Northern Europe District Newsletter - February 2017

PHOTO: 1st Prague Scout Group - The Czech Republic

Apply for a national Scout Award for someone in your Scout Group.

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Queen’s Scout Award in Sweden!

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Northern Europe District Scouts—British Scouting Overseas

The District Commissioner Welcome to the Northern Europe District newsletter. I hope you have all had a good Christmas and New Year break and your programme plans for 2017 are in full swing. This February newsletter brings you information about the upcoming District camp planned for May 12-14 as well as other news about the District. As usual, many thanks to all of you for your dedication and support.

Dominic Afriat DC Northern Europe

The District Team Following on from the appointments announced in the last newsletter, I am delighted to announce two more for Cubs and Adult Support.

Irina Krishnan has accepted to take on the role of ADC Cubs and Christina Marr has agreed to take on the role of Adult Support. As with all the ADC and Commissioner roles, the plan is to reach out to all the groups and sections in the District to offer programme and other support. The District Camp is the next highlight on the District calendar and all section supporters can expect to hear from their respective District section lead on how the plans are shaping up, and what you can do to help. Once that event is over we will turn our attention to the autumn activities planned, and furthermore, I hope to announce plans for a district wide leaders Natter ‘n Noggin gathering in 2018.

With all the winter celebrations and the beginning of a busy term at Central Brussels I have not had the opportunity to email all our beaver leaders. I hope to do that as soon as possible and of course I count on all our wonderful Group leaders to help me with that by helping me find all their addresses ;-).

It would be good if we could have a small online meeting with at least one beaver leader from every colony planning to attend District camp to coordinate the programme. I’ll do my best to schedule something at the end of February/beginning of March to allow us enough time to be ready for the big day!

In the meantime please feel free to email me any ideas, and also it would be great if you could participate in our facebook forum at https://www.facebook.com/groups/314243962281322/ I really hope that together we can build a group there to encourage each other, share ideas and help each colony as best as we can.

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Northern Europe District Scouts—British Scouting Overseas

Hello, Everyone. I’m Irina, the new Assistant District Commissioner (Cub Scouts).

I was a Brownie growing up but life led me to other things over the years. It was only when my daughter became a Rainbow that I returned to Girlguiding and later, became involved with Scouting in 1st Brussels with my husband when our son became a Beaver. I remain active as a Guider.

In 1st Brussels, I started off as an SA for a few months before our BSL suggested that we become leaders since we were already working on programmes and doing what leaders did. We gave it some thought and decided to go for it, taking our Promise at District Camp in 2015, completing our Wood Badge and gaining our Nights Away Permit last year.

In the midst of this, we were asked to start up a Cub pack in Central Brussels. We considered this for a while. As our son would be moving up to Cubs and our daughter was keen on the idea of being both a Brownie and a Cub at that time, we said yes. Hence, in January 2016, 12 children became the first cubs of Sherrington Cubs.

It’s funny how things turn out and in the past year, I found myself enjoying being a Cub Scout Leader. We’ve grown to 21 Cubs now and each meeting is something to look forward to for both leaders and Cubs. Seeing our first batch of Cubs grow in the past one year gives us a sense of pride as we witness how far they have come.

The achievements and skills they have gained as well as the maturity they have reached as Cubs are admirable.

As ADC (Cub Scouts), I will support Cub Scout leaders in the District in matters relating to our Section and coordinate more District wide programme themes. I also hope to draw from the experience of and provide support and encouragement to fellow leaders as we continue to work together to provide a balanced programme for our Cubs, whilst upholding the fundamentals, policies and rules of Scouting.

I realise I have quite a lot to live up to and will do my best.

With the upcoming District Camp in May, we will need the help of Cub leaders in the District to make arrangements and prepare the Section’s camp programme. I propose a kick-off meeting to brainstorm together based on the camp theme announced. For this purpose, and to also enable leaders in the Section to share ideas and matters of concern, and to facilitate training, the following methods of communication have been set up: Email: adc_cubs@bsonortherneurope.org SkypeID: ADC Cubs Northern Europe For larger group meetings and webinars: GoTo Meeting I will be in touch with the details of the kick-off meeting shortly. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Irina Krishnan

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Is it too late to wish you all a happy new year? Well happy new Scouting year then! Already in January we had a joint Winter Camp between 1st Waterloo (International), 1st Brussels and Central Brussels, in total 41 Scouts and 7 Leaders attended and had a fun but chilly weekend at De Kluis. Please see their movie (click).

