Cubs Reports – 2010 AGM July 11, 2010 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff We currently have 18 Cubs in the pack, which is down slightly on this time last year. We’re now in a reversed situation to last year, with lots of Cubs having moved or shortly moving up to Scouts, but not that many coming up from the Beaver section. During the summer holiday last year, our Assistant Cub Scout Leader, Suzy, took on a new job that due to the working hours meant she was no longer able to assist with Cubs. We have been fortunate since then to have had Charlotte (Hathi) helping, but she unfortunately can only help until the end of this term as she is off to University. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents that have helped out on Monday evenings, and also our two young leaders from the Explorers section. Without all their assistance we would not have been able to run the pack evenings, so as always we are on the lookout for new leaders/occasional helpers – if you or anyone you know is interested please do get in touch. Onto what we’ve been up to over the last year: We’ve entered a number of district competitions, firstly the District Sports Challenge, which took place around this time last year. As with other years we didn’t win the overall title, but were champions in a couple of the individual sports. We entered two teams into the Guildford West District Cub Cooking Competition. The challenge was to cook a two course meal from scratch on gas burners with ingredients costing less than £5. Additionally the recipe has to consist of certain “core” ingredients set out by County. Both teams cooked a somewhat ambitious menu of my devising, consisting of “Fruity Pork Meatballs with Onion and Mushroom Mash and Courgette”, followed by “Vanilla rice with a fresh strawberry sauce”. Both our teams did very well with one of them winning and taking part in the county regional final. On the day out of 4 other districts that were supposed to take part only Godalming turned up and they went through to the County final. However both teams do deserve congratulations as the dishes they prepared from scratch involved a lot more work than other groups entries. We also took part in the district handicraft competition, which was slightly different in that all the teams were given the materials and instructions to make a Zoetrope and a paper rocket (with bellows). This proved to be a great challenge, not only to the Cubs, but also to myself as I was somehow appointed to help all the teams folding their bellows! We entered two teams and one took the runners up spot. We also entered some teams in the District Indoor Challenge, which this year was a great egg race. As reported last year, being the reigning champions of the District Quiz, meant that it fell on us to organise this years. We had General Knowledge, Science + Nature, Landmarks, Scouting Knowledge, Sports + Leisure, What’s that Noise and Practical Scouting rounds. Whilst we didn’t win all those who took part should be congratulated, as should the rest of the pack who assisted in running the evening. Last week saw our Annual Camp at Bentley Copse. We again camped in the Nest, and had an increase in numbers from last year with 12 Cubs camping. Asides from a little rain on the Tuesday the weather was good. I’d like to thank Michael and Louise Stanton for transporting all our equipment to and from camp. Additionally the camp would not have been possible without the assistance of Roger Prime (or Bagheera as he’s now known) who helped for the whole camp and Simon Tod (Shere Khan) and Clive Hillyer (Kaa) who also shared helping duties. Again thanks to the DC for once again organising a wonderful menu and teaching the Cubs cooking skills each night. Now our Cubs have a short presentation about what they did on Camp…. Just in closing I would say that as previously mentioned we are on the lookout, as always, for more leaders. On that subject, we are as always very grateful to the parents, who’ve given up their time to help at meetings over the last year.
Explorers Investiture April 28, 2010 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff On a dark and frosty February night the Normandy Explorer Scout Unit invested 6 new members. We had promised them we would do it somewhere memorable and with lots of people present. Little did they know the venue was going to be Brookwood Cemetary. To be more precise the Brookwood Memorial. This large circular memorial commemorates 3,500 men and women of the forces of the British Commonwealth “to whom the fortunes of war denied a known and honoured grave”. After the investiture the Explorers hiked back to the HQ for pizza and a film. This was followed by very little sleep then off home after bacon butties for breakfast.
TechNoChallenge 2010 Report April 28, 2010 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff There were six parts to the challenge: Beauty Parade There were varied interpretations of this from a milk float, to a red pig and a space age scene complete with music. One very adventurous device even went with a bang, the fire extinguishers didn’t have to be used as the car was quickly carried outside!!! 1st place Normandy Explorers “B” Great T(egg)chno race After complaints at last years event that using cream eggs meant there was no challenge and mess real eggs were used. Luckily whilst there were a few cracks there was no spillages!!! The methods of placing the egg over the wall varied from remote control tippers to ram the car into the wall and hope the egg flies (and lands). 1st place Normandy Explorers “A” Technosult course The cars had to negotiate skittles, tunnels, ramps, jumps and more. Every car completed the course but only 2 without incurring penalties. 1st place Normandy Scouts “B” Techno drag Pure speed, about the only event where it did matter what the base car was under the covers. 1st place Normandy Explorers “A” Techno push – The vehicles had to capture then push a football into goal. Sounds easy but most teams found it quite tricky. 1st place Normandy Explorers “A”. Techno Sumo The only event where the vehicles are put head to head literally. They had to push each other’s car out of the Sumu ring. Size was not the answer but agility. 1st place Wood Street Scouts. Overall results 1st Normandy Explorers “A” 2nd Normandy Scouts “B” Joint 3rd Wood Street Scouts & Normandy Explorers “B”
Beavers Report – December 2009 December 20, 2009 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff The Beaver section continues to thrive, and will in the New Year be expanding to take 24 Beavers, thanks to continued help from parents. This last term the Beavers have been working towards their Air Activities badge. This involved making paper aeroplanes, finding out about different forms of air transport. To help with the badge the colony was visited by the “Reach for the Sky” hot air balloon company who talked about hot air balloons and bought along one of their baskets for all the beavers to get in. For the rest of the term the Beavers practised their entertainment for the Group Christmas Show and also made a number of craft items for sale at the show.
