July News from the DC Team – Ben, Simon & Heather

Hello,

District Fun Camp
If you have seen any of the photos from the District Fun Camp, it will be clear it was an awesome weekend that lived up to its name.
370 of us from across Ealing and Hanwell camped the weekend at Stoke Poges in amazing weather. We hope all of you who volunteered your time managed to have some fun too – we certainly did. The site looked great – and was a reminder of how lucky we are to have it.

The event only happens due to the many hours of dedication and work from a core team of people, which was then amplified by every adult and young leader who got involved in everything from crowd control at the bouncy castles, sponge management at the ‘district stocks’ to manning the popcorn machine. We are incredibly lucky to have such a team of leaders and adults in the District.
However, in particular, our thanks are to Dave Folkerd, ADC Campsite for leading the event. Without you it would not have happened, we probably would not have had the boldness to deliver the new archery range – and this summer would have certainly contained less fun.

In the fullness of time there will be a chance for a feedback survey to look at what worked well and what we might change for future events. If you have ever got any thoughts, ideas or offers of help for the many events we run, please do let any of us know.

District Paintball
In any normal district that would have been enough for one month – but June also had the District Paintball competition – a much looked forward to event on the Scout calendar – with 50 people taking part. A huge thanks to Clare Byford for organising and running the event. The DC team were unfortunately unable to make it but hope to make it next year*.
*subject to agreement on the size of targets on our backs…

GDPR-ty
Our thanks to Dave Thurston, District Chairman for arranging a great GDPR training evening for our GSLs and Group Chairs, led by the Deputy County Chair John Arnold. Lots of good advice and input for how to ensure we all have matters in hand with the new regulations. If you have any questions, please do contact your Group Executives. A new GDPR online training module is also available for all appointments on the Scout Association website, if you complete it do let your training advisor know so you can validate the module as part of your ongoing training.

Other News from the Groups: DC Visits this month
This month Heather visited 8th Ealing to meet and catch up with the Scout section, Scout Leader Aoife and GSL Mark (this visit also included an interesting tour of the hidden corners of the Group’s HQ). Heather also managed a triple-AGM whammy. First was 9th Ealing’s AGM, combined with fabulous cake competition, songs performed by the Beavers, and two delightful DC tasks – investing one of the Group’s newer leaders, Zoe, and presenting a 2nd Wood Badge to one of their longest-standing Leaders, Di. Congratulations to both! Next came 16th Ealing’s AGM – in Simon’s place (see below), involving a bit of hat-swapping for Heather (since 16E is her own Group as BSL). The BBQ was delicious, there was an enjoyable slide-show of highlights, plus the privilege of presenting Chief Scout Gold Awards to 16E Scouts (now Explorers) – Alex, Anaando & Thomas (Arun had also achieved this but was unable to attend), plus a Wood Badge and a Chief Scout 5 year Service Award to Assistant Scout Leader Adil Jamal. Many congratulations to all concerned! Finally, Heather attended 1st Hanwell’s AGM at the Walter Davies campsite on the Saturday evening of their Family Camp. On this occasion, Heather presented Chris Morton with his Wood Badge, and a Chief Scout’s 10 Year Service Award to Joanna Bedborough. The meeting also acknowledged Claire Dwyer’s 10 Year Service Award in her absence (due to illness). Well done to all. Again, there was a delicious BBQ afterwards and a chance to get to know more Leaders and Helpers.

Simon escaped scouting duties by spending most of the month on holiday in USA & Canada. However it was great to pop down to meet with the Adults Appointments Committee who support the District under the leadership of Robert Coomber and with the assistance of Steve Douglas as Appointments Secretary. While most of us will only ever meet them at the start of our scouting career – they perform an important role and provide valuable advice and insight during the appointments process.

Great things going on outside of scouting
Robert (our AAC Chairman) is taking part in a cycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats in aid of the Charity of William Hobbayne this month. This is really relevant to us in Ealing and Hanwell District because every year they donate hundreds of pounds to individual Cubs, Scouts and Beavers whose parents would not otherwise be able to afford for them to go on Pack, Colony and Troop expeditions, outings and activities.

If you want to find out more about the charity, http://www.williamhobbaynecharity.co.uk/.

If you want to make a donation, you can go to their ‘mydonate’ fundraising page
Good luck Robert!

A reminder on Nights Away
Last month we wrote some reminders of our responsibilities as leaders when we take our young people on adventurous activities. This remains the subject that generates more queries than any other, so to answer some of the most frequently asked questions:

• Nights Away Notifications (NANs) must be completed for all overnight activities, and should be with Steve Douglas at least 7 days before the event. This also applies for District events at Stoke Poges and camps at Chalfont, the county site (s.douglas@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk).
• Any adult must have a DBS check to stay overnight on a nights away activity (regardless of what type of camp, so yes, that includes all adults staying overnight for a Family Camp). The only exception would be a Scout Network member attending as an activity participant (specific rules relating to Scout Network members can be found on the Scout Association Website)
• The Scout Association Green Card outlines the rules regarding Alcohol in scouting. Under 18s must not consume alcohol under any circumstances.

Do get in touch with any of us if you ever have any questions or concerns.

Enjoy your Summer everyone – and for those of you heading off on scouting adventures, we wish you an enjoyable and safe trip,

Heather, Ben and Simon.
DC team, Ealing & Hanwell
dc@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk
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USEFUL INFORMATION

OSM – County provision
OSM code is now ‘live’ – so every Group can have this, paid for by GLMW; all GSLs have been given the code for FREE, so please update your account and get in touch if you need any help.

District Contacts
Some of your regular District contacts now have new email addresses. Please see below:
Ben Farmer – District Youth Commissioner- b.farmer@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk
Laura Belmostefaoui – ADC Beavers – l.belmostefaoui@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk
John Stanton – ADC Cubs – j.stanton@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk
Kathy Paddison – Jack Petchey Coordinator – jackpetchey@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.uk

Please update your contact lists for these as it’s really important that we reduce the number of ‘business’ emails going to people’s personal email accounts.