From the Chief Commissioner
Hi everyone, hope you are having a great month!
I trust all our members and their families have had a wonderful Easter and have enjoyed the school holidays. I am still working remotely due to COVID positive.
Can I highlight the opportunity of AJ2025 – the closing date for applications for AJ2025 has been extended until 30 April 2024.
So, if you or young person has not yet applied there is still an opportunity so get cracking to ensure you have the chance to participate in this major event hosted by Scouts Queensland. It is going to great! As I have indicated previously it is critically important that we encourage as many youth members and adults as possible to attend. The intent is to provide the opportunity at Jamboree for those who missed out in 2022 by extending the invitation to Venturer Scouts to 16 years of age to attend as participants or support workers.
It is also important that our youth members understand that the next Jamboree is not until 2029. So please encourage your Unit to consider how they can participate in this wonderful Scouting event. Link to apply is here.
The role of Youth Program Supporter has moved to an Adult Supporter role under the Adult Member Category. This is to align is with the National Membership definition. This transition has now been completed.
This is a really important step as it allows us to formally recognise the contribution of these individuals and their years of service going forward.
This month we celebrate and recognise Queensland Youth Week and it is an opportunity to reflect on what Scouting provides to the young people of Queensland.
We are all aware of Scouting’s purpose and how we seek to develop the whole young person, through Social, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Spiritual development. We know that Scouting provides to our communities, resilient young people who have gained leadership experience, are physically active and who care for others.
This week we should join with our youth members and celebrate the successes we have as part of a worldwide movement, impacting directly on the lives of 57 million members.
Our census for 2023/24 saw a reduction in our membership over the year to 8309 youth members. As of 1 April 2023, we had 8837 youth members.
Over the year we have 3658 new enrolments to Scouting, whilst 4113 youth members left Scouting. These numbers demonstrate that we are either not meeting the needs of our youth members or there are other factors we need to review.
The data does tell us a story and we are deep diving into the data to understand more about the drivers of resignations, that, added to the other feedback provided from yourselves will be valuable in planning for the future growth of Scouting in Queensland. The data also tells us in the past year over 12000 young people experienced and participated in Scouting. That is a good news story in this Queensland Youth Week.
I still hold a strong belief that a great program will retain and attract young people to Scouting.
I am still seeking some help from our Joey Scouts and Cub Scouts to create a virtual background to sit behind me during the many TEAMS meeting I have in the virtual space.
I am looking to make it reflect our Youth Program but thought our younger sections could have fun creating this background. Ideally, I would like to select six backgrounds initially – three from Joey Scouts and three from Cub Scouts.
To add to the excitement, I have six compasses to give away to the artists of the selected backgrounds.
This could even contribute towards a Special Interest Area for your Joey Scouts and Cub Scouts. There is an article below that provides details and an outline of the requirements. Backgrounds need to be provided by 15 April 2024 and should be emailed to design@scoutsqld.com.au
Over this month I have communicated with our leaders around the following topics:
- Adult Member Definition changes
- AJ 2025
- Annual Census details
- Retention focus, and initiatives
- RC Conference
- Visitor Registration
- Youth Program and Scouts I Terrain survey details
Have a great month and good Scouting!