Welcome to Ripon and District Scouts
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Ripon and District Scouts Newsboard
When people think of Scouts they usually think of outdoor adventures – camping, lighting fires, hiking and so on. Social distancing during the Covid-19 Pandemic has obviously had a big impact on what we can do as Scouts, but it hasn’t stopped us from having fun and continuing learning.
Most of our Scout Groups and Units across the District have "adapted" to run a ‘Scouting at Home’ programme, and have managed to keep on Scouting via Newsletters, 0nline Meetings or simply Telephone calls for Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers so they can chat, play games and continue to learn vital skills for life. Although we couldn’t be together in person we’ve still managed to brush up our first aid skills, learn to cook a meal and master household tasks such as ironing and washing up, and even learn NEW skills of communicating!
As the County Commissioner has already told us, I know that 'thank-you' is a much used phrase during this time but I, as well as him, am humbled and truly grateful to ALL adults in the District for your commitment, enthusiasm, dedication and continued resilience during these strange months. REALLY WELL DONE to all of you for keeping Scouting alive in our District for the past 9 months
Finally can I wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas, and let us hope that in the New Year we may start to look towards getting back to something a bit more like normality.
So ‘keep safe – and keep on Scouting’ and let us see what 2021 brings.
John Lockwood
District Commissioner
Ripon & District Scouts
A change from RED to AMBER!
From the beginning of Wednesday 2nd December all tiers in England will be in Amber for youth provision, for those under the age of 18. The Government and the National Youth Agency have confirmed that youth clubs and activities will be permitted at all three tiers in England, as services such as Scouts are essential to the development and wellbeing of young people, and should continue wherever possible.
As a reminder this means:
• You can meet with up to 15 young people (aged under 18), plus 5 adults.
• The session can take place outdoors or indoors, but must be socially distanced.
• Face coverings should be worn by anyone of Scout-age plus when indoors. Adults delivering an activity to young people aren’t required to wear a face covering.
However, face-to-face programme activities for members of Scouts who are over 18 is in Red everywhere in England – this means that there can be no face-to-face section meetings for Network. Other volunteers over the age of 18 can meet in-line with restrictions in your tier for adults meeting together, to carry out essential volunteering tasks like campsite or building maintenance.
We heard the sad news this week that the Euro Jamboree, planned for this year and rescheduled for 2021, has regrettably been cancelled.
I know this will be very upsetting for our young people and leaders who have worked so hard for the last 2 years fundraising and preparing for the event. However, at the end of the day, it is important that our young people and volunteers have a safe experience and unfortunately during these difficult times this just can’t be guaranteed.
I know Dave Baker, the Jorvik Unit Leader (and member of Ripon and District) and the others in the team will be supporting the Unit members through this. The County Commissioner and the District Commissioner both give their thanks to our Unit leaders for all their planning and efforts to date.
Boroughbridge Scouts have leapt into the world of Zoom. We have taken part in Parliament Week and Remembrance commemoration, linked with Brownsea Island.
This week we ventured into making Cheese Scones. 23 Scouts, each in their own kitchen, had to make their scones to a recipe which we had sent out. They only had 30 mins on Zoom to combine the ingredients, stamp them out and put them in the oven. Anne provided the instructions and the demonstration and the Scouts with their already measured out ingredients had to follow.
We received lots of positive comments like “It was a pleasure to watch everyone working together and seeing my son grow in confidence when baking.” “A huge Thank You. She really enjoyed it and we are all now enjoying the end product -very tasty!”
The Scout Association secured access to Zoom Pro for EVERY Scout Group, EVERY Scout District and EVERY Scout County earlier this year.
Licences are now EXTENDED 6 more months to May 2021. If you have your licence already, there's no need to do anything.
If you haven't got a licence yet, then you can sign up HERE.
As the pandemic continues to deepen, we have today announced a decisive plan of action to support young people, stabilise the movement’s finances and safeguard its future.
The measures fall into three areas: reducing staff headcount, selling some of our property and launching a major national fundraising campaign. The plan will provide immediate support to local Scout Groups, keep essential services running and protect the future of our 113 year old movement.
Facing a major cash shortage and reserves that are run down, we’ve made a set of key decisions to reduce the negative impact on young people and prevent passing further costs onto our members. Now more than ever, young people need our support for their wellbeing and future prospects. We provide the skills, and the sense of hope and belonging they so badly need in these incredibly challenging times.
