Beaver Scouts

• When you receive an invite for your young person to attend it will be free of charge for 3-4 sessions/weeks. If they are happy, they will be invested and we will start to charge subs. The first subs will be reduced if you have started mid term.
• We currently charge subscriptions (subs) of £35 per term. There are 3 terms a year; January-April, May-July and September-December. Subs pay for our hall hire, census (see below) badges and other programme resources.
• We request subs termly as this cuts down on volunteers administration time and helps the leaders to budget for their term. We can make alternative arrangements for paying please email us to discuss further: blandfordscoutgroup@gmail.com
• We do have to pay an annual census to ‘The Scout Association’ headquarters which pays for our insurances etc (likely to be around £50 per Beaver). We try to make sure a proportion of our subs is saved throughout the year to pay for this without asking families.
• We may ask for extra money for trips, activities and events but we will try to get the best deals and keep the cost as low as possible. We don’t overcharge to make a profit, if we have money leftover we make sure the young people will benefit i.e. put towards next event or purchase something useful for meetings.

We have a treasurer who looks after all the monies for the Group (Beavers, Cubs and Scouts) rather than adding this burden onto the leaders of each section.
All subs and events payment requests will be sent via OSM.

• Via OSM: will have a link to pay online. You can make a ‘one-off’ payment or set up a ‘subscription’. If you choose subscription it will email you before every payment is due and you can cancel if necessary – for events it will ask you if you want to attend/pay and if you accept it will take the payment without the hassle of asking for bank details again.
• Via Bank Transfer/BACS: Please email us and we will send info

For any issues/help with payments please email our treasurer Amy, who will be happy to help: treasurer.blandfordscouts@gmail.com

Online Scout Manager (OSM) is a simple, secure system that we use for all our administration. You will be sent a link to login and you create and reset your own password. OSM will show you; the programme including what badges the Beavers are working on, you will be able to see and respond to event invitations, view all the progress of badge work and you will be able to upload badge work done at home which will then be signed off by leaders and badges will be awarded at Beavers.  Click here for more info…

Once young people have attended 3-4 sessions and they are happy to continue let the Beaver leader know and they will arrange a date where investiture will happen. Young people will need a Beaver sweatshirt (all other uniform is optional). The necker, woggle and badges will be given when they make their promise. The investiture will be organised for the beginning or end of a meeting so that adults can come and watch.
Click here for Beaver promise

Second hand uniform is available, let a leader know and they will show you the stock we have in our office. All donations go to our Scout Group.
Official Scout Online Shop – click here..
Uniform shops usually stock Scout uniform (Ragtags aren't at the moment).
Only the sweatshirt is official uniform the rest is optional!
All badges, neckers and woggles will be given at investiture.

Please click here…

View our Awards List
Throughout each section (Beavers, Cubs & Scouts) of Scouting every young person will be earning lots of badges, alongside that the leaders will be making sure they are covering criteria for their Chief Scout Awards, the highest award you can receive in Scouting. In Beavers this is a Bronze, Cubs is Silver and Scouts is Gold. The Bronze challenges are; Adventure, Outdoor, Personal, Skills, Teamwork and World.  See more info here…

Most Beaver colonies split up into smaller groups called ‘Lodges’ for some activities. The Beaver Leader will give one of the Beavers (usually the oldest) the role of ‘Lodge Leader’ for their Lodge. They will be responsible for making sure the rest of the members of the Lodge and any new Beavers are welcomed and supported.

Part of Scouting is to take part in parades and we hugely encourage and appreciate young people attending. Please save the dates as an annual event:

• Remembrance is the closest Sunday to 11th November
• St Georges Day is the closest Sunday to 23rd April

Annual General Meetings (AGMs) are held every year usually in early June. We need to run these events and have as many adults, to act as witnesses to our nominations of key roles on our Committee. We try to combine this with a really fun event, such as a family BBQ with games, and is also an opportunity for us to present Awards and/or invest any young people and volunteers. We REALLY appreciate any adults/families that come and support this annual event!

Once Beavers have turned 8 years old they can move on the next section in Scouting – Cubs! We have two Cub Scout Packs that meet on Mondays and Thursdays. Beavers usually move on to the section at the start of a new term but are welcome to try it out for a 1-3 weeks before the end of a term if they wish. Subs will continue as usual as they are not new to Scouting (i.e. no free weeks). Please have a chat with a leader they are happy to help/organise.

No, all adults are volunteers. The only paid roles in ‘The Scout Association’ are administration at County and some roles at our Headquarters in London.

The Scout Association is the largest Scouting organisation in the UK and is a recognised member of ‘The World Organisation of the Scout Movement’. There are other smaller Scout organisations that run in the UK, for example ‘The British Boy Scouts and British Girl Scouts Association’, that have different ways of delivering Scouting.

• Pay subs promptly – saves volunteers administration time
• Answer event invites promptly – we may be able save costs or offer available spaces to other local Scouts
• Attend AGM’s – you don’t need to volunteer for anything but being a witness really helps
• Save Remembrance & St George Parade dates in your diary/calendar
• Adults are invited and welcome to help at sessions on a one-off basis, regularly or every meeting*
• We are always looking for fundraisers, even if you can apply for 1 grant a year or helping at 1 event a year would be fantastic
• Join our committee – help with the running and fundraising of the Group

If you would like to discuss more about how you can volunteer or just help out with something please email Sam at  blandfordscoutgroup@gmail.com