07/04/19
Morning folks. I couldn’t decide if I should put all my news and updates in one blog or split into smaller ones that are topic specific. Still can’t decide, so we’ll see where this blog post takes us! Hold on to your hats!! 🙂
(Now I’ve finished one section, it’s quite long, so for ease, I’ve colour coded the important part blue. The rest is my excited waffle if you’ve got time)
Building the future
Steve (Group Chair) and I met with Dan, our chosen builder, last week to finalise what we want with the building work at the hall. All very exciting and this summer we will definitely be going ahead with the project. This will give us a massive extra ‘multi purpose’ space for our sections to make use of for smaller sessions or activities that simply can’t fit in just the hall as well as giving us extra revenue streams to make the building, our biggest asset, work for us. This has been really important to the Executive Committee as we are committed to making Scouting as accessible as possible which means keeping the cost to members as low as possible – the more the building brings in, the less we have to charge in subscriptions – simple.
We’ll also be getting brand new shiny toilets that are fit for purpose, easy to keep clean and much nicer to use. We’ve waited a long time for this! It’s the building project that keeps on giving as well, as that’s not it – we’re also getting a great centre office and resource room to keep all our important paperwork and most importantly, all our quality resources in one east to access place, all organised and accessible to help make our section programmes even better.
All of this comes at a cost. We (the Executive Committee) have worked really hard to secure funding and very favourable loans to enable us to complete this project but, we’ve also had to scale back our project a bit to ensure we can stay within our means and not pressure our finances too much for too long. This is where all adults in the group come in.
We’ve agreed with Dan the builder that we will do much of the clearing out and demolition work and we need parents help. We will be:
- smashing out (with a big sledge hammer if I get my way) the old toilets
- removing the shower tray and unit
- removing the hand basins
- knocking off all the wall tiles in any room with tiles
- removing all the wooded stud walls in the entrance hall and boys toilets
- clearing and sorting the stationery and resources cupboards
Sounds like a bit of fun, but we have a very tight timetable to do it. We’re looking at the last week of July so we can hand the building over to the builders in on the very last weekend of July. We’ll be sending out invites for parent support via parent portal once we have the schedule of works confirmed by the builders, us and the architect. We’ll also be organising some activities for the children of those parents that helping so you don’t have to worry about child care… and most importantly of all, all volunteers will be provided with full refreshments and bacon/vegetarian alternative sandwiches on a conveyor belt!! Keep an out on parent portal and the Facebook page for more information.
So, turned into a long blog on one subject, so we’ll go with splitting posts up! Well done if you made it to here – I hope you can tell how excited we all are about the upcoming project and how this will help our amazing Group be even more amazing in the future.
Thanks
Craig
Group Scout Leader