1st Biggin Hill Scout Group

AGM information

1st Biggin Hill Scout Group  

Minutes  for Scout Council AGM 2023/2024

 

Held at Scout HQ 200 Main Road, Biggin Hill, TN16 3BB

At 7.30pm on Friday 7 June 2024

  1. Introduction and welcome
    The chair welcomed the attendees (John Dilling, Dan Henn, Chris Dilling and Les Dobbs) to the meeting.  All had read the meeting agenda and reports.  (Note Jenny Story had indicated she would be late)
  2. Apologies for absence
    There were many apologies including leaders on a weekend camp, leaders where child care required one parent to stay at home or were delivering children to the camp and other venues. 
  3. Governance topics
  1. Approve the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 08/07/2023
    Minutes were approved
  2. Adopt the model constitution from Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR)

See link Chapter 5: Local governance and finance of Groups, Districts, Counties | Policy, Organisation and Rules | Scouts   Approved

  1. Note the Group’s financial year  01/4/2024 to 31/03/2025  Approved
  2. Approve appointed and community members of the Group Scout Council
    There are currently no planned additional appointments.  Approved
  3. Agree the number of members that may be appointed to the Trustee Board
    Suggest minimum of 6 with a maximum of 10, this allowing for 2 spaces for co-optees if required.  Approved
  4. Agree the quorum for future meetings of the Group Scout Council (excluding this AGM)  Suggest 10.   Approved
  1. Review of the previous year
  1. The Group Lead Volunteer’s review of Scouts in the 1st Biggin Hill Scout Group

The first thing to say is that Scouting started in Biggin Hill (or more correctly Cudham School) just over 100 years ago.   It started with just a scout troop but has now grown to providing activities from the age of 4 to 18. We are all proud of what we have achieved over the 100 years and in particular the last few years.

This past year has been more normal with sections managing to meet normally on a weekly basis and to take part in various one off activities such as camps, visits etc.

However, we have had to reorganise the management aspect due to the introduction of the Trustee Board.  We have set up a Group Management Team which consists of the team leaders of the sections as well as the Group Lead Volunteer (GLV) and GLV assistant.  There are also a number of additional supporters who report to the GMT.  These are doing various roles such as cleaning the headquarters, maintaining the headquarters, ordering badges, processing new appointments etc   We are also looking for additional volunteers including one (or more) to take notes of our meetings.

The January census showed our numbers of young people had slightly reduced but some of this was due to having to hold places for youngsters moving up from younger sections.  Also due to some sections having to restrict numbers of young people as we need more team members to ensure correct ratios of adults to young people.  Evenso, there were over 140 young people in the Group with many more on the various waiting lists.

One section where numbers are significantly higher is the explorers.  This has meant that they have been able to do a greater range of activities.

We have continued to recruit new team members but unfortunately there is still a need for additional team members so that there is less need for some team members to support more than one section. 

In summer 2023 the Group held a very successful Harry Potter Camp at Cudham Shaws Activity Centre, where over 100 young people from all sections took part. 

I would like to thank all of the Team members in the various sections and also the various supporters who between them have made it possible for the Group to continue to develop.  Meeting noted the report

 

  1. Receive and consider the Annual Report of the Group Trustee Board, including the annual Statement of the Accounts

Annual Report of Trustee Board for year 01 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

In connection with the Trustee Board, this past financial year has seen some significant changes in our structure.  At the start of the year we were an Executive Board with 15 members including 10 leaders.  We dealt with a wide range of things including finance, the headquarters, equipment maintenance, oversight of all section activities and generally being involved in all general and ongoing matters etc.  In order to align with Charity Commission requirements we have transformed to a Trustee Board with a completely different brief focussing more on governance.  This AGM will finalise the transformation as we move forward with a planned much smaller Trustee Board of about 6 members.  All the day to day and general matters will now be monitored and implemented by the Group Management Team consisting of all section team leaders and the Group Lead Volunteer.  The Group Lead Volunteer will be on the Trustee Board and will act as the link between the Trustee Board and the Group Management Team.  The Trustee Board  will make sure Scouts is run safely and legally.  We will supervise administration around finance, risk, safety, and trusteeship of property.  Together, Trustees make sure the charity is well managed, risks are assessed and mitigated, buildings and equipment are in good working order, and everyone follows legal requirements and Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR).

We have introduced a Risk Register for the Group and over the last couple of Trustee Board meetings we have started to consider the implications of what it is telling us.

