Wednesday 22rd June 2010

Annual General Meeting Edition

K.Scout is the Newsletter of the Derbyshire County Scout Council. All contributions and photos gratefully received and should be sent to news@derbyshirescouts.org for inclusion.

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I make no apologies for saying once again how

proud I am to be part of Scouting in Derbyshire. I

am pleased to report that the number and

diversity of the fantastic events and activities

continues to grow and the enthusiasm of adult

leadership teams rarely dwindles. The county

continues to go from strength to strength even

though our numbers do not seem to reflect that.

Please do take the time to read the reports from

the County team about all the great things which

happened in 2012.

We have much to thank all adults involved in

Scouting for, the teams who provide the weekly

meetings, our Active Support Units who provide

the support and training for the more specialised

activities: Biking, Caving, Climbing and Hill

Walking. They are also training more adults to

take on these roles so that more can enjoy this

wonderful county we live in. Please make sure

you use them.

Support comes from loads of different people

including the “quiet ones” who work away in the

background sitting on district and group

executives, fundraising at local supermarkets,

jumble sales, sponsored this and that, all the

essential jobs which allow scouting to continue

to flourish. We need to remember that most folk

have a bit to give and if it is only a bit then we

should say thank you very much for that one bit,

for added together they of course make a huge

effort.

Communication still seems to be a stumbling

block in the county, even though we have used

every possible medium to get messages out.

Young people especially do not seem to be

getting to know what is on offer for them. If you

are part of a communications chain; please,

please, please make sure that you are not the

point where the information stops but that you

are the one who cascades everything to as

many as possible. Better that our members find

out several times about events than not at all.

The AGM is my chance to thank everyone

involved in Scouting, every little job, makes a

difference and improves the life of a young

person somewhere. My special thanks to Tom

and county team who have done great work

across all areas of the county. Activities,

International and the Youth Council are coming

on in leaps and bounds and hopefully you are all

benefiting from this. Young people are being

involved more in the decision making process

and helping shape Derbyshire Scouting for the

future.

My thanks also to Dean Smith who stands down

as Regional Commissioner this year; he has

supported Derbyshire in many ways by advice,

encouragement and the odd telling off! We will

miss him and Carole and hope that they will still

find time to drop in now and then.

Finally, to all of you numerous and wonderful

people who give selflessly of your time to

provide so many young people with fantastic

opportunities and wonderful memories; on behalf

of Derbyshire Scouts, THANKYOU. Here’s to an

even more successful 2013.

Amazing, Brilliant, Exciting - just a few of the words that do not even begin to describe another year of Derbyshire Scouting. As you know 2010 and 2011 were very busy years in the county and 2012 I think exceeds even those in terms of variety and experiences for our young people. How exciting was it be in a draw to go to the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebration at Buckingham palace and how much more exciting to have been there Something they will be able to say I was part of every time it is shown in the future. How exciting for Kiron whose work with our youth council was recognised by the Associations President, The Duke of Kent last year with him writing to the council this year wishing them well. Speaking of the youth Council what a great start they have had meeting new friends, giving the county some ideas about where we should be going, what the mobile display unit could look like, what we need in a Derbyshire Scouting App (ask a young person nearby) and soon to be involved with the Jamboree Leadership team selection. Already some districts are looking to have a version of a youth council. Definitely “shaped by young people in partnership with adults” in line with Scouting’s vision towards 2018. The appointment of James Stafford as ACC young leaders has pushed the role this group of young people play in everyday Scouting to the fore, enabling those who are not part of the wider Explorer Scout groups to benefit from getting together and support. I look forward to James developing the role. How exciting was it for those Scouts able to take advantage of the Peak 2010 windfall and go to the Danish Jamboree, or for those younger Scouts to go to Brumjam, a more local international event as part of joint contingents with Girlguiding Derbyshire. Surley the ethos of Peak camps in practice. Not to mention the circa $5000 already allocated to international visits and programme ideas.

