The 1st Chestermere Scout Group proudly serves Chestermere and surrounding areas, offering a quality program for Beaver, Cub and Scout aged youth. Scouts Canada has over 100,000 members and has been a valued organization in Chestermere for many years. But it could all come to an end as the local group is struggling to find leaders.
A minimum of two leaders is mandatory, but three to four per section (beaver, cubs, scouts) is ideal to cover illness, work, holidays etc. and to help with planning. “Mandatory leader to youth ratio is 1-5 for beavers and 1-6 for cubs and scouts”, added Scout leader Trudy Lowe.
The group now finds themselves in a shortage of leaders as current leaders are not returning next year and no new ones are registering. Lowe continued, “We are giving our current leadership until April 15th to decide, but from what we know to date we have no beaver leaders and possibly 1 cub leader. We are hoping to restart up Scouts again and if successful, we will more than likely run this program at the same time as cubs on Monday nights to help with the ratios for both of these sections”.
Without the mandatory number of leaders, the 1st Chestermere Scout Group will cease to exist. “Mainly we need volunteers for both group committee and each section. We would also lose our current meeting space at Rainbow Creek Elementary and CRCA. Once we give this up, it will be extremely hard to get the space back. If 1st Chestermere folds, we are supposed to also give all of our equipment and any money left in our bank account, which allows us to run the programs, back to Scouts Canada”.
The 1st Chestermere Scout Group has currently ceased all fundraising for now as if they end up shutting down the program, all the funds raised will get handed over to Scouts Canada. This includes their annual spring bottle drive.
So an urgent call is going out for volunteers to step up and help keep this much needed organization alive. The screening process for potential leaders is as follows:
* Application, which includes 3 reference checks and signing Scout Canada’s Code of Conduct.
* A “clean” Police Record Check and Vulnerable Sector Check
* On-line training course – approximately takes 10 hours to complete
* A selection interview by 2 members of group committee, which takes approximately 2 hours
Following approval, the time commitment for leaders is:
• Attend the weekly section meetings with youth (1 ½ hours for beavers and 2 – 2 ½ hours for cubs/scouts – these times include set up / clean up when the youth are not in attendance)
• Attend monthly group committee meetings (1 ½ hours)
• 2-3 weekends a year to attend camps (Friday night – Sunday noon) with the youth
• There’s always a possibility of running outings on weekends (4 hours max.) as needed, approximately 3 outings between September – May.
• Planning meeting amongst the leadership team for each section – approximately 2-3 hours every 3 months. Ideally all leaders should be involved in the planning phase and it shouldn’t end up on 1 leader being responsible for all. These times will vary depending on how leaders there are for each section – more hands less work.
• A minimum of 1 hour of detailed planning for each meeting
Lowe explains, “We follow Scouting’s Mission Statement, “The mission of Scouting is to contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society.”
“Being part of the leadership team is FUN! It’s rewarding to see what the youth take away from the program and how they grow and mature from one section to the next. You are a mentor for today’s youth. For both Joan and I, as previous leaders, we thoroughly enjoyed the kids’ energy, enthusiasm and growth”, adds Lowe.
If you feel you would like to join this organization as a leader, please contact Trudy Lowe at Trudy.lowe@7-11.com
