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Hello and thank you for reading the
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Aprl edition of
Contact. 4
The DC
Our District Commissioners
6
Gang Show
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St Georges day
A look back at our 2017 show and our adventures in the Isle of Man!
This year’s community event
10 Cubs Our new ADC Cubs 11
Meet The new DCs
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Bear’s grill
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ADC Scouts & Group News
Getting to know Matt and Jordan
A quick curry!
14 Explorers Barnstondale weekend
Contact
A lot has happened in the couple of months since the last issue of our District magazine. Gang Show took over the lives of many of us and although it now seems like ages ago, none of the cast, crew or backstage teams are likely to forget our few days in the Isle of Man in a hurry! From a personal point of view the travelling itself was a huge adventure which involved 12 hours in the airport en route to the island and then the ferry crossing from hell on the way home! The show was a great success and I hope you enjoy reading producer Graham Lysaght’s piece in this issue. Matt and Jordan have held their first meetings of the newly assembled District Team and have met the Group Scout Leaders for the first time. You can read about their plans in this issue and we’ve also had a chat
Birkenhead District Scout Council
I hope you enjoy this months offering and I look forward to bringing you pictures of our St George’s Day event and from the Scouts Challenge weekend in the next one! Paul Ellis
Birkenhead Scout Network
15 Balls Road, Oxton, Wirral CH43 5RF
Please email content to : SMO-MediaTeam@ birkenheadscouts.org.uk
with them to find out a bit more about them.
There will be a relaunch of the
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Compiled by : Paul Ellis Tel: 07720 555885 paul.ellis @birkenheadscouts.org.uk
Cameron Haslam from the 64th Sea Scouts receives the Spikey Award from Gang Show producer Graham Lysaght. The award is presented in memory of former cast member James Poynton.
on Friday 7th April Scout Network is the fifth section of The Scout Association’s youth programme and is for all young adults aged 18-25. https://www.ukscoutnetwork.org.uk/
at Price Street Business Centre 8-9:30 for Archery More details from Matt Proctor on 07857 348786
... s g n i l b m a R ’s The DC
Firstly, we would both like to start off with a few Thank Yous!
of where Birkenhead will be in the next 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years’ time!
A Thank You to everyone in Birkenhead for their patience and kind words whilst both of us settle in to our new roles – we have had a very busy couple of months but I think we are now nearly all settled! Also, another massive Thank You to Paul Coleman who has steered the District for the last five (nearly) years with poise and grace and also many thanks for supporting us both over the last two months. And the final thanks go to our District Team for their support and enthusiasm for change.
By now I am sure that the news from the County team will have made its way to you, our esteemed County Commissioner Alan Seeley has informed us that he will be stepping down this April and that our Regional Commissioner Andrew Corrie will be starting the recruitment for his replacement very shortly. Our sincere thanks to Alan for his loyal and enthusiastic leadership of Merseyside over the last four and a half years which has seen incredible growth and development over this time. Alan leaves us in a place where we are youth shaped, we are growing naturally and now have our own Growth and Development Officer to aid this growth and where we have a full team of passionate individuals to offer support and advice to our leadership teams in groups and districts alike.
Since the last Contact we have also held our Gang Show which was, once again, a phenomenal performance and anyone that didn’t go down to see it missed an incredible show! All the production team, cast, crew and band should be incredibly proud of themselves for putting on an incredible show! And then the adventure of them making their way over (eventually) to the Isle of Man in the wake of Storm Doris – and all credit to the team of people who worked tirelessly to get everyone over there to perform another amazing show! Well done to one and all! By the time this magazine will have been published we will also have had our first GSL meeting and District Team meeting. We have released dates to all the GSLs for 1:1s to have a catch up as to where groups are up to and what their plans are for their own groups. This way we can get a full picture of where Birkenhead is today and pull together a plan
Both of us are looking forward to working with Peter Oliver who will be the Acting County Commissioner until September where it is envisaged the new CC will take office. Massive congratulations to Peter for the appointment as Acting CC. Moving forwards the national strategy for Growth, Youth Shaped, Inclusion and Community Impact finishes in 2018 (vision 2018) – however having said this the thought at the moment is that this national strategy is not going to change massively and will be more about consolidating where we are now and continuing to improve this position.
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Moving forwards we have our own ideas of how we would like to develop Birkenhead, which are on brand with the National Strategy, so to speak. These are our six missions that we are going to be pushing forward in the years to come as well as other general aims such as growing and embracing new technology. But above everything else let us not forget the true purpose of Scouting:
Scouting exists to actively engage and support young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society.
