2020 Advertising Scouting

Last Thursday night, the scouts went off and were instructed to prepare a video that would advertise scouting to the rest of the world.  This is what two groups (and the leaders) came up with:

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CUBS

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SCOUTS

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WINTER CAMP

Term 1 2020 - News and Term Roundup

Hi And welcome to our term 1 roundup.  A slow start to the term after the hype and excitement of Jamboree gave us a breather to a very busy second half of the term with a large number of visitors, some great successes at regattas and a great start to the year. The sad reality is we have not finished this term in anything like to style we planned to, thanks to the lockdown.  Some beautiful sailing weather has been missed and some camps will have to be cancelled.  We have even postponed an opportunity to go gliding.  Hopefully we can make this up with a more enthusiastic approach in Term 2 and 3 when we are allowed to head out again. Stay safe.

Important

OSM Updates Please could you update all your details. These details will not be shared with anyone who does not need to see them, but do contain important information that we, as leaders need to know, in the event that we have an issue: https://osm.scouts.org.nz/login.php The first section of contact details is for you as scouts.  Please complete this so that you can be involved in these email conversations.  At the very least, please add your email addresses into this section. Please review this even if you have completed it recently.  It needs to be kept up to date. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Badges You as a scout can also track your progress in awards and badges using the following link to OSM: https://osm.scouts.org.nz/login.php ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Event consents We do permission and consents using OSM.  All consents will be based on the following and should be completed by your parent.  These consents have recently changed so please read them carefully. You give permission to your child attending the event You give permission for the Scout leaders to administer child Pamol / Paracetamol / Ibuprofen should they feel it necessary. You give permission for the Scout leaders to administer basic first aid such as plasters etc should they feel it necessary. You give permission for the Scout leaders to act as guardian should your child need to be taken to hospital.  All attempts possible will be made to contact you before a doctor administers treatment. Please let your parents know about this so that it is not a surprise when it happens at our next event. If anyone has a problem with this method or the consents above, please let me know ASAP.

Term 1 roundup

Waitangi Day Family Fun day We started the term with the Family Fun day where we invited all scouts down to play on the boats and kayaks.  About 10 scouts and their families responded and took advantage of the great weather and had a good day.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Onepoto Raft Race This is always a favourite and always fun.  With 7 groups attending, some with Venturer teams as well, we had a huge number of rafts on the water.  Raumati Venturers took the line honours, but some special mentions are required: Waikanae scouts who started about 5 minutes after everyone else and managed to finish second A special mention is required for the Coracle built by the Paekakariki Venturers.  It looked really good, and while I didn't see it finish, I believe it did in one piece. More information on the blog here

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit by Waikanae Air Scouts This visit was an example of what scouts should be doing and how they should be doing it, and I was so proud of our scouts. Starting with the senior scouts who all gave up and extra half hour to come to the den early and get the cutters prepared to sail so that we would waste no time, to the youngest scouts who kept up such a clamour on the kayaks that no-one watching could not help but smile and believe that loads of fun was being had by all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Worser Bay Regatta This was a VERY successful event for us.  Our intermediates showed great style in taking first place in both the Sunbursts and Cutters.  We got a respectable 42 points to St James' 50, which is a very respectable haul given that St James nearly always win with twice as many points as the next closest.  We are getting better at this and I, for one, am looking forward to next years regattas, where we can really show what we can do.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lockdown Then came COVID-19 and a very new experience for many - online scouting.  The leaders have been challenged to adapt and provide the platform for many to keep our scouts engaged and interested and some notable successes to date include: decorating cakes teddy bear challenges - putting them on swings, shooting them from catapults, building them rope ladders and others building bivouacs visiting virtual museums It's been a troubling few weeks and I think you scouts have made a real go of keeping up a "Normal" that you should be congratulated.

Contact us

If you have any questions or queries, feel free to contact me on 021 0292 8345, or at derrickbell@gmail.com. Yours in scouting Derrick, Vanessa, Neil, Rachel, Grant, Kym, Kate, Nick, Robin & Cath

Den Maintenance 2020

First of all, many thanks to the many parents and scouts (cubs keas and venturers included), who took the time to spend an hour or two at the den doing some little chores that needed doing and will all work towards making scouts run easier, smoother and with fewer problems.

