Bitton’s Scouts
Bitton has its own scout group, the 34th Kingswood Bitton St Mary’s Group running Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. Although the group was originally set up by St Mary’s Church, it operates independently and accepts members of all religions and none.
To provide greater transparency and oversight of operations all scout groups are being encouraged to set up their own board of trustees to support group leaders and look after things like finances and the groups assets and ensure compliance with the charitable objectives of UK Scouts. The Bitton group has now taken the step of setting up a trustee’s board and is looking for members.
What are Scout Trustees
Trustees are volunteers who act as charity trustees, responsible for ensuring that the Scout group operates safely and legally. They focus on strategy, performance, and assurance, making sure that policies are in place and properly implemented. Trustees provide a supportive framework for leaders and volunteers, helping them deliver exciting and safe programmes for young people.
Who can be a trustees
Trustee boards are made up of all sorts of people. Some may be parents of children who are current members of Bitton Scouts or may be young adults with recent experience of scouts at more senior levels. Others may have themselves been scouts in their youth but there is no requirement to have been involved in the scouts before. If you have time, a willingness to get involved and particularly if you have served previously as a charity trustee, we would be very keen to hear from you.
How much time
It is difficult to say how much time this will need. The next step is to set up the board itself and work out what is needed to be done and who is best placed to do it – either individually or as part fo a team. We will need to establish appropriate working arrangements with scout leaders, and each trustee does have to go through some induction modules so that they can understand the scouts and what is required.
So, it is difficult to predict how much time may be required in the first year. It is likely that there will be more than the 5 or so meetings that UK Scouts suggest that the board requires to do its work. But it is intended to follow the national policy and make the board work around the time that the trustees are willing to put into it rather than expecting particular levels of input.
What we can promise is an interesting and fulfilling volunteering role that will benefit our local community and future generations.
Are you interested? Look at the Trustee Information Pack to find out more, or drop us a line using the contact box below.
There is much more about the role of a trustee board member on the national scout website www.scouts.org.uk