Chairman's Notes March/April 2014 by Melvyn Gallagher

Britain is now drying out after the recent flooding which did so much damage and, no doubt, many Scouts and Guides suffered damage to their premises.  Last year my Group camped on the banks of the River Thames at Marlow.  The site, called Longridge, is a water activity centre and became a lake.  Volunteers are now getting things back to normal again.  Scouts get involved in similar rescue work in places with poorer infrastructure, as seen on a 1973 stamp from Laos. As Britain remembers the start of the Great War, many Scouts did their bit.  I acquired a bronze cross awarded to Patrol Leader Percy Robertshaw of the 3rd Scarborough Troop who saved a life from a runaway horse when the town was bombarded by a squadron of German cruisers.  Do any members from Groups founded before 1914 have any stories, letters, postcards describing the deeds of their Scouts that we could publish? The venue for the AGM had to be changed at short notice to the Scout Training Ship, the Lord Amory in London’s Docklands.  If you have not been there before it is in a fascinating area.  We hope to have some rare and unusual material on display and it is your chance to participate in the running of the Club. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Auctions, Meetings, etc. There are other comments in this issue about the poor response to the last Auction towards the end of 2013.  This is rather surprising because I regularly get letters from members complaining that they don’t get the chance to get Scout or Guide material mainly because they see the Club as being London centred and they can’t get to these meetings.  So, perhaps somebody could tell me why, when the opportunity occurs via the auction, they don’t actually bid on anything.  As for attending meetings I was at the Badgers Club AGM recently which was held at Gilwell.  I didn’t actually count the attendance but it must have been between 80 and 100 people from all over the UK.  Why don’t we get anything like the same number - even proportionately? Please write to me on either of these two issues and I will publish the results.