Annual Report 2023

AGM 30-9-2023

Chair / GSL’s report

Lease
We’re pleased to report that after several years we have a new lease, the land registry records are now correct and that we have agreed with the solicitor a fee and paid it.

Leadership
Some sections are still in need of more leaders, especially the scout section. We used to have two scout troops and had to amalgamate them due to lack of leaders. The number in the one troop is such that we really could do with being able to start the second again but we can only do this if we have more leaders. Brian Cosgrove has taken on the role of Explorer scout leader and Kevin Lowe has agreed to be his assistant. Brian is also helping out with a lot of group admin.

Garden
The garden is looking better than ever, the garden was judged as part of Didsbury in Bloom. We do not know the results yet. A big thank you to Helen Hampson, Rosemary Fielding, Hilary Lowe and Penny Robinson for all the work they put in throughout the year to keep it looking so good.

Chair
Chris Pearse has asked to step down as chair. Chris has been chair since 2012 and has done sterling service helping steer us though the lease negotiations. We thank Chris for all his support over the years.

Many thanks, to all our leaders and supporters, who are all volunteers.  Well done.

Keith Hampson
Group scout Leader                                                   

Treasures report

Treasurer’s Report Financial Year 01/04/2022-31/03/2023

The accounts are still in a very healthy position with a credit balance of £38005.38 at 31/03/23.

We have ring fenced £10000.00 to pay for the legal fees which we will incur for the renewal of the lease of the land.

This year we have seen an increase in income over the previous year ie. Subs £14,952.30 and gift aid £1845.02 but we have also seen an increase in expenditure in part due to an increase in running costs for the hut.

Also the accounts show an increase in rent/rates this is because the rent for the current financial year had to be paid before 31/03/2023.

Another area of increased expenditure is on camps and activities as the group appears to have been more active. We collected £5427.70 for camps and activities and paid out £8523.35 this figure includes £717.84 for the previous financial year due to late submission of receipts.

I will shortly be submitting a claim form gift aid for this financial year.

Pat Ramsden
Group Treasure

Beaver report

We have had an extremely busy year in beavers with lots of games, badge work and 2 activity days. One to visit Eureka and the other held locally, these included an overnight at the scout hut for those aged 7.  A total of 321 badges were gained, three of which were Bronze Chief scout awards which is the highest award that can be gained in beavers.
We are keeping our numbers down due to the lack of spaces in cubs which meant that last term we had to hold back a number of beavers. We are hoping that spaces will become available in cubs but their moving onto scouts is restricted as we only have one scout troop due to lack of leaders.

We currently have 2 Lead Beaver volunteers (leaders) on a Tuesday with assistance from 4 parents who help and a young leader. On a Wednesday we have 3 Lead volunteers with the help of 5 other volunteers who help when commitments allow. At the moment we do not have a parent rota but call on them when needed, thanks to those who previously assisted.

Thank you to all my leaders for all their commitment.

Helen Hampson
Beaver Lead volunteer (Beaver scout leader)

Cub report

The two cub sections, Celts and Saxons, have continued to work together sharing a similar programme with special joint meetings and camps.  We went to Didsbury Park to allow a massive 44 cubs to gain their athletics badge in an action packed night in May.

In October we ran a successful Sixers and Seconders’ camp at Dunham Park. The smaller group of older cubs allowed us to focus on skills such as backwoods cooking, wood chopping and fire lighting.

Then in April, we were able to enter 3 teams into an extremely muddy Pike View Hike. As well as providing a suitable christening for several pairs of pristine new hiking boots, the cubs had a chance to practice their navigation and team working skills. We were also able to support Rama, one of our former leaders, to bring his new unit to PVH for the first time. We were very proud of all our teams, but especially the Saxon Steppers/Team Racoon that won the Pip Hartley Memorial walk beating teams from all over the North West and beyond winning a trophy and a giant novelty cheque.

In contrast, our large joint camp took place at Tatton Park on one of hottest weekends of the year in June. We were delighted to discover that Nikhil is a qualified watersports instructor so we were able to take the cubs kayaking alongside other activities of archery, go-karting and  backwoods cooking.