With the changes required it was important to have a more robust Financial Accounting Package and for the last few months of the past year we experimented with the Accountancy package on OSM.  This has proved to satisfy our needs and this is the system we are using from 1 April 2024.  Previously we had an increasingly complicated Excel spreadsheet system operated by our Treasurer Les Dobbs.  He has taken this change as an opportunity to stand down from Treasure after about 23 years or so.  We would like to thank him for his efforts over the years.  Les has many other support roles within the Group and many of these will continue.

In financial terms this last year has been more balanced with no significant projects in place.  The end of the year brought in a small surplus of about £800, with an overall balance of about £29.6k.  The Trustee Board considers that they need to keep around £22k as a contingency fund to cover possible issues with the headquarters, large equipment etc.

It is appropriate to thank all the current trustees who are stepping down, this including the section leaders, for the contributions they have made over the years.  They can continue this good work with their contribution to the Group Management Team.

I would also like to welcome the relatively new Trustees who have joined us during the last few months and who will continue on the new Trustee Board.

Finally a thank you to the help we get from parents and carers in supporting the activities of the various sections.  However, we do need to encourage more parents/carers to take up team member positions.  This will enable us to share out the load more equitably and to provide a better programme for our young people.

So a big thankyou to all our current team members, trustees and supporters.  Also hopefully a welcome to those of you who may wish take a fuller part in the scout adventure.   Meeting noted the report

Statement of Accounts can be found at this link:

http://www.1stbigginhill.scoutsonline.co.uk/MyFiles/Group00936/2024 Statement of Account revised.pdf   Meeting noted the report and accepted them.

  1. Making appointments
  1. Appoint the Group Chair, following recommendation from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board
    Proposed by Trustee Board - David Dilling  seconded Dan Henn
  2. Appoint the Group Treasurer, following recommendation from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board
    Proposed by Trustee Board - Gemma Coombs  seconded les Dobbs
  3. Appoint members of the Group Trustee Board, following recommendations from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board
    Proposed by Trustee Board – Dan Henn, Les Dobbs, Tirza Adebiyi  seconded by Chris Dilling
    Note the Group Lead Volunteer (John Dilling) has an ex officio role.
  4. There is no proposal to appoint a Group President or Vice Presidents  Approved
  5. Appoint the Scrutineer / Independent Examiner / Auditor
    Currently we have not been able to identify an Independent Examiner and would hope that someone from the Group will come forward.

Closing remarks
The Chair thanked all those that had attended and the meeting ended at 7.45pm.

Post the meeting the chair received an email although it had been sent shortly before the meeting had started.  The key paragraph is as follows.

"I am in awe of the dedication of all of the adults, within the Biggin Hill Scout Group. The time you freely give, not just to the weekly sessions but to the training sessions, the organising of camps and trips away, not forgetting the shopping, packing away after the trips,  keeping accounts, the cleaning of the premises and equipment,  organising hall hire etc, is inspirational. Your commitment to local children is absolutely amazing. Thank you all so much."

Kind Regards,

Jenny Story


 

 

1st Biggin Hill Scout Group  

AGENDA  for Scout Council AGM 2023/2024

 

To be held at Scout HQ 200 Main Road, Biggin Hill, TN16 3BB

At 7.30pm on Friday 7 June 2024

  1. Introduction and welcome
     
  2. Apologies for absence
    Some sections on weekend camp
  3. Governance topics
  1. Approve the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 08/07/2023
     see link   https://1stbigginhill.scoutsonline.co.uk/MyFiles/Group00936/AGM 20222023 minutes.docx
  2. Adopt the model constitution from Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR)

See link Chapter 5: Local governance and finance of Groups, Districts, Counties | Policy, Organisation and Rules | Scouts

  1. Note the Group’s financial year  01/4/2024 to 31/03/2025
  2. Approve appointed and community members of the Group Scout Council
    There are currently no planned additional appointments.
  3. Agree the number of members that may be appointed to the Trustee Board
    Suggest minimum of 6 with a maximum of 10, this allowing for 2 spaces for co-optees if required
  4. Agree the quorum for future meetings of the Group Scout Council (excluding this AGM)  Suggest 10
  1. Review of the previous year
  1. The Group Lead Volunteer’s review of Scouts in the 1st Biggin Hill Scout Group

The first thing to say is that Scouting started in Biggin Hill (or more correctly Cudham School) just over 100 years ago.   It started with just a scout troop but has now grown to providing activities from the age of 4 to 18. We are all proud of what we have achieved over the 100 years and in particular the last few years.

This past year has been more normal with sections managing to meet normally on a weekly basis and to take part in various one off activities such as camps, visits etc.