How exciting we now have some 163 young people actively engaged with their Duke of Edinburgh award, a further 15 leaders attending assessor training. Obviously I hope they will in turn be 163 Queen scouts, even half that number would be brilliant. Perhaps enough excitement for now As a county we should be rightly proud of the events that are organised on behalf of Derbyshire Scouting. These include Ilkeston districts try it day with the market place and museum taken over for the day, Chesterfields Golden Duck awards, the first Duathlon, East Scarsdale’s work with Youth united, the flagship walking event that is the Four Inns walk this year so very nearly cancelled by the weather but ending up in a record time of 6hrs 38mins, Border hike, Ready steady cook, Dove canoe race, Kinder walk,etc Not forgetting Exfest, the celebration of 10 years of Explorer Scouting and the list goes on, all organised in a very professional manner by the very enthusiastic volunteers in our County. The County camp site at Drum Hill continues to provide a first class experience for all those who camp and visit the site, the site and service team attracting positive comment for all they do. The new addition to the abseil tower allows many more people to enjoy the experience. I wrote last year of the proposed new building and the hope we would be in a position to start in 2013 or “at least in the bag “ for 2014. I am pleased That David Wildgoose is going to head up the team that will progress going forward. So what of the next 12 months for Derbyshire Scouting. Well the next couple of weeks will see three of our young people who recently attended a Scouts speak up course attend the Speakers reception at the House of Commons giving them a chance to meet their MP and talk Scouting / youth. We will be publishing our County Plan for the next three years following the excellent work done at our first County conference “the Big

picture” earlier this year where a cross section of Scouters from across the county gave their views and attached a degree of importance to those ideas and views so that we do have a true County view of what is needed and what can be supported. This against the background of “Scouting’s Vision towards 2018” We will see the Youth Council develop and interestingly they will be giving support to the new district councils being talked about. Something I am particularly excited about is Derbyshire’s first County organised Explorer belt expedition this will be taking place in Denmark in 2014, Ben and his team have done an amazing job in the organisation so far having had excellent support from Scouting contacts made at the Jamboree last year whilst on a reconnoitre visit earlier this year. Exfest will be repeated becoming an annual event as it grows. Beaver Bonanza will see in excess of a thousand Beaver Scouts having a brilliant time. The work is already well underway. There will be improved links between the Explorer Scout section and the Network, John overseeing increasing growth in that section. 2014 will see our first celebration of Queens Scouts on the 23rd February in Derby Cathedral. All past and present Queen Scouts are being invited to the service. We will also have a few King Scout’s attending I believe. Growth will continue to be on our agenda this year we achieved 1.5% overall which if I am honest was lower than I and I know some of you expected but I am greatly encouraged by the work already going on in the areas of new provision. Our active support units will continue to flourish and expand the most recent addition being the Derby Area Sailing club becoming a county active support unit. With a couple more in the pipeline all aimed at supporting leaders in providing exciting programmes surely the key to growing.

Speaking of the Active Support units yet another amazing group of adults who like all our other leaders “just get on with it” are providing excitement and challenge for all age groups. It remains for me to thank a few people, not something I am good at as there are so so many people who deserve praise. I would like to thank Sally for all the hard work she has done over the last 6 years in the role of County training manager, not an easy role and one she has put a tremendous amount of effort into giving Sue a first class foundation on which to continue building. Many of you will know Edwina Edwards, will be standing down this year as County Commissioner for Girlguiding Derbyshire. I would like to say it has been a pleasure getting to know and work with Edwina someone who has been very knowledgeable and supportive. I wish her well in the future and take the opportunity to welcome Annette Heartfield into the role from September 1st. Someone else who will be standing down this year is Dean Smith our regional commissioner again he has become a firm friend to Derbyshire Scouting in general and again a great support to myself over the last three and a half years. Dean very many thanks for all you have done on behalf of Scouting in Derbyshire I am sure you know you will be more than welcome just to drop by in the future. Finally it remains for me to say thank you to the County executive the body of people very much in the background who put a lot of time and effort into the good governance of the County and the one person who gives direction to the exec provides support to me personally always has an ear to lend and continues to bring best practice to the county and that of course is Carole Grew our County chairman.