Secondly, a huge thank you to Plimmerton Volunteer Fire Brigade, who surprised us all by providing a water blaster in the form of a fire truck.  They washed down the whole den in less than an hour in fantastic style.  Community caring in action.  BRAVO!

The rest of the work was mostly achieved or well on the way to being achieved by the time we left at 3:30pm.

• The whole front of the den was repainted
• Both boat sheds were emptied and cleaned from top to bottom (can't figure out if we were channelling Rachel or Kym here :-) )
• The wardroom (kithcen) was emptied and given a coat of paint.  Hopefully it will have a second one by the end of the weekend too.
• All the fascias were scrapped and wirebrushed and about half were painted
• The changing rooms got a spruce up with a new coat of varnish on the benches and some new coat hooks
• We got two extra mast holders and a new towel rail in the toilet which 
• The brush around the edges of the den was cleared away and a channel cleared to allow the water to drain back into the inlet
• And lastly but not least, we pulled down all our old heavy tents and worked out what their operating status is.  We know that we have a full MASHE tent (big mess tent) and one full PE (Personel) tent.  We have most of two others.  We can now work on completing these tents and either retaining them for future use or finding another home for them.

The scouts all put in a great effort.  Painting, scraping, cleaning and putting up tents ...

Once again thank you to all who helped (and Jane and her boys who provided a full and tasty morning tea).

Derrick

Worser Bay Regatta

This years Worser Bay Regatta was a blast.  The wind picked up early afternoon and we sailed a simplified triangle course that gave us some really good results.  Our small group of sailors really excelled themselves both in their efforts to achieve these results and their willingness to help with setting up and clearing away afterwards.

Besides the results below, the impromtu Iron Scout event, we got a fourth in the juniors and a third in the intermediates.

GROUP POINTS

Group	Points
Britannia	35
Eastern Bays	0
St James	50
Ngati Toa	42
Paraparaumu Beach	26
Kotuku	0
Westshore	0

SAILING

SUNBURST	1st	2nd	3rd
Junior	St James	NTSS	Paraparaumu
Intermediate	NTSS	Paraparaumu	St James
Senior	Britannia	Paraparaumu	NTSS
Open

CUTTER	1st	2nd	3rd
Junior	St James	NTSS	Paraparaumu
Intermediate	NTSS	St James	Paraparaumu
Senior	St James	NTSS	Britannia
Open

ROWING

	1st	2nd	3rd
Junior	St James	Britannia	NTSS
Intermediate	St James	Britannia	NTSS
Senior	St James	Britannia	Paraparaumu
Open	NTSS	St James	Paraparaumu

2020 Onepoto Raft Race

This years Raft Race was important because after a few years of dropping numbers, the Venturers finally came back in force.  And they brought with them all the creativity that we have come to expect from them.

This years turn out brought with it 7 groups:

• Ngati Toa Scouts & Venturers
• Paekakiriki Scouts & Venturers
• Whitby Scouts
• Waikanae Scouts brought a crew for the first time in a few years
• Titahi Bay Scouts
• Raumatis Scouts & Venturers
• Brittannia Sea Scouts

Briefing was promptly held at 9am with a heavy emphasis on the corruptability of the officials!  No takers unfortunately.  Building commenced at a fairly sedate pace with some troops more or less throwing them together and others with very clear plans and well rehearsed knots that looked like they would do the distance and more.

The start happened on time at 10am, however, some groups were a little slow getting down to the line.  That did not stop them from making an impressive impact on the results at the end.

Once away, the impressive fleet looked like they were all going to get to the end, albeit, some were going to float, some paddle, some even swim.  But as it turns out, there were some groups that simply did not manage to hold it together all the way top the end.

A special mention si required for the Coracle built by the Paekakariki Venturers.  It looked really good, and while I didn't see it finish, I believe it did in one piece.

The winners this year, however, were Raumati Venturers.

Good job guys!

See you all at next years exciting event!