We have gained 3 much needed Leaders, 2 for Celts and 1 for Saxons, which has allowed Shere Khan to move to Scouts where he was desperately needed. We would thank him for his time with cubs, but he hasn’t been allowed to fully escape and was back running a meeting last week. Our Young Leaders, Will, George, Caelan and Maaria have been a huge help- thanks to them.  Our parent helper Yasmin moved on after her son transitioned to Scouts and Glenn joined as another parent helper-thank you both. The two Robs and Al helped us with our camps providing expert catering, washing up and cub wrangling skills. Thank you as well to them and to all the parents who helped with our outdoor meetings over the year.

We have awarded a huge 625 badges this year including an impressive 13 Silver Chief Scout cub awards, the highest award within Cubs.

We currently have 30 cubs in Celts and 25 in Saxons. As we move into Autumn we are planning another Sixers and Seconders’ camp and concentrating on badge work in the hut.

Claire Lydon (Celts, Monday cubs)
Matthew Cameron (Saxons, Thursday cubs)

Scout report

The scout group meets on a Wednesday with the number of scouts at 34 as we ended the year with an average of 24 coming each week.

It has been a busy and fun year for the scouts with a number of changes in the leadership team

We had 8 scouts go up to Explorers at Easter and 12 cubs come up at the end of the summer.

Our program has tried to balance badge work with practical skills and fun experiences. We've sampled climbing, route planning  hiking, winter survival skills, cycling , camping skills.  

We scouts have earned 77 badges and there will be more when I have a better mastery of OSM's system of awarding them.

Whilst we were unable to deliver a major camp we did enter 2 teams into the Pike View Hike competition and are looking to do more events in 23/24.

Simon our leader decided to take a sabbatical from December and the core Leadership team of Hannah, Dan and myself were bolstered initially by 2 parents Matt and Mike (Stars). Alistair has now joined scouts on a Wednesday, so we now have a stronger team, although with work commitments, we could do with 2 to 3 more adults in our team. 

We are looking to create more opportunities to get outdoors and have nights away this year and already have an event planned for Mid October.

Peter Mayhew
Phoenix Scout Leader

DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)

This year we have been rebuilding the leadership for explorers. We now have Brian and Kevin as the Explorer Scout leaders supported by Keith.  This year we have entered a team in the Bibby Farm Yomp, the explorer event at the Pike View Hike. We have also completed the expedition portion of the Duke of Edinburgh for 9 of our explorers we are now finalising the other parts of the awards and we hope to complete them over the coming months. We have had a joint summer camp with the scouts and have an upcoming camp in October. We are focusing on building the scouting skills of the explorers with a view to the young people being able to arrange their own camps. We have a number of the explorers who currently help in some of the other sections as young leaders and their help is appreciated by all the other leaders. Finally, we had one explorer attend the World Scout Jamboree in August in South Korea, it’s a great opportunity and they had a fantastic time despite some of the issue on the ground. We currently have 23 explorers and we are looking forward to a busy year ahead. 

Brian Cosgrove
Explorer Scout Leader

Annual Report 2022

AGM 1-10-2022

Chair / GSL’s report

Lease

We have a new lease but the solicitor is still waiting to resolve the land registry anomaly. He took on the job as a favour to the county chairman but it has proved to be a lot more involved than expected and we are likely to need to pay him a substantial amount.

Leadership

We had a successful recruiting day at Didsbury Festival which resulted in 2 new leaders. We still need more leaders, in all sections.   Some sections on paper look to have a good number but they are all not all able to turn up every week due to their work commitments often leaving the section with the minimum leader operating ratio which is not desirable. Rolando and Gemma have now moved to Colwyn Bay . Brian Cosgrove has taken on the role of running the explorer unit helped by Sarah Harris(leader recruited from Didsbury festival), Keith and Karen (leader at  241^st). The lack of leaders has meant that the Tuesday troop now meets on a Wednesday with the  Wednesday troop.

Garden

The garden is looking better than ever, the garden was judged as part of the  Didsbury in bloom . We do not know the results yet. A big thank you to Helen Hampson and Rosemary Fielding and Penny Robinson for all the work they put in throughout the year to keep it looking so good.

