1st Claremont makes every attempt to communicate effectively with both parents and scouts. We do this through various media.
The primary form of communication is email and it is essential that we have email addresses for parents at the minimum. Notices and activity bookings are all notified through email. We maintain a mailing list for the Group, the Troop and each patrol. The vast majority of emails are sent from 1stClaremont@gmail.com which is the central email for the Group. However, scouters and senior scouts may also organise activities from their own email addresses to make communication easier, especially if the activity is limited to just a segment of the troop (e.g. final arrangements for a particular activity).
We have noted that certain ISP’s categorise our emails as spam and either block them or direct them to a spam folder. Please do 
check your spam folders to see if emails are being misdirected. If they are, please “whitelist” 1stClaremont@gmail.com in your email program and notify your ISP.
We prefer that both parents and scouts are on our email list. As the scouts get older, we hope that they will take responsibility to answer emails and join activities and it is for this reason that we prefer to add them to our mailing list. At the same time, we believe it is essential that parents are given the same information as the scouts, so our email lists will inevitably email parents as well.
You can unsubscribe from the email at any time via the link at the bottom.
1st Claremont runs an active Facebook page and we encourage scouts and parents to regularly check the page for information. We do understand that not everyone uses Facebook and it is not mandatory to do so.
Increasingly we use Whatsapp to manage smaller permanent groupings. We do understand that younger scouts do not have cellphones and at no stage is it essential that a scout has a cellphone capable of using Whatsapp. The vast majority of senior scouts do have smartphones and we have found Whatsapp to be an efficient method of co-ordinating and sharing information.
The only general group is the Parents Group which has the objective of allowing parents to share information among themselves e.g. to co-ordinate transport or to ask a question of general interest. Scouts are not part of the group. The group is not used as a scouter to parent communication channel except in response to queries from parents. Should you wish to join this group please email 1stClaremont@gmail.com. We do not join parents to the group except on request.
1st Claremont website
1st Claremont has its own internet site at www.1stclaremont.org.za (you are on it now!). This site is an interactive site which is intended to provide a safe place for more junior scouts and parents to access information and post queries and comments. More senior scouts tend to use our Facebook page but junior scouts are usually not able to register on Facebook due to the 13 age limit. We encourage every parent and scout to register on our site. Although most information is open to anyone, certain information is limited to only registered persons.
We do encourage scouts and parents to post information such as equipment reviews, photographs, hike reports and other scout related information.
Drive Account
We have our own Google Drive account which we use to store substantive amounts of information. For scouts there are great resources for advancement. Each patrol also has their own folder where they can store documents relevant to that patrol. Access to the Google Drive can be found here.