2012 has been another good year for the Team with support being offer throughout the County. In addition to supporting Training, Drum Hill and the Media Teams we have arranged the "Stay Awake" at Pride Park and have joined the Youth United Group for Derbyshire. Training has continued to flourish throughout the County with even more Wood Badges being awarded which is due to the hard work of Sally and her team. Training has continued to be offered locally with the aim of getting a better take up on courses. This has resulted in more work for the Team but has had its results with even more people being trained. You can read more about training in Sally's CTM report but I must take this opportunity to thank Sally for all of her work on training in the County. Starting from a low point she has raised the profile of training throughout the County and is able to hand over to Sue a strong team who can continue to deliver quality training to our Leaders. The Media Team have worked hard on developing the communications across the County. K. Scout was joined by K. Scout Plus, our weekly update of news and information on what's happening in Derbyshire. Over 2,000 are sent the K.Scout link and over 500 people are signed up to receive the weekly update. If you don't already receive your weekly edition why not sign up today to have K. Scout Plus sent to your e-mail address? Work has also begun on setting up local District based representatives with the aim of getting events publicised in the local media. Dan has good links in to the Derby Evening Telegraph, Johnson Press and Radio Derby and they regularly publish articles. With local representatives feeding in more District information we would then be able to tell even more people across Derbyshire what Scouting has to offer. The web site also keeps everyone up to date on what is happening and is a good place to tell prospective recruits what we have to offer. Our County Camp Site at Drum Hill has continued to offer excellent facilities and activities. Thousands of camper nights are attained each year and the take up of onsite activities continue to be popular whether it is part of a weekends stay just a visit to try out a specific activity that the site offers. Under the management of Lesley , the Drum Hill Staff and

Service Teams work very hard and it is sometimes easy to forget that the whole team are volunteers. They give up most weekends to ensure all the visitors have a great time. Money has been invested in improving and adding to the facilities and activities that are on offer at the site. In addition, Spring Bank Camp sees over 1200 young people descend on the site each May for a weekend of activities. Other organisations also visit the Hill and it is hoped that even more will visit through our partnership with Youth United. In addition to supporting the teams, we have also been able to deliver other activities. In March 2012 we built on our Community Partnership with Derby County Football Club when over 500 members of Derbyshire Scouting together with members of Girl Guiding Derbyshire visited Pride Park to see the Rams in action. During the afternoon they had the opportunity to take part in activities around the stadium. In May, a “Stay Awake” was held inside the stadium and on the Pride Park pitch. At 7pm over 150 of our members arrived at the ground for 12 hours of activities, these included a mini “it’s a knockout”. After a supper, a camp fire sing along was held on the pitch followed by a number of craft activities with a football theme. This was followed by a night hike in Derby. At 4am! we held a penalty shoot-out then it was time for breakfast before everyone headed home to a very late (or early) bed having had a brilliant time! This was a unique experience on the Pride Park pitch which is not normally available to members of the general public. We would like to thank everyone at Derby County Football Club for giving us the opportunity and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the club in the coming years. In 2012 the Lord Lieutenant’s Office set up Derbyshire Youth United to join the national initiative aimed at bringing together the voluntary and statutory youth organisations to share resources, skills and knowledge and to work together for the mutual benefit of all the partners. Derbyshire Scouting is pleased to be part of this new group and we look forward to developing the partnership further over the coming years. The group plans to set up a “one stop shop” web site containing information for the public who wish to find out details of all the youth groups in the county. Scouting has already benefitted from

