Dear All,

First, I hope that you and your families are staying safe and well. It’s been fantastic to see our Young People adapting to Scouting At Home and I’d like to thank our volunteers who have taken the time to prepare online activities.

Face-to-face Scout meetings have now been suspended for close to three months. Clearly we don’t know yet when it is going to be possible to restart them. What is clear is that decisions on when (and in what format) meetings can restart will be informed initially by advice from The Scout Association and Scouts Scotland.

The Scottish Government is currently planning for schools in Scotland to go back on 11 August – but with physical distancing measures in place. There are clearly challenges involved in replicating such measures in the Scout Hall – so it is quite possible that section meetings won’t restart until some time after the schools go back.

The Section Leaders and Committee Members have discussed all these issues and agreed that:

• We won’t be arranging a Registration Night until we are clear when face-to-face meetings will be restarting
• Registration Nights (or an alternative) will take place during the week before meetings restart
• When we can restart, we’ll be making sure to get things off to a flying start and to encourage as many young people as possible to re-join
• We’ll be suspending progression arrangements in the meantime and working on the basis that young people will initially re-join the section they were in when meetings stopped.
• Progression between sections and the recruitment of new Beavers will take place 6-8 weeks after meetings restart.

Group Scout Leader
Brian Martin, our Group Scout Leader (GSL), intimated some time ago that he’d be standing down from that role at the end of June. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Brian on behalf of the Group for all his help and support as GSL during the past 6 years. Although he is standing down as GSL, we will still be seeing him from time to time (eg at fundraising events) as he is joining the 28th’s Active Support Unit.

This means that we are currently looking for someone to take over the role of Group
Scout Leader. The GSL role is essentially a management role. Prior experience of
Scouting is not necessary. What we need is someone who can provide some leadership, motivation and guidance to our other adult volunteers – and they will of course be supported by 2 very able Assistant Group Scout Leaders who handle much of the day- to-day work. If you think you could take on the GSL role – or if you know someone who might be interested – please let me know.

Kind Regards,
Peter Ritchie
Group Chairperson

Email: group.chair@giffnockscouts.org.uk