September Newsletter from the DC Team – Heather, Ben & Simon
Hello,
The last newsletter may have reached people when they were having a break from Scouting, so a few messages are repeated below, along with this month’s new items.
We hope your summer camps were a great success. We’d love to hear about them and be able to share your stories in the DC News so please do email a report in. Thank you to all the leaders that gave up their time to run overnight experiences for our young people.
District Swimming Gala
The Swimming Gala is on Saturday 13th October from 1pm-5pm. Stuart Flaye, ADC Scouts, is organising the event and will shortly be distributing information but please put it in your group diaries.
St George’s Day 2019
September is when we start the planning process for St George’s Day. We need a cross-sectional team to come forward to take the lead in deciding what our event will look like and organise it. If you are interested and would like to volunteer please contact the DC team.
District AGM
It’s the District AGM on Wednesday 26th September at Leighton Hall, 8pm. All scouters throughout the District are invited to attend. There will be some nibbles and drinks to keep you going.
Grow Your Group Countdown
We’ve been talking about it for some time and Grow Your Group starts in Ealing & Hanwell on Sunday 23rd . We look forward to see your group representatives at the 1st Hanwell.
Young Leader Training
We are finalising the plans for our young leader training programme for the next year. Dominic and Sharon Lunney will be holding the first session of Churchill Explorer Scout Unit (our young leader unit) on Sunday 7th October and all the dates are below. They can be contacted on youngleaders@
GDPR Training Module
The new module is now available for all Leaders online – and we’d encourage everyone to take the time to have a look. The aim is for everyone to complete this required module at some point over the next few months (like safeguarding and safety, this is now an element of mandatory training).
Brigantia Go To Croatia – 2019
Our Explorer Scout Unit are heading off to Croatia next year for their summer camp and we are looking for some additional adults to come along to join the leadership team. Beaver, Cub and Scout leaders are all welcome but please email Ben if you might be interested.
Other News from the DC team
During August (as well as taking some holiday ourselves – including a day-visit to Brownsea Island for Heather) we’ve been busy working on the website – adding fresh content in preparation for going live, hopefully in the next few weeks. We’ve also been busy designing and ordering new signage and promotional items for the District, incorporating the new UK branding (replacing the ‘be prepared’ swoosh).
Last week-end, along with 3,000+ other scouters and Network members from all parts of the UK and beyond, Heather attended the Gilwell Reunion for the first time and greatly enjoyed it (this was just for fun, not a DC duty). Saturday evening included a particularly excellent HUGE campfire, a brass band, a quiz, a disco and a sing-along in the Squiffy Woggle pub). During the daytime, seminars and many exhibitors (including our own Mark Yates, helping with the BushScout Area) provided lots of useful information and handy tips to bring back.. Next year will be Gilwell’s 100th anniversary as a Scout site so the Reunion in September 2019 is likely to be even bigger and better. Certainly worth considering if you’ve never been to it before.
Keeping Safe
Camping continues over the next few weeks for many of our Groups – including, of course, the Elements Camp at PACCAR at the end of September. So it’s perhaps worth repeating the quick safety reminders included in last month’s newsletter
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Have an intouch system in place to manage communications while at camp
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Keep an eye on your food safety, fire safety and gas safety
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Stay healthy, including being on the watch for ticks and waterborne diseases
Hope you all had a chance to have a break at some point over the summer – and that you’re looking forward to a great Autumn ahead, as together we prepare young people with skills for life.
Simon, Heather and Ben
DC team, Ealing & Hanwell
dc@ealingandhanwellscouts.org.
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USEFUL INFORMATION
District Website
The refreshed and updated Ealing and Hanwell Scout District website is on its way – the DC team hope to have it functioning very soon – but once the updated version goes live, it will only stay fresh, attractive and useful if YOU help by submitting additional content that we can include. We are also looking for someone to assist us with the ongoing updating.
District Contacts
Some of your regular District contacts now have new email addresses. Please see below:
Jenny Foxwell – District Training Manager – je.foxwell@
Anthony Phillips – District President – a.phillips@
John Matthews – District Vice-President and Leighton Hall Bookings – j.matthews@
These are very new so I suggest including their personal address for the next few weeks.
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.
Key dates for the District Diary
September
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District Beaver Leaders Meeting – 17th September
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GSLs Meeting – 18th September
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District Scout Leaders’ Meeting – 19th September
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Grow Your Group, Session 1 (1st Hanwell) – Sunday 23rd September 1-5pm
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District AGM – 26th September (Leighton Hall)
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Elements Camp (all sections) PACCAR – 28-30 September
October
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County Young Leader Weekend 5th – 7th October
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District Beaver Hike – 6th October, 10am
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Young Leader Training – 7th October@LH
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Modules 5, 6, 11 & 12A (Our organisation) PACCAR – 13th October
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Swimming Gala (& Beaver Fun Swim) – 13th October
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Modules 7,8,9 (Working with Adults) PACCAR – 14th October
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Modules 16&17 (Intro to Residential) PACCAR – 28th October
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District Cub event – Navigation/local knowledge – date TBC
November
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Executive Support day led by the County team – 3rd November
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Grow Your Group, Session 2 (1st Hanwell) – 4th November 1-5pm
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Remembrance Sunday Parade – 11th November
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Modules 14,15 & 18 (Supporting Young People) PACCAR – 17th November
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Modules 12B, 13, 19 (Great Programmes) PACCAR – 18th November
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Young Leader Training – 24th November@LH
December
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Grow Your Group, Session 3 (1st Hanwell) – 2nd December 1-5pm
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Scout Managers Training – PACCAR 1st – 2nd of December
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District Cub event (date TBC) – Christmas gang show or similar
January 2019
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District Beaver Sleepover – 23/24 March (at SAC)
February 2019
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District Beaver Party – 2nd February
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Young Leader Training – 3rd February@LH
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February Freezer Camp – PACCAR 15th February
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District Cross Country (all sections) – date TBC
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District Cub event – 5 aside football – date TBC
March
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Young Leader Training – 30th March@LH
April 2019
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St George’s Day Parade 28th April (pm)
May 2019
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District Cub event – Athletics – date TBC
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Young Leader Training – 19th May@LH
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GLMW’s All American Adventure, Paccar – 24th May
July
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Young Leader Training – 6th July@LH
Summer 2019
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Camporee (District Cub Camp, week-long) – July 2019 (dates tbc)
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World Scout Jamboree, Scout Mondial, North America 22nd July – 2nd August
2020
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WINGS – 25th July – 1st August, Windsor Great Park