Attendance: Ray Marsh, Adrian Ashford, Natalie Ashford, James Divall, Bob Simpson, Rebecca Byrne, Dave Dunn, Tim Rutherford, Kally Dunn, Alan Sandall, Dawn Wilson, Pam Birch and John Myers, Michael James.

Apologies:Simon Merrett, Wes Reed and John Wesley.

1. The Chairman welcomed all to the meeting.

2. Minutes of the previous meeting accepted.

3. Matters Arising: None

4. DC Team Report.

  • Leandinie Explorer funds – at the last meeting it was proposed and agreed to cover the expenses of the trip to France with a loan of £1000. Which should be repaid at £200 per month for 5 months starting in October. The cheque was issued, ACTION:Treasurer will determine whether the cheque has been cashed. Although James Divall mentioned that the loan might not have been required in the end. If the cheque was presented to the bank – ACTION:Treasurer to please check that £200 has been received from the group.
  • AAC Resolution – this situation is still serious. James and Becky Haynes (Designated Appointments Secretary) haveattended the M37 training course and is hoping that Becky will soon be appointed as secretary who will then proceed with the backlist of appointments.

The AAC could be present at camps and other events. The Appointments Secretary will need to determine who else is trained up to M37 standard. More trained people are needed. Please send names to James.

  • At the last core training meeting it was evident that E Somerset is behind on training courses. We need to request more of the essential courses that cannot be done on e-learning.
  • GSL Development day – will reinforce the importance of the training process, it is the responsibility of the GSL to ensure the group meets training requirements and keeps training up to date.
  • More information is required on - How does a leader request a 12b course? - Who are the TA’s?
  • We need more TA’s.
  • The District Team could do more one-stop appointment reviews, DBS checks, etc.

GSLs need more training themselves.

  • 2017 Diary has been agreed.
  • Adrian Ashford offered the use of Shepton HQ after 8pm any Monday evening for AAC events.
  • GSL Development day – Sunday 30 October at Charlton Musgrove 10-4pm. 16 are registered to date, more are needed to book in, it is also open to the exec. Numbers and dietary requirements are required to give caterers a good warning. There are good activities arragned. Fiona will do an online Scout Manager during the lunchtime.
  • Compass – is now working well and reports can be generated of everyone’s training record. Compass is generating around 70 emails per day. Everyone without a valid DBS will be suspended in order to sort out the DBS procedure. The Group Administrator / GSL Role is very important for DBS checking. GSLs should be aware that in the case of anyone without a valid DBS being prosecuted, the GSL could also be prosecuted for aiding and abetting. Adrian suggested that there could be some email addresses that are not being responded to. The circular emails have been copied to GSL’s. ACTION: James Divall to send the list of DBS and training requirements to District Liaison officers.
  • Group websites – 12 / 14 out of 30 groups have an online prescence, the groups who do are full, the groups who do not are struggling.

Proposal: Can we help support our groups to have or refresh a website? There has been an offer of £300 per website to be developed and the price will go down if there are more groups requesting websites. Can we apply for a grant to do websites for all the groups? Give each group £25 to incentivise them to start this. push for this one person to do allthe websites. ????

Small groups wont be able to pay the balance and will not have someone to maintain their website.

Ask Paul Bentley for group email addresses, that can be forwarded to the relevant person so that group is kept informed.

Decision:

  1. Promote it initially, those who can do it will do it.
  2. Then give other/smaller groups the incentive of a grant towards the cost.

EDF Community Foundation fund has received £14 million and could be approached for grants.

  • Recent Meetings – James and Dawn are fully inducted as DCs and were congratulated on doing far more than any other current DC’s in the county. They are keen to work with Charltons to get numbers up. RDS want to go into groups to promote growth and retention.
  • County Conference next Spring – developing growing talent in 17-25yr old age group. HQ will do development courses next year.Please make sure Network have put their info onto Compass, log in to Compass and enter your profile details.Supporting 17-25yr olds with training, Give a birthday bundle to 17yr olds. 18 yr olds are being put in charge of groups with no training and they feel lost and unsupported.
  • DoE – we are now losing those trainers. 6 people just need to be validated, then can do more DoE courses. Tim Rutherford said we need to follow through with the ultimatum, we’ve already missed DoE boat for 2017.

ACTION: Tim R, Dawn and James will get together. This is important as we are grooming our Leaders of tomorrow, encouraging them to be Queens Scouts and either at Univercity or after to finish DoE and Queens Scouts awards.

County Commissioner – Nominations are open.

5. Treasurers Report (See Appendix A)

  • James asked how much goes into the Sally Still account? Pam said at present nothing as it is growing with interest only. This account should be promoted around the District as an inclusion fund and them begin to top it up.
  • Investment fund has just built up over time with interest.
  • Tedbury Campsite needs to keep its own accounts.
  • Camelot Shop had no accounts through to hand over. Signature is an issue. Need to close account and stop ordering things. There is still money in the account, need people to go into the bank to sign to close it. ACTION: John Myers will do a letter to request Scout Shops Ltd to close the account.
  • Another member is needed on the Finances sub-committee. Bob Simpson volunteered and was approved.
  • We have got until February to sort out old accounts.
  • ECOS storage costs – no details have been received from Pete Ward. ACTION: Pam will follow up.
  • Pam asked why we charged for the Young leaders First Aid course as Leaders courses are free, James said this was a once off course requested in order to meet training requirements. County courses are oversubscribed.