All of our commercial activity, which normally subsidises our services to members, has been severely impacted by the crisis. With face to face meetings suspended for much of the year, income at Scout Store, our commercial business, has dropped significantly. Our Adventure Centres, which provide activities to Scouts, schools and youth groups remain closed. Bookings at our conference businesses are at their lowest ebb. Despite using every means available, including using the Government’s furlough scheme, and announcing an increase to the membership fee, further cost saving measures and ways to increase income are urgently needed.
Scouts is a lifeline for young people. It’s often their only moment of connection and positive social contact during the week. Two thirds of young people have told us that the crisis have negatively impacted their mental health and how they feel about the future. That’s why it’s vital we keep our groups running. While these measures are painful, we’re putting young people and local Scouting at the heart of all our decision making. These are not decisions we’ve taken lightly. However we’re taking this action now to secure a long-term, sustainable future for our movement, to avoid passing on more costs to our members and to support generations to come.
We’re focused on providing immediate support to the 500 Groups most in danger of shutting their doors. We’re inspired every day by the work our brilliant volunteers are doing to help give our young people skills for life. We owe it to them to give them the future they deserve.
HQ are putting on MANY information sessions for ALL Members in Scouting.
The upcoming events can be found at the events page at HQ Events (use link - https://www.scouts.org.uk/events) and usually a calendar invite is included initially with a 'Join Meeting' link published on the event information page a few days before.
Recordings of the webinars are now stored on the Vimeo platform and can be viewed here ( https://vimeo.com/showcase/7353819- ) Vimeo-Scout Webinars. Other videos exist under the HQ News pages https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2020/with 'Watch' and then a title (latest titles at top of page).
Other specific event recordings can be found amongst other training sessions where registration needs to be carried before you are sent a link to view it.
There is a training update here https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/learning-development-and-awards/training/updates-to-our-learning-and-training/ to which has some useful info.
Thanks go to to Jon Goom, our District Chairman, for this information.
At the recent AGM meeting of the District Scout Council (on-line), the Executive Committee and Officers for the year were elected/nominated in the (virtual) presence of 30+ Leaders and Adult Supporters of the District. The AGM was held by ZOOM on Wednesday 21st October 2020 at 8pm.
Please keep your eyes on THIS website for changes as they happen, and don't forget, you can also get LOTS of information of what is happening in the County (and Nationally) on the County Website at nys.org.uk
There was a problem with litter in the Recreation Area in Boroughbridge, so the 'Thursday Beavers' decided to help out. They met John Goss from 'Boroughbridge in Bloom' who handed out bags and pickers.
John was concerned that the area had been cleaned a fortnight earlier, so they may not get much. He hadn’t realised that Beavers are smaller than adults, so can get into places that other may miss.
They scoured the area, up the banks, under and in the hedges, under the seats and play equipment and by the end each one had a 20-litre bag full of bottles, cans, food containers and “I’d - rather – not – know – so – put – it – in – the – bag – quickly” stuff.
There have been lots of positive comments on the local web site and 70 "Likes" from the Community of Boroughbridge.
At a recent County Executive Committee Meeting, it was agreed to reduce the County Membership Fee for 2021 from £13.30 to £10.00 to be funded from County reserves. This will be the County membership fee payable for all young members. You will have already received advice from The Scout Association that the 2021 UK membership fee will rise substantially to £36 and the reduction in the County fee will help offset this increase.
The annual fee of £46 (£36 + £10) will therefore be the fee payable for all young members; there will be no rebate arrangements (to ease administration for the County and the District).
The District Treasurer will be invoiced as soon as membership numbers are confirmed following the January 2021 census and the deadline for payment of the 2021 membership subscriptions to the County will be no later than Friday 9 April 2021.
Find out all you need to know about Scouting
in North Yorkshire on the County Website
Did You Know?
Ripon and District Scouts operate NINE scout groups around the district:- ONE in Bishop Monkton
- ONE in Boroughbridge
- ONE in Masham
- ONE in Knayton
- ONE in Sowerby
- ONE in Thirsk
- ONE in Topcliffe
- TWO in Ripon City itself
- PLUS THREE District Explorer Units
- PLUS a District Active Support Unit
THE SCOUT ASSOCIATION offers adventure and activity to almost 400,000 young people across the UK.
THE MOVEMENT is the largest co-educational youth organisation in the world, with over 28 million Members in 216 countries and territories.
Scouting has opportunities for almost ALL age ranges