Our mission for Bir
kenhead is:
1. To improve Lead er training 2. To be more Youth
Shaped
3. To work collabora tively with other d istr
4. Improve retenti on between sectio
icts
ns
5. Improve inter-se
ction relationships
6. Continue to mak e a positive contrib ution to society
Our values : d Integrity, Respect, Care, Belief an Co-Operation ace when The Scout Method – This takes pl adults, Young People, in partnership with es of work together based on the valu Scouting and; have fun - enjoy what they are doing and outdoors - take part in activities indoors & - learn by doing - share in spiritual reflection . - make and live by their Promise oices - take responsibility and make ch activities - undertake new and challenging
And finally, we would like to welcome our brand new Scout troop based in Foxfield School who are initially providing Scouting to the Cubs who left Scouting in either 1st Thingwall (Stanley School) or the pack in Ellery Park (Wallasey District). This is an incredible piece of work by our GDO Paul Coleman and we look forward to seeing them at district, county and national events. Yours in Scouting Matt Jones and Jordan Davies
! t I d i D e W # 7 1 0 Gang Show 2 Of course we did …. but only just let me assure you! Our Gladstone show couldn’t have gone any smoother and the cast and crews where just incredible for show week, our audience numbers really picked up in the final fortnight and we couldn’t have done anymore to promote the show, for everyone who came along I’m sure you’ll agree this year we really did push ourselves to celebrate our 50th Anniversary trip to the Isle Of Man, I couldn’t have been any prouder of everyone involved. I must say that it was still very disappointing to see empty seats and that some groups/sections didn’t come along to support the show in some cases we had cast members with their full/part section there and in others not a single person from their group attending, disheartening for the cast members who had no group and section support. The show is a very important part of Birkenhead Scouting and it is the biggest event we run, it’s our opportunity to really show the public and each other the talent that we
have in our district, I totally appreciate it’s not everyones ‘Cup of tea’ to perform on stage, but for members of the district who do enjoy it I feel that they should be supported as much as possible, certainly from their leaders. Our final performance on the Saturday was followed by a two and a bit hour get out of the theatre which involved us loading ‘very’ carefully all our sets, tech equipment, every thread of costume and nut & bolt from the show onto our huge lorry to be transported over to the Isle Of Man for our two shows there the following week. What could possibly go wrong!?! … let me tell you … So, 18 months previously I suggested a date to the show committee and we began working on that date for our adventure … no one could have predicted that date would be the one that Storm Doris was to hit the UK! #Doris The logistics of transporting 150 people just 66 miles doesn’t sound much … throw a piece of water in the middle of location A & B and
suddenly things become very complicated especially when you have a storm about to hit and half are going by ferry and the other half by plane …all of which have been cancelled! #Doris caused chaos with ALL our plans not just transport, accommodation, parents, food (we had chips ordered for 150 of us!) together with a tiny issue of two audiences who had bought tickets to see us that day for our matinee and evening show! What was totally bizarre was all show equipment had arrived the day before and was sitting at the theatre waiting to be unloaded! What happened over a very short few hours totally proved to me just how amazing our organisation is. Our show teams pulled together and made sure that firstly everyone was safe! We had people on the island who arrived at the theatre to unload our huge van, our coach company at the 11th hour rescheduled everything for us and transported 90% of the cast to the 2am ferry, some of our crew spent more than 12 hours on standby at the airport waiting for a flight!
7 Everyone coped so well with the changes that where occurring literally every few minutes at one stage, one very brave Cub, Eva Easdown who was petrified of sailing and had been booked on one of the flights for many months came to me and said she would go on the ferry even though she just knew she would be sick and was very scared! It was at that very moment I decided that #Doris was not going to beat us, no way! EVERYONE was incredible but without the will, drive, determination and utter focus from Yvonne Hazlehurst and Denise Durband we would just not have got everyone to the island. At one stage we were looking at arranging through a contact of mine that the RAF where going to fly 50% of the cast direct from JLA to Douglas. Only a handful managed to catch a flight at 8pm that evening with everyone else catching the 2am ferry and arriving at 6am the following morning. Exhausted! After a few hours sleep and a bacon buttie everyone was ready, surviving on adrenaline and supporting each other, it was incredible to see and be part of. Sadly we had to cancel out matinee show to allow the crews to rig the theatre and for us to have a brief rehearsal on stage, word had very quickly got around the island and our matinee audience had all realised the drama we all had getting to the island, they all transferred to the evening performance which gave us a packed theatre to perform to!