Many thanks, to all our leaders and supporters, who are all volunteers.  Well done.

Keith Hampson                                                                        Chris Pearse

Group scout Leader                                                                 Chair

Treasures report

After taking over as Group Treasurer from Matthew Rushton last October it has been a challenge for me as the handover has had some difficulties, which we will hopefully over come in the near future.

As regards to the Groups finances they are in a healthy position.

The Groups income for the financial year 21/22 has come from subscriptions and I will be submitting a gift aid claim in due course.  The way in which we collect the subscriptions from parents has changed from paying by standing order into the groups bank account to being collected via the Go Cardless system.

There has been no major expenditure, we have just paid out for the running costs of the Group and buildings.

It was decided at a recent executive meeting that we will ring fence £10,000.00 for legal fees that may be incurred extending the lease of the building.

Pat Ramsden

Group Treasure

Beaver report

We have taken into beavers 8 new beavers this term. We still have28 on the waiting list which is now closed except for siblings. We will assess the situation after Christmas.
We have had a busy year concentrating on badge work, but unfortunately no beavers gained their bronze chief scout award, which is the highest award in beavers. The Beavers have gained numerous badges including teamwork, world and personal challenge badges; activity badges - animal friend, cyclist, book reader, experiment, gardener and hobbies; staged activity badges - swimmer, hikes, emergency aid. We have not been able to have a trip out or an overnight as we have not had enough leaders to organise these events. The situation has changed as previously the leadership team had difficulties attending each week. We now have four parents who come on a regular basis and another person who is starting soon. We now are able to plan a trip and an overnight in December. We still have a parent rota but we may soon only be calling on parents when we need extra help.

149 badges have been earned over the year.

Thank you to all my leaders and to those who are able to help us

Helen Hampson

Beaver Scout Leader

Cub report

The cubs have been very pleased to be able to get back to our usual meetings this year, and ran a very successful joint camp in the Lake District in June. We all travelled up together on the coach on the Friday night, which is something we haven’t done before, and excitement was high by the time we arrived! There were lots of activities, which everyone enjoyed, including bridge building and climbing, and a big campfire together on the Saturday night. 

We also had some amazing parent helpers who got stuck in and lent their skills in wrangling and feeding large groups of Cubs and who hopefully learnt some new bridge building, campfire singing and climbing skills in return! We really appreciated all the leader and parent help for the camp and it couldn’t have run without them, so thank you to everyone involved.

We also had a number of joint meetings over the summer preparing for camp and also in the park, looking at the wildlife and plants and seeing how they changed across the seasons when we returned a couple of weeks ago. We have recently been focusing on getting some badge work done and are looking forward to running our sixers and seconders camp for the first time in a couple of years to help the older cubs work towards their Chief Scout Silver before they move up to Scouts.

There are now 26 Celts (Monday) and 33 Saxons (Thursday), with one young leader. Celts have a new parent helper and Saxons have two new (much needed) leaders this year. We also sadly said goodbye to one of our longstanding leaders, Rama, who has moved out of the area. However, we are still down on adult helpers and are only taking new cubs who have come up from the Group’s beaver colonies, until we have additional adult help.

This year we have awarded 304 badges, with a further 65 due to be awarded in the next few weeks (once we have had a restock!).

Claire Lydon (Celts, Monday cubs)

Matthew Cameron (Saxons, Thursday cubs)

Scout report

It has been a fun, yet tough year for the scout troop/s. As a result of the pandemic and a number of volunteers leaving the group, we had to merge our two troops into one. Phoenix troop meets on a Wednesday, and we have done our best to keep an interesting programme of activities. That said, we have been unable to offer many camps or overnight activities.

We are looking forward to a much more active and outdoor 2023 and we hope you’ll join us. If you would like to see us back to our full strength, in one or even two troops, we’ll need your help to make that happen.

Over the last 12 months the scouts have earned 171 badges.

Simon Jermy
Phoenix Scout Leader

DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)

This year we report that Gemma has moved away and is no longer our Explorer scout leader. Brian Cosgrove from Tuesday scouts has taken over the running of the unit until we can find a dedicated team to run the unit.

