January 2008 Update
Membership Fees / Census:
Please note that County and HQ membership fees
will remain unchanged. They are £10.30 (less 30p early payment
rebate) and £19.10 (less 50p early payment rebate). The District
fees are £7.50 per member making a total of £36.90 per member (or
£36.10 if paid early).
As usual Prue has your Group passwords and
will circulate these shortly - if you need them urgently please do
not hesitate to contact her direct. Your passwords will allow you
access to edit or read the data on the census system at
www.scouts.org.uk/census.
The questions asked on the census enable
Scouting at all levels to monitor trends and respond to requests for
information. There are two additional questions this year seeking
to find the number of ES Young Leaders and other young volunteers
supporting Scouting at Group level. This is information is recorded
for statistical purposes only but please ensure Prue is given this
information along with your sectional and leadership numbers.
As a reminder, and as in previous years, in
accordance with PORT rule 3.5 (b) a list of names and addresses of
Members in the Group must be collected by the Group and passed to
the District Secretary (Prue). A variety of methods, inlcuding
templates and forms, are available at
www.scouts.org.uk/census
to assist with this.
Timeline for this year's Census
Cut off date for Membership - 31
January 2008
Numbers, split by Section, Age,
Male/Female, to be submitted (along with names & addresses) to
District Secretary (Prue) - 4 February 2008 (please bring
these to the District Team Meeting)
Census to be updated on line by Groups -
no later than w/c 11 February (if this causes
an issue for anyone please let Julie or Prue know)
Invoices will be submitted to Group Treasurers
and Leaders of Explorer Units - no later than w/c
18 February 2008
Cheques (payable to Arundel & Littlehampton
Scout Council) to be with Prue no later than 10 March 2008
to receive the early payment rebate
Please ensure we have uptodate details on your
Group Treasurers to ensure prompt delivery of bills.
Any queries - please contact either Prue or
Julie (our District Treasurer will not return to the UK until 5
February)
-------------------------------------------
Forthcoming and Confirmed
dates
-
DDCs / District Leaders
Meeting - 21 January 8pm (28 Rosemead)
-
District Exec Meeting - 15
January 8pm (usual place)
-
District Team meeting
is 4 February with the County Commissioner -
Venue: 1st East Preston 7:30pm
-
District AGM date
is now confirmed as Thursday 19 June - as always,
all adults in A&L are invited to attend
-
St Georges Day Parade
is confirmed as Sunday 20 April - usual timings
-
Bronze & Silver Award
Presentations will be the morning of Sunday 20
April at St Nicholas' Church, Arundel
-
Rehearsal for St Georges
Day will be Wednesday 16 April at 6:30pm Arundel
Cathedral - ALL standard bearers to attend (whether or not
they've done it before please)
-
Founders Day -
Details will be sent direct from 1st Ferring
Date Change
Please note that as the
Appointments Committee meeting was changed for January this has had
a knock on effect and Modules 1 & 3 (scheduled for 21
January) will now take place on 10 February at Arundel
Scout Hall.
New Mobile Number for Julie
-
Please note my new mobile contact
number is 07526749815
Reminders:
-
Risk Assessments and Fire Polices
are now well overdue (please bring these to the District
Team meeting)
-
Those groups not sending through
the minutes of their Exec meetings are reminded that they need to do
so as per POR (usually they would normally go to the District
Chairman but as we don't have one they should come to me).
-
All leaders needing to validate any
training modules, talk to a Training Adviser or any other queries
with regard to training, need to book themselves in, via me, on the
next District Training Queries Day 9 February
(venue TBC).
-
County Training dates and booking
forms are available through the WS Scout website - all completed
booking forms should come to me in the first instance to sign and
pass onto the correct person at County (the name on the bottom of
the form is not correct)
-
District Leaders meetings. I have
asked Jill and Viv and will ask Antony, to ensure that all GSL's are
aware of the dates of District Leaders meetings for the coming
year. If your Beaver, Cub, Scout leader cannot attend please ensure
their Assistant or another leader / adult attends in their stead.
-
District Team Meetings. If you are
unable to attend, please ensure your AGSL or another leader attends
in your stead.
-
Nights Away Permits - please ensure
all Nights Away permits held in your Group are uptodate -
they expire as a Warrant expires so I suspect quite a few may be out
of date or about to become so. Chewy Lincoln can advise you
further.
