Wednesday 22rd June 2010

Annual General Meeting Edition

K.Scout is the Newsletter of the Derbyshire County Scout Council. All contributions and photos gratefully received and should be sent to news@derbyshirescouts.org for inclusion.

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Each year at this time it becomes more difficult to think how to start my annual report, I cannot go on with Brilliant, Amazing, Wonderful as I used those words last year and perhaps the year before. Maybe supercalifragilisticexpialidocious fits the bill because that is what last year was for thousands of young people in our county. Our years always do start with a bang 2013 being no exception. The County ball was enjoyed by more people and raised lots of money for the chosen charity. Rebecca and Lee once again doing a brilliant (that word again) job of organising. Still in January and a very Chilly Challenge - some 1500 Scouts, together with their leaders having a very Chilly camp in lots of snow. DC Debra setting a fine example by camping out twice - once with her District and once with the County. Young people having their say continued to be very much on the agenda throughout the year which is just as it should be. The Youth Council is going from strength to strength ending the year with a Christmas weekend at Drum Hill - lot’s of fun and food together with, as ever the serious sessions. Really pleasing are the districts that are now forming their own young persons councils, the most the most recent the wonderfully named I.Voice in Chesterfield. The Big Picture, our week end conference held at Lose hill hall Castleton, gave us the views of the County which over the course of the year has turned into our County Plan for 2014-16. It was great to see so many enthusiastic Scouters being so positive about Derbyshire Scouting. Thanks to Rita Stuart and Sue for organising. The various competitions in the County were all well attended and all received praise for their organisation both from within and outside of Scouting. Something all involved should

take pride in. The Four Inns for example has some 130 people on the day making the event happen, this not forgetting the mountain rescue team support. A new event in 2013 was the introduction of “Activation” a day of putting all our active support units on display by way of offering the chance for Scouts to sample all the County Active support units ( Mountain biking, Caving, Climbing, Walking, Sailing, Pioneering ) together with the Archery team and Air rifles based at Drum Hill, Ian Coope (and Hawk), caterers etc and again a stunning success so much so that this year it will be a two day event. You will have seen in Nick Cowards report the number of young people that have taken part in these activities over the year not counting those based at Drum hill it is a staggering 3000 young people being out and active. More importantly the leaders can offer such exciting activities to 3000 young people without necessarily having any ability in these disciplines themselves. A huge thanks to Debbie Steeples and Nick for all the work in making it happen as well as all the work involved in making the Derbyshire permit system a nationally recognised success. It was with pride I was able to welcome Wayne Bullpit,UK Chief Commissioner to our AGM at Butterly hall. He is a great supporter of all we do in the County, especially in the field of enabling young people. By we that is of course, the leadership who work with our Scouts each week. 2013 saw, with much support from Glyn Jones and Calow scouts, myself get involved with the national Scout car races at Darley Moor - an event brilliantly organised by Paul Elliot and team from 2nd Ashbourne on behalf of Derwent & Dove district. My surrogate team the 27th Derby, had a great day, winning a trophy into the bargain. I will be there again when time permits . An added bonus was the surprise

visit of Our Founders Grandson Michael Baden-Powell who took a great interest in the day having to be prised away by his host, our Secretary Tony Harvey . The National Scoutcar races are a brilliant event that I recommend to all. Jamboree selections for Japan in 2015 took place in all districts during the year and I am pleased that all districts will have representation at the world Jamboree. I have met the contingent and I am certain they will do the county proud as will the leadership team led by Catherine Hall-Jukes. They have a busy year of fundraising and team building ahead. International is also at the forefront with the first County organised Explorer belt Challenge taking place, this year to Denmark. The success really belongs to 2013 with Ben Lee and his team putting all the hard work into organising visiting Denmark in January making contacts and laying the foundation for what I am sure will be an amazing and enlightening experience for 33 yes 33 Explorer Scout and Network members. I am already looking forward to the 2014 AGM report to tell you of their success. Angela and Adey have done a sterling job over 2013 in building a first rate management team for Peak 2015 increasing the number of people able to attend to 7000, having a sub camp aimed at Explorer Scouts and Guide Senior section, a brilliant web site and so much more with an amazing amount of bookings. 1000 at the time of writing, already. Scouting in Derbyshire is so supercalifragilisticexpialidocious that I could go on forever. A glimpse into the future shows the County valuing its ADC’s for their expertise with a conference in November, Tim Kidd Chief Commissioner England being our guest. Beaver Bonanza again with a visit from