Our IOM cast joined us on stage and at 7pm on Friday February 24th 2017 and against ALL the odds we performed our 50th anniversary back at The Gaiety Theatre! It was and always will be beyond all our expectations on what we all achieved over those couple of days. Our island audience and Scouting on the island couldn’t believe what we had managed to pull off, they were blown away by just how professional our cast and crew were, I couldn’t have been prouder standing on that stage when the final curtain came down. #WeDidIt Our exhausted cast didn’t need much rocking to sleep that night and after a tiny drama with an ambulance for a certain show member, everyone settled down for the night for a very early start back by ferry to Birkenhead! Our show get out happened and just after 1am our crews managed to grab a very well deserved glass of sherry and even made friends with a local taxi driver who was very helpful! The 8am ferry from Douglas was a very interesting experience to watch as it left the harbour, it was even more entertaining for people onboard, who had a dreadful crossing home, the stories of how everyone was helping each other under very rough and tough conditions are
incredible. This was never going to be easy and only a week before did I tell everyone to expect the unexpected and that not everything will go to plan! None of us could have predicted the 48 hours that we eventually faced. It certainly will be a show and adventure for all of us to remember forever. The Gang made history with our 2017 show and the teams behind it were incredible, I’m extremely proud to have produced this show and with all the issues and dramas it brought us all so much closer together. Our show DVDs are available and if you have ordered and paid for one and still not received it then please do contact me. If you are still looking to order one again drop me an email and we’ll arrange it, they are a double dvd with both our Gladstone and Gaiety shows, they are fantastic and certainly #NotWorthMissing! Enjoy! It’s now time to pack away our red neckers for another two years … who knows what the future holds! Graham Lysaght For more photos see facebook.com/BirkenheadGangShow
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Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and adult members from Birkenhead Scouts will be celebrating St George’s Day with a Community Event in Birkenehad Park on
Sunday 23rd April from 12.30 - 16.30 This will be the first of many events held in conjuction with the Ranger Team at the park and as well as renewing our promises, we’ll be helping with some of their projects and having some fun too! Activities to include: Hedge planting Bulb planting Fire circle creation Woodland Scavenger Hunt Parachute Games Wide Games More details will be sent to GSLs in the coming weeks
Hi all. This is my first piece in contact as the new ADC Cubs. I’m looking forward to getting round all the groups and getting to see all the cubs. I’m still settling into the role so will hopefully I will be able to start coming to groups very shortly. Our St. George’s day celebration is coming up on the 23rd April. It is going to be community impact event based in Birkenhead Park 12:3016:30
All Cub leaders should have had an email with the details. The price is still to be confirmed but as soon as I have that information I will send it out.
The Shelterbox Scavenger Hunt is on the 7th May in Liverpool city centre and Cubs can enter. Having participated last year with my cubs and scouts it’s a fun day filled with challenges and a chance to learn new facts in Liverpool.
Our next Cub leaders meeting is on the 8th May at district headquarters. Any issues or questions please feel free to email me. Yours in scouting
I have now attended my first county ADCs meeting where I learned all about a sleepover Emma Fairclough emma.fairclough@birkenheadscouts.org.uk at Chester zoo.
Beavers, Cubs and Scouts from the 2nd Thingwall group helped the mayoress at the opening of the new Sainsbury’s store in Thingwall.
Meet the new District Commissioners! ‘Contact’ catches up with
Matt and Jordan in the first few weeks as Birkenhead’s joint DCs What have been your previous roles in Birkenhead and elsewhere: Matt : I’ve been in Birkenhead exactly one year and when I moved over from West Wirral I took on the role of Assistant District Commissioner (Cubs). Before I moved to Birkenhead I was a District Cub Scout Leader and First Response Course Director for West Wirral. Before having these roles I was the Assistant Group Scout Leader and Cub Scout Leader for 1st Thurstaston in West Wirral. I also held many roles in the West Wirral Gang Show and I was in the cast for eight years too. Jordan : I was Assistant Scout Leader at 2nd Thingwall and then an Explorer Leader with the old Paxton Unit. I later became the Scout Leader at the 2nd Thingwall before being asked to be a District Scout Leader and then my last role before this was as ADC Scouts. Let us know about the Matt and Jordan in the real world! Matt : In the real world I now work in the Health & Safety sector and work for Chester Zoo - I’ve worked there for two years and love it - it has to be one of
the best jobs in the world! However, before moving into the world of H&S I worked in Education and Training and have worked within early years settings as well as primary schools, wrap around school provision and external training providers. Jordan : Out of scouting I am a Heating Engineer which I have done now for nearly eight years. The best part of my job is that every job I do is different, No two jobs are the same. What’s your best scouting memory? Matt : It has to be being invested as a Cub Scout on Thurstaston Beach as the sun was setting. Jordan : My best Scouting memory is where I went Hawarden campsite for the first time as a scout, abseiling down the wall, it was then that gave me the climbing bug! What has been your proudest moment in Scouting? Matt : Winning the Cheshire Hike as an Explorer Scout. It wasn’t just the fact that we won but we adopted a very tired team who were thinking about dropping out and
in true Scouting spirit we carried them through to the finish line and finished together. Jordan : My Proudest moment has to have been when I took my troop to the Lake District to do water activities they had never done before (rafting, kayaking etc.). It made me proud seeing the enjoyment and sense of achievement on their faces once they had completed the weekend. What are you looking forward to the most in your new role? Matt : I’m looking forward to being able to work with everyone in Birkenhead to continue to push the district forwards, embrace new technology and advances to our programme and ensuring that we provide outstanding Scouting to even more people which means that as many people as possible will be able to take part in their very own Everyday Adventure. Jordan : I’m looking forward to working with everyone and taking the district forward, with fresh new ideas but keeping in the Scouting Tradition that I know everyone in Birkenhead loves!
