We transformed at the District Conference 2024

The Richmond upon Thames District Conference took place on Sunday 15th September and incorporated the AGM

This year’s Conference marked a milestone in the history of local Scouting as the District formally adopted the new way of describing our volunteering.

As of 15th September, all adults in the District – including all Scout Groups and Explorer Units – will volunteer as part of a flexible team structure.

Over 400 individual roles convert to a team-based system where role titles are simplified to Lead Volunteer, Team Leader, Team Member and just a handful of other ‘specialisms’.  There are changes too at our Board of Trustees which has been streamlined to allow better focus on its key objectives.

This simpler way of describing ourselves will make it easier to understand and will be much easier and quicker for new volunteers to fit in.

All of this is being backed up by a new national IT system being rolled out this side of Christmas.

Phil Hunt – District Lead Volunteer (formally District Commissioner) hosted the Conference, explaining all these changes. Emma Doran from the District Network gave a brief presentation about the newly revitalised Network Scout Unit. The slides from the Conference can be found HERE (opens in PDF format).

The Conference was attended by Scouters and volunteers from all over the District with special guests, Gillian Norton OBE, Deputy Lieutenant as well as Richard Pyne, Mayor of Richmond upon Thames and his wife, the Mayoress. Also in attendance was Owen Purcell, County Commissioner and Julie Findlay, County Chair.

The Conference enjoyed three sets of contemporary ‘pop’ music performed by the band of Scouts from 2nd Teddington. [They are now working on a good name for the band!]. The band was indeed excellent and have been invited to perform at the Jack Petchey Awards evening in November.

The AGM itself was of course chaired by Jill Fielder. The Scout Council voted in favour of all the proposals including the formal adoption of the District’s Constitution (as described in Chapter 5.5 of POR) and the 3 year appointment of the Trustees. The draft minutes of the meeting will be available shortly upon request.

Owen Purcell presented some Long Service Awards, notably 50 Years Service for Margarette Donaldson, County VP and a 60 Years Service Award for Jill Fielder. Tim Grebot and Ian Hardy also received a Silver Wolf (see News article here).

The Conference was followed by a gourmet barbecue and free bar and an small exhibition by The Extra Mile team showing some of items from current ‘backwoodsman’ activities.