Group Christmas Show 2009 December 5, 2009 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff This year the hut was very festive for the event thanks to the wonderful decorations provided by John Gunner of Wood Street, who spent the best part of an afternoon decorating the hall. We had a great turn out from the parents to see the Beavers read a festive poem. The Cubs perfomed ‘Twas the night before Christmas’, which included a very large sleigh they’d made in the weeks before. The Scouts and Explorers did an alternative version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” with an ecological theme, and the Explorers and their leaders provided everyone with refreshments. Skip told all gathered about the groups upcoming Centenary (in 2012) and our plans to redevelop the toilet and kitchen facilities before this date. He also introduced Scott, one of our Scouts who has been selected to attend the World Scout Jamboree in Sweden in 2011.
Cub Handicraft Competition 2009 November 22, 2009 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff On the 24th of November we entered a team into the Guildford West District Cub Handicraft Competition. One of our Cubs also joined 5th Guildfords team to make up the numbers. This year the competition was slightly different, rather than being given a wide range of materials and a theme of what to make, the Cubs has instructions on how to build a Zoetrope and a working (i.e. launchable) paper rocket and bellows. Both proved to be quite a challenge, especially the folding of the bellows for the paper rocket, for which our Akela was roped in to help just about every group! Whilst our teams rocket didn’t fly the furthest – it had a tendency to go backwards – our team did well enough overall to be awarded the runners up trophy. More information and pictures can be found in the Cub Scout Handicraft Competition 2009 report on the Guildford West Website
Cub Cooking Competitions October 25, 2009 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff On the 3rd of October we entered two teams into the Guildford West District Cub Cooking Competition. The challenge was to cook a two course meal from scratch on gas burners with ingredients costing less than £5. The only other stipulation was that the recipe had to consist of the core ingredients as set out by County. These being; potato, pasta or rice, onion, mushrooms, at least 1 fresh vegetable, meat, fish or tofu, and fresh fruit. Other items could be added but had to be within budget. Both our teams cooked the same two courses of Akela’s devising: Fruity Pork Meatballs with Onion and Mushroom Mash and Courgette Vanilla rice with a fresh strawberry sauce Both our teams did very well, with one of them winning the competition, meaning they went through to the (county) regional final. More information and pictures of all teams dishes can be found in the Cub Scout Cooking Competition 2009 report on the Guildford West Website County Regional Final On the 24th of October 2009, the winning team from Normandy went through to the regional final against 4 neighbouring districts. On the day the only other district that turned up was Godalming, and unfortunately (for us) they won and went through to the County final. That said both our teams did exceptionally well as the dishes they prepared from scratch involved a lot more work than other entries.
District Activity Camp October 10, 2009 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff 13 Scouts from 1st Normandy joined forces with Scouts from Guildford West District for an activity camp at Bentley Copse from the 2nd to 4th October 2009. A great time was had by all Scouts trying pioneering, go karting, shooting and archery, as well as a campfire on the Saturday evening and wide game on Sunday morning. More information and pictures are available from the Guildford West Website
Kanderstag 2009 September 7, 2009 (updated June 2, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff On the 22nd August 2009, 6 Scouts from 1st Normandy returned to Guildford along with 200 others from all over Surrey from the first week of the Surrey Scouts K9 Summer Expedition to Kandersteg International Scout Centre, Switzerland. All six Scouts had a great time taking part in mountain walking, rafting, high ropes challenge and an International Barbecue and camp fire. The weather was excellent and all the Scouts took every opportunity to swim in the mountain lakes and enjoy the fantastic scenery and international friends on the camp site. On the last day of the camp the Scouts took the 3 hour train ride up the mountains to the observation centre at 3500m just below the summit of the Jungfrau the highest Mountain in the Swiss Alps. The Scouts were able to walk out on the glacier snow field, sledge and visit the ice caves. A great week was had by all – a camp the Scouts will always remember. Skip Kanderstag Gallery For more pictures from Kanderstag see the Normandy Scouts Kanderstag Photo Gallery Additional Links Kandersteg International Scout Centre Surrey County Scouts K9 Diary
2009 Executive Committee Chairman’s Report June 4, 2009 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff How quickly a year goes by- a successful year for our Group in terms of increased numbers in all the sections. As an ex-Beaver Leader I’m especially pleased to hear the Beavers are doing so well under Amanda’s leadership as the Beavers are the real basis for all the other sections. With regard to social activities, we hosted a very successful Quiz evening in November 08 thanks to Bryn’s amazing organisation and question setting, sausages and mash were served to everyone. Bryn says he will organise a Quiz this November so we shall look forward to another good evening. On the matter of fund raising to enable us to install new toilets and showers we are looking toward applying for various grants, we are trying hard but the Credit Crunch seems to have hit lots of organisations. We have had two successful Work parties with a lot of tidying up being done and new lights installed in the Old Hut. Thanks go to all the Leaders of the Sections, who are volunteers who give up their precious time freely, not only during the week, but give up some of their holiday time to take Cubs, Scouts and Explorers away camping. We are very fortunate to have such a hardworking and dedicated team here at Normandy. We are always looking for volunteers for the Executive Committee.