Annual Report 2019
Manager's Report (James Baker)
Last year was a very busy year, and I think everyone should be incredibly proud of the fact that collectively we spent over 6000 hours volunteering at events. Thank you to everyone that volunteered at an event, and I hope we can top that over the coming year!
Some highlights for me over the past year:
- Supporting our first week long event at Jurassic International Jamboree. Despite some challenging weather and some other 'interesting' hurdles to solve during the week, we got some fantastic feedback from the participants who took part in our zone.
- Our first international social event, in Dublin.
- A number of new events, including supporting a charity music festival (CarFest South), and two new Network camps. We hope to make these regular events, so keep your eyes peeled on the Portal.
- Moving to an online application and reference system for the Portal, making it much quicker and easier to process applications.
As always, we could do with more people volunteering to help at the less prominent events. I know that everyone enjoys the big events, but the smaller events are just as important and are where we can make a real impact both on the events and on the participants. I'm therefore challenging everyone to try and attend an event they haven't attended before over the coming year. And don't forget, that whilst our membership is increasing the number of spaces we have on the big events such as Windsor and Remembrance is staying the same - so your best chance getting a place on a big event is by attending lots of small ones (as allocations are weighted by attendance at undersubscribed events).
Later this year, we have our 75th Anniversary celebrations at Gilwell Park. A reminder from me that your place isn't guaranteed until you've paid (even if you've filled out the form)! We're already getting close to filling our lodge, and whilst we can try to book a second lodge if we fill the first there's no guarantee there will be one available. So if you don't want to end up sleeping on the floor, make sure you pay (into the new bank account!) as soon as possible. Details are all on the website.
This coming year is my last in post as Manager, so over the next few months we will be looking to start the process of appointing the next manager, so that there is time to handover properly. If anyone is considering applying, please feel free to have a chat with me and I can explain what the role involves in more detail.
Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who has supported the QSWP over the past year. I'm not going to name anyone as I'm bound to miss some people out, but it really is appreciated.
Finance Report (Emma Panton)
In my final year as Treasurer we have seen some changes I can report that we have had a very good year and currently have an exceedingly healthy bank balance. This is predominantly due to the prepayments for the 75th Anniversary celebrations, so it should be a very good event!!
We have successfully swapped our bank account to Lloyds, thank-you all for your support with this, we've only had one errant payment! The old account will be closed shortly, as will our PayPal account, so any payments made erroneously should bounce back – you have been warned!
I would like to thank everyone for their support during my tenure, but especially to James for his patience and gentle reminders that I need to do something! I wish all the very best to my successor and will continue to attend events and support our progress as we go forward; here's to the next 75 years.
Events Report (Caroline Hicks)
It has been another busy year for the QSWP supporting many events over the year, our standard national centre events, along with an ever increasing amount of supporting various County events, both with Top Award event support and supporting events, completion etc. We have also started to establish a yearly summer camp for those not away with their units or on an event themselves!
In November we surveyed our members with regard to attending events and a few things were noted:
- Members would like to have the opportunity to volunteer for part of an event at some of the National events
- We need to provide clear info for each event about what we will be doing (Sometimes this is due to the organisers lack of clarity, along with a reliance on our numbers eg, we can sign up and be offered a role of running a tuck shop, but with 20 sign ups this would probably not be the best use of everyones time!)
- Members enjoy the national top awards events, usually transport is easier due to them being in a transport hub!
- We suggested asking members to attend a less popular event before attending the oversubscribed events. This had a mixed response, but of the replies 27 thought it was fair, 15 unfair and 10 had no clear preference.
From this report our priorities for events will be:
- Looking for regional and county Top Awards events we can attend, which may reduce travel for people
- Making clear information available earlier - information for all of our current recurring events is on the wiki, so perhaps we can make this clearer upon joining
- Encouraging transport sharing
- Allowing people who are already at the event to volunteer some time with the QSWP
We have already been offered tickets for Trooping the Colour this year which has had a great uptake!
We should also address some of the comments regarding the sign up process, some with too short a sign up time and some too long, due to varying work commitments, group commitments, and general life commitments with some worrying about being penalised for dropping out of events at short notice affecting their chance of attending other events.
What should be taken from this report is that we are a great team and many responses commented on enjoying getting to know others and working together as a team, which I think all of us value! I'm looking forward to another year of QSWP events!
Manager's Comment
A more detailed report on the events survey has been produced and is available.
Members Report (Claire Mollart)
Membership applications have been coming in steadily over the past year and our membership has grown considerably, as well as spreading slowly northwards. We have gained around 60 new members and our total membership now stands at 225, with 166 active members and 59 friends. We still have member representation in all four countries.
QSWP information leaflets are being sent out by Gilwell to award recipients and I can confirm that they are being well received from speaking to new QSA holders in Buckinghamshire recently.
There have been a few changes to the application system over the last year as per requests from HQ. Applicants must now send me evidence that they have achieved their QSA and DBS's are now checked when the applicant is added to Compass, whereas previously this information was provided by HQ. Awaiting QSA evidence from applicants is occasionally causing slight delays. The major hold up on applications being accepted is still the slow or lack of responses from referees. Still, there were over 20 applications outstanding due to a lack of referee responses when I assumed the role this time last year. All of those have been processed. Currently there are 7 applications outstanding (as of 18th April). A few members have had their applications approved within 2 hours, which is credit mainly to the easy to use application system James has made. Thanks to James for always making the required changes so efficiently. The system makes my role really easy!
