General Briefing November 2009
As promised at the National Conference, I am writing to update you on a number of items and to provide a progress report for others. I hope you find it useful.
National Conference
You will shortly be receiving through your Chief Commissioner/Regional Commissioner (England) a summary of the more operational suggestions made in the various workshops and discussion groups, along with a summary of what we are doing about them.
With regards to Vision 2018, the output from the conference will be considered by the Board of Trustees on 28 November and shared with you following that.
Chief Scout visits – May 2010
Just a reminder that we will be considering Bear’s visit programme for the weekend 29-31 May 2010 in early December in order that appropriate plans can be made, so I would therefore ask that you have all visit requests for that weekend to emailed to Anne Brown no later than 30 November please.
Youth Data
We have previously advised you that we would launch a campaign to encourage use of the membership system for the collection of youth data, by promoting the benefits this will bring to Section and Unit Leaders. After initial testing of the system however we have concluded that it is not sufficiently robust for a full-scale launch and have therefore asked that the IT infrastructure be reviewed. It is likely that this will result in the launch of the youth data software being delayed until late in Quarter two 2010.
Want to Join Enquiries
Year to date we've had 38,159 enquiries centrally compared to 29,125 for the same period in 2008. Taking away the extra 1200 adults that signed up through the join the adventure campaign, this is still a 30% increase in total enquiries.
September is always our busiest month and this September there has been a 54% increase in total enquiries (3703 in 2008 and 5704 in 2009) and a 78% increase in the number of volunteer enquirers (403 in 2008 and 718 in 2009).
Please continue to work with your District Commissioners to ensure that every one of these enquiries receives an appropriate response locally, and if necessary adults are added to a list of people who have offered their services and can be approached if an appropriate opportunity arises in due course.
Information Centre
I am pleased to advise you that the Information Centre opening hours will be extended to 8am to 7pm Mon-Fri and 9am to 12pm Sat with effect from the beginning of December.
Project YOU
You may recall previous briefings regarding Project YOU which started in London last year involving the Metropolitan Police and many other uniformed youth organisations. Since then the project has evolved and been co-ordinated by the Prince’s Trust alongside the police service and extended to Wales (where it is known as Young Dragons, and now known in London as Youth United). I am aware that Scotland and at least 2 English Counties have received informal contact from their Lord Lieutenants and I would ask that before you progress any such discussions you first advise Derek or myself of the enquiry.
We are keen to first demonstrate some practical benefits from the initiatives in London and Wales before extending across the UK and, furthermore, to do so in a coordinated manner rather than have more than a 100 variations of the project! Your assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
World Events
World Scout Moot, Kenya, 2010 - we have a good contingent going but still some slots available for 18 - 25 year olds to join the group.
World Scout Jamboree, Sweden - there was a great Unit Leaders Conference a month ago where lots of information was shared about the event. IST applications have opened and as expected there is significant demand for the 500 places. Those that will be invited to the selection days (to be held early 2010) will receive notification at the end of November, following consultation with Regional and County/Area Commissioners.
Project Updates
We have recently undertaken mid-year reviews on a number of projects being undertaken by the Programme and Adult Support Teams in particular and I thought that you might appreciate a brief update on a few of the more salient ones from your perspective.
Executive Committee Support: Adult Support have developed a pilot training workshop aimed at Executive support and are presently a creating a training package that can be used and adapted nationally and locally. The project is on target for January 2010. In addition, supporting the Group Secretary/Treasurer/Chairman/Supporter resources are in the course of being rewritten, with two of the books expected to be completed in April 2010 and the remaining two by October 2010.
GSL Resources: Updating the Keys to Success for GSLs publication is scheduled for completion by March 2010 and will be done in conjunction with the Management and Leadership working group.
Student Recruitment: Three projects aimed at recruiting students and young leaders though University based pilots have been conducted with a report on findings and recommendations expected by March 2010. The delay is to ensure that the project is value for money when recruiting Leaders by seeing how people become Leaders from this initiative.
Adult Training Scheme: Review of the Wood Badge route through training is being undertaken and the initial phase is on target to be completed at the end of Qtr 1 2010. Ongoing review of modules covering 1, 16, 30, 13/21, 14/15, 6 and 19 is being undertaken on a phased basis to be completed by April 2010.
Taking The Lead: Taking the Lead (available for the Scout, Explorer Scout and Scout Network Sections) has been completed and advertised and can be downloaded from scouts.org.uk
Section Supporters Toolkit: Work on the Tool Kit for ACCs, CSNCs, DESCs and ADCs is ongoing, with the resource presently in the design stage.
Programme Resources: The teams are on schedule to produce Programmes Plus II, games books for the Beaver Scout, Cub Scout and Scout Sections and a Scout Craft book by March 2010.
Young Leaders Scheme: On schedule to produce Young Leader Essentials Plus and a ‘Keys to Success’ type resource, to help DCs and DESCs to implement the Young Leader’s Scheme by March 2010.
I hope that you find the forgoing of help and any feedback you can offer on this or any other aspect of our internal communications would be greatly appreciated.
Yours sincerely
Wayne Bulpitt
UK Chief Commissioner
