Summer 2016
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s r e r o l p x E Viking e h t n i s e r adventu Isle of Man
Gang Show Auditions Youth Forum District AGM
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June 20
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send me a text or email me just so that I will have some idea on numbers expected. I have already asked the users of the hall for help, as this clean up will only be successful if we have a good many people on the day. The 2nd Group is looking for help to clean up the outside oftheir North Road HQ. Over the past few years, as no general maintenance and rubbish collection has been carried out round the building, you can imagine what an eyesore it is. We intend to get this eyesore cleared up in a single day during the summer holidays. We are looking for volunteers to help us on Saturday 20th August 2016 to cut down bushes and load them into a skip and also collect general rubbish from the car park and round the sides and back of the building. What you will have to bring with you are saws and/or loppers and protective gloves as well as stout shoes/ boots as I am sure there is glass and sharp objects all over the place and will not be seen. If you are interested in helping, then please either s
Round that back of the HQ is a rusty old container, which can be seen, but we are unable to get any where near it due to the bushes and rubbish. Anyone got any contacts to remove a large container? In return for help with the clean up, we will provide tea, coffee and bacon butties or vegie butties at the start and throughout the day if required and later a BBQ ‘cos this will be a good start for the re-launch of the 2nd Birkenhead Scout Section. The 2nd is not only one of the oldest Groups in Birkenhead but one of the oldest in the world and we are proud of that! Thanks and hope to see you at North Road. Mike Lennox - (Temporary) GSL 2nd Birkenhead 07768 423965 - mike.lennox@btinternet.com
Please send your group news and photos to: SMO-MediaTeam@birkenheadscouts.org.uk by 24th September for inclusion in the October edition
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Hello and thank you for reading the of
August edition
Contact.
Firstly my apologies for the slight delay in publishing this edition - I have a good excuse!
I have received news from only two groups, so this month’s issue will be smaller than I’d hoped.
As well as being away with work for several weeks recently I have just returned from the Viking Explorers Summer Camp. A week long camp on the Isle of Man.
What I can bring you, amongst other things, is news from the District AGM, an appeal for help with the clean up of the area around the 2nd Birkenhead Scout hut, news from the Gang Show auditions in July and news from our ADC Cubs, Matt Jones.
We had a great time and you can read about our adventures in this issue of ‘Contact’. I was hoping to return from camp to a mailbox full of stories and pictures from across the district of what groups and sections have been getting up to in the early stages of summer.
Contact is published by
Birkenhead District Scout Council 15 Balls Road, Oxton, Wirral CH43 5RF Compiled by: Paul Ellis Tel: 07720 555885 paul.ellis @birkenheadscouts.org.uk Please email content to : SMO-MediaTeam@ birkenheadscouts.org.uk
Please help me out with making Contact as attractive and informative as possible. You could send photos and stories - even just a few words - from your summer camp, days out or even from your first session back after the summer break. Being an online publication means that we can share our news far and wide very easily. The more news and pictures that you send me, the more we can spread the word about what we do. I’d appreciate it GSLs would encourage their section leaders to help share their hard work with the us here. I look forward to hearing all about your summer activities and plans for the rest of the year. Paul Ellis
Contents Pages 4 - 6 District AGM Page 7 Gang Show Page 8 Cubs Page 9 Group News Pages 10-11 Explorers
Birkenhead District Youth Forum
To meet our Vision Toward 2018, young people across all ages will have the chance to have their voice heard on all aspects of Scouting, including programme and activity planning and the way that their Group is run. This is to ensure that Scouting meets their needs and remains relevant to their interests. The District Youth Forum will include young people doing the following:
Sharing their ideas with likeminded others, learning from and teaching each other and adults taking part in decision making Assisting with planning the District programme, including activities and camps becoming more involved in all aspects of Scouting. If you are a Scout aged 13 and over, an Explorer or Network member and interested in joining the Birkenhead District Youth Forum then please come along to District Headquarters on Balls Road on Tuesday 13th September from 7pm till 9pm for a chance to find out more and express your ideas! Rory Coleman Youth Forum Leader
The DC’s Ramblings IN THIS MONTH’S CONTACT I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THE WORDS I SAID AT THE DISTRICT AGM FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WEREN’T THERE, I APOLOGISE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE THERE, HAVING TO HEAR IT TWICE, BUT I DO FEEL IT’S WORTH REPEATING!! Let me start off by sharing a short video with you, this is a collection of photographs showing some of the great things which have been going on in Birkenhead in the past year (or so)! To see the video - follow this link!! https://youtu.be/MlmWwmFl1co The thing which links all of those images and the piece of music is FUN. That’s what I wanted to talk about tonight. What is Fun? In the dictionary it is described as an adjective meaning good or happy. The Thesaurus gives us these synonyms of fun, amusing, enjoyable, entertaining, lively, pleasant, boisterous, convivial, diverting, merry and witty. That sounds like something we could all do with after all the politics we are surrounded by at the moment as well as the national football team’s inability to play football! We can all forget why we scout, we can think of all kinds of serious reasons, like wanting to ‘put something back into the movement’, like wanting to see young people do well for themselves and become better citizens, like doing my bit to make ours a better society. Yes, these are all completely valid reasons for scouting, but let us never lose sight of the main thing that attracted all of us to Scouting, whether it was fifty years ago or five years ago, that is, Scouting Is Fun! It is that fun which got us into it, as a child or as an adult and it is that fun which keeps us doing it!