this initiative and we aim to be a very prominent partner in Youth United. One of the first benefits to Scouting was being able to send seven of our members to the Queen’s Jubilee Concert last summer. Our members had a day to remember joining with thousands of people outside Buckingham Palace for the concert. As you can see, 2012 was a very busy year and I would like to conclude by thanking Lesley, Sally, Dan and their teams for all their hard work. A great deal has been achieved and it would not have happened without your support. My thanks go to the Sectional ACC’s, ACC Activities, ACC International and ACC Young Leaders for facilitating some fantastic scouting throughout the county, for the year. As a County, we are now not only seeing support for Young Leaders but also training for all section leaders on how to support young leaders in their groups. Along with the continuing ongoing County activities and competitions for all sections, we have seen opening of new sections and forging new friendships with Derbyshire Guiding with the international trips to Brumjam and Denmark.

We are looking forward to another fun packed year

of scouting in Derbyshire

2012 has been a much quieter year for Beaver Scouting – that’s if you can ever refer to running a Colony as a quiet event! There has been much going on at Group level to ensure that Beaver Scouts continue to enjoy a varied and exciting programme full of new experiences and lots of fun. We’ve seen the opening of a few new colonies and several changes in leadership teams. Many thanks to all who have volunteered to take up this fantastic, rewarding role of Beaver Scout Leader. Districts through-out the county managed (in spite of the weather in 2012) to arrange a variety of Fun Days and District camps, Sleepovers, Competitions, Picnics and Crafty events to celebrate the Jubilee, the Olympics and Paralympics or just being a Beaver Scout! It’s always good to get together. Behind the scenes at County level, we have updated the Beaver Scout Badge Booklet. It continues to be available (at just 50p) for you to give to newly invested Beaver Scouts. (The order form can be downloaded from our County webpage.) The ADCs and representatives from each District also began working towards Bonanza 6 which will be on 6

th July 2014. This County Funday,

especially for Beaver Scouts, is always something to look forward to, but takes quite a lot of planning! So what’s in store for the next couple of years? Furry Fred (our County mascot) has been developing his Pre-Bonanza County Challenge which will be with you shortly. Bonanza will start to take shape in more detail. Everyone will be asked to help with recruiting more adults to support and lead Beaver Scout Colonies . We really do need a few more in the County so that even more young people (and their adults) can share in this great adventure called Scouting!

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Our new competition for the year was the “Ready Steady Cook” which attracted entries from 10 of our Districts – extremely good for our first year. As well as being a really worthwhile competition on the day, it proved an impetus for competitions in each of the Districts, to select their team to go forward to the County event. The theme for this year’s competition was “Mothering Sunday” and some wonderful concoctions were in evidence – the four judges were indeed impressed. This has now become an annual event, from early beginnings where we just ordered 500 pennants, not knowing how it would take off; we now order 1500 badges most of which are taken up. Despite the extreme weather in January this year, we had Troops camping in the snow at a wide range of venues across the county. The County team braved it once again and showed we still have the metal to do it! The other side effect of the Chilly Challenge has been that it has encouraged more Troops to undertake the Welsh Scout Council’s “Dragon Award” scheme – this involves camping under canvas in each and every calendar month.

We had two presentations in the year, the February one hosted by Derbyshire County Council in the Members’ Room at County Offices and the

mid-year one at Drum Hill at the Spring Bank Camp. For the first time I can trace, we had awards presented to Scouts in every District across the County. This clearly shows we are getting through to enabling our Scouts reach their goals – still some way to go to ensure we have awards from every Troop.

We had a total of 65 teams entered across the two events – a 16% increase! A record time for “The Challenge” of 2 hours 20 minutes – we seem to break the record year on year! This record has been broken year on year since we started the competition in 2008 – how much longer can this go on I wonder? For 2013 we are piloting payment by “Paypal” which we hope will make the administration simpler for all.

Rampage 2012

A full complement of 24 teams entered this popular competition. New activities introduced – mountain biking and innovative high ropes course proved very popular. We were honoured to have Councillor Lisa Higginbottom the Mayor of the City of Derby present the trophy and certificates.

