Visitors

15th Romsey (North Baddesley) Scout Group

St George’s Day Parade

Well done and thankyou to all of you that turned out on Sunday 22 April for the St George’s Day parade in Romsey. The weather was perfect for a parade through the town to and from the Abbey/United Reform Church. Everyone looked very smart including our new flags.

Sainsbury's Active Kids 2007

Sainsbury’s have opened up their Active Kids vouchers scheme to Scout groups now and we are collecting. Please collect as many as you can—the more vouchers we get the more equipment we can claim. Please bring your vouchers to your meeting where there will be a box in which you can post them, or give them to your leader.

AGM

The group’s AGM will be held from 4pm to 7.30pm on Saturday 30 June 2007.Come along and try your hand at Circus Skills with help from some experts. As always we will be nominating volunteers for the executive committee. New faces are always welcome so if you can spare a little time each month, please come to the meeting and put your name forward. At this meeting we will be discussing the raising of subs to help us fund activities and equipment.

Canoe Noos:

There are still places available for the BCU 1 and 2 star canoe courses being run during June and July - mainly on Sunday afternoon, but with a couple of Friday evening sessions. Cost is £20.

We are also having a canoe camp at Biblins on the River Wye during the early May Bank holiday - open for anyone who has a minimum of BCU 1 star.

A canoe trip is planned around Poole Harbour, on 14 July stopping off for a picnic lunch on Brownsea Island (subject to consent to land).

For more info on any of these canoeing events contact Peter Bourne (023 80732038 or peterbourne@tinyonline.co.uk)

Leaders

I am sorry to report that we are losing a number of our Leaders during the Summer holiday - and so we are on the look out for enthusiastic adults to replace them. If you know of anyone that might be able to help, please let us know.

Richard Banks (Scout Leader) is needing to spend more time at home as he is about to become a dad this term. We wish Richard and Veronica well.

Karen Doherty (Cub Scout Leader) is also needing to stand down as she now has a full time job and unable to commit time to the Cub Pack.

Rachel Knight (Asst Cub Scout Leader) will be going to University in Sept/Oct so we will also be losing her support in the Cub Section.

This leaves the Cub Pack without any warranted leaders, and the Scout Troop with just one - Matt Reed (Asst Scout Leader) - although both sections do have other adult support.

Mountbatten Park

Many of you will have noticed that the Parish Council have erected a height barrier in the entrance road to Mountbatten Park. This is partially to stop ‘travellers’ from gaining access to this area, but has already caused some inconvenience. They are also intending to erect a lockable gate, which will be open during the day, but locked overnight. This is to discourage some of the rowdy behaviour which has occurred during the summer months in recent years. Whilst we were aware that these were being considered by the council, we did not know they were being erected over Easter.

We understand that all HQ key holders will have keys to the gate so they can open it if necessary, and lock it if they are the last to leave. We will also be able to open the height barrier to get the canoe trailer in and out, and for other exceptional loads - but we will not be able to open this as a matter of routine.

The Group Executive will keep the situation under review and report any problems to the Parish council. We are also in discussion with the PC about improved CCTV coverage around the HQ.

Badgesplash

Sunday 13th May is the day to get your cossies on and head for Oaklands pool for this year’s swimming badge bonanza. If any parents are free to help that afternoon, please contact John Evans (contact details are on the Badgesplash forms sent out recently). Families are welcome to join in the fun session in the pool afterwards.

Subs

Don’t forget, to obtain your discount on the subs, you need to pay at your meeting by 31 April or direct to your leaders home or the GSL by 5 May.

Uniform Exchange

We are keen to set up a uniform exchange for the unit. So we are looking for a volunteer to run it and any donations of unwanted uniform. Please contact your leader or Pete Bourne for more information.

Thankyou

We would like to thank Scott Wheeler for the generous donation of paint and materials that will be used in the coming term by Cubs doing their decorators badge and on Maintenance Day. We can look forward to a freshly painted HQ!

Explorer Exploits

The Explorer Unit has decided to change its name from the long-winded ‘15^th Romsey District Explorer Scout Unit’ to a much shorter ‘Crusaders Explorer Unit’. This reflects the village's historic association with the Knights of St John. Cheques for Unit events and subs should now be made payable to ‘Crusader Explorer Unit’.

They rounded off last terms programme with an all-night DVD evening. This term started with a trip to Andark at Swanwick for a Scuba Diving session. The programme for this term includes

• “Ready Steady cook”
• Games evening
• Pushball
• A treasure hunt
• Pioneering
• a Beach Barbecue
• a wet Wide Game.

Scouts News

Cycle Challenge

On Saturday the 17th of February approximately 15 of the 15th Romsey scout group went on an all day cycling trip in the New Forest. During the cold, dry day we had a time in the morning for getting used to the track, and some time trials and races in the afternoon.

The tracks we used had different grades from easy to difficult through the woods, in some places muddy, in some places steep, uphill and downhill and in other places we had to make sharp U-bends round the trees. 

This was great fun and in the end we decided to time how long it took to run around the track! Although I wasn’t the fastest it was an extremely fun and enjoyable experience and I think you will agree.

Term Programme

• 23 April - Marksmanship Test/ first aid
• 30 April - Air Rifle shooting and devising menus for campfire coking
• 4 - 7 May Canoe camp, Wye Valley (must have at least BCU 1 Star award)
• 13 May - Badgesplash, Oakland’s swimming pool
• 14 May - Pioneering
• 21 May - Camp Fire cooking
• 4 June - Fitness Challenge
• 11 June - Water castle fight
• 18 June - Orienteering around Baddesley
• 25 June - Wide Games
• 30 June - Circus Skills and AGM
• 2 July - Skills Competition
• 9 July - Fitness Challenge
• 16 July - Patrol leaders evening/end of year party
• 29 July - 5 August - Summer camp