5 Years of Development

So this year has seen the end of 5 years of being District Commissioner for myself and I wanted to take some time to reflect back on what we, as a team and as a District have managed to accomplish in this time. 

Some of the highlights are:

• Opening Birkenhead Ansar Provision 
• Opening Foxfield School Provision
• Increasing our Archery Provision
• Increasing our Water Provision 
• Imporved Easy Access to Wirral Scout Shop 
• New Technologies at Birkenhead Scout Centre 

But most improtant growing our numbers of Young People and active Adult Volunteers!

We also launched our 'To 1,000 Members and Beyond' Strategy that was aiming to encomapss 10 years of Growth and Development across Birkenhead and PJ and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what, you wanted us to acheive and what in the first 5 years we have been able to do. 

People:

• Develop 'Thank You' Events and Communications for Adult Volunteers - Safe to say we've acheived this and now run at least 2 events or specifc comms every year!
• Hold Informal Training and CPD Events - We've done this through our 'Drop In' monthly sessions at Birkenhead Scout Centre
• ADC Sections supporting our programme delviery - we've renewed our focus away from event planners to programme supporters and there are more exciting developments coming on this in January!
• Develop support streams for Line Managers and Commissioners - We've done this through the use of Teams and are relaunching our GSL and ADC meetings next year with joint Managers and Supporters Meetings!
• Centralise ideas of best practice online - this has been achieved through our new Members Area on our Website and through MS Teams! 
• Young Leader Training - We run Module A in house and fully support the County Privison for other modules
• District Youth Commissioner in post to champion our Young People 

Programme:

• CPD sessions to enable Leaders to share ideas and best practice - these are happening through our amazing Drop In monthly sessions at Birkenhead Scout Centre!
• Access to Office 365 (now called Micrrosfot365) - All Adults have the ability to request access to our District Microsoft package now!
• Focus on Adventurous Activities - Approved additional Archery Equipment, Purchased additonal Water Equipment and approved the formulation of a TomaHawk team! We've also bidded for and won a £800 Grant to help roll out more adventurous activities! 

Perception:

• Build Stronger commuinities with local charities - we've done this with Byrne Ave, Birkenhead Park, Wirral Council and Connect
• Provide District Led Community Impact events - these were happening once a year before COVID and will continue long into the future!
• Procure better marketing materials - we've now got a whole host of flyers, posters, handouts, freebies, PR tents and so much more to use on the GO! We've also supplied 15 banners across the District advertising who we are and what we do, we gave BSC a makeover as a high traffic area with new signage and refreshed our public facing website!
• Website resign - lots of feedback on our old website and this new website is a hive of information and resources!
• Large scale advertising - 15 banners across all areas of Birkenhead District are now in place
• Socail Media - we've got a strategy and use paid ads to help us get our message out there! 

Out of the 48 targets we set ourselves we've accompished 16 of them and are working hard to finish the rest over the next couple of years! 

However, between January and March 2022 we will be consulting with all our members to totally refresh and rebrand our strategy on a page to refocus us for the next 5 years and beyond.

My thanks to everyone who has helped us with this along the way...

Matt

District Commissioner