Firstly, I would like to thank all of our leaders for the time and effort they have put into their Scouting programs over the past year. As you will read in their reports the Cubs, Scouts and Venturers have been very active over the 12 months and have achieved many high goals. Without the dedication and perseverance of our leaders we would not be in such a great position to move forward in our new hall.
The Cubs have a new Akela in Jeff Argent with Gary moving into Venturers. They have continually made their presence known at district events and ended the year at the state Cuboree held at Cataract Scout Park. All the leaders and Cubs had a great time despite the wet weather.
Peter, Geoff and Jeremy have also done well with the boys coming second at the Easter Scout camp at Crosslands and a patrol gaining a silver award at Scout hike. All of this can be put down to their enthusiasm in teaching the boys the Scouting program.
The Venturers have struggled a bit over the last year and hopefully with the new hall will be able to settle into a more stable routine and grow their numbers. In January next year a few of our Venturers will be attending the 15th Australian Venturer in Tasmania. I’m sure that the Venturers attending will have a great time and meet many new friends.
Over the last year the Group committee has been run with the dedicated support of a small number of parents. With the new hall up and running we are now able to have our committee meetings at the same time as the cub meetings. This has proved a success with some of the cub parents staying on for the committee meeting while their child attends cubs. I would also like to thank Sandra Raymond-Jones for her secretarial efforts over the last few years; she will be standing down from the Secretary’s job, and will need to be replaced by another parent.
The main news on a group front is that our builder Ray Becchio has completed our new hall. We now have all of our sections meeting at our new hall. With the hall 95% complete we still have to keep focus on finishing the last minor elements to create a great hall. In the coming months we will be having a few more working bees to complete the hall. With the completion of the hall drawing closer there are many people to thank, the parents and youth members who have turned up to the working bees and members of the reconstruction committee who have lead the building program. At the head of the building committee was Greg McKinnon, who has been the main driving force behind all the work. Without Greg’s determination and perseverance over the last 7 years we would still be looking at the plans of the new hall and not the actual building.
The role of the Group Committee is to support and look after the group and its assets so that the leaders can go about giving the boys and girls a complete scouting program without worrying about “Has the hall insurance been paid?, Is the electricity bill currently paid?” Over the last few years this has been mainly left to the efforts of 3 or 4 parents. It would be good to see some new parents get involved with the running of the group. It is not the commitment of a Cub or Scout leader, but does require the attendance at 1 meeting a month; this coincides with the Cubs meeting night. The group committee has a very important role in the Group structure and without it there would be no Cubs or Scouts. I wish the new committee all the best with the coming year.
Peter Dudfield
Group Committee Chairman
1st Mt Colah / Mt Kuring-gai Scout Group 