Is there anything you’re not looking forward to? Matt : Endless meetings! We are going to work hard to only hold essential meetings, we are going to embrace new technology that we are hoping to roll out to everyone to make sure we stay in touch but don’t need lots of meetings to be able to do so and finally try and finish our meetings on time! Jordan : Not that I can think of, I know its a big role to take on and I know a few people have their questions, but trust me and work with me and you will see my passion for Scouting shine. In five years time what do you hope to have achieved? Matt : I hope that we have continued to grow, as this means we are doing something right! It also means that more people than ever will be enjoying their own Everyday Adventure. Jordan : I agree with Matt on this one, continuing to grow the District, to keep scouting a big part of not just my life but everyones. To share my passion for scouting with everyone in the District and continue on “One Big Adventure”
Bear’s Grill Instant Curry Sauce! Be prepared with a curry sauce. Here is a basic instant curry sauce, once you have this it is the staring point for a lot of dishes. Butter/Oil/Ghee for frying 1 or 2 onions peeled & sliced 2 Tsps Cumin Seed 2-4 cloves Garlic 1” piece of Ginger peeled & chopped 2-4 Tsps Tomato Purée or good squeeze Tomato Sauce 1/2 Tsps Chilli Powder-careful! 2 Tsps Paprika 1 Tsps Salt 1/2 Tsps Haldi/Turmeric 1/2 cup of Water (or can of Tomatoes) Heat Butter/Oil/Ghee in pan and fry the onions, high to start then low heat, for about 5-7 mins. Add Cumin Seed, Ginger & Garlic, fry for another minute. Add Tomato Purée and mix well. Add all other spices, mix well, cook for few seconds-low heat. Add water. Cover and cook-low heat-for 5-10 mins, stir frequently. Add extra water as req, make sauce as thick/thin as required. Enjoy, Will Redfearn
20th Cubs take part in the ‘Big Bang’ Science Night and Cubs and Beavers move up a section
Hi, I’m Matt and I’m taking over from Jordan as ADC (Scouts), most of you already know me through my Network role, Group role at 265th or through the District Exec. At the moment I am looking forward to my new challenge and hoping to meet you all over the next couple of weeks! As Jordan said in his last email, Challenge Camp 2017 is fast approaching on the weekend of 26th - 28th May, more details to follow soon! As always with Jordan, invite me to any events or troop nights, and contact me with any questions or info! I would just like to say thanks to Matt and Jordan for there hard work as t (Cubs / Scouts), and wish them luck in their new roles. matt.proctor@birkenheadscouts.org.uk
Our two Explorer Units took part in a working weekend at the Barnstondale Centre recently. This followed on from the success that the Viking Unit had there last year. Three working groups of Explorers were formed for the weekend this year and they took part in a variety of tasks around the site. Viking have said goodbye to three of their members who have reached the age of 18. We hope they’ll become a major part of the newly relaunched Birkenhead Network. The Wizard Unit has changed its meeting night to a Wednesday and has seen a rise in membership almost immediately. Both Units have booked their summer camps and a number of Explorers have been selected for a Merseyside county trip to Nepal next Easter. A large amount of fund raising will need to be done to assist in paying for the charity mission which will see them spend two weeks trekking and helping in a local school. More details in the next issue as their fund raising efforts begin! Paul Ellis DESC
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