This time of year seems a time to reflect on what has gone on in the year and to start to get ready to look forward. The Scout Group has indeed had a cracking year. Our Group Camp in September was attended by 60 children from all three sections and together with leaders and the cooking team; there were over 80 on site. The camp saw the county air rifle and archery training team come to instruct the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. As a result of this we are looking to place two teams in the Burton District shooting competition in June 2010. We did have the traditional camp fire and accompanied with brilliant weather, it certainly was the best group camp yet.

In general, Scouting over the last few years has undergone a lot of positive change. We have seen our Chief Scout, Peter Duncan do his term of 5 years to be succeeded by the dare devil adventurer Bear Grylls. Some people believe that Scouting is on the decline, this is not true. The HQ team in London and with all across the UK have been working very hard to get Scouting noticed. Together with the very hard work put in by all the Leaders and support team in Rolleston, we now have over 110 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Leaders. This really is proof that Scouting works. You as a village have a dedicated team of adult volunteers that put in 110% and this shows in our numbers, and as a village you should be very proud.

We have 7 vacancies in the group at present, to provide back up to existing teams. We are actively looking for 2 assistant Cub leaders; support the 4 current leaders and 5 new members to join the executive committee within in the group. The leaders are needed to make it easier for the cub pack to function at full capacity. It is a uniformed position, with full training that is given and supported by trained advisers, at the same standard as any professional training company.

The Executive Committee is the non-uniformed side of the group. This position, is one of a charity trustee, and with it does come with a certain amount of responsibility. The Execs role is to manage all aspects of the group headed by the Chairman and the Group Scout Leader to ensure that the entire group is acting within, the remits of the Scout Association. This isn’t as dull as it sounds, the meetings are 45 min long and there are 8 a year. We discuss fundraising, development of the group and new ideas are always welcome. The meeting s are on a Tuesday night starting at 18.30, ideal if you are a beaver parent, and you may even be treated to a brew.

We don’t often ask for help but with a group the size of Rolleston and the grounds and building to maintain, many hands do indeed make light work.

Belonging to the Scout Association is open to all. You do not have to have a child in the group, just a sense of humour.

If you are interested in any aspect of the group and would like to know more, the please do not hesitate to give me a call, or email.

Thanks for reading and for the continued support you as a village show the group

Yours in Scouting
Graham M Jacks
grahamj0124@googlemail.com

www.rollestonscouts.org.uk

PS. Beat the credit crunch,, make a bit of cash, carboot tables still only £5, average public attendance 70-100 people every time
… for a table call karen on, 07976461872… Last Sunday of the month except December

Since my last report the Cubs have been on district Cub camp on Cannock chase and the scouts visited Walesby Scout centre deep in Robin Hood country. Both camps were full of fun activities and that is Scouting at its best. As a group we are busy as ever, with events and camps never ending we certainly have little spare time. We are holding our annual group camp in September and that promises to be, a challenge as ever, with all three sections sleeping over. With activities to test them to their limit it does promise to be a camp they will certainly remember. The activities go from crafts to air riffle shooting with coaches from the county training squad, the kids will have enough to keep them entertained.

Any profit we make from the camp will be donated to the Air Ambulance.

Looking to the future, 2010 sees the Scout troop return to Kandersteg Scout centre in Switzerland. The original plan was to visit every 4 years but they’ve got itchy toes and plan to visit in August next year. To try and keep the costs to a minimum they’re looking for fundraising ideas, so if you have any, please let me know and I will pass them on.

The Scout of the Year Award for the group, (the John Marshall Award) was awarded to Tom Sanderson in June this year. He is a young leader who started helping the Beaver Colony when undertaking his service commitment fro the Duke of Edinburgh Award. He has stopped with the section and shown to be a person of great commitment, well done Tom

Thank you to everyone who danced the day and night away at ROLLESTONBURY09, I’m glad to say that the event was a great success, raising over £2500 for the Scout Group and Tutbury Band. The event started with Tutbury Junior Band and then the Senior Band playing for over four hours a vast array of music. Then onto the main stage for SPOOKYFISH. They played music from the 60s to the present day, The Kinks, to Bon Jovi with Duffy thrown in the middle and it was great to see everyone on the field dancing, and having a good time and the performance of the band was outstanding. I was on the gate at the end of the event and many comments were passed on, and I’m glad to say none of them bad, but the main one was, what a great family event and are we doing it next year, well the answer is YES WE ARE.

