As we prepare to move into 2011 I thought it would be a good time to look back on what 409th Manchester (William Temple) Scouts have achieved in 2010.
Leaders
First of all there has been a huge increase in the number of leaders we have. With the Scouts, Chris and Paul joined the existing team of Bret and Robin. For Cubs, Pete has taken over as Akela and Natalie has joined us and will be helping with Cubs in the New Year. For Beavers, Franki has taken over the colony, Karen has joined her and Mildred is also taking a full role helping on Thursdays. Finally, and most importantly for the group Karen has also agreed to take over as Group Scout Leader (GSL). We also have two other leaders in the pipe-line: Tim and Tom who have been helping already. We also now have three-parents signed up as Occasional Helpers so we can use them to help at events that need some extra adult support,
Youth Membership
Numbers are up, we have seen small increases is Scouts and Cubs, whilst the Beaver numbers have just exploded – so much so that we had to move Beavers to Thursday evenings away from the cubs just to cope. Overall, it looks like we will be returning capitation numbers for 2011 30% higher than we did in 2010 or, in English, we have grown by 30% in one year.
Camps / Sleepovers
We’ve been busy with camps and sleepovers. Scouts have had three weekend camps, a week-long summer camp and some of our senior scouts also attended another weekend site-services camp at Linnet Clough. Cubs have managed two camps this year; a weekend camp in May at Ashworth Valley and a three-day summer camp with the scouts. And finally we had our first Beaver sleepover which like all the other camps proved to be a huge success.
Activities
Some of the things our young people have done this year include: Camping, Hiking, watching Ice Hockey, visiting the Fire station, Going to the Pantomime, Climbing, Abseiling, Orienteering, Wide Games, the Badgers warren, canoeing, rafting and many, many others.
Community
We’ve tried to be active in the community this year. For our sponsoring authority (The Parish Church of William Temple) we have supported the Summer Fair, Remembrance Day and the Christingle Service. In the wider community we have supported the Ringway School summer fair and the Scout District bag-packing event at Sainsbury’s.
Fundraising
As always, we struggle to find enough money to keep running. This year the fundraising events have included: two summer fairs, an Elvis night and the district back-packing. The Elvis night (organised by Karen) was a particularly good event, however it was not particularly well supported so didn’t raise as much as we were hoping. However, things have been made slightly easier by MXData Ltd (where Chris works) donating a field-kitchen and £500 to help us out. Once again our thanks and gratitude goes to them.
We should look forward to the New Year.
Explorers
We will be opening an Explorer group in January. This will be headed up by Chris and will provide a much needed offering for 14-18 year olds; not only in Woodhouse park but hopefully also for all of Wythenshawe (including Baguley and Northenden) and maybe we’ll also pick some up from Heald Green.
More Young People
We will be working on increasing the numbers of Cubs and Scouts. Currently Beavers are full, but if we could find some more leaders we would consider opening a second Beaver colony.
Achievements
The New year will see at least two of our scouts being awarded their Gold Award, we’re hoping for at least one more too. The first of our newer leaders will be receiving the wood-badge and once again we’re hoping that more leaders will also fully complete their wood-badge training.
Camps
The first camps of next year have been booked, and we’re planning to have at least as many as last year
Overall, I have to say that 2010 has been a tremendous success for the 409th Manchester (William Temple) Scouts and I’d like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to all that have been involved to help us achieve what we have done. I’d also like to say a big thank-you to Ron (Skip) who has been the driving force behind the group for many years – we’d really love to see you back involved with the group as soon as you are able.
--Bret