Wayne, the Network continuing to grow. Can they really build on the Queens Scout award success of 2013? I hope so. The introduction of Compass, the associations long awaited database update - helped in no small part by our own SL Chris Wood. Alton towers camp, further improvements at the county camp site, preparations for our 2015 conference looking at the CTY plan 2016 -18 and so much more. I know full well there are lots of people who I cannot mention in full in such a short report, for example the enabling of so much more on the training front brilliantly led by Sue Harris then there is Safeguarding, Additional needs, Awards, Activities, International, K. and K.plus editors, Martyn the Webmaster, Finance Sub committee, the service team at Drum Hill. as well as the sectional ACC’s who bring it all together. However special thanks must go to Dave Mitchell & Stephen Parker who are invaluable in the support they give to me personally and the County in general. The County Executive so brilliantly (that word again) led by our most able Chairman Carol Grew even here we are piloting a national trial re risk, based on our approach, driven by Carole. Everyone in Derbyshire can and should be really be proud of its Leadership, it’s Scouts and all those husbands, wives, partners, employers, that enable so very much to happen on behalf of our young people. Many many Thanks Tom

Once again I am very proud to report that Scouting in Derbyshire is continuing to develop on all fronts; support from the County Team: increase in the number of young people enjoying the activities provided by the Scout Active Support Units: the number of leaders completing training: improvements in the governance of the county, the list is endless. All this could not happen without the enthusiasm, dedication and commitment of everyone who is involved. The number and diversity of activities provided at local levels is mind blowing, all provided by volunteers who give their time and experience to help the young people in Derbyshire grow to meet their full potential. We have much to thank all the adults involved in Scouting for, the teams who provide the weekly meetings, our activity units who provide the support and training for the more specialised activities, the executives and of course the parents who support in many ways. Our communication is improving but we are still unable to get information out to all of our members. This is disappointing as it often means that some miss out on exciting events and opportunities. There is K.Scout our regular newsletter, K.Scout plus is a bi-weekly update, we are on Face book and Twitter and yet still some of our information and invites are not getting through. Once again I ask if you are part of a communications chain; please, please make sure that you are not the point where the information stops but that you are the one who cascades everything to as many as possible. We are trying to make sure the information is out there but we need everyone’s help to make this happen. The AGM is our opportunity to say thank you to everyone involved in Scouting, every job makes a difference and improves the life of a young person somewhere. My special thanks to Tom and county team who have done amazing work across all areas of the county. Activities, International and the County Camp Site are all coming on in leaps and bounds and hopefully you are all benefiting from this. There is great excitement about the Explorer Belt Expedition and of course the anticipation of Peak 2015 is starting to build. Many leaders have already started the preparations for the camp as well as doing their “regular” job in Scouting. Finally, thank you to all the numerous and wonderful people who give selflessly of their time to provide so many young people with fantastic opportunities and wonderful memories. Here’s to an even more successful 2014. Carole Grew County Chairman