-
All badges relating to last year's
Centenary should now be removed from uniforms
Attached:
-
District Diary - changes have been
highlighted in Yellow and the diary itself is over two spreadsheets.
-
Details on the Overland Hike 29/30
March 2008 for Scout Troops & Explorer Scout Units
-
Details on an event being held by
1st Arundel, on 10 May, to celebrate their Centenary this yearfor
all Groups / Sections in the District
-
Info from 1st East Preston
regarding their Hall Naming Ceremony to be held on 18 January at
7:30pm
-
Details of a Thanksgiving event to
celebrate the life and work of John David Simmons to be held on
Friday 25 January at Lodge Hill
-
Thank You from John Spickett
-
Invitation from WSCC to attend a
conference on Tackling Cyberbullying on Wedensday 6 February in
Crawley
-
CRB completion guidance
-
West Sussex Scouts - Recruitment
Officer
-
County Patrol Leaders Training
Course (Antony Cleall - DDC for Scouts - will be the point of
contact for this within the District but please note the deadline is
very tight so we would appreciate your leaders' nominations for the
course soonest)
District Website
The District Website has now been
updated - your constructive comments welcome.
Please note that the District Diary is now accessible through the
website. The password for the diary is .......talk to your GSL
for details.
CRB / HQ Database /
Appointment Cards:
We have been informed that all CRB
forms over 3 years old now need to be re-done. CRB forms can be
obtained through the Scout Information Centre as usual - if you are
sending Anji CRB forms for renewal please ensure that you enclose a
note of the person's appointment and Group as it's not always
obvious!
When you receive review forms for
those leaders who are due, or overdue, a review of their
appointment, Anji will be sending you a new CRB form for them
specifically. Please ensure you action the review and return both
forms to Anji by the deadline which she will put on the form - this
way we have a chance of getting the records updated before the new
appointment cards are sent out from HQ.
It seems apt also that I attach a
copy of the CRB completion guidelines from HQ.
I have spent some time updating the
HQ database. Please can you all double check the records for your
Groups and let Anji know of any further amendments that are required
noting that address details can be updated by either yourself or the
individual leader concerned. Change of appointment and
cancellations have to be done now by either Anji or myself. I have
noted that Group Chairmen, Treasurers and Secretaries do not, in the
main appear. We suspect this is because AA forms have not been
completed and would urge you to remedy this as soon as possible so
that we can properly track length of service etc (they can, of
course, be back dated).
It is our intention, along with
many other Districts, to use the HQ database as our main District
Directory so anyone not recorded there wont be picked up.
AA forms (available for
download from Scoutbase or from the Information Centre FOC) are
required for any adult, warranted or unwarranted, who is undertaking
to attend meetings etc at least twice a month or more - this
includes your Group Chairman, Group Secretary and Group Treasurer.
All other adults require a CH06 form (less than twice a month) which
is available from our own District website.
Re Appointment Cards. The
next updated mailing of appointment cards will be in April this
year. However, appointment cards will be sent direct to adults
taking on new roles when they complete the appointment process and
are issued with a full appointment ie they have completed, and
validated, Modules 1 & 3. These cards will be sent out from HQ at
the end of each month.
HQ will, at the same time, be
sending Anji an appointment certificate for those adults. The
certificates allow for local recognition of new appointments, for
the adult to make the Promise and an opportunity to say Thank You.
These certificates will be passed to the relevant DDC (ie Jill, Viv,
Lisa, Antony) for presentation.
Balanced Programme
revisions revealed (copied from Scouts.org.uk website)
Find
out about all the upgrades and improvements to the 6-25 Balanced
Programme in the
December/January supplements.
The changes will be supported by a new range of books, posters and
resources available for dispatch from 1 February 2008.
In the Section supplements you will find the
details of the various changes to the Programme, including some new
Challenge Badges, Joining in/Participation Awards and the realignment of
the Programme Zones.
A summary of all the changes can also be found
in this month’s
Focus.
Details of the requirements for all the new badges can be found on
ScoutBase from 14 December 2007.
Look out for the new badge posters, wall charts
and personal record charts – together with the three new manuals for
Leaders. All the new Challenge Badges and Joining in/ Participation
Awards will shortly be available from our local Badge Secretary.
Order your resources now by visiting
www.scouts.org.uk/shop