Our thanks go to “Hydroactive” and the many Leaders who organised and staffed the bases.

LOOKING AHEAD My thanks go to all ADCs and those within the County Team for their help and support over the year. Attendance at our regular ADCs meetings has been good and we continue to share best practice and work together to help encourage participation in the many opportunities available to support the successful running of our Troops. I hope that we can build on the progress made to date and continue to promote Scouting within Derbyshire

The Young Leaders' Scheme is just one of the exciting programme elements in the Explorer Scout section. We all know that Leaders can be hard to come by so with this in mind the development of the Young Leaders’ Scheme across the county over the last year has been a vital part in growing the number of Adult volunteers in the future. We have over 250 young people aged 14-18 helping in the younger sections supporting leadership teams in various ways. It is my hope that many of these Young Leaders will complete the training and continue giving something back into Scouting having had a great time themselves. The Young Leaders of to-day are the Adult Leaders of tomorrow! In October, Derbyshire saw the first county wide Young Leaders weekend at Drum Hill bringing to-gether 65 Young Leaders from around the county and a visit from Wayne Bulpitt (UK Chief Commis-sioner) who listened to and took on board the view and opinions of our young people. As it was such a great success the training weekend will run again to bring together these amazing young people who give their time and effort through a very busy part of their academic lives to support Scouting. Training for Young Leaders continues to go from strength to strength in a number of Districts around the county and has recently started in others. What an achievement for Derby East with seven Young Leader Belts being presented. Along with this train-ing in Ilkeston has been taking place and a Young Leaders Unit has started in Derby South. I hope that over the next 12 months the Young Leaders’ Scheme can continue to grow and develop. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all

those who have supported the Young Leaders’

Scheme in its infancy and those who support

Young Leaders’ working in sections around the

county.

This past year for Derbyshire Network has been an exciting one. Not only for me being my first year but as it has seen Network grow to the largest it has been for the last five years with scope for it to grow even further over the next 12 months. This year has seen the establishment and growth of networks in Ilkeston district, South Derbyshire, the rebirth of forge network in Dronfield district and Phoenix Network in Derby East. It has also seen us not only supporting county camps and events but district camps and national events likewise. Over the next year it is planned to increase numbers further and attempt to increase the links that we already possess with the Explorer Sections as well as supporting current membership and helping Network Leaders with any training they require.

Overall Derbyshire Scout Network is in a strong

position with room to grow and develop as the year

pans out.

2012 was a quite a year for the County Cub Scouts. Within the Districts and individual Packs the programmes offered have been excellent and so the number of Cub Scouts in Derbyshire has increased by 3.5% over the past year to 2,526. This is a fantastic increase. County Cub Scouts came together in October to compete in the Ready Steady Cook Competition. The theme was International and the standards were very high. Congratulations to Derwent and Dove for winning the event. I would like to send my thanks to Tracy and her team for organising ad judging. I would like to thank the Districts for their invitations to events. One of the most memorable was seeing Chesterfields Cub Scouts scooting into church on their scooters for their carol service. There are a number of events planned for 2013 so I hope to see more Cubs from around the County at these events. I would like to thank the ADC’s and Leaders for their continued support and ensur-ing that Cub Scouts from Derbyshire have a great time.

Scout Active Support in the county continues to

give support to Scouting in a variety of ways. All

District units have been active in supporting

Scouting in their own Districts as well as our

County activity units which are continuing to give

support to all sections. Our newest activity, the

Derby Area Sailing Club became a County

SASU this year under the leadership of Simon

Black and we welcome Derby South District,

who now have a SASU under the management

of Dave Marvin.

The SASU activity teams continue to be very

successful with plenty of bookings for the

activities on offer. Details of activities and

contacts are on the County website.

Our annual quiz was held again in March, thanks

to Derby North SASU who hosted the quiz this

year at the Duke of Clarence in Derby. Well

done to the winning team from Derby North who

now hold the trophy for the year.