I said it last year and I’ll say it again – ‘Where has that year gone?!’ So, so much has happened on the Peak front in the last year that it’s hard to know where to start. At the last AGM we presented, ‘hot of the press’, the corporate branding, logos, etc for the camp. Since then we have had advertisements in both Scouting and Guid-ing Magazines and the corporate boys have worked ex-tremely hard to launch the new website and get the sub camp badge designs done. If you haven’t seen it yet, please do drop by to the web-site. It has received so many favourable comments and the best thing about it is that it has been created by a Scouting volunteer – to design a website of that quality would have cost us a fortune in the ‘real’ world. The power of the website, Facebook and Twitter ac-counts along with the regular emails from both the Scout and Guide County administrators have made sure that both staff and units have registered their interest in com-ing to Peak and/or applied for and been appointed as staff. As I write this report the total number of campers (young people and leaders) that have registered interest in coming to Peak is 4125. On top of that we have 340 staff appointed to roles with another 160 on the database waiting for the role that they want to do to be advertised. Quite a big jump from last year when we had a team of 55! Looking at the countdown clock a moment ago it appears that we are a mere 65 weeks away from Peak!! All of the Peak Managers are working extremely hard along with their respective deputies and team leaders and Peak is shaping up to, once again, be a great ex-perience for all who attend. Angela and I are always pleasantly surprised when it comes to the Managers meetings and we get the reports about what’s been hap-pening, what’s been sourced and who’s been appointed to what roles. The only worry I presently have is that the opening cere-mony is being kept a secret from us as Organisers and when asked by Dave Mitchell if there was anything I wouldn’t like to do and I replied ‘Well I wouldn’t be too keen jumping out of a plane’, I was slightly worried by his response of ‘what? Not even if you were attached to someone?’. Needless to say we will wait and see what they have in store for us. I won’t go on anymore, there is loads more info to be found on the website and I am always on email or the end of the phone if you have any queries. 14 months and counting!!!!!

2013 has seen the Team continue to provide help and support to Leaders and Groups across Derbyshire. It has been very busy and one that has seen a number of changes being made which we hope will prove to be beneficial in moving Scouting in the County forward. In the early part of 2013, Sue Harris took over the role of County Training Manager from Sally Eccles who had been in post for a number of years. Sally had worked very hard improving all aspects of training throughout the County including updating the training records and moving courses around the County. Once again I would like to record our thanks for all effort she put into bringing training to the fore in Derbyshire. Sue’s task was to build on the work that Sally had started and to improve the take up of places on training courses. After spending some time talking with TA’s and Leaders asking them what they would like to see the training team provide a number of changes have been implemented. These include more flexible training being delivered alongside more weekend “drop in” modular courses. Training Advisors updates have been run together with training courses for people who can deliver the new safety training. These have both proved to be very successful. During the year we undertook a review of the training fees and costs which resulted in us being able to offer free training courses, with the exception of the residential night’s away course, for 2014. We hope that this will encourage more leaders to complete their training obligations. The training team’s efforts have been rewarded with record numbers of people completing their Wood Badge. Safeguarding is very important in Scouting and Liz and Jess have been very busy supporting leaders and running safeguarding courses throughout Derbyshire. Liz has also completed the task of updating the records of everyone who has undertaken their safeguarding training. If your District has not held a recent safeguarding course, please give Liz a call so she can arrange a visit.

During the year the Drum Hill, the County Camp Site, was very busy with increased camper nights from Groups inside Derbyshire and an increased use of the on-site activities. The usual events and competitions that take place at the hill continued and this was supplemented by bookings from schools and other community groups. In addition to the general maintenance to the site, improvements were made to the site lighting along with work to upgrade the buildings. The major project that was undertaken during the year was the replacement of the entrance road to the site. This road has been widened and resurfaced with the aim of giving improved access for campers and visitors to the site. The activity teams have continued to provide a wide variety of activities for both campers and evening visitors. Lesley and her staff teams put in many hours of work to ensure that the site is ready to welcome our visitors. The media team have continued to produce the excellent K.Scout and the weekly update K.Scout+. This provides everyone with up to date information on what’s happening in Scouting across Derbyshire. If you do yet receive a copy please sign up though the counties web site. We are still looking for someone to take up the role of Media Manager and if you know of anyone who might be interested please let me know. In conclusion, I know it has been a very busy year for everyone who support Scouting in Derbyshire and my thanks go to each and every one of you for all of your help. Stephen Parker – DCC Support.

