Wandle District Newsletter February 2002

February 5	District Team Meeting	DHQ
10	Cubs "Now Get Out of That"	3^rd Mitcham
10	Fellowship Bowling
21	No District Store
28	Warrants Review meeting	DHQ

March 5	GSLs’ Meeting	DHQ
10	Scout Incident Hike	Bentley Copse
10	Fellowship AGM	DHQ
13	Cub Scout Leaders’ Meeting	DHQ
19	Fellowship Beetle Drive	DHQ
20	Beaver Scout Leaders’ Meeting	DHQ
24	Beaver Challenge Day	County Base
24	Cub Challenge Day	Frylands Wood
27	Scout Leaders’ Meeting	20^th Mitcham

The Appointments Committee were pleased to grant the above appointments and thank you all for the commitment you have made to Scouting in Wandle District.

A reminder to all GSL's etc - application forms for appointments must be sent in the first instance to the Appointments Secretary Muriel Treagust and NOT to the District Commissioner. 2 completed reference forms MUST be included. Failure to do this will result in delays in processing the forms. If anyone requires a further copy of the District Appointments procedure please ask Muriel or Bernie Pike.

Forthcoming changes to the Movement
PRI and Explorer Scouts

Comments from the District Commissioner.

With PRI imminent, changes will be taking place and, although I am not suggesting wholesale change, maybe now is a good time to review where you are, what you are doing and what you would like to be doing within Scouting. Don’t hesitate to contact one of the District Team if you want to discuss your role without any obligation to change.

More specifically, the advent of the Explorer Scout Section will open up some new opportunities. The District will be looking for someone to lead the new Section and each unit formed will need its own Leaders. The suggestion is that there should be an administrator for the Section as well. If you think that you are right for one of those jobs, please let me know. No promises to anyone but it would be much better to have someone in place doing the new jobs who wants to be there!

At the moment the numbers of 14 to 18 year olds would suggest that we should be looking to set up about 4 Explorer Scout units. These Units will need names that are not connected with the existing Groups or the local areas and the District Team would welcome any suggestions.

If you have any ideas for names please send them to me. Laurence

PRI Launch
Several members of the County will be attending the Launch on 10^th February and they will then be holding a series of meetings to disseminate the information about the new training scheme and Explorer Scouts/Scout Network across the County.
The following dates are still provisional and the venues have yet to be announced, but GSLs and Section Leaders are invited to attend one of the following: 24^th February, 2^nd, 3^rd or 17^th March. Confirmation of these meetings will be distributed as soon as possible.

The Morden Crew work at Frylands Wood Camp Site in Croydon on a regular basis. Every six or seven weeks they spend a weekend doing a variety of jobs around the site, or helping to run activities for the campers. The Crew is in need of some new members and anyone is welcome to join - especially older Venture Scouts and young Leaders.

If you can spare a whole weekend or even just one day every 6 or 7 weeks, please contact Diana Cook for more information. email:mayhem999@totalise.co.uk.

Jubilee Year
Don’t forget that all Jubilee badges must be ordered from the Badge Secretary – Mary will not be keeping a stock – and all Groups should have received their Jubilee Packs from HQ.

Is your Group planning to celebrate the Jubilee? Would you like to organise a District celebration? Could two or three Groups get together to do something special? Let us know what your plans are so that we can record for posterity how Wandle marked this historic event.

Everyone had the chance to voice their opinion of St George’s Day Parade at a meeting last September (and some did!). It was agreed by a significant majority that the format should remain very similar to recent years. That being the case, we hope to see every Section there on 21^st April this year.

So how do you encourage your members to come? What do you do to convince them that The Canons is the cool place to be on a Sunday morning in April?

Congratulations to the Chief Scout who was awarded the CBE for "services to young people" in the New Years Honours.

Under eights at Pack Meetings
There is quite a lot about under eights attending Pack meetings as part of a ‘link’ between Beavers and Cubs in the current copy of Talking Points. Both Beaver and Cub Leaders should read it carefully (see your GSL for a copy or pick it up from Scoutbase). Whatever you may think about this situation the advice from Scout HQ is quite clear – under eights should not attend Cub Scout Meetings.