He is helped by Sarah Harris (recruited from Didsbury festival), Karen Heil from 241^st helps regularly but not every week and Keith is down most weeks too.

• 22 Explorers
• 39 badges have been awarded which includes 13 young leader and 6 Emergency aid
• Rohit for achieving the Platinum Award and Gold DofE (though school)
• Due to the change in the leadership team we’ve been playing catch up again.
• It is hoped that some explorers will do their Bronze DofE expedition next month

Explorer scout leader
Brian Cosgrove

Annual Report 2021

Treasures report

What a year that was.  Despite being closed for almost all of the year and stopping subs the Group ran at a surplus with grants from Manchester City Council and generous donations from parents offsetting the fall off in subs we experienced.  Works to improve the hut were completed in the year which the members are benefitting from now we have reopened for meetings

Chair / GSL’s report

Lease

The scout association hold our lease in trust, we have completed all the paperwork and we understand that,  the Scout Association has signed their part of the lease and it is now with the council to sign their part, it has been with  the council all lockdown where we assume it still is. Our solicitor that is dealing with it is still dealing with it and trying to get a signed copy from both parties.

Building work

All the building work has been completed. But now we need new frame and hidges on the hall external double door and all the external wall panels need sealing were  they  join.

Leadership

We still need more leaders, in all sections now, as although some sections on paper look to have a good number they are all not able to turn up every week due to their work commitments often leaving the section with the minimum leader operating ratio which is not desirable. Additionaly Rolando will be moving to Colwyn Bay in November and Gemma next summer. A number of existing leaders are helping at two section meetings, which is not ideal.

Garden

The garden is looking better than ever, the garden was judged as part of the  Didsbury in bloom . We do not know the results yet. A big thank you to Helen Hampson and Rosemary Fielding for all the work they put in throughout the year to keep it looking so good.

Awards

Brian Cosgrove, Claire Lydon, Matthew Cameron and Kevin Lowe were awarded the Award for Merit.

Alastair Turner, Rolando Johnston and Matthew Rushton were awarded the Chief Scouts commendation for good service.

Many thanks, to all our leaders and supporters, who are all volunteers.  Well done.
 

Keith Hampson                                                            Chris Pearse

Group scout Leader                                                     Chair

Beaver report

We currently have 28 on the waiting list having just taken 12 children off it to start in the Beaver section. The year has been difficult for the beavers and leaders as the beavers found it difficult to interact on zoom. We started back face to face in June by only having half the children indoors at any one time. Three weeks before the end of term we were able to combine the two nightly sessions onto one night. We all found it difficult as there were so many new children. We did try to catch up with badge work but again this was difficult so only one child was able to gain their bronze chief scout award, which is the highest in beavers. As yet we haven’t organised any outside activities as we don’t want to postpone any planned activity if there is an upturn of cases of covid.

We are struggling for leaders and Al has changed to help on a Wednesday night so that we have 2 registered leaders on each night. Claire and I run a Tuesday. Al and I run a Wednesday.  Rowan will hopefully be back with us in November but he is unable to help each Wednesday. Harshad has been unable to volunteer due to work commitments but we hope that he will be back in January. We also have 3 young leaders who help us run the evening, Junyad, Felix and Teresa. We are running a parent rota for each night so that we have enough assistance to run our programme.

Thank you to all my leaders and the parents who are able to help out on a rota.

Helen Hampson
Assistant Group Scout Leader for Beavers

Cub report

Saxons = 104 badges in total awarded  / 2 Silver Scout award.  36 Cubs, 2 Leaders. 1 Young Leader

Celts  =  0  Badges in total awarded.  33 Cubs, 3 Leader, 1 Young Leader

Last year was zoom zoom and more zoom, despite the constraints faced by the Section under Covid we still managed to get over 100 badges covered and two of our cubs were proudly presented with Silver Scouts Awards. Not to mention a number of District badges under the “At home” Scheme that were earned along the way.

Claire Lydon (Celts, Monday cubs)

Rolando Johnston (Saxons, Thursday cubs)

Scout report

Throughout the various lockdowns, Phoenix troop kept going, Zoom meetings included online escape rooms, cooking at home and an attempt at a video campfire. Since the summer term, Phoenix leaders also accommodated Griffin scouts on a Wednesday.