I would like to start my first annual report with a big thank you to everyone for the help and support I have received over the last year. It has been a very exciting year with more people getting involved in training in lots of different ways. Two new local training managers joined the team making 8. Across the county other people agreed to be local training administrators. The majority of these have other roles in Scouting but have been working hard to update all the training records so that District Commissioners and Group Scout Lead-ers have accurate infor-mation about what train-ing leaders have com-pleted. The training advisors are also key in providing support to leaders and managers going through training. In September we held two training advisor updates for those already doing the job and we also held a module 25 for those who were interested in taking on the role. Head-quarters has also ac-knowledged that training advisors need to be regu-larly updated as the training programme is being re-viewed to meet the changing demands on leaders. We now have a complete list of all the training advi-sors in the county and so training advisors will receive these updates from headquarters. Attendance at Wood Badge modules increased sig-nificantly in 2013 from 273 in 2012 to 418 in 2013. This does not include sessions that are run in districts or one to one sessions. This is a really great achieve-ment so thank you to all the trainers for making this happen. Thank you to the groups who have made their headquarters available so that we can run

courses across the County and thank you to Drum Hill Campsite staff for looking after us when we go there, particularly during the residential training. But attending the module is not the end of the story and all these modules have to be validated by a training advisor. Thanks to our hard working train-ing advisors and the local training managers the levels of modules being validated has also in-creased so much so that 94 Wood Badges were

awarded in 2013, a 28% increase on 2012. This trend looks likely to con-tinue in 2014 par-ticularly because at the end of 2013 the County Execu-tive agreed that all adult training mod-ules apart from First Response and Residential course are now free at the point of delivery. This shows a real com-mitment to our leaders and will hopefully also

make the application process much simpler. As well as the basic Wood Badge training we also ran 2 residential experiences weekend and a Man-ager’s training weekend. Both these courses take a lot of planning so thanks in particular to Liz Walton and Mark Stafford for the residential weekend and Mel Dyson for the managers weekend. Leaders are now required to update their knowl-edge on safety as well as safeguarding and first response. In June 2013 volunteers from across the county received training in how to deliver the safety training and so sessions are now being delivered across the county. We also tried to improve communication about training for leaders in the county. The welcome pack that was introduced by Sally Eccles was up-dated and is now given out by the local training managers when they first meet them. With the help of Martin Hathaway the website has been updated and thanks to Pat Boler there is now an electronic personal learning plan which makes communica-tion between leaders, training advisors, administra-tors and managers much easier. Finally thank you to Tom Stoddart and Stephen

Parker for their constant support, encouragement

and commitment to improving leader training.

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Have you seen one of these? Nearly 3,000 Furry Fred Badges have been distributed all over Derbyshire to colonies taking part in Furry Fred’s County Challenge. Amazingly, the first 1500 were sent out before Christmas 2013. Look out for them on the arm of any Beaver Scout (or their Leader) in uniform! A small team of Fred’s friends spent the first half of 2013 researching and developing the missions which are the elements in Furry Fred’s County Challenge. My thanks to Anne, Sally, Frankie, Tom and Karen who all contributed to the amazing and obviously successful Challenge pack. There are 25 missions in total and colonies have been en-couraged to complete 6 (Mini Challenge) then go on to complete 12 (Midi Challenge) and finally, complete 21 missions to be Mega Globetrotters and receive a special visitor and gift for the Colony to enjoy.

Alongside “The County Chal-lenge”, the ADCs and District repre-sentatives have been busy plan-ning for Bonanza 6 “Furry Fred Goes Global”, our County Fun Day in July 2014. I do hope lots of you have signed up to come - either

with your colonies or to help on one of the bases! Asia, Africa, Australasia, the Ameri-cas and a little bit of Europe are all waiting to be explored.