I look forward to another successful year ahead

for us in support of Derbyshire Scouting in our

Scout Active Support Units.

It has been another exciting year with lots going on and many new people joining the activities team. We have a number of new “Activity” Scout Active Sup-port Teams, Hill Walking this is headed up by John Tomlison this team aims to give support to leaders who want to get hillwalking permits, or to run trips for groups whose leaders don’t have permits. From Janu-ary 2013 Derby Area Sailing Club will join the County Activity Team as the Sailing SASU, this is headed up by Simon Black, watch this space Simon has great plans for this Team. We also saw the Bike, Climbing and Caving Teams grow in size both in terms of team members and num-ber of young people taken on their respective activity. Kiting is still in its infancy and we are hoping to get this off the ground this coming term. The County Activities Team now meets on a quarterly basis, this is made up of the County Advisers, SASU Team Leaders, District and County Activity Centres, ACC SASU, DCC Programmes and headed up by ACC Activities. The Team meets to discuss common issues, promotion of activities and the development of activities in Derbyshire Scouting. Activation has now been planned this is a County Ac-tivity day that will take place in June 2013, the idea is to get 300 young people doing 3 different activities during the day. Debbie Steeples has been appointed as MAPS man-ager, this role is to look after Activity Permit Scheme in Derbyshire, Debbie has been doing a great job clearing the back log of outstanding permits. If anyone has any ideas for new ideas Adventurous Activity Teams or would like to join a team then please let me know at acc-activities@derbyshirescouts.org Figs for 2012 Number of young people taken on re-spective Activities: Bike SASU – 300 Caving SASU – 251 Climbing SASU - 251 Sailing SASU – 72 Kiting SASU – Intro Day Trent Lock – Evening Users 600 and Campers 818 (Weather had a bad effect on numbers)

Another busy year for training across Derbyshire

with 73 wood badges being awarded. We have

continued to review the support and delivery of

training sessions to increase availability across

the county. Study of leaders Personal Learning

Plans showed that there was an increase in the

number of leaders being validated for their prior

knowledge and more were choosing to learn by

different methods such as On-line modules and

it is hoped with increased support to Training

Advisers which will continue to grow. Whilst

numbers attending actual courses were low in

the first quarter they showed a steady increase

during the year especially at venues in the north

of the county. The focus during the year was to

recruit more members to the team – Training

Advisers, Trainers, Local Training Managers and

Local Training Administrators and we were

pleased to welcome new members in all areas

with the possibility of further recruitment early in

2013.

As you will all know at the end of 2012 I

announced I would be finishing as County

Training Manager after 7 years in the role and

thanks to members of Derbyshire County Team

for their support during this time. Team work is

key to any scouting role and my personal thanks

must go to all members of the Training team who

volunteer their time to support leaders through

their training. Finally I would like to wish Sue

Harris the best as she takes over the role and

know with her enthusiasm leaders will continue

to gain the knowledge and skills they need to

make sure the young people of Derbyshire

continue to have fantastic scouting opportunities.

Wow! Where has that year gone?! I can’t be-

lieve how much has happened since December

2011 when Angela (Kettlewell) and I were ap-

pointed as the organisers for Peak 2015. More

than that I can’t believe what’s happened since

last year’s AGM.

We have appointed 12 managers who, in turn,

have appointed a number of team leaders and

the core team now stands at 55. As I write this

report we have launched the second round of

recruitment of 2013 where we have another 24

roles advertised. We have also uploaded a

‘registration of interest form’ for people to fill in to

let us know what roles they may be interested in.

Over the last month Angela and I have been

working closely with the Finance Manager and

her Deputy to finalise the budget for the camp.

We have, so far, presented this to the County

Commissioners, treasurers and to the Scout Fi-

nance Committee. By the time this report is pub-

lished it should have been to the Guide Finance

committee and will be awaiting final approval

from both associations executive committees. In

short we hope to have the camp fees for Peak

announced by the summer holidays.

