Many thanks for coming to our very first forum: I was amazed and delighted that so many of you managed to stay. Those who didn’t, you missed the chance to be heard this time round but we will be doing it again and we look forward to seeing you!
Firstly we would like to give you the results of the opinion polls.
SUBS
9 people would like to continue to pay termly (£25 per term)
4 people (5 children) would like to pay monthly (£5 deposit, 7 monthly payments of £10).
We shall offer both formats from September.
Food donation for camps/activities
12 people would prefer to give a £1 donation
4 people would prefer to give food.
We shall now be asking for a donation for all non-pack activities.
Photos
18 people would like to buy a memory stick in order to upload pack pictures
1 person would not like a memory stick
We will tighten up our photo consent form and have logo sticks available from September. I will provide tea and coffee in the kitchen with a laptop for parents to access the photos on pack nights.
End times
This board seems to have been rigged with the following results:
15 votes to finish at 8pm
50 (mmmm you do the maths!) votes to finish at 8.30pm.
However I may have some suspects…. Cub comments request an “extra ½ hour for more fun J”, where as parent comments seem to reflect that 8.30 is too late for younger cubs – “it is late on a school night”, “it is difficult to get them to bed because they are too excited”.
We have reviewed and discussed this and decided that ordinary pack nights will continue to finish at 8pm. Cubs aged 9 1/2 or older will be invited to sign up for an 8.30 finish. This additional time will be used to mop up badge work which may be needed prior to scouts, to offer badges that are beyond the skills of our younger cubs, hold forums ect. We hope to engage some scouts/ scout leaders/ explorers to support this from time to time which should help prepare your cub for scouts. During this time we will not be playing big loud games, and I hope that the process would encourage calmness before bed. This will also support transition work towards attending scouts.
Fundraising
I was interested to see these results: they weren’t the easy option I expected!
BAG PACK 6, EBAY 7, NAMED PRODUCTS 8, SPONSORED EVENTS 13.
We will look to have 2 sponsored events a year. I will also ask for donations of things to e-bay as I have a kind volunteer to sell them.
I was completely WOWED by the discussion tables. The amount of feedback you all generated was amazing, and will really help inform our decision making.
Table 1 : Your cub’s dislikes
“Didn’t like doing knots”, “Didn’t like tent building or tying knots, but I enjoyed every thing else”, “Don’t like too much writing”, “Homework involving writing – practical activities are more enjoyable”, “Doesn’t like too much writing: even a little bit he complains is like school”, “Football is boring”, “don’t like writing”, “playing hockey”, “hate football”
My personal favourite: “she doesn’t like going home”!!!
Mixed in with all the above were many more comments: “Enjoys most activities”, “I like making things I can take home”, “wants more badge work but loves everything”, “I like it all”, “likes everything”, “I don’t think anything is rubbish”, “I enjoy all the activities”.
From this I would conclude that majoritively we have got a good balance of activities that are being enjoyed. As far as the homework goes, I will make it clearer to the cubs that this is voluntary: there is no negative consequence for not doing it. However there are elements of badge work which needs to be evidenced, and the easiest way I have found is through worksheets. If the cubs can think of a way to evidence it which doesn’t need worksheets, they are more than welcome as I have to go through all the sheets when they come in!! I should also let you know that there are badges which can be easily evidenced by their homework, so when you get the montage of books in this summer, have a look through them with the powerpack near by (especially any RE). We are looking at more interesting ways to do knots…. Any clues!?
Table 2 : Holidays and Family days
The general holiday feedback was “excellent”, “lots of funJ”, “Great idea”, “Awesome”, “Really enjoyed Mepal last year”, “Bacon sandwiches for breakfast: yum yum”
The volume of feedback about family days was absolutely colossal!
“Love the idea of family days”, “Mepal funday sounds great! Would be very interested”, “Good idea to have a family camp”, “Family days are a good idea”, “I love the idea”, “Think that family activities are a good idea, went to Dunham’s Wood and had a great time. Hopefully there can be more like this. Mepal sounds great fun”.