We have rebooked SPOOKYFISH by popular demand and ROLLESTONBURY10 will take place on the 17th July 2010, see u there

PS, beat the credit crunch,, make a bit of cash,, carboot tables still only £5, average public attendance 70-100 people every time,,, for a table call Karen on, 07976461872,,, last Sunday of the month except December

Thanks for reading and the continued support you, as a village, show the Group

Yours in Scouting
Graham M Jacks
grahamj0124@googlemail.com www.rollestonscouts.org.uk

1st Rolleston Scout Group, your Scout Group, is FANTASTIC. The Group at the moment is full in all three sections, with a waiting list in the Beaver section. It’s a very busy time for the group. I recently had the pleasure of leading the group in the annual St Georges Day Parade in Burton. The group looked excellent, very smart, well presented and we had over 70 on parade it was one of the best I can remember so well done to all the attended.

Also in April, June Webb a long serving member of the Scout Group was awarded the Sliver Acorn. This is only awarded once a year at St George’s day. It is only given to leaders that have shown consistent distinguished service for over 20 years and June over qualifies for that. We as a Scout group owe June a great deal so may I say a big thank you June for all the work that you put into the group - THANK YOU!

Also thank you to everyone who supported the Scout Group on Carnival day, and with ROLLESTONBURY09 who can say there’s nothing to do in Rolleston - this will take place on the 20th of June. There is a misprint on some of the posters stating the finishing time of the concert at 22.00, it’s actually nearer 22.30, depending on how long the bands over run but this year we are facing the night stage down the field so we hope not to annoy anyone.

We have annual running costs of over £17k a year and are about to commit to another electrical upgrade that will no doubt be a small fortune, fundraising is paramount. We do appreciate all the villages cooperation and if anyone has any concerns the please contact me grahamj0124@googlemail.com 07768 047 332. We hold a full music and dance licence covering the entire site and there’s also a bar and a brilliant carvery so don’t sit at home listening, come down and join us. Tickets start from £4 Child and £5 an Adult in advance. For more info see the website www.rollestonscouts.org.uk (open air concert)

This year all the sections are camping all over the place and this includes the beavers,, we have a lot in the pipeline including another international camp in its early stages of planning and really do appreciate all the help and the support from the village From bottle and can collection, to the Carnival, from car boots to ROLLESTONBURY09 it is appreciated.

We now have a website - www.rollestonscouts.org.uk which shows all the press releases for all our events including prices, dates and times. As well as information on all three sections and an overview and history of the group.

Thank you once again
Graham M Jacks GSL

PS. Beat the credit crunch, make a bit of cash, carboot tables still only £5, average public attendance 70-100 people everytime, for a table call Karen on, 07976461872, last Sunday of the month except May, August and December

2009 is shaping up to be yet another exciting and challenging year for the Scout Group as a whole. We have recently launched our own website – www.rollestonscouts.org.uk - enabling everyone to keep up to date with the group’s activities. May I take this opportunity to thank Stephen Goodfellow for creating the site.

We are also planning the usual and the not so usual events for the village to enjoy. Our ever popular Car boot sales and Rummage sales are planned along with the annual Rolleston Carnival to be held on the 10th of May.

This year we are adopting the Circus theme for the day, so goodness only knows what the kids will have dreamed up by then.

I do have the pleasure of writing that the Scout Group has indeed grown again, we have seen the Beaver Colony expand to 18 the Cubs go up to 27 with the Scout Troop increasing to 28. This combined with new committee members and the people I affectionately call ‘event staff’ take the groups number to well over 100. Thank you to all of you for making the Scout Group as successful as it is but also delivering a quality programme of events for the children week in week out, and working so hard to keep the fundraising going. Just two facts the HQ costs over £16.5k a year to run, (gas, electricity, water and insurance.) this is very hard to raise so thank you to the executive team for working very hard. The second fact is that they are made up of 8 core members. If you are interested in helping then please get in touch. We achieve so much but just imagine what we could achieve if we had more helpers and leaders.

Graham M Jacks GSL

ROLLESTONBURY 09

This is the follow up to the festival of music and drums that we held last year. It is to be held on midsummer’s weekend Saturday the 20th of June on the lawn at the back on the Headquarters. We have again teamed up with – TUTBURY SENIOR AND JUNIOR BANDS - to raise much needed funds for both the Band and the Scout Group. The event will consist of the Tutbury Junior Band opening the concert at 3pm, to be followed later by the Senior Band. They will be playing a host of music from traditional pieces to contemporary music and songs from the shows. It will then be over to – SPOOKYFISH - a fantastic four piece cover band playing everything from the Kinks to Robbie Williams. They take over the night at 19.30. I have seen the band perform and they really are worth seeing. If you don’t believe me look at www.spookyfish.biz, and check it out for yourself. Tickets are available from 0845 408 49 35, a low rate number accepting credit and debit cards, tickets will be available locally. See the website for more details. All day tickets are £6 but if you want to come and see the evening band then its just £5. We have and are putting a lot of work into all our events so please support us.

3 BANDS, 2 STAGES - ONE BRILLIANT EVENT

www.rollestonscouts.org.uk

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Last updated: 29 December 2009