Dear fellow Scouters and Trustees,
Christmas is fast approaching and I am sure that you are all looking forward to a couple of weeks of well earnt rest away from Scouting. Please ensure that whatever your beliefs, you take every opportunity to spend time with your family, and that you thank them for allowing you the space to participate in this amazing hobby of ours.
This year we have had many great newsworthy items around the county, including the 6th Gosport (Rowner) Group being awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. A fantastic achievement, well done to everyone involved.
The UK Chief Scout attended the Basingstoke Gang Show in February and presented a Basingstoke Scout, Max Edney, with the Cornwell Scout Award. Congratulations to Max, he is a fantastic young man and the award was so well deserved, it was great to meet Max and his family.
Talking about news-worthy, as I type this, the new County website is about to be put into production. It is currently being tested and populated and I am looking forward to it finally going live.
After numerous training and selection camps, the contingents for both the 2027 World Scout Jamboree in Poland and the P27 expedition to North America have been finalised. We have leaders and young people from both Hampshire and the Isle of Wight travelling as one contingent. All attendees now have a mammoth fund-raising project in front of them. Best of luck to you all.
Last year, all talk was about the new membership system. It was a massive change for everyone, and I am now really pleased to be able to say that the system has bedded itself in, Scout headquarters are updating it on a monthly basis and I believe that everyone who wants to, can now do what they need to in the system. There will always be those who do not want to know, but that is fine, together we can all help each other.
In the Census at the start of 2025, our young person numbers were fairly static, I am hoping that at the Census in January 2026 we will see a slight rise in numbers again. Please be honest with your figures.
I would like to wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and sincerely thank you all for everything that you do for the young people in Hampshire. We are a massive county, and it is really great to see the opportunities that we are continually able to offer to the people in the sections that we work in. I look forward to seeing many of you in 2026.
Best wishes and Merry Christmas
Paul Bell
County Lead Volunteer
Hampshire Scouts