If we don’t have fun, how can we ever hope to attract more young people and certainly more adults to come along and volunteer. Growth, which I know we always talk about, isn’t just about making our census figures look better, it certainly isn’t about collecting more membership subscriptions, no, it is about getting more people to have fun, it really is as simple as that. We all know how good Scouting is, so let’s show off the fun part and get more people to join! ‘Growth is a By-Product of Fun’. Remember that when you are planning programmes, when you are running activities, taking part in camps and competitions, the more fun everyone has, the more people will talk about it and others will get some idea of what they are missing out on and want to be part of it! If Scouting is Fun, then every night becomes ‘bring a friend night’! How do we show off the fun we are having, I hear you all ask! Social Media is a great tool, in our hands is the power to communicate with the entire planet, our mobile phones possess that ability, through Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, we can get that message out very easily.
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AGM 2016 t ic tr is D d a e h n e k ir B It is for this reason that I am challenging all groups and sections to set up a presence on Facebook or Twitter as a means of communication, by the end of this year, and it certainly shouldn’t take that long! We have a fantastic District Newsletter, ‘Contact’, which is full of great good news stories and Fun, it exists as an online publication, so it can be shared at the touch of a finger on a phone screen, or at the click of a mouse. I encourage you all to share it with anyone you think may be interested, family, friends, parents of our young people and encourage them to share it further. Over the last few months, we have completely relaunched Scout Network, which is now District based and will provide a fantastic opportunity for 18 to 25 year olds to continue having fun, gaining badges and taking part in some pretty stupendous projects! All members aged between 18 and 25 will automatically become Network
members and for those of you who are unaware of the changes and how this will all work, please contact Matt so that we can all understand this new section a little more and perhaps gain some ideas of what that means to you, as someone who fits that age bracket, someone who is approaching it, or the rest of us, who can wish! We can also think about how we can directly involve our network in Birkenhead Scouting. If anyone has any questions about Network, please feel free to chat to Matt Proctor, our new District Scout Network Commissioner, modelling one of our brand new Network neckers! I would like to thank a number of people who make my job easier. My Deputy DC, PJ. The District Team, Denise, Matt, Jordan, Graham and Simon. DESC Heather, DSNC Matt and our LTM Vicki. The Executive, for their continued governance of the District finances and operations, for Joan for all she does as Chairman and to Ken and AJ, for all they do as Secretary and Stand in Treasurer.
Last year our District President, John Coleman, stood down after 13 years in the post and after 74 years in Scouting. I did say that I would thank him properly for all that fantastic service throughout this time and it now gives me great pleasure in presenting him with this as a small token of our appreciation. To all of you, members of Birkenhead District, I want to say Thank You, for your support, your dedication and most of all your hard work, in making Birkenhead District what it is, a fun place to scout! Thank You!
Paul
AGM 2016 t ic tr is D d a e h n e k ir B The Hatton Trophy is awarded to the Scout Troop who accumulate the most points over the year by entering and competing at District and County events. This year’s Trophy was presented at the Challenge camp to a troop who, I think, took part in everything available to them and showed a really good balance of competition and fun! It gives me great pleasure in re-presenting it here tonight.
The Hatton Trophy goes to the 25th Birkenhead Scout Troop. The Paul Quaile Trophy goes to an individual or individuals who make a real effort in the area of adventurous activities. This year the trophy is awarded to a group of leaders who have shown their desire to put something new into Birkenhead Scouting. Over the past year they have attained permits enabling them to bring new skills to the District and very soon will be offering Archery on a regular basis to all sections in Birkenhead.
The Paul Quaile Trophy this year goes to the District Archery Team.