We’ve played games in the park, fire lighting at Abney Hall and a trip to Manchester airport to look at all the different models of planes.  Despite it being a very, very tough year, I’d like to thank the scout leaders for going the extra mile to provide some support and fun to our young people.

As for many groups and section around the country the pandemic has brought challenges to the Scout Sections. We are now looking at planning for the return to two sections. We are unfortunately in a position that we do not have enough adult leaders and adult helpers going forward and we are actively trying to increase our leader numbers. We will be encouraging as many parents as possible to help out on either a regular basis or become leaders. Without this help the section may not be able to restart both troops and may need to restrict new members. We have an opportunity to plan ahead, which we are hoping will allow the group to flourish long into the future.

Simon Jermy
Phoenix Scout Leader

DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)

 Aly Royle who joined as our unit leader just before Christmas 2020 Moved away from the area in the Spring.

• 27 Explorers
• Gemma White is the new Explorer leader supported by Keith, Matthew and Rolando
• 37 badges have been awarded
• Special mention to Frida for achieving the Platinum Award
• Special mention to Jessica for achieving the Platinum Award
• Rohit for achieving the Diamond Award, Silver DofE  & Young Leader Belt
• We’ve spent the majority of the year bringing the team back together and getting ready to start working on all the badges
• 2 camps coming up in the next few months
• YL training planned for a couple of weeks time

Gemma White

Explorer scout leader

Annual Report 2020

Treasures report

The Group has run at a deficit of £7,514 this year, with funds available reducing from £38,617 to £31,103 by the end of the year.  The deficit was driven by the investments we’ve made in the scout hut with improved access to the hut being put in place, refurbishment of the toilets, installation of a new kitchen and the extension of the storage space above the hall way.  The hut is currently having its flooring replaced so will be in a much better condition when we reopen.

We ran a stall at Didsbury Festival in 2019 and due to poor weather on the day raised around £400 for the group.  As ever, thanks to everyone who has completed a gift aid form – in May 2020 we claimed back over £6,000 from HMRC under the gift aid scheme.

Matthew Ruston

Group Treasurer

Chair / GSL’s report

Lease

The scout association hold our lease in trust, we have completed all the paperwork and we understand that, the Scout Association has signed their part of the lease and it is now with the council to sign their part, it has been with  the council all lockdown where we assume it still is.

Building work

All the building work has been completed with the exception of the flooring to the entrance, kitchen and Den, the contractor is waiting for it to become available again, it comes from France.

So when we can all go back you will see two modern toilets a modern kitchen and an extended stores area.

Awards

Congratulations to Helen Hampson, who has been awarded a Silver Acorn for specially distinguished service.

Family fun day

We reintroduced the groups family full day in July 2019. Which was well attended by all sections, it was held at the Abney Hall scout and Guide centre. It was thought it would become an annual event again, maybe next year.

Explore Unit

Our very active unit, since the new year has been experiencing significant leadership problems. Matt Dinnery has had to leave the unit and a new leadership team has yet to be sorted out which has not been helped by the Pandemic. We are trying to resolve the issue and will be giving Aly Royle our new leader as much support as we can.

Leadership

We still need more leaders, in all sections now, as although some sections on paper look to have a good number they are all not able to turn up every week due to their work commitments often leaving the section with the minimum leader operating ratio which is not desirable.

Badge summary

Despite our leader issues the following number of badges have been gained this year;
Beavers 398 badges of which 8 were Bronze Chief Scout’s Awards (CSA).
Cubs 302 badges of which 5 were Silver CSA.
Scouts 33 badges.
Explorers 50 Badges, of which 2 were Platinum CSA and 3 DofE Bronze

Many thanks to all our volunteer leaders and supporters, well done.

Keith Hampson                                                                        Chris Pearse

Group scout Leader                                                                 Chair

Beaver report

Currently we have 20 children on the waiting list to join beavers.

Due to the current Covid epidemic we have not brought any new children into the colonies since Easter. Those who started then have found it difficult to join in on the zoom meetings as they didn’t know other children and also what we did in Beavers. Tuesday beavers is at full capacity of 24 but Wednesday has reduced numbers. Hopefully when we start face to face meetings again we will be able to resolve the situation.