And the number of suggestions made even bigger:
Cross country cycling, walking, hike, BBQ and games at the 3 fishes, Abseiling, Kanoeing, swimming at Mepal, go carting, camping, Thetford, beach, Kings Lynn Skate park, nature walks, picnic, park, raft building, tree climbing, Sandringham, family fishing, sports day, building things, Woodland’s Way, orienteering in family parks: fastest family gets a Big Fat BBQ!, all activities have been good, camp building, Ferry Meadows.
We love them all. We have spoken to the big bosses and are pleased to say that these days can and will definitely go ahead. Our family BBQ this year is planned for the 3 fishes as a reward for putting up the tents for the cub’s camp. We will be inviting you all to Mepal at the end of summer for loads of family fun and the opportunity to introduce your cubs prior to pack holiday which will be at October half-term. We hope to offer up to 4 opportunities to ‘meet us there’ a year.
Table 3 : the website and texts messages.
“The website is really good”, “texting and e-mail – so much better than loads of letters home, letters tend to get lost where texting us reminds us, website brilliant tool for letting us know when events are happening”, “E-mail definitely better than paper but we don’t read/ check every day so need to know if there is something urgent”, “texts good, especially on trips”, “ I find it incredibly handy as I am very forgetful – it helps prompt me. Very informative, my cubs enjoy going on it – more info the better”, “text reminders are a godsend cos I am useless at remembering anything!”, “e-mailing is FAB!!!”, “letters by e-mail as well might be an idea”, “I think the text messages are great, we use the website loads esp.for badges, also nice to look at the pack photos. I don’t think that I have received any e-mails they would be handy”, “text is great”, “much better than having loads of paper around”, “text is most helpful”, “Good to be kept informed”, “text good idea, website very useful too”. “text and website useful for information, especially when cubs on a day out”, “texts are an excellent idea, also use cub website and the other mums!”, “texts very helpful, website easy to use, less paper the better”, “e-letters would be a good idea, texts are brilliant”, “phone app is needed”, “letters are good too”, “website and texts are brilliant, texts very useful for reminding me of what is happening and when. Also on days out really good to be informed what’s happening. E-mails would be better than letters on a website”.
We plan to take the letters page off the website: we will be better able to give you complete information when it is not in the public domain. If you would like these by e-mail instead, please confirm your e-mail address. We have ordered a printer through the tesco points, so will be able to print some off on a pack night for those without e-mail. We will put a sign on the door to notify parents that there is a letter available rather than trusting cubs tell you! You will still get loads of texts!!!
Table 4 : Crest science club
“Good idea!”, “sounds like a really good idea”.
The list of ideas for experiments you gave has so excited Gary, he has well and truly signed on the dotted line to support this project! They include:
Engines, catapults, explosions, nature, animals-habitat-eating, volcanos, build a rocket, making slime, explosions, liquids, great egg-race, explosions, first aid, making fizzy drinks, explosions, make a car out of CDs, explosions, photosynthesis, human body, explosion, habitat, magnets, explosions, recycle, electricity, explosions, chemicals, motors, nature, fabrics, explosions, gravity, clockworks, making gases, explosions, model boat races, building ants nests, / wormerys, water rockets, explosions, powered cars, pond dipping, making slime, explosions, shrivel a carrot, chemistry, anatomy, baby animals, explosions, plants, electricity, helicopters, explosions, testing for worms, space, explosions, rockets, nature, water rockets, space, electrics, circuit boards
There seems to be an awful lot of enthusiasm for this project, so from September we will look for a science based activity a month (which will involve as little paper-work as possible!). We will also inform all the local schools that we are doing it so that your cubs get credit at school for their efforts, and so that if the teachers want to become involved they can.
We were also very pleased with the amount of offers of help and support given: without you we couldn’t hope to run and continue to grow. If you weren’t at the forum and would like to volunteer, there is always time!!! We will also be making volunteering to help in someway more of a routine thing as future parents sign up their cubs.
We hope to make a pack parent forum an annual event. If something crops up in between, please do not hesitate to contact us: we are not telepathic, and are really open to any new ideas. You know your cub better than us, so your input is vital.
Thanks again
Akela | Kaa | Rikki | Shere Khan |
Claire | Phil | Nicola | Sheila
|