I would like to record my thanks to Jane Whatling who has retired as manager of Wirral Scout and Guide Shop after 41 years of tireless and dedicated service. I am sure you will all agree that the shop just won’t be the same without her.
Our show auditions went really well, thanks to everyone who came along. Our main cast numbers are looking healthy which is great, sadly our cub cast numbers at this stage are very low compared with previous shows, we are looking at a further audition for Cubs after the Summer break as their rehearsals don’t start until October.
Paul Coleman has been over in the Summer with our Explorers and has had some really positive response from the islands Explorers.
We’ll be contacting all packs directly with details to see if we have any more interest.
Paul with our Stage Manager Carl Hudson after having a look around the Gaiety Theatre in Douglas
I had a fun evening before the Summer break with the 25th Cubs when I was asked to come along to their pack night to judge ‘Cubs Have Talent’ … and they certainly did. As a result of my visit we had a few of them come along to audition which was great to see. If any packs would like us to visit once the Summer break is over then please do get in touch with me on grahamlysaght@hotmail.com and we can come along and speak to the Cubs and see if any are interested in joining our Cub cast. Plans are continuing for the show to also run on the Isle Of Man the week after our show at the Gladstone Theatre, we’ve had some very encouraging meetings and offers of support which is fantastic, we’ve also sold our first pair of tickets … which is nice!
For our main cast, all letters will be going out during August to let them know if they’ve been successful, as ever, we can only accept a certain number of cast due to backstage regulations and dress room availability, so good luck to everyone! See you at rehearsals in September!
A plan for everything ... “Decide what it is you want to do ... Write it down ... Put a plan together ... And … Work on it EVERY Single Day!”
Graham Lysaght Show Producer
This is my second report for Contact and this one will be slightly shorter than the last! - I promise! We recently had a Cub Leader coffee and cake night at District HQ where we looked at some ideas that we can begin to run from next year!
Hopefully we will have a proper Cub Leaders meeting soon into next term so as we all get together again to continue to share some fantastic ideas and develop some fabulous new ones! Thanks to all the leaders that attended – This is a word cloud that was generated after the meeting to show the words and ideas that were most important to the leaders and their Cubs!!
I’m also looking in to ideas for our end of year Birthday party to finish our #Cubs100 celebrations in December! It will be on Friday 16th 2016 – Location and Time to be decided! We are also looking into ways of working with other Wirral districts in the future to allow more young people enjoy more everyday adventure. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Summer break and I look forward to continuing to work with you all in September. Matt Jones
9 We were really lucky to be able to go to HMS Bristol – it was such a fun week. The journey down was quite long and we had to be up so early, but it was worth it! We were all really excited to get there but also a little bit nervous as we didn’t know what to expect! Over the week we did so many activities including March training, Canoeing, Training with the Royal Marines, Victory & Warrior, Sailing and a trip out to the Isle of Wight! We had the busiest week but it was so fun – everyone was really friendly, if a little strict!! We had a really great time. Paul and Steve drove us to and from safely so a huge thanks to them and an even bigger than you to Annabelle for staying with us for the trip! Alicia Shan and Jess Ellis
64th Sea Scouts attend HMS BRISTOL activity camp
= Fourteen Explorer Sea Scouts from the Viking Unit took part in the 50 mile ‘Legs of Man Challenge Hike’ during a week long Camp on the Isle of Man in late July. The three hikes were spread across the week and were broken up by ‘rest days’ which involved activities such as coasteering, sea kayaking and swimming. The week started wilth a ferry trip from the Pier Head in Liverpool across the Irish Sea to Douglas. On board we invested Victor, one of our newest members. On arrival, the Explorers then went straight off on a 10 mile hike across the Island to Peel while the leaders set up camp. On day two they hiked through the rain from Crosby, in the centre of the island, down to Castletown in the south. Everyone remained (mostly) cheerful during the hikes, two of which were completed in testing weather conditions, with four seasons in one day a regular feature. Their third hike was the old Herring route from Peel to Castletown and the final hike from Ramsey in the north back to Crosby which was one of the most challenging and again in heavy rain. We also met up with Explorers from one of the island’s Explorer Units at their campsite and took part in an archery session. We also had the chance to catch a sunset on one of the beaches on the west coast we they enjoyed a barbeque and tried local kippers before heading back to camp. We moved campsites for the second half of the week. The new site had bouncy castles, an activity barn and most importantly - for our Explorers - wifi and power! We all had a great week and all of our Explorers were a credit to themselves and to the District.
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