I hope you all had an enjoyable half term and Easter and managed to have a relaxing break.
As you know the Out Of The Blue Reports are submitted early in the previous month so this report will not have any updates on the St Georges Day Parade.
Well done to those who received the yearly section awards. I can speak from experience in saying it is really hard to pick winners. If you didn’t get one don’t give up, there’s always next year.
Did first Tolworth win the District Turn-out Trophy?? I’m sure we will hear all about it soon.
At the April Executive Committee meeting we discussed the fund raising that is done by members of the Group. Car Boot Sales and Outdoor Fairs run by Graham and Margaret have, over the years, earned a vast amount of money for the Group. The Jumble Sales, also arranged by Graham with support from his teams, have contributed considerably to our funds. Ted runs a popular race night, usually a Reindeer Race Night, which is always good fun. Gayna has introduced other fund raising initiatives and they are beginning to pick up. Bag Packing at Supermarkets is also a good earner. And of course we have the November Fayre, which will be upon us in no time.
Graham and Margaret have over some time reduced the number of Car boot sales they attend. Customer numbers falling at some events is one factor. The other, and I know they won’t be offended, is they are not getting any younger. And there will come a time when they will no longer be able to continue with the Car Boot sales and Outdoor Fairs. This unless someone takes over running Car Boots, will impact heavily on the income to the Group.
Obviously the funds raised, have over the years enabled the group to keep the weekly / monthly subs the children pay very low. In fact the last sub’s increase was in February 2006 when the Beaver’s subs were increased from £2 to £2-50 per week. This brought them in line with the Cubs and Scouts who were already paying that amount. The previous increase was way back in 2000. As you can imagine the cost of all the items we need to buy to successfully run the group have not stayed static for the last seven/thirteen years. You would be surprised at how much we spend on Badges alone. So there will come a time quite soon when we will have to increase the Subs for all the sections. The Monthly Standing Order will still be most cost effective way to pay subs. This is still under discussion but we will need to implement an increase at some time.
I would like to close this report with a special thank you to everyone who has helped in any way this year with the Group fundraising at an event, or helped out at a section meeting.
Terry continues to do an excellent job as Treasurer and the reports will be available for the Group Annual General Meeting to be held on Tuesday 11th June at 8pm in Sparks Hall.
The AGM gives us all an opportunity to reflect on the previous year’s activities.
It would be great to see you, so come along to see us, have a chat or use it as an opportunity to raise any concerns you may have regarding the way the Scout Group is managed.
Refreshments will be available after the meeting.
Make a note in your Diary now so you don’t forget…..
Hope to see you at the AGM
That’s all for this Month
Proud to be 1sT
Martin Smith.