Over the weekend of 18th -19th March, Telstar and 1st Waterloo (International) will run a joint PL/APL camp in Luxemburg, please let Andrew Know if you wish to also attend. Wheels on fire at 1st Brussels Scouts as they prepare for their annual Pinewood Derby finals on 11th March – wheely good fun!

Please let me what is going on in your Scouts sections, I am keen to learn from you and to meet as many troops as possible this year on your home turf.

Youth Shaped Scouting is all about ensuring that the young people who enjoy scouting in Northern Europe District, get the opportunity to shape their scouting experience in partnership with adults.

Youth shaped scouting is about evolution, not revolution. It’s about giving young people greater opportunities to give their views and opinions, and making sure that we listen to these, and act on them.

The links below provides ideas and resources for leaders and young leaders to make implementing youth shaped scouting as easy as possible, seeks to answer any questions you may have, gives information about opportunities for young people to become more involved in shaping scouting.

#YouShape 2017 resources Activity Inspiration Pack - http://bit.ly/2jR5Di7 You Shape 2017 - http://bit.ly/1UItKwp

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Compass Focus Many thanks to all of you who have taken a look at your online records. Our new Appointments Secretary John Nordkvelle, is going through all pre-provisional and provisional records and checking to see what is needed in order to get the role fully active. If you have any questions or concerns please contact John or Dominic and we will do everything we can to help.

Safeguarding/Yellow Cards All leaders are expected to renew their awareness of the safeguarding training at least once every 5 years. You’ll remember safeguarding as a topic by the “yellow card” that you received at some point in your initial training. In order to successfully renew this awareness there are a couple of avenues open to you.

Ideally you would have the opportunity to review the safeguarding requirements in a face to face training session, run locally. Due to the geographic nature of the District this isn’t alway easy to achieve. Debbie is offering a range of online webinars for you to renew your Safeguarding. These are:

MON - FEB 20TH 19:00 TUES - MARCH 14TH 19:00 WED - APRIL 26TH 19:00 THURS - MAY 18TH 19:00 FRI -18TH JUNE 08.00 All times are Local UK Time (GMT). Each session is expected to last about 90 minutes. All enquiries and bookings to Debbie Phillips (debbie.phillips@bsomail.org.uk).

If your personal safeguarding training is overdue (please check your training records on Compass) and if you don't have the option to attend the webinars above, you can always run through the online training material (click link). Take notes as you review this and then contact your training advisor to get it validated and reflected on your Compass records.

Make your YouShape pledge Have you become a Bronze YouShape Group or Section yet? It’s super easy to do: just go to the YouShape page, print off the YouShape pledge, and get all the adult volunteers and Young People to commit to being more Youth Shaped this year by signing it!

Throughout the month, keep working towards becoming a Silver and possibly even Gold YouShape Group!

For more information see page 4.

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Northern Europe District Scouts—British Scouting Overseas

Data protection In this day and age we all use IT for managing our records in one way or another. OnlineScoutManager has become an irreplaceable tool for maintaining your records in your section with its easy to use badge awarding features. The Scout Association must be delighted with all the extra revenue that is generating!

More seriously, there are rules about the nature of personal data that can be recorded electronically and it is important that we are all aware of these. The Scout Association offers detailed guidance on this matter: Data Protection and Scouting (click).

There is 1 basic matter that is essential for you to master: Do you have all the required permissions from your scouts and parents to use the personal information you have? The most delicate matter is related to photographs and how to share them. Our recommendation is that you should unambiguously request permission from parents in membership and subscription forms to take and use photographs for publicity. You should make it clear whether you intend to occasionally use such material online. If a parent does not give you such permission, or requests that you remove a photo from an online repository, you must react accordingly.

The following sentence covers all aspects of the permission you should seek from parents: “On occasions, photographs, videos and audio of Scouts taking part in activities may be submitted to the local newspapers, the Group, District or County newsletters, websites or put on display. If you have any objections please indicate you are not willing for your child's image to be used in this way by ticking the box.”

British Scouting Overseas Adult Forum www.facebook.com/groups/BSOAdults/ This group is for adult helpers/leaders in British Scouting Overseas - A place to share best practice, ask for advice, post good news stories, get information from the Area and organise some awesome events!

People will only be allowed to join if they are an adult member of BSO, this will be checked by the Area Comms team before accepting a joining request.

