Newsletter

10th Dublin - Kilternan Scouts

Newsletter

Volume 2 :  Issue 1

November 2008

www.KilternanScouts.com

New Year, New Leaders, New Group Council, New Scouts. . 

Another new year started on 11^th of September.  Our Parents and Friend Support Group were on hand to help with the registration, leaving the leaders free to get straight into the activities.  Each parent was given a welcome pack outlining the structure, details on Parents and Friends Support Group, information on the fundraising events planned for the year and other general useful information.

Each year we have to say goodbye to some leaders, and naturally others join up. 

Paul and Michelle Mahon finished up with Beavers due to work commitments.  Paul’s music business has taken off and is very busy.  Our Scout leader Lynn Kennedy went back to college.   We all would like to take this opportunity to thank them for all of their help and commitment to the group over the past number of years.

We asked for some new leaders and we are delighted to welcome 6 new leaders:

We have 3 new Beaver Leaders:  Janet Keller, Paula O’Donnell-Rea and Sharon Poullain.  In Cubs we are joined by John Reardon.  In Scouts John Naughton has been helping for years, and has taken the step to become a full leader, and Sophie Kennedy is our first Venture who has moved on into leadership and is helping Heather with the Scouts. 

As an additional role to Group Leader, Heather Burnett Niland has taken on the position of trainer, and is bringing the new leaders through induction and they have also attended some formal Scouting Ireland Training courses.  As standard procedure please note that all leaders are also vetted by the Garda to become members of Scouting Ireland.

We have also got the largest number of scouts in the group for a long time with 79 scouts across the 4 sections, a net increase of 12 on last year.

GROUP COUNCIL

Following an internal review and audit of the group’s compliance with the rules of Scouting Ireland, in October we also formally voted in the Group Council. 

The Group Council plans and co-ordinates all activities in the Scout Group, ensures that each of the programme sections operate within the Purpose, Principles and Method of Scouting Ireland.

The Group Council will meet 4 times over the next year to ensure that the group is functioning according to best practice.

Parents and Friends AGM

The Parents and Friends Support Group was set up this time last year and had its first AGM on Thursday November 6^th.   Representatives from each of the programme sections reported on their areas.  We had a financial report and the group is in a healthy position financially.

John Donovan from Ventures compiled a slide show – set to music – of photographs of scouting events over the past year including hikes, annual camp to the Jamboree, Parent and Son weekend amongst others.  The Parents and Friends Support Group achieved its goals with regards to fundraising and communications.   The Group is currently looking for some volunteers to get involved.   If you have an hour to spare every two months send an email or send a text.

Fundraising

Every year we have 2 fundraising events. The 12 Days of Christmas and the Race Night.

The 12 Days of Christmas Tickets will be arriving shortly.  This is a good opportunity for the scouts themselves to help with fundraising directly and also to gain visibility for Kilternan Scouts within the local community. We hope that each family can at least sell one book of tickets.  While this is a national fundraising event with fantastic prizes, ALL monies raised by our group, stays within our group.

Dates for the Diary

All major group Events are now entered on a “Google Calendar” on our website – www.KilternanScouts.com  

Beavers

Derval Keating took over as the Beavers Section Leader in September. 

The Beavers returned on Sept 11th, we lost two of our leaders Paul and Michelle due to work commitments. They were with us 5 years and will be missed.  The good news is that we recruited 3 new lovely leaders Janet, Sharon and Paula. To help Michael, Deirdre and Derval, we also have 2 fourth year students helping us out as well: Robyn and Sarah.  We have taken on a new group of beavers and are looking forward to seeing them progress in scouting.  So far since September we have hiked to the Dolmen, and had a great Halloween party.  We hope to see Peter Pan in January with the Ladybirds (the equivalent group from the Kilternan Girl Guides), We hope to take part in some county activities, and maybe do an overnight with cubs, .so plenty planned for the future.

Cubs

Unfortunately our cubs could not attend the jamboree last August, because of the adverse weather.  We hope that the cubs were not too upset and all parents have been refunded all costs.  On the positive side, 10 beavers swam up river to cubs this October, and they are settling in well.   We are planning hikes and activities over the coming months.

Scouts

Scouts started again this year with 12 from last year, 7 new scouts from cubs and 3 from outside the scouting sector. This is a great mix and we have a total of 22 which is the highest number for many years. Already we have attended the County Camp in Larch hill which was similar weather to Jamboree! (rain!)   We have done a night hike in Enniskerry and helped a local charity 'Christmas shoe boxes'. The boys had to be dragged away from the packing of the boxes, and have said they would definitely help again next year. In the coming week we are doing some badge work, cycling on three Rock and having the Ambulance service in to teach us first aid.

Our new leaders John and Sophie have attended Child Protection Training and are going to Scouting Fundamentals in December.  They attended training with all the other leaders at Fernhill on their Welcome pack and its details.  Heather has completed Group Leader training, leaving her with just her 'Wood badge' to complete.

Ventures

3 new Ventures this year! Seán Naughton, Jonathan Elmes and Jack Daly join Killian Donovan, Daniel Daly and Sophie Kennedy from last year.

Ventures are a more independent group and organise a lot of their own activities. Venture leaders don’t appear to do a lot but are there for support and advice! Ventures is where young people get a chance to use some of the skills they have learned in Scouts for themselves.

This year the Ventures have already been out on a Winter Navigation Exercise over Kippure Mountain and are planning a programme of events for themselves in the coming months. Ventures also invited the County Programme Coordinator for Ventures (Peter O’Brien) up to meet them to discuss a series of joint events with other Ventures in the county and will take part in different activities with colleagues from other groups. Surfing in Bundoran, mountaineering in Wales and camping in Iceland are three.

Scouting Ireland’s highest achievement award for youth members is the ‘Explorer Belt’ involving a personal project and expedition. Three of our Ventures are interested in doing this year.