Dear Parents
Welcome to Scouting with the 6th Fleet (Ancells Farm) Scout Group and to your child’s section, whether it is Beavers, Cubs or Scouts. Now that your child is joining the Group you may want to know a little more about the Scout Association and how you can help your child get the most out of being part of the largest worldwide youth movement.
Administration of the Group
Whilst your child’s activities are planned and run by the uniformed leaders, the administration of the Group is looked after by the Executive Committee. This committee is run by a Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary elected at the AGM and supported by parents and other non-uniformed adults. We are always grateful to any parent who is willing to join the Executive Committee. All sections need to be represented and this is the way you can have a say in how the Group is run. There are only about 4 evening meetings a year, so please consider helping us in this way.
How you can assist
Our Group, like the Scout Movement as a whole, is run by unpaid volunteers and extra parental help is often necessary and always appreciated. This help can be as little or as much as you feel able to offer.
If you are willing to help at our weekly meetings, whether regularly, just once a term or on a planned trip basis, please speak to your child’s leaders. We currently run parent rotas for the Beaver and Cub sections and all parents are expected to take part in this. For safety reasons, and to comply with Scout policy, we require all adults helping in the Group to complete a DBS disclosure form. We are unable to accept disclosures from any other source than The Scout Association. We do apologise for this but there are very good reasons. If you are able to provide administrative or other kinds of support, however small, please inform a leader or contact the Chairman.
Subscriptions
We collect subscriptions at the start of each term, preferably by direct debit. These are currently £45 for Beavers & Cubs and £50 for Scouts. We occasionally offer some activities that require payment in addition to the subscription but we always try to keep these to a minimum through subsidies. We do not want any of our youngsters to miss out on Scouting due to financial difficulty so please speak confidentially to a leader or the Treasurer if you require assistance with subscriptions or activity payments.
For youngsters new to the Group we allow a trial period of half a term. If he or she does not settle then we will refund 50% of the term subscription. Once your child decides to join on a permanent basis he or she will be invested into the Group.
Uniform
You will need to purchase a uniform for your child before they are invested, usually after a trial of a few weeks.