Many Districts have been able to fit in a range of events for Beaver Scouts to meet up and share together – craft days, fun days, walks, theatre and cinema trips, special services, parties and District Camps. I am also delighted to hear that Sleepovers are becoming a more regular feature of section programmes and several colo-nies have even managed to sleep in tents ( though this is not essential). It is a great way to introduce Beaver Scouts to the exciting adventures waiting for them in Scouting.

Colonies throughout the County have con-tinued to deliver brilliant programmes to their young members. I am always de-lighted to hear of Bronze Award achieved – especially when a DC is presenting them as this acknowledges not only the hard work of the young people but also their leadership team. There are some superbly inventive and creative activities going on in colonies around Derbyshire and we would LOVE some more adults to come and join in the fun!

Ready Steady Cook Following upon the success of last year’s initial competition, we held an equally successful event again in March. We attracted entries from 10 of our Districts – with 9 actually taking part on the day. Competitions were held in the Districts – I was pleased to help judge one again which just proved to me how hard it is to assess when the standard and preparation is so good. The winning teams then went forward to the County event. The theme for this year’s competition was “Celebrating the Commonwealth” and some wonderful concoctions were in evidence – the judges were indeed impressed.

The winning team – Ripley & Heanor

Not quite as cold as last year but a good challenge never the less! In January we had Troops camping out across the County – including the County Team.

An increasing number of Troops have gone on to undertake the Scouts Wales “Dragon Award” scheme – this involves camping

under canvas in each and every calendar month. We now maintain a Derbyshire Dragon Awards Roll of Honour. During the year we have presented Silver and Gold Awards as well as the initial Bronze Awards. A new venue for 2014 – the Winding Wheel at Chesterfield. The first glimpse of over 400 assembled in the hall was a real wow factor! We had originally booked a smaller hall but due to the numbers reaching over 150 we had to rethink the venue. Certificates were presented by our president Sir Richard Fitzherbert Bt. It was really good to see so many of our Scouts from right across the County gain their awards – well done to all – they are a credit to their Troops.

THE KINDER – Kinder Extreme & Kinder Challenge

We had a total of 68 teams entered across the two events. A record time for “The Challenge” of 2 hours 13 minutes – we seem to break the record year on year! This record has been broken year on year since we started the competition in 2008 – how much longer can this go on I wonder?

We have re-named the “Walk” as the “Extreme”- really to signify this is the bigger one than the “Challenge”.

Rampage 2013 A full complement of 24 teams entered this popular competition. New activities introduced – transporting a canon (like the military tattoo) and passing through a wall, proved very popular and one to be repeated. We were honoured to have our County President Sir Richard Fitzherbert Bt. to present the trophy and certificates. Our thanks go to “Hydroactive” and the many Leaders who organised and staffed the bases.

LOOKING AHEAD My thanks go to all ADCs and those within the County Team for their help and support over the year. Attendance at our regular ADCs meetings has been good and we continue to share best practice and work together to help encourage participation in the many opportunities available to support the successful running of our Troops. We are to produce a “Scout Documentation” booklet that can be issued to Leaders which should help both with communications and an aide memoir for the Challenge Award system and the various annual events. I hope that we can build on the progress made to date and continue to promote Scouting within Derbyshire

The Young Leaders' Scheme is just one of the exciting programme elements in the Explorer Scout section. I have come to realise that a lot can happen in 12 months, 2013 seems to have passed by so quickly with so much going on! There have been some great success stories throughout the year. The success started way back in February when seven Young Leader Belts were presented to members of Derby East Young Leader Unit and for them it was the start of a steady flow of Young Leaders completing all the training during the year. Belper district continue to build on the training they run to ensure the Young Leaders are developing competent and confident leadership skills to support younger members in the sections. Alfreton and High Peak districts have started to develop the Young Leaders Scheme pro-visions and are supporting a growing number of Young Leaders through training. Most recently Chesterfield has run a weekend for Young Leaders which was very successful and an enjoyable week-end for all concerned. Training for Young Leaders continues to go from strength to strength in other districts around the county and is on the agenda in districts to develop in the near future. I hope that in the next year the successes of 2013 can be built up on, being devel-oped further and wider across the county. During the year training advisors learnt how the Young Leaders Scheme connects with the Adult Training Scheme and to recognise prior learning thought the Young Leaders Scheme. I am looking forward to more adult leaders gaining an understanding for the Young Leaders Scheme is all about and how much of a fantastic opportunity it is to have a Young Leader working in younger sections. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have continued to support the Young Leaders’ Scheme and those who support Young Leaders’ working in section around the county. James Stafford ACC Young Leaders