We are also currently in the process of choosing

a logo and branding for the camp – Peak 2015,

A Journey Through Time. Once this is chosen

and sorted we will launch it via our website and

other communication channels.

For more information and updates please visit

our website – www.peakcamp.org.uk

Two years and counting!!!!!

Welcome everyone to what is commonly referred to as Explorer Land & some insight as to what we have been doing over the last year.

Kicking off with the massive success of Exfest. This

was to close the celebration year of our 10th anniversary & the people of the section, didn’t let us down. We had around 150 people at the event held at Drum Hill, all be it chilly, well shall we say cold

enough to compete in the scout section’s chilly challenge but hey, the sun was out & it was dry. The event was billed as a music festival & we had supporting acts of all kinds, ranging from young solo artists & groups from the section, who requested to play their music on stage, to rappers & beat box trio. We had Mark Stafford with his drums, to a Ukulele playing group from East Scarsdale. The main attraction was from a group called Andre & the Garden Band who were just fantastic. Activities were also put on through the day which included the bike & zip wire teams, plus bouldering wall, black hole & a bull, which was great fun to watch. In all, a fantastic end to the year & which has now lead to Exfest living on & will be repeated this year in October, having received feed back, we have changed a few things and added some, to create a fairground theme, not Alton Towers though I must add. The web site address is the same www.derbyshire-exfest.org.uk to obtain your booking forms & look at the pictures from the last event.

The chief scout awards that we join in the scout section with, was not well attended this year & unfortunately, the mid-term ceremony was cancelled, so I will be conducting a Chief Scout award presentation for both Platinum & Diamond award, on the Sunday morning of Exfest. Please see your respective Desc or point of contact for more info. I would like to thank the members of the bike team for holding another biking event at Gradbach campsite but this again was not well attended by our section & places filled by scouts, a shame. On a slightly happier note, at last we have been recognised by our County flag ship event, Peak Camp & the organisers have this time attempted to involve the Explorer scouts & integrate them into the event. More details will undoubtedly follow on this & part of the process is to come & explain to the Desc’s at the next meeting. If you have an interest in this or any questions you want putting to the organisers, then please see you Desc prior to July To close as always, there are the usual thanks to all those who have assisted me, particularly with Exfest & to all the leaders & supporters of the section, for doing the right things for our young people. There are still a few Desc positions not

filled in the county & if you know of or are someone who thinks they might be the person for that role, then please see your district

commissioner, I’m sure they will welcome your assistance. One last thing & its to say a massive thank you to Paul Gant, who has put up with me & supported the section for many years & is now moving onwards & upwards to a new role & challenge as District Commissioner & with this, I would like to wish him all the best for the future. He has however found a replacement & so I welcome Simon to the fold. Thanks once more & don’t forget to check out Exfest.

2012 has been a good year for Derbyshire Scouting as

new sections continue to open, 7 so far. Well done to

those groups and Districts. Providing more

opportunities for young people to enjoy scouting in

Derbyshire has been a key focus for the County under

a programme of Recruitment & Retention so that our

joining list’s can be reduced enabling even more young

people to enjoy the excitement, adventures and

challenges that the Scouts here in Derbyshire do

already. Some of these sections have been traditional

in the way that they have been opened others have

been a little different with taster sessions to get them

up & running. In line with the associations Vision 2018

it means;

Scouting in 2018 will be Enjoyed by

more young people and more adult

volunteers.

A development project that has involved Derbyshire

Scouts in partnerships with the other

uniformed organisations (Youth United)

centred around two day’s of youth activity

in support of youth in the village of

Cresswell in East Scarsdale District. The

district supported by the county have

followed these days up with a series of

Scouting taster sessions this has led to

the creation of a new Scout group in

Cresswell.