The District will again be running the "Children’s Corner" at the National Trust Fayre in Morden Hall Park at the beginning of May. Many Groups booked their slots for helping out at the recent GSLs’ meeting, but, if your Group has not yet made a commitment to this money raising event, you must contact John Tweedley, 3^rd Mitcham by 14 February. You require 14 adults to run a two hour session but if you can only get seven people to help, it is possible to book "half a slot". Contact John if you are not sure what you can do.

John will also need helpers to set up the sideshows and take them down after the event, and to oversee the event throughout the weekend.

Training
Beaver Leaders – do you want to take your Beavers for sleep-overs? If you hold a warrant and have completed your Beaver L1 course (or are in the process of doing so), you can attend a course on 13^th and 14^th April at the County Base, Bow Lane to obtain your certificate. Cost £25. More details from Dave Johnson

Gang Show
If you (or any member of your Group) are interested in auditioning for this years Gang Show now is the time to get moving!! "Souwest 2002" will take place at the Secombe Theatre, Sutton from Tuesday 22nd October to Saturday 26th October 2002.
Auditions for this year’s show will take place at Christchurch with St Phillip's Church Hall, Ruskin Drive, Worcester Park, Surrey on Sunday 24^th February and Sundays 3^rd & 17^th March 2002 .
For further details and information on the show and the auditions please send an SAE (ideally A5 size!!) to Andrew Hayward, 8 Shaldon Drive, Morden, Surrey, SM4 4BB.
Remember this is a good way of passing the Entertainers badge and you, as a Leader, don't have to do anything!!!!

WASP Quiz

To be held on 2 March at the 36th Mitcham HQ, Kingsmead Avenue, Mitcham.
Start Time: 7:45 - 8pm Cost: £2 per person Teams to consist of 4 - 6 people
We look forward to seeing you all with your family and friends on 2 March for what will be a quizzical evening.

Beaver Scouts by Evelyn Steele
Thank you to all those Leaders who came to the Dinner recently - hopefully you all enjoyed yourselves!

You will be receiving shortly details for the Challenge Day in March - please let me know if you have not got them by 10 February! I will need volunteers to run the bases.

Also, please put your 'thinking caps on' as to where we can hold the Fun Day planned for June - Walton Firs is fully booked.

130+ Cub Scouts attended the Astronomers Badge day at the 4^th HQ on 27^th January and they all seemed to enjoy their day learning about black holes, planets, moon craters etc. Well done to all the Cubs who earned their badge and a big thank you to the many Scouters who made the event happen.

See you all at Now Get Out of That.

Our first District event of the year was the Handball Competition at Greenwood School and we had 10 teams enter from 7 Troops. The quality of play was the highest it has been for some years and the games were played in good spirit. The final was played between the 5^th Morden and 6/12^th Mitcham who were very evenly matched for most of the game.
The 6/12^th took home the trophy following a 1 - 0 victory.
Thanks to Richard Mainwaring and Andy Edmonds for arranging the afternoon.

It would be helpful if more leaders would volunteer their services as referees next year to share the load and the rules are available on request for those who would like to familiarise themselves with the game.

The date for the Incident Hike is now Sunday 10^th March and will be held at Bentley Copse. Details have been circulated to the Troops and entries should be in to Andy by Saturday 23^rd February. The route and incidents are planned to allow as many Scouts to enter as possible and will not require advanced map reading skills.

The boys from the 7^th Morden Troop are currently meeting with the 16^th Morden as they are now without their own leader. Andrew Hayward will be pleased to hear from anybody interested in taking on a leadership role down at the 7^th so that the Troop can be restarted.

Unfortunately the tally of 'dormant' Troops across the District now stands at 4.

I would like to register my thanks and best wishes to Alan Jackson for his years of dedication to the 7^th.

Thanks also to Nigel and his team down at the 16^th for welcoming the extra boys into their activities.

At the last Scouters' meeting, leaders were asked to provide me with the names, dates of birth and contact details for all 14 and 15 year olds in the Troops so that we can start to identify the demand for Explorer Scout Units in Wandle. I have only received that information from two Troops so far and would like the remainder as soon as possible please.