What an amazing year for Derbyshire Scout Network! Census figures are up and Derbyshire boasting the best in the region with 161 which is the biggest I have personally known as long as I remember. This year has seen some fantastic achievements, not only with the 22 Queens Scout Awards that have been signed off, 14 of which having gone to the Queens Scout Review in Windsor to meet Bear Grylls and HRH the Duke of Kent. But the countless members who have working towards and completing the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. Networks meeting weekly, bi weekly and monthly across the county have taken part in not only all major local and national events but international events as well: Canada Moot 2014, Monopoly Run, Festival, Gathering to the 4 Inns and Kinder Walks

a n d n o t f o r g e t t i n g Alton Towers Camp, the f i rs t and l o n g e s t r u n n i n g theme park camp. So what does the next year hold for

Derbyshire Network? Closer Links with the Explorer Section the foundation of Network, making sure that they are not only aware of what Network is, But help them to make sure they are in contact with their local Network so when they start coming up to 18 they know where and who to talk too about moving up. MORE DISTRICT NETWORKS – My aim eventually to either see Networks within all the districts in Derbyshire or make sure that there is access to other Networks if not within the district. MORE QUEENS

2013 was a very busy for Cub Scouts in Derby-shire. Individual Packs run some fantastic activities and camps for the young people. It is always great to visit camp sites to see Cub Scouts enjoying themselves by being outside doing traditional and not so traditional Scouting activities. Within the Districts there have been many events and competitions. Districts have organised foot-ball, fishing, chess and draughts competitions. There have been swimming galas, fun hikes, theme park visits and ice skating sessions. One district has planted blubs at the national arboretum where they also took part in a treasure hunt. Despite some terrible snow in March teams of Cub Scouts took part in the County Orienteering Com-petition at Elvaston Castle Country Park. The Cubs also managed to build snowmen and have a fantastic snowball fight.

The number of Cub Scouts within Derbyshire has

increased again and this is due to all of the fantas-

tic volunteers that help within this section. Looking

forward, 2015 will be The Year of Adventure and

2016 will be The Year of Celebration when Cub

Scouting celebrates its Centenary.

SCOUTS - As I’m sure your aware, the criteria for the award are changing to bring them more in line with the DofE Gold award, for more details please do not hesitiate to contact. ON GOING SUPPORT – Support for Network Members / Leaders, Districts, help with any issues that may arise to help the smooth running. In conclusion like I said at the beginning this has been an amazing year for Derbyshire Network and I am personally proud of all that Network has achieved the excellent amount of Queens Scouts and Duke of Edinburgh Awards and also Scout of the World Award (the only Network specific award). Here is to another amazing year and if you require any help or have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me. John Bush CSNC

Well Explorer land its that time of year again, where we look back at the past year & think about the future. With out doubt, Exfest is going from strength to strength & on the back of the anniversary event & taking on board the constructive feed back of those who attended, the organising team set to with 2013. The format changed slightly, extended to include Fri night & reduce the cost. This saw the introduction of the cinema for Fri night (great success), a change to the activities during the day, which adopted a fairground theme & the inclusion of craft activities. The live music & disco, commenced in the evening & the line up was again brill but there are

some special thanks that need to go out to an Explorer Unit, who just happened to be at the event but stepped up to the plate or should that be mike, to fill in when the headline act had to cancel at short notice. This band are called 3 day weekend & had a fantastic welcome from the young people attending. I

must also add that the other live acts, were also just as good. As I said, the day activities had a fairground

theme, which included giant skittles, giant bagatelle, airzooka tin can alley, nerf gun shooting range & a few other side shows. This was also in addition to the bike & zip wire teams & Marks drums thanks to you guys & gals for that. Also must not forget the people who helped on the craft activities, yes Steph this was a success as you said it would. Lastly, was the pumpkin carving, which saw some fantastic designs & only 1 cut finger to report.