However, we have had to reorganise the management aspect due to the introduction of the Trustee Board.  We have set up a Group Management Team which consists of the team leaders of the sections as well as the Group Lead Volunteer (GLV) and GLV assistant.  There are also a number of additional supporters who report to the GMT.  These are doing various roles such as cleaning the headquarters, maintaining the headquarters, ordering badges, processing new appointments etc   We are also looking for additional volunteers including one (or more) to take notes of our meetings.

The January census showed our numbers of young people had slightly reduced but some of this was due to having to hold places for youngsters moving up from younger sections.  Also due to some sections having to restrict numbers of young people as we need more team members to ensure correct ratios of adults to young people.  Evenso, there were over 140 young people in the Group with many more on the various waiting lists.

One section where numbers are significantly higher is the explorers.  This has meant that they have been able to do a greater range of activities.

We have continued to recruit new team members but unfortunately there is still a need for additional team members so that there is less need for some team members to support more than one section. 

In summer 2023 the Group held a very successful Harry Potter Camp at Cudham Shaws Activity Centre, where over 100 young people from all sections took part. 

I would like to thank all of the Team members in the various sections and also the various supporters who between them have made it possible for the Group to continue to develop.

 

  1. Receive and consider the Annual Report of the Group Trustee Board, including the annual Statement of the Accounts

Annual Report of Trustee Board for year 01 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

In connection with the Trustee Board, this past financial year has seen some significant changes in our structure.  At the start of the year we were an Executive Board with 15 members including 10 leaders.  We dealt with a wide range of things including finance, the headquarters, equipment maintenance, oversight of all section activities and generally being involved in all general and ongoing matters etc.  In order to align with Charity Commission requirements we have transformed to a Trustee Board with a completely different brief focussing more on governance.  This AGM will finalise the transformation as we move forward with a planned much smaller Trustee Board of about 6 members.  All the day to day and general matters will now be monitored and implemented by the Group Management Team consisting of all section team leaders and the Group Lead Volunteer.  The Group Lead Volunteer will be on the Trustee Board and will act as the link between the Trustee Board and the Group Management Team.  The Trustee Board  will make sure Scouts is run safely and legally.  We will supervise administration around finance, risk, safety, and trusteeship of property.  Together, Trustees make sure the charity is well managed, risks are assessed and mitigated, buildings and equipment are in good working order, and everyone follows legal requirements and Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR).

We have introduced a Risk Register for the Group and over the last couple of Trustee Board meetings we have started to consider the implications of what it is telling us.

With the changes required it was important to have a more robust Financial Accounting Package and for the last few months of the past year we experimented with the Accountancy package on OSM.  This has proved to satisfy our needs and this is the system we are using from 1 April 2024.  Previously we had an increasingly complicated Excel spreadsheet system operated by our Treasurer Les Dobbs.  He has taken this change as an opportunity to stand down from Treasure after about 23 years or so.  We would like to thank him for his efforts over the years.  Les has many other support roles within the Group and many of these will continue.

In financial terms this last year has been more balanced with no significant projects in place.  The end of the year brought in a small surplus of about £800, with an overall balance of about £29.6k.  The Trustee Board considers that they need to keep around £22k as a contingency fund to cover possible issues with the headquarters, large equipment etc.

It is appropriate to thank all the current trustees who are stepping down, this including the section leaders, for the contributions they have made over the years.  They can continue this good work with their contribution to the Group Management Team.

I would also like to welcome the relatively new Trustees who have joined us during the last few months and who will continue on the new Trustee Board.

Finally a thank you to the help we get from parents and carers in supporting the activities of the various sections.  However, we do need to encourage more parents/carers to take up team member positions.  This will enable us to share out the load more equitably and to provide a better programme for our young people.

So a big thankyou to all our current team members, trustees and supporters.  Also hopefully a welcome to those of you who may wish take a fuller part in the scout adventure.

Statement of Accounts can be found at this link:

http://www.1stbigginhill.scoutsonline.co.uk/MyFiles/Group00936/2024 Statement of Account revised.pdf

  1. Making appointments
  1. Appoint the Group Chair, following recommendation from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board
    Proposed by Trustee Board - David Dilling
  2. Appoint the Group Treasurer, following recommendation from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board
    Proposed by Trustee Board - Gemma Coombs
  3. Appoint members of the Group Trustee Board, following recommendations from the open selection process initiated by the Group Trustee Board
    Proposed by Trustee Board – Dan Henn, Les Dobbs, Tirza Adebiyi
    Note the Group Lead Volunteer (John Dilling) has an ex officio role.
  4. There is no proposal to appoint a Group President or Vice Presidents
  5. Appoint the Scrutineer / Independent Examiner / Auditor
    Currently we have not been able to identify an Independent Examiner and would hope that someone from the Group will come forward.

Closing remarks
 

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