Scouting in 2018 will: Make

a positive impact in our

communities. Nearly half of our new volunteers in

Derbyshire Scouting are the parents of

those young people already enjoying the

everyday adventure Scouting provides.

2012 has shown that asking parents to

help out with camp has a proven success

rate for showing the fun and reward

gained from volunteering.

Members of Scouting in

2018 will feel Valued

The Derbyshire Mobile Display Unit has been out &

about around the County used by districts and

Groups wanting to raise the profile and awareness

of Scouting in their communities helping to recruit

young people and adults alike. The display unit

attracted some 20 volunteers and 14 new members

at the County Show last year and will be there

again this year bringing scouting to the

communities.

Scouting in 2018 will Make a

positive impact in our

communities

These are just a few ways that Development in

Derbyshire has taken place already taking on

board Scouting’s vision for 2018.

it has been great to be able to support many other

Global programme ideas including:

food for a PL cooking night on the theme of

Thanksgiving

Martial arts

a trip to Sikh temple, Dewali food & henna painting

display frames for international badges resulting

from overseas links

rubber stamps for passports for a District Beaver event

There is still money available to support even more

exciting Global Programme activities and I look forward

to receiving more exciting applications.

This year will see the selection of the Unit Leaders for

the County Contingent to attend the 23rd

World Scout

Jamboree in Japan, 2015. There will be one Unit con-

sisting of 4 Patrols and Districts will soon start the proc-

ess of selecting their young people. This will be an-

other opportunity for us to put Derbyshire on the World

map again.

Another event that will see Derbyshire travelling the

world is the tremendous opportunity provided by the

Derbyshire Explorer Belt which will be taking place in

Denmark next year; my thanks to the fantastic team

working on this. It is already gaining a great following

and I am sure that we will have a large number of par-

ticipants putting Derbyshire on the world map.

Previously I have set the challenge of sending our

County Badge overseas and I also know that there are

still a number of Group or section mascots that travel-

ling the Globe sending their photos back every so of-

ten. Congratulations to all those involved.

Following on from the successful Jamboree Contin-

gent in 2011 it was decided to maintain our positive

relationships with Derbyshire Girlguiding by arrang-

ing further joint trips in 2012 supported by the Peak

International Fund. Consequently a group of 30

Scouts and Guides aged 12 -14 from across the

County attended BrumJam in the UK and 30 Ex-

plorer Scouts and Guides aged 14-16 attended

Jamboree Denmark. Across both trips a total of 12

Districts were represented and my thanks go to the

Scout leadership teams of Julie & Nigel Tatter-

shall , Graham Macaulay and Jo Cooper. A great

time was had by all.

Other groups also travelled overseas last year. The

furthest trip being to Belper District’s trip to the

USA but Groups also went to France, Holland,

Denmark, Belgium and several trips to Kandersteg

International Scout Centre, Switzerland. I was privi-

leged to attend some of their presentations after

they returned and they were inspirational.

Applications to the Peak International Fund have

been gathering momentum and as well as support-

ing programme activities involving trips abroad and

John Queening

Alan Carr

Ken Hoe

Stuart Groom

Brian Mason

Stephen Parker

Andrew Bradshaw

Patricia Hudson

Robert Morley

Stephanie Argyle

Janet Bradshaw

Derek Brigham

Mark Elm

Sandra Hall

Jane Knightley

David Langley

Jane Lee

Harold Smissen

Charmaine Woollands

Sylvia Back

Lisa Barker

Gavin Brooks

Charles Brooks

Lesley Holt

John Landon

Patricia Mellor

Gerard Varin

Christopher Walker

Paul Watson

Ricky Harrison

Susan Judson

Elizabeth Tinkler

Owen Martin

Darren Hobson

Chris Jones

John Mew

Pat Murray

Mary Sellars

Gill Beasley

Matthew Collins

James Stafford

Suzie Warden

Stephen Sidebottom

Gavin Brookes

Graham Macaulay

Vicki Gibbs