After this year, the organisers have committed to making this an annual event & to ensure that it appears early in unit diaries, they have set the date for the first

Scout Active Support in the County is ‘Active’ as the name suggests and continues to give support in Districts and the County as a whole. Our County activity units are still proving to be popular with bookings being made for months ahead. See the County website or the activity booklet for details. Our newest activity is the Creative SASU under the leadership of Sally Eccles. SASU members enjoyed a trip on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway last July where rides were taken on the train from Wirksworth to Duffield, returning by road on a vintage open top bus. A very successful day out and thanks must go to Dave Woodhouse from Derby North SASU for help with the organisation. Our annual quiz had to be postponed due to clashes with other Scouting activities and is due to take place soon. Chesterfield SASU are to do the honours this year and I hope that this annual event continues to be as popular as in the past. There are several Districts who do not have an Active Support Unit. DCs, do think about starting one as I’m sure there are a good few members who cannot be leaders for various reasons and who would like to help and support Scouting at District level. Peak 2015 is looming and I know that lots of our members have already applied for roles at the camp and I look forward to another successful year ahead for us in support of Derbyshire Scouting in our Scout Active Support Units.

weekend of the Oct half term & this year is Oct 24

th - 26

th

2014. The web site continues to

grow & I would encourage all to visit www.derbyshire-exfest.org.uk to check out the video from last year. We have had interest from out of county this year, not counting the group who attend from Lincs & so don’t delay in booking your places, watch out for the posters & booking dates, remembering that the closing date is final. So to the future, work is currently taking place for a winter county 10 pin bowling competition but will involve units submitting their scores after the standard winter bowling night, where they will be added to a league table/list, with a trophy for the highest scores etc & details of the rules etc will be coming out very soon. We still require a name for this event, so please forward any ideas to myself, thanks. We are also looking at working with the walking team, to try and put on an orienteering event but the details of this are still in the early stages of negotiation, so again watch this space, well not THIS space but you know what I mean. As always, I close with the usual thanks to all those who have assisted me over the past 12 months & it goes without saying, these events need people like you, to get them off the ground & make them the success, that they are, THANKS!

It has been another exciting year with lots going on and many new people joining the activities team. We have a number of new “Activity” Scout Active Support Teams, Creative this is headed up by Sally Eccles this team aims to give support to leaders and events that require the creative touch. In January 2013 we saw the Derby Area Sailing Club become a County Activity Team as the Sailing SASU, this Team is headed up by Simon Black. We also in May saw the creation of the Pioneering SASU and in November work started on creating the Shooting SASU, this is headed up by Andrew Templer. The Bike, Climbing, Hillwalking and Caving Teams grow in size both in terms of team members and number of young people taken on their respective activity. The Hill walking team are now running courses for t1 and t2 training and are also looking to run Geo Caching courses. The County Activities Team now meets on a six monthly basis, this is made up of the County Advisers & Assessors, SASU Team Leaders, District and County Activity Centres, SASU Manager, headed up by ACC Activities. The Team meets to discuss common issues, promotion of activities and the development of activities in Derbyshire Scouting. Activation took place in June and was a great success we saw 224 young people from across the county from Scout and Explorer sections doing 3-4 Activities in one day. This event in 2014 will be a two day event and we aim to have 350 plus young people take part. Debbie Steeples our MAPS manager has now sorted the back log of Activity Permits and has also completed our moderation of the Activity Permit Scheme, I am proud to report that our standard for the moderation was excellent and our process will be used as an example to other counties. The new permit process will go live in February 2014. We also launched the Derbyshire Scout Activity Directory in September, by now I hope you have