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Northern Europe District Scouts—British Scouting Overseas

DISTRICT CAMP May 12th-14th 2017 District Camp Theme and Badge Design Competition Many of you are surely waiting with baited breath for the next District camp, the highlight of the District scouting calendar (May 12-14). You’ll be delighted to hear that the theme for the next camp is “Scout Games 110”, in celebration of the 110th anniversary of scouting and the fact that we will be running a games activity afternoon on the event field for all campers.

In order to ramp up a sense of expectation we are running a district badge design competition. Badge designs should be circular, composed of no more than 8 colours and reflect the District identity and the theme of the camp (in other words, Northern Europe, Games and the 110th anniversary of scouting). The competition is open to all members of the District (adults and scouts, attending or not). Please communicate this competition to all your members. Closing date: 12th March 2017. Please submit your entries with a scanned copy of your design to badge@bsonortherneurope.org .

As mentioned above, this year's district camp will differentiate itself from previous editions by the main event field at de Kluis being used for all sections to enjoy sporting games of all forms. In the coming weeks each group and section attending the camp will be invited to contribute to the programme planning. If every adult could come to the camp with 1 idea for running a sporting activity or game, then we should be able to occupy all 500 YPs (beavers, cubs, scouts, explorers, networks and adults) all afternoon.

District Communications Don't forget to take a look at our new District website, it will be regularly updated and will contain links to forms, documents and files relating to the district as well as providing news on what is happening and some previous events. The site also has a link to our new online Nights Away Notification Form, so if you are having a nights away event please give it a go. www.bsonortherneurope.org Communications in a district such as ours relies heavily on your email addresses being correct. So if The Scout Associations Compass database does not have your latest email address, then please log in and make the change otherwise you may not get communications you need.

Have you seen our Facebook Page www.facebook.com/ bsoneurope/ please like this and invite your friends to like it as well, it will also let you know what has been happening in the District.

Simon Burgess - District Communications Officer

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comms@bsonortherneurope.org Northern Europe District Scouts—British Scouting Overseas

QUEEN’S SCOUT AWARD Congratulations to Becca Felgate of 1st Djursholm, Sweden, on the successful completion of her Queen’s Scout Award. An amazing accomplishment and very well deserved.

The Queen's Scout Award is the top award in Scouting, the requirements for this award need more effort than the Duke of Edinburgh's (D of E) Gold Award! If you go the right way about it, by making sure that the you register for the Gold D of E award when you start on the Queen's Scout Award you can get both without any extra effort.

Other news hot off the press, UCAS have now started listing Scouting awards as part the online university applications process. For many years the Duke of Edinburgh awards have been seen as the best way to get extra curricular activities easily recognised on the university application form. in August 2016, UCAS have revised the list of qualifications that they reference, and 5 scouting awards are now very prominent in the list.

From a scout leader perspective, the scout awards are easier to administer because the dual governance with DofE and assessor training is not required. The variety of the scouting awards is possibly more interesting for YPs as well.

District Commissioner, Dominic Afriat said, ‘Having had a glance at Becca’s Queen’s Scout award, I can say that it is a cracking certificate to frame and treasure. It really looks the business and something to be proud of’.

In order to complete the Queen's Scout Award you must register your interest with the UK Programme Team at Headquarters.

Please complete the form below, including as much information as possible. You can begin your QSA at the age of 16.

Queen’s Scout Registration—http://bit.ly/2jPDdbX

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Northern Europe District Scouts—British Scouting Overseas

NATIONAL SCOUT AWARDS Page 9

As you may know, the Scout Association has an awards scheme for volunteers who deserve special recognition for the support they provide the movement. These awards are more than just longevity awards and are intended to recognise those of you who go the extra mile to make the difference. They are not awarded automatically simply for long service. Although some awards can be made at any time of year, the higher awards are typically announced on St George's day. In order to receive a St George’s day award, the recommendation must be submitted before September the year before.

If you would like to discretely recommend someone in your local area who makes a phenomenal difference to the successful delivery of scouting, please review the Scouting Awards Process (click), and complete the nomination form.

Let Dominic your District Commissioner, know if you want to submit a recommendation. As a general rule, the nominated person should not have received an award in the 5 preceding years, they should have fully completed the training for their present role and they should have all the necessary background checks in place. Please make sure you have submitted to Dominic the completed recommendation well in advance of 1st September.

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Northern Europe District Scouts—British Scouting Overseas