Proposal:All young leaders courses should be paid for. All agreed, it is a District provision.

6. Safety No incidents were reported.

7. Scout Shop (Pam)

Aquestionnaire was sent out to all groups asking if they would support a visit from a mobile Scout Shop – had one reply.

Jake will also speek about this at the GSL development day.

8. District Photocopier:

As it ishardly ever used it was decided not to maintain it any longer. Proposal: St Andrews be given an option to take it over, they may have it at no cost.

9.Correspondence

  • Mayor of Yeovil sent letter of thanks for invitation to AGM
  • Charlton Sea Scouts requested a grant of £500 as part funding to fund a local skills instructor to go on a Forest School training course at a cost of £830.00, This was discussed and the decision was taken not to grant this request but it would recommend that the instructor be in vited to partake in Backwoods / skills courses run by the District at Tedbury or other locations.

10. Any Other Business:

  1. Request sent out to all on Exec to do M1e training, 5 were returned. All are comingup for appointment review. Bob Simpson asked how long di it take to do the training? The general consensus was about 45 minutes, important to watch all videos and click throughs
  2. Finance subcommittee meeting, please to discuss next years fees.
  3. County Commissioner search email has gone out, Adrian Ashford is in the Role of County Chair until search is completed. Colina is now County Secretary.
  4. Bob Simpson – County Directory, old districts are still listed. Yeovil/Frome/Camelot. Send email to Tony to remove anomalies.
  5. Founders Day Ball – more info will follow shortly to advertise it. £30 per head. 150 people will cover cost of venue. Dist Exec will cover cost of the band. Profits of a raffle on the night will go into District funds and Development and Hardship fund. How to fund the event? – Ask Mayors/Chambers of Commerce/ Town Councils to sponsor a table.

PROPOSAL: Approve the £1000 cost? This was agreed

  1. Email from Scouting magazine – they would like to do an article on How did the variation of St George’s Day go for E Som? We need pros and cons of what worked etc.
  2. Please include Dave Dunn on GSL emails

Next Meeting: Tuesday 24th January2017 The Health Centre Wincanton 7.30. Postcode is BA9 9FQ

Appendix ‘A’
East Somerset District Scout Council
Treasurers Report 18th October 2016
Account Balances
Current / 49731.04
Capital Project / 3393.52 / Shop / 6461.96
Explorers / 1979.36 / Campsite / 6731.05
Investment / 15925.86 / Rifle Club / 95.05
Leader Training / 1008.72
Sally Still / 1819.21
Support / 23703.26
Total / 97560.97
Transactions
Receipts / Payments
Current Account
25/07/16 / Reimbursement from Training fund / 165.00 / 28/07/16 / Loan to Wessex / 1000.00
District Team Expenses – J.Divall / 33.60
Misc / 5.00 / 01/08/16 / To Training Account / 200.00
05/09/16 / Canoeing & Kyaking / 1036.10 / Card Reader for Shop / 433.77
19/09/16 / Canoeing / 85.00 / 05/08/16 / Stationery / 39.06
17/10/16 / Reimbursement from Training Account / 150.00 / 09/08/16 / Buddens – Jaws 2016 / 2390.00
23/08/16 / District Licence for Videos / 614.40
06/09/16 / Replenishment of First Aid Kit / 12.00
Display board for shop / 35.42
Insurance – Shop / 229.49
12/09/16 / John Lewis – Jaws / 71.00
15/09/16 / Equip – 'You Said Boards' / 79.20
District Team Expenses – N.Pope / 15.00
Equip Repairs – Trailer / 36.00
16/09/16 / District Team Expenses – Name Badges / 29.89
19/09/16 / Shooting – Jaws / 50.00
Refund – Wessex – Jaws / 43.00
Canoeing – Jaws / 200.00
29/09/16 / Insurance – Lufton / 209.14
30/09/16 / Equipment – Bags for 'You said..' Boards / 131.75
01/10/16 / Cub Expenses – Refurbish 1st Aid Kit / 3.80
03/10/16 / Transfer to Training Account / 1000.00
04/10/16 / Buddens – Deposit Jaws 2017 / 805.00
Capital Project
05/09/16 / Interest / 0.42
Explorers
20/07/16 / Subs / 56.00
Investment
Leader Training
01/08/16 / Allocation / 200.00 / 25/07/16 / Repaid to General Account / 165.00
03/10/16 / Annual Budget / 1000.00 / 01/10/16 / Repaid to General Account / 150.00
Sally Still
05/09/16 / Interest / 0.23
Support
05/09/16 / Interest / 2.95