all seen a copy. The booklet was put together by Karen Templer and has been a great success so far at promoting our activity teams, centres and campsites. If anyone has any ideas for new ideas Adventurous Activity Teams or would like to join a team then please let me know at acc-activities@derbyshirescouts.org Figs for 2013 Number of young people taken on respective Activities: Archery - 2347 (Archery Team is Based at Drumhill, but 260 of the 2347 were off site). Shooting – 1086 (The Shooting Team is Currently Based at Drumhill) Bike SASU – 1016 Caving SASU – 208 (This figure does not include show and tell troop nights) Climbing SASU – 327 (Both adults and young people, and not all from Derbyshire) Sailing SASU – 150 Hill Walking – 220 (This figure does not include Adult Leader Sessions) Pioneering - 80 D of E Number of new registrations Jan 2012 – Dec 2012: 63 Number of ongoing DofE during the year of Jan 2012 – Dec 2012: 209 Number of completions: Bronze – 24, Silver – 1, Gold – 6 Trent Lock had much better weather in 2013 than the previous year so no camps were cancelled, 851 weekend campers and 872 evening users. The annual inspection by the RYA did not occur until December, but it was successful and Trent Lock maintains its training establishment status.

of months time and the success of the Leadership team in establishing such a large scale venture has even been recognised by Headquarters. Thanks go to Ben and his team: Julie, Nigel, James, Nicola, David and Danny. We look for-ward to hearing all their tales when they come back and do their presentations. Other groups also travelled overseas last year. The furthest trip being the two groups who trav-elled to the USA with others going to Norway, Ro-mania, Germany, two trips to Kandersteg Interna-tional Scout Centre (Switzerland) and a Cub Pack who visited the Normandy Battlefields. I was privileged to attend some of their presentations after they returned and they were inspirational. Applications to the Peak International Fund have been gathering momentum giving support to many Global programme ideas programme activi-ties as well as to trips abroad. They have in-cluded:

· an American themed night that included learning line dancing

· District camps and fundays · international sleepovers · visits to a Hindu temple and a Sikh temple · a variety of Global Programmes · linking with a Canadian Cub Pack · equipment for JOTI · international food · materials for Furry Fred’s Derbyshire

County Challenge Most of the support for Scouts and Explorers re-lated to overseas trips whilst an increase in Bea-ver activities was in relation to “Furry Fred Goes Global”. There is still some money available to support other exciting Global Programme activi-ties and I look forward to receiving more applica-tions. It has been another great year of International Scouting and as ever Derbyshire Scouts have had an impact far beyond our county borders. I look forward to hearing more about your programmes and trips as Derbyshire Scouting continues to go Global this year. Simon Growcott

This year saw selection for the 23rd World Scout Jamboree which will take place in Japan in 2015. Districts were active in selecting their young people and it was certainly no easy task. We could easily have taken twice as many given the extremely high standard – in-deed a few extras are now part of a joint unit with Leicestershire, Coventry and Jersey. Al-ready our Unit has had a successful training camp and more are planned for later this year. Thanks go to the Unit Leaders: Catherine, Sian, James and Vicky for the time they have already given up. The Unit badge is a work of art. A cold and dismal day in February saw the Regional selection of International Service Team (IST) places for those Leaders who wished to attend the Jamboree as a member of staff. This was the first time that selection was not carried out centrally by Headquarters and it was certainly a full day of outside activi-ties and indoor interviews. Congratulations go to Joanne, Alex, Sally, David, Dean, Thomas, Abbie, Kristian, Ann and Anne who will also be flying the flag for Derbyshire in Japan.

It won’t be long before another intrepid group of Derbyshire Scouts leave for foreign shores. The first ever Derbyshire Explorer Belt will take place in Denmark in a couple