Blog Newsletter

May Newsletter

 

A lot of activity has been going on in the background in the last couple of months both in terms of developing the plans for the new HQ and raising the funds for the build.

 

As far as the plans are concerned these are now in their final draft and will be going off to our architects to complete the final drawings in readiness for the planning process and most importantly give us costings for the project.  Once we have the final drawings they will be handed across to Tim Newbrook, father of one of our scouts, who is going to convert them digitally into a 3D view of the new build, we will use this 3D view along with the plans as part of our submissions for grant funding.

 

On the fund raising front, we have been working towards the application for grant funding and once we know how much money we need for the build then we can complete the business case and begin submissions.  We have been in contact with 1st Kennington Scouts (Kent) who have just completed a similar project to ours, they have given us very useful advice, including a list of donors who helped them. 

 

The grant funding will, we hope, bring in the largest part of the money we need, however there are several other fund raising projects under way where everyone can help by encouraging others to support us.  These include:
ASDA Crewe.     Our HQ project is one of three community projects which ASDA are supporting during May and June.  When you shop at ASDA in Crewe you will be given a token at the check out (you may have to ask for this) you then vote for 35th by placing the token in the collecting box marked up for us.

Crewe Tyre and Exhaust, Derby Street Crewe.  This company has for many years been a fervent supporter of Scouting and they have approached us to help with our project.   They sell Kumho Tyres and Kumho are offering funds to two community projects in the area, our hut project is one of these.  The principal is the same as ASDA, when you buy a Kumho Tyre you will be asked to vote for one of the projects, naturally we hope that you will vote for 35th SWC and encourage, friends, neighbours, work colleagues and relatives to do the same.

Buy A Brick.        Bob Humphries (one of our Beaver Leaders) has set up a sale on EBay where people can buy a brick, a breeze block or a even a roof joist for the new build.  Full details are on our website.

Fun2Raise.           If you buy goods on line then please register with www.shop2fundraise.co.uk  to do it.  When you register select 35th SWC as the recipient and then follow the link to your chosen supplier and shop as normal. If you use this site then we will receive a small amount from the supplier for each transaction.

Bag Packs.           We have a confirmed bag pack at Tescos on 8th December, we are hoping to confirm further packs at ASDA, Morrisons and possibly Sainsburys this year, watch this space.  After the last pack at Tescos one of our cubs donated his pocket money to the project because he had been unable to attend the bag pack - well done. 

Two of our girl scouts have also raised money by selling cakes at their school - well done to them as well.

Marathons.        Barclays in Crewe have selected our project as the beneficiary of their community fund for 2012.  Jason Walsh, the branch manager is planning to run 7 marathons in 7 days to raise funds for us.  That is fantastic and I hope everyone connected with the group will encourage others to sponsor him.

Aluminium Cans. Gerald Newbrook is continuing to run this for us and so far has collected about half a tonne.  In addition to aluminium cans he will also take aluminium fast food containers and the foil containers used for pet food.  Just bring your cans to the hut and put them in one of the containers outside.

Mission Fish    We are also registered with Mission Fish, so if you want to sell something on EBay then please do it via http://www.missionfish.org.uk and the group will get a small amount for each sale (you will still get the full amount of the sale).

 

Help Wanted.  Finally we are still keen to 'recruit' anyone who can help us with this project, no offer will be refused, please contact me in the first instance via jcbennett12@btinternet.com

 

John Bennett
Group Scout Leader

February Newsletter

We now have the first set of draft plans for the new hut, these are now being considered by the leaders and by the end of the month all the comments will have been gathered in and set back to the architect to produce the finished plans.  By early March we will have a good idea of the likely cost of the new hut and the grant application work can begin in earnest.

In the meantime the group and its supporters have been very busy raising funds, a recent bingo evening and raffle raised the fabulous sum of £900, that will be added to by a donation from Barclays of another £750.  Is there anyone in the group parents, grandparents, guardians etc that works for a bank/building society which matches fund raising pound for pound and hasn’t told us?  If there is please contact me so we can discuss it:  jcbennett12@btinternet.com

We have recently had donations from Wistaston Community Council and the Spar on Rope Lane through their charitable trust The Blakemore Foundation which is part of A F Blakemore Ltd who own the shop (many thanks to Jo Sharples the manager for arranging this).  Our grateful thanks to both parties for their assistance.

We have a number activities planned for the next year or so and will advertise these in due course, they will include up to four bag packs between now and Christmas, the first one is at the new Tesco in Crewe on March 10^th

Finally we are in the process of setting up a Facebook page for the group, this will be a closed group at this stage with access granted to everyone involved in the group, the plan is to keep everyone up to date on events via Facebook and the web site.  More details once the site is up and running.

 

John Bennett

Group Scout Leader

 

Hut Newsletter January 2012

Hut Newsletter January 2012

 

We held a very productive workshop on 6^th January attended by parents, leaders, group executive members, parish councillors and other interested parties.  The main purpose of this session was to agree a list of requirements for the new hut, we achieved this and we now have architects working on a number of different design options based on the needs.  These designs will be presented to the management team in the near future along with costings.   A final decision will then be made on which design option we are going to take forward and we can then start the planning application process.

 

We also started the process of identifying “skill sets”, in other words who can help us with the various work streams including getting funding, helping with the build, handling the PR and communications side of the project etc.  We now have a number of volunteers but we need more so if you want to help or know someone who has a skill that would help us get the hut built (and you have not already given us your name) please email me on jcbennett12@btinternet.com and we will be in touch.

 

One of the major tasks will be raising the cash to pay for the project.  We have identified a number of potential agencies who may be able to help with this but before we can approach them we need to write a detailed business case setting our needs and the reasons for them.  Before we can do that however we need the final design and most importantly the project cost.   Again if anyone knows potential funding streams then please email them to us (use the email above) and we will add them to the list.  Some really positive news to report is that we have now received a cheque for £6250 from NatWest Community Force and we are very grateful for everyone’s efforts in supporting this one, we now need a few more ideas like that one.

 

Getting the message out into the community at large has been identified as very important.  We need someone who can take the lead on getting media messages out – do you know anyone who could do this for us?  Again please use my email as a contact point.

 

The project is now well on its way and hopefully in the next newsletter we will be able to set out some timescales.

 

One final point please encourage others to visit our web site and in particular this blog.

 

John Bennett
GSL

Brain Storming Meeting

On Friday 6th January over 60 leaders, exec members and parents met to share ideas for our new scout hut - from this meeting we now have a clear idea of what we require from a new scout hut - two architects were also at the meeting and they will now draw up plans for a new building. These will then be tweaked and the chosen plans will be costed up and submitted to the council for approval.

Natwest Community Force

Wistaston 35th Scout Group have been successful in their bid for funding from Natwest Community Force and have received £6250 towards the 'New Scout Hut' project.