DC's Ramblings
I want to wish you, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. As is now almost a tradition for the DC to send an extra Contact at this time of year, I wanted to take a moment to wish all our incredible Volunteers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year this December.
This year has been a very like no other, it's taken a lot of grit, resilience and determination to see another year of up's and down's through to the end, but to the end is how we've seen it.
2021 has seen us go all the way through to green, meeting once again as normal, holding Adult Volunteer Meetings in person and being able to get together socially once more. It's seen us hold Camps, Events and Sessions in person with more than just one Group in attendance and its seen the numbers of Young People and Adult Volunteers being to rise once more.
However, 2021 has also now seen us transfer back to yellow readiness level and some restrictions start to come back in for our Scouting, Work and Personal lives just in time for Christmas. That being said, I am incredibly hopeful for a successful 2022 full of fun, adventure, laughter and good times.
Over the last year we've seen a phenomenal amount of Adult Volunteers complete their Safety, Safeguarding and First Response training and have also unfortunately had to say goodbye to some who weren't able to do so. My sincere thanks to all who completed this, to all the line managers and commissioners who supported this and to you all for your anticipated support in managing your own ongoing learning into the future.
We reflected back on how far we've come in the last 5 years (you can read more about this on our Website) and started to look at what we're going to do moving forward. Between January and March 2022 we want all our Volunteers to be engaged in our planning for the future and you'll hear more about this in early 2022.
It was also lovely to see a large number of you at our End of Year Thank You event 2 weeks ago, to be able to see you in person, say thanks and celebrate was a wonderful way to end the year and I know both myself and Kathy (District Chair) are very much planning for that event to become a regular feature in our annual calendar.
So the final thing to say from both PJ and I, on behalf of Kathy and our Trustees and the rest of Team Birkenhead, I wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If you don't celebrate Christmas I hope you have a restful couple of weeks and come back in 2022 rested, reenergised and ready to continue to help us grow and improve what we do in what is simply put, the best Scout District in the World!
Merry Christmas,
Matt Jones
District Commissioner