The next Scouters' meeting is on Wednesday 20^th March at the 20^th Mitcham HQ.

Scout Fellowship by Bill Vaudrey
By now you should have all received the Fellowship Event List for 2002. Please note there is a change to the date of the summer meal. This will now be held on Saturday 8th June and not the 15th.

Recent Events:

Saturday 12th January

New Year Meal - I understand, after a shaky start, the meal was good - sorry I missed it.

Sunday 10th February	Ten Pin Bowling - David Lloyd Centre - 7 for 7.30 pm
Sunday 10th March	Fellowship A.G.M. at the D.H.Q. - 7.45 for 8.00 pm
Tuesday 19th March	Beetle Drive and Fish & Chip Supper - 7.30 for 7.45pm start. Please let Bill know if you are interested in coming along.

Census
Bernie Pike has asked me to thank everyone for the speedy return of the census.
He will be writing to Groups soon with details of the Membership Fees due.
We appreciate that it was much easier to do this year, but it is the first time since he took over the job in the mid-1990s that he has had every return on time.

District etc	Total 02	01	+/-	.	.
Commissioners	7	6	1	Total membership for 2002	809
Dist Officers	3	3	0	Total membership for 2001	867
Dist Scouters	2	3	-1
Assoc members	9	9	0	Variance	-58
Sub Total	21	21	0
Fellowship	8	12	-4
Total	29	33	-4

	Beavers			Cubs			Scouts			VS			Sub Total	Leaders			GSL			Helpers			Sub Total	Grand Total	01	+/-
	02	01	+/-	02	01	+/-	02	01	+/-	02	01	+/-	Sub Total	02	01	+/-	02	01	+/-	02	01	+/-	Sub Total	Grand Total	01	+/-
1^st Mitcham**	0	0	0	2	12	-10	0	0	0				2	2	2	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	4	6	16	-10
1^st Morden**	11	3	8	13	17	-4	31	27	4	0	1	-1	55	6	7	-1	0	0	0	3	5	-2	9	64	60	4
2^nd Morden**	9	8	1	10	3	7	0	3	-3				19	4	4	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	5	24	19	5
3^rd Mitcham	18	17	1	17	26	-9	11	17	-6	0	4	-4	46	12	14	-2	1	1	0	2	1	1	15	61	80	-19
4^th Morden	10	10	0	9	13	-4	4	2	2	0	6	-6	23	3	5	-2	1	1	0	1	3	-2	5	28	40	-12
5^th Mitcham	32	34	-2	21	21	0	10	12	-2				63	6	6	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	8	71	74	-3
5^th Morden	21	19	2	25	24	1	19	22	-3	8	0	8	73	8	6	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	10	83	73	10
6/12^th Mitcham**	19	19	0	8	17	-9	14	13	1	4	0	4	45	10	11	-1	0	0	0	1	0	1	11	56	60	-4
7^th Morden	8	14	-6	23	17	6	0	12	-12				31	2	5	-3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	33	48	-15
8^th Morden	9	15	-6	24	28	-4	25	25	0				58	9	9	0	0	1	-1	3	4	-1	12	70	82	-12
11^th Mitcham	19	20	-1	24	16	8	20	8	12				63	6	4	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	8	71	50	21
16^th Morden	17	19	-2	23	33	-10	19	27	-8	3	5	-2	62	7	7	0	0	1	-1	4	4	0	11	73	96	-23
20^th Mitcham**	6	12	-6	18	16	2	8	15	-7				32	4	8	-4	0	0	0	0	1	-1	4	36	52	-16
23^rd Mitcham	11	6	5	10	13	-3	14	19	-5				35	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	40	43	-3
26^th Mitcham	0	0	0	10	5	5	0	0	0				10	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	12	7	5
36^th Mitcham	10	10	0	15	16	-1	0	0	0	8	3	5	33	6	5	1	0	0	0	4	0	4	10	43	34	9
VS (ex 4^th)										6	0	6	6	3	0	3				0	0	0	3	9	0	9
Sub Total	200	206	-6	252	277	-25	175	202	-27	29	19	10	656	92	100	-8	5	7	-2	24	23	1	124	780	834	-54