Up till March we had an active programme covering aspects of many challenge and activity badges including home safety, gardening, pancake races, tracking,  global issues.

Last year we did go to Stockport and do the frog trail, attend the Remembrance parade, some tracking in the village and attend the panto along with the cubs.

Unfortunately we could not go bell ringing or on a trip to Eureka with a sleepover at the hut. On a positive note the beavers gained a number of badges during lockdown and these were encouraged via the zoom meetings but not every child was happy doing working this way. The beavers did extremely well and gained parts of their challenge badges – personal, adventure, world and quite a number of activity badges - air activities, gardener, creative, builder, book reader, photographer.

Congratulations to the 6 beaver scouts who managed to gain their Chief Scout Bronze award the highest badge that can be gained in beavers.

My thanks go to all my leaders especially Al who ran the zoom meetings. We are all looking forward to starting beavers again as we’ve all missed seeing the beavers and the interactions of the meetings.

Helen Hampson
Assistant Group Scout Leader for Beavers

Cub report

Over the year since we last had our AGM both Cubs sections have had some fantastic adventures and the last few months have seen both Leaders and Cubs rise to the challenges of a Brave new world.

Some of the great things we’ve been up to.

• We had our first cross-section family fun day in a long while which saw all the sections meet for some fun and food at Abney Hall. I particularly enjoyed the Tug of War and of course the Camp Fire.
• We took part in a number of litter picks supporting the Friends of Didsbury Park.
• The Skills Camp that was organised for October 2019, was washed out due to torrential rains (the campsite was under ½ a foot of water) but our leaders rose to the challenge and organised an alternative Indoor Camp back at the Hut.
• We visited the Didsbury Library for a tour and to find out about the wonderful services they offer.
• Our Beaver Leader Rainbow organised for us to attend a Panto at Stockport Plaza
• Our Monday Night Leaders arranged a fantastic sleep over at the Catalyst science Museum, which saw us take part in a range of fun Science Experiments (I’ve still got my key ring)
• Our Cubs visited Moss-Side Fire Station and learnt about the day to day running of a fire station, with some Cubs and Leader getting to try on some of the gear.
• We’ve had Parents come in an teach us all about how viruses and germs spread as well as about Diabetes with some great experiments.
• We ran virtual camp which saw our cubs sleepover in their own back gardens and front room forts. 

How we are looking

64 Cubs
5 Adult Leaders
2 Leader who have just turned 18 and are moving up to become full-fledged leaders
3 Young Leader

Between September 2019 and September 2020 our cubs have earned 302 Badges - 5 of which are Silver Scout Award.

Claire Lydon (Celts, Monday cubs)

Rolando Johnston (Saxons, Thursday cubs)

Scout report

Griffin Troop (Tuesday)

Brian Cosgrove

Scout Leader

Phoenix Troop (Wednesday)

Around the time of our last AGM, we joined with others from 2^nd Didsbury to attend the Join in Jamboree camp at Linnet Clough (May 2019). None of us would have guessed that would be our last face to face camp for 18 months. The pandemic has been a tough time for everyone, in various ways. I’m pleased to say that Phoenix troop has been operating online since lockdown, and we quickly switched our autumn programme after the local lockdown was announced. We’ve played Taskmaster, a Harry Potter escape room and camped in our living rooms and gardens.

I’d like to thank all the scouts and parents for their patience, support and smiles. We’ll do our best to support you all through the winter.

 Simon Jermy
Scout Leader

DVESU (Didsbury Viking explorer scout unit)

The unit had a very successful year until the pandemic reared its ugly head.

They managed to get two camps in just before lockdown in March. They also took part in the group family activity day and made a weekend of it camping overnight. Members also took part in; the Border Hike, Expedition challenge and the Apex challenge last year.

The Cholton Bees  explorer unit started meeting with our unit from September as their HQ was being rebuilt which made meetings a bit over crowded, once we are back to normal they will go back to their  HQ . Aly Royle joined as a leader during this period and will be taking things forward once we can go back to face to face scouting.

Keith Hampson

Group Scout Leader