1st Claremont group updates

It’s May 2022 and we’re a month late for our 1st term edition of Smoke Signals (sorry!) but one advantage of being late is I get to include a proud-dad, proud-SGL moment: as I am writing this, we have just won the Upton Shield for the third year running, with an all-girl team, and the proud-dad part is that my daughter, Julia, was the PL! It’s great to see the next generation of Scouts reaching the high standard set by the older Scouts over recent years.

We have started the year with a bang including a Cub Camp, Rayner Trophy and Kon Tiki, Meerkat outings, patrol hikes and camps, online AGM, community service, Scout LAN, joint meetings with other groups, and leaders participating in regional training and events. Our 114th birthday slipped by last term (as the oldest Scout Group in South Africa) and perhaps we should make more of a fuss about our 115th next year.

Earlier this year the Group celebrated a Gold Star for all three branches – our Meerkat den (in its first full year), Cub Pack, and Scout Troop, and we earned 4th place in the 2021 Tonkin Trophy. Sadly, the HV Marsh Award for Scout journalism was not assessed in 2021, but our website and social media presence meant we had a strong entry for that as well.

In December, David Knight stepped down after many years as Troop Scouter, during which he has built the Troop and the Group up to great heights. We are very fortunate that Daniel le Jeune is has stepped up as Troop Scouter, supported by a strong team of assistants, both young and older. David is acting DC for the Liesbeek district, and still active at 1st Claremont as Assistant Group Scout Leader.

Last term we started raising funds for the replacement of the stage roof, and received many donations from parents. The situation suddenly became more urgent this month when an engineer assessed the stage roof structure and declared it unsafe, so our fundraising to replace it will no longer be spread over several years, but will have to take place much sooner as we can no longer use the stage at all. We have carefully built some “rainy day” savings over the past few years, but this will cost over R200 000 so we are now making plans and appeals to raise a lot more funds in a hurry. It’s not fun to have an emergency of this sort, but we are committed to investing in and maintaining our excellent 82-year-old hall, knowing that we are giving it a new lease of life for future Meerkats, Cubs and Scouts.

To end on an upbeat note, we are very happy that the relaunched 4th Claremont is going so well. They have opened both Meerkats and Cubs so far, and our Cub Pack is working closely with them with joint meetings, a joint camp, and a lot of cross-assistance between the leaders, since two 1st Claremont leaders have moved to the 4th Claremont team. We hope to help with their plans to open a Scout Troop in the third term. Please watch this space for updates.

Ian Webb – Scout Group Leader