Annual Report 2025
AGM 05-07-2025
Chair’s report
I am now in my second year as chair and continue to be impressed by, and grateful for, the dedication and expertise shown by our leaders and volunteers.
The work to implement the scouting movement’s changes in local governance is largely implemented. The trustee board is reflecting on how best to invite parental engagement and to ensure sustainable workloads in an organisation which is run by volunteers whose time is at a premium.
I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming Family Camp where we will have time together as the 2/88 scouting family. We will hold our AGM at the camp and also have an informal opportunity to share thoughts and ideas about how the group might develop in the coming years.
Mike Arundale (Chair of Trustees)
GSL’s (Lead Volunteer) report
Leadership
We are still short of leaders especially in Tuesday Beavers, Monday (Celts) cubs and the scout troop.
Garden
The garden is looking better than ever, and will be judged soon as part of Didsbury in Bloom. A big thank you to Helen Hampson, Rosemary Fielding, Hillary Lowe, Christine Taylor and Penny Robinson for all the work they put in throughout the year to keep it looking so good. If you would like to help get in touch with Helen
Scout association changes
The new scout association database is not working as effectively as was hoped and 6 months down the line is making Brian and Keith’s job much harder than it should be.
Olly Murphy-Tinsley, one of our cub leader has gained his explorer belt and Silver DofE. He is now well on the way to gaining his gold DofE and King’s Scout Award. Well done Olly
Brian has settled into his additional role as deputy group lead, he is doing a sterling job supporting Keith and the group.
David Leitch, our group President, has decided to no longer have a formal position in the group After 37 years of involvement. He has been on the executive committee for most of that time, being Chair for many years. He has sent his apologise as he will be celebrating a significant birthday over the weekend. We would like to express our thanks for his many years of support, involvement and dedication to our group. Although he is stepping back he has expressed an interest in keeping up to date with the group and his connections with the local community will still be invaluable.
Many thanks, to all our leaders and supporters, who are all volunteers. Well done.
Keith Hampson
Joint Group Lead
Treasures report
The bank account balance as at 31/03/25 was £28,970.47 which is similar to the previous year.
Expenditure was £26,742.66 which is showing as lower than previous year this is because the group did not get the invoice for the rent which is £1350.00 until after the year end.
Cleaning and maintenance have an increase on spending because sound proofing was fitted to the Lodge at a total cost of £7376.40 but only half the cost is showing in these accounts, the remainder of the cost was paid after the year end. Another area of increased spending was equipment as some camping equipment had to be replaced.
Income was up because I did three years gift aid returns and this brought in a total of £7314.04.
I would like to ask any parents or guardians that pay their child’s subs and are a tax payer to please sign up for gift aid as this is a valuable source of income.
Pat Ramsden
Group Treasure
Beaver report
We have had an extremely busy year in beavers with lots of games, badge work and an activity day when we visited cub camp. A total of 461 badges have been gained, 7 of which were Bronze Chief scout awards which is the highest award that can be gained in beavers. We have not been able to have a sleepover as there is only myself who is able to supervise one and this year I had other commitments. We continue to need more volunteers to help us and we’re grateful for the assistance of those who help on a rota. On a Tuesday we currently have Claire and me who are lead volunteers, 2 young leaders and 3 parents who help regularly. Unfortunately for us their children are moving up to cubs in September so we will be short of assistance in September. On a Wednesday I am the lead volunteer assisted by 4 regular helpers, at times they are unable to be there due to job commitments, along with one young leader. Rowan Bridge is no longer able to help us due to increased work load and we appreciated his assistance.
On behalf of all the parents and beavers I thank all those who have been able to give their time to help at beavers, it is much appreciated
Helen Hampson,
Beaver Lead volunteer
Cub report
Key Badges, across both packs from start of April 2024 to end of March 2025
6 Chief scout silver, 70 challenge badges and 372 in total
Membership, as of 18 June
Due to a lack of leaders possibly driving a reduction of intake at beavers age the both packs have reduced in size.
Celts may have a waiting list, but the two current volunteers are not able to accept any more.
Celts 18, with 1 young leader, 2 uniformed volunteer leaders, and some 3 key parental helper at times
Saxons 21, with 2 YL, and 5 uniformed volunteers, though one is rarely present due to studies and some others have work commitments that take them away at times. There are some parent helpers
Forecast,
This term mean attendance is about 16 for Celts and about 17 for Saxons
7 Celts and 7 Saxons are due to move to scouts at Christmas this year
We do get enquiries for others to join but are restricting it to incomers from Beavers
Highlights of the year
In April 2024 we took 2 teams to Pip Hartley Memorial walk, along with the scouts and explorers teams and
In June 2024 we had a summer camp at Dunham and took part in a range of activities, this was greatly helped by having a few parent helpers in addition to the uniformed volunteers
In Autumn 2024 we had sixers and seconders camp in …
In March 2025 we entered 3 teams into Pip Hartley Memorial walk, and supplied 2 cubs to make up a shortfall in another team. One of our teams won, another came third and the other placed mid-table. Irrespective of the results this was a successful trip. If we hadn’t had a few parents come to help with the kitchen work we would only have been able to take 8 cubs, and not the 14 who went.
In the past year, one uniformed volunteer has obtained a nights away permit, and one has been training for his Summer Terrain hiking permit.
Matthew Cameron (for the cub team)
Scout report
We have had a fun year with the scouts and currently have 20 scouts with an average of 18 turning up each week.
We have upto 12 new scouts joining us from cubs in the Autumn. This is concerning us as we believe the hall and leadership resources will struggle to cope with these numbers. We believe that 24 attending is the max we can handle. We do have upto 5 scouts that will reach explorer age in the year but this will be in Spring / Summer and so we may have to stagger cubs coming up to scouts.
The numbers are not enough for two nights of scouts and even if they were we do not currently have the leader resource to manage two nights.
The program this year has been varied and combined physical challenges, new skills , life skills, teamwork and lots of fun. Which is a balance our scouts have enjoyed.
We also had 2 teams enter pike view hike and will look to do the same next year.
Leadership levels have been challenging this year with myself out for 8 weeks and changing job this summer, plus 2 leaders out travelling for 4 months. So a big thankyou to Alistair and James for holding it all together and our young leaders Edmund and Matty for their weekly support. These challenges have limited our ability to support a big camp this year and with only 3 on summer camp last year we are looking at options for nights away for 25/26 that reflect demand.
Next year we are looking to maintain support in the program plan for those that want to work towards their chief scout award. Then trying to have nights away in shorter blocks and different times in the year that supports leader and scout availability.
Peter Mayhew
Phoenix Scout Lead
DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)
We have had another strong year in Explorers this year with membership at 24 and regular attendance at meeting between 16 and 20. Our leaders this year are Brian, Kevin and a new leader Michael, this year we have been able to reduce the support required from Keith. I’d like to thank Kevin, Michael and Keith for their help this year.
We have had a very successful year with a very enjoyable summer camp held in Halifax which required the explorers to make their own way on public transport. This was a huge success and we intend to use the form of transport to and from camp again in the future.
We have a number of young leaders in the group which provide support to other sections both within 2nd Didsbury along with other local groups.
This year we have awarded 6 explorers with their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award and 2 for silver Duke of Edinburgh. We have also have a number working towards their platinum Chief Scout award. Congrats to all the young people on their efforts.
Brian Cosgrove
Explorer Scout Lead