Group Scout Leader's Report

How wonderful it is to be able to sit down to write about the last year at 2nd Inverness and I don’t need to write about social distancing, face masks, hand sanitiser, lockdowns and covid rules. Our year has seen us return to a degree of pre-covid normality. Whilst we ’ ve left covid behind we have taken one key learning from that period We are able to offer a better experience to a slightly lower number of young people at our weekly meetings, which is why we have reduced the section numbers this last year just a little bit

We kicked off the year in August by choosing our winning badge for out 110th year as a Scout Group There was a wonderful selection of entries making the job of choosing a winner particular difficult. Congratulations to Lucas Skinner on his winning design inspiring our celebratory badge

Our year has seen us ramping up activities back to more normal levels with a huge range of visits, outdoor activities and of course a more normal camping programme with the Scout Troop. Particular highlights have included the summer camp in Inverkip last July, a first stand alone expedition challenge for Scouts, Cubs hiking and Beavers enjoying some fantastic visits

I spoke last year about how we are continuing to support our adult volunteers with their training and we continue to make very positive steps here with both Helen and Iain completing their leader training.

We continue to be inundated with demand by parents of young people who want to join out 77 young people enjoying Beavers, Cubs and Scouts every week. For every young person we have now, we have another 1 who is unable to join due to our current adult volunteer levels. I can’t stress how much you do NOT need specialist skills nor do we seek a lifetime commitment Volunteering can be both fun an rewarding and most importantly you can fit it round your lif

We’re always looking to expand our teams at Beavers, Cubs and Scouts as well as our support teams on the committee. If you really don’t want to work with kids, maybe you can help by joining the team to maintain our premises, or help with some admin Towing a trailer to camp might seem a trivial thing, but it in itself is a massive support to the leaders. I’d encourage you to look at what you can offer to support us in the Group

As part of our modernising and moving formally to a teams based approach, after over 7 years as the Group Scout Leader, I’m pleased that Malcolm (a cub parent) has volunteered to work with me and we shall be carrying out this valuable management and support work as a team.

The strength of our adult volunteer team, leaders and committee has been key to us ensuring that we are a well resourced Group. We are always looking for volunteers so support the group. I do hope greatly to see parents (and grandparents) choose to get involved more with the group over this coming year, exploring out flexible volunteering options

Thank You

Graham Eden Group Scout Leader