispham. I took part in my Nights Away training, ready for a Cub Camp in 2023. A number of Cubs paraded on Remembrance Sunday. Christmas crafts and a Christmas party finished off the year. 13 The leader team was very proud of the Cubs that achieved their Chief Scout’s Silver Award in 2022 – seven in total, well done to all of them. I would like to take this chance to thank all of the leader team at Kilvert – Bobtail, Baloo, Mowgli, Akela, Gary, Shere Khan and King Louis for all their hard work over 2022. Ronnie Bryan (Bagheera), Cub Scout Leader Section Reports – Parker Cubs During 2022 parker cubs had another busy year, with lots of activities and badges awarded. Cub’s activities included keep fit nights, problem solving, teamwork, healthy eating, map reading, learning country dancing, attended a karate session at sale grammar school, Easter egg hunt, craft nights, including a trip to the bean and brush. Cubs enjoyed a I’m a cub scout get me out of here themed night. The cubs also enjoyed a come dine with me themed night. The cubs also enjoyed evening litter picking. Cubs paid a visit to Altrincham fire station, Buddha Temple where they attended a service for Budda’s birthday and had a tour around the Temple, the cubs also celebrated Chinese New Year where they tried Chinese food and learnt new games. The cubs enjoyed a tea party to celebrate the queen’s platinum jubilee. The cubs also enjoyed Christmas disco, 90’s themed party and Halloween party. Cubs attended both county and district events, these included county camp, cub mudder, day of excellence, (not sure why I didn’t move to Bispham camp site) district canoeing comp, Remembrance Day parade. Sadly, we lost Emma back to Beavers, but welcomed Zoe to the cub team, thankyou Zoe for all your help and support during 2022, a huge thankyou to all the parents who have helped on the parent rota, thank you to Daniel, for his help and support prior to his exams, and a big thank you to Leah, Josie and conner the young leaders you have all been stars. Rachel (Akela) – Parker Cub Scout Leader 14 Section Reports – Scouts We started Jan ’22 with Map reading/navigation skills, some Basic First Aid and 4 Weeks where the scout patrols planned and ran their own meetings for the rest of the Troop. A fun week for closing at Easter with plenty of chocolate and sweets closed the first term. After Easter we covered our chef badge, tents, visited the recycling centre, had a night dedicated to America and the 4th July, a night hike and 2 canoeing outings with Grip Adventure. After a long deserved break over the summer we came back refreshed and ready to start the new year. A night of silly little ice breaker games to help us get to know all the new faces followed by a fantastic family camp. Worked towards our astronomer badge, did some Oktoberfest (German) style cooking and then we took part in a split session at Grip Adventure where half did the climbing wall and the other half had a go at indoor archery. We signed the year off by taking the scouts to Crazy Golf in the Trafford Centre followed by a Mcd's happy meal. A fun packed year that I hope everyone enjoyed. In regards to the members themselves, we started 2022 with 18 scouts and 4 leaders By the time we hit Christmas ‘22 we had 31 Scouts, 2 Leaders and 1 consistent parent helper. Thankfully as ’23 has progressed our scout numbers have never gone over 35, our 1 consistent parent helper has joined us by putting on a shirt and a second parent who is already a leader has come in to help as well. More 15 recently another parent (still to get them into a shirt) has been an invaluable help week in week out. Considering this time last year I was struggling to see how we could manage such a large number of scouts, with the added help from new leaders, current leaders and new blood we have the beginnings of a great leader team. But as I'm sure you have heard many times, more is needed. Especially with our long term plan (still on the back burner) of splitting the scout section between Woodbourne and Raglan. We have enough scouts to do this, just not enough leaders. This of course will be an ongoing discussion but I’m hoping that between our parent rota and this camp, we may have lit the spark in some of you to come on board and get stuck in. Matthew Darke – Scout Leader 16