Social Media Report (Sarah Paget)
Its been a varied year for our social media. With a wider variety of events we are trying to share a wider image of the types of events and activities we can be called upon to support.
In short:
- We've gained 119 followers
- Top tweets are around Remembrance, any tweets to do with our 75th anniversary and the Day of Celebration.
- Our mentions have increased by 350% - this means our members are tagging and tweeting us, which is fantastic for our overall engagement.
- We have bigger boosts when Tim Kidd and Kester Sharpe tweet, tag and even better retweet us.
| Period | Tweets | Impressions (Overall Total) | Engagement % | Followers/Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2018 Figures | 159 | 71.7k impressions 17.9k average p/q |
1.62% average | 687 |
| 21 Apr 18 - 30 Jun 18 | +11 | 13.5k | 1.4 | +32 |
| 1 Jul 18 - 29 Sept 18 | +3 | 4.7k | 0.5 | +21 |
| 30 Sept 18 - 30 Nov 18 | +6 | 13.2k | 1.0 | +34 |
| 1 Dec 18 - 28 Dec 19 | +4 | 10.3k | 0.4 | +17 |
| 1 Mar 19 - 26 Apr 19 | +3 | 3.3k | 0.5 | +14 |
| Totals | 186 (+27) | 45k impressions 11.25k average p/q |
0.76% average | 806 |
For the fourth year in a row we have increased out followers, this year by 119 new followers. Our overall impressions are down from 71.5k to 45k but the effect on the quarterly figures aren't as extreme as you might expect. The lower impressions and engagement percentage can be directly linked to fewer tweets.
Top Tweets from the Year
| Tweet | Impressions | Engagements | Retweets / Likes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Are you a former member of QSWP? Have you heard we're celebrating being 75 years young in 2019? If you'd like to find out more about our celebration plans please email: manager@qswp.org.uk. We'd love to have as many members from our 75 years as possible | 3690 | 89 | 21 / 21 |
| This morning members of QSWP will represent @UKscouting at the National Service of Remembrance at The Centoaph #WeWillRememberThem #RemembranceSunday | 7768 | 831 | 20 / 116 |
| This year, the QSWP is celebrating it's 75th anniversary, and we would like to invite all current and former members to join us at a celebration event taking place at Gilwell on 5th Oct. For more information and to register to attend the event please visit qswp.org/75th.html | 4161 | 220 | 18 / 24 |
| Congratulations to all the Scouts who received their Gold Awards today. What's your next challenge? #SkillsForLife #TopAward #Achievement | 3018 | 56 | 1 / 27 |
| We're out and about today supporting @oxonScouts Winter Challenge. We're helping at checkpoints and the finish line. If you see us, say hi! #challengehike | 824 | 78 | 1 / 10 |
In 2012 a Facebook page was created to run alongside the Group. Groups are designed to be closed; allowing for chat, instructions or complaints to be voiced without the wider world knowing. Pages are the public face of the organisation or company, with anyone being able to like the page and see what is being published. For that reason, the group will not be analysed for social media purposes, as the message and influence should be limited to the membership.
That said the posts and likes for the page can be compared below:
| Date | Posts | Likes |
|---|---|---|
| 2015-2016 | 19 | 195 |
| 2016-2017 | 7 | 248 |
| 2017-2018 | 9 | 284 |
| 2018-2019 | 23 | 345 |
There has been increased activity on our Facebook page this year, in fact we've posted more on Facebook than on Twitter. We thought the new algorithms for Facebook pages would impact how people would view and interact with our page. On the whole with 23 posts and a gain of 61 likes, we can agree that regular photo heavy posts still gain engagement and likes. Although there is possibly some generational interaction at work here, considering we have been posting about our 75th Anniversary.
To make more posts on the Facebook page we need more images to be shared by those attending events. Our most popular post of 2018/19 was the initial post about out 75th anniversary with 7.7K reach, 338 post clicks and 78 reactions, comments and shares.
Overall
Our social media image is well rounded and covering the variety of events we get involved with. It can always be better and I would encourage anyone attending events or hosting events to gather a few images each time our green and gold neckers or red t-shirts are out. If you don't know how to get them to me, please just ask!
Social Report (Hayley Butterworth)
Since last year when the role of social coordinator was created, there has been an increase in social events undertaken, and there's been keen interest so far which is great!
There have been three social events since the last AGM, and two others in the pipeline.
We had the annual weekend away based at Youlbury in Oxford with 26 of us touring the university, punting the river and doing some much appreciated site service.
We had a Christmas Market social in December in Manchester where 14 of us played Junkyard Golf and (obviously) had a look and a few drinks at the Christmas Markets.
We also went to Dublin for a weekend in February which proved a great success. Over the weekend, 14 of us went to the Leprechaun museum, Guiness Storehouse and the Emigration museum amongst other things, and slept in a Scout hut - which James managed to sort at very short notice after our original accommodation cancelled, so a particular thanks to him!
Looking forward, in May there is a Powerboating Social in Portsmouth - thanks to Phil for offering and arranging the use of Powerboats for the day trip to the Isle of Wight. And in October we have our annual weekend away at Gilwell, which we will be celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the QSWP which promises to be an epic weekend.
The aim of these social events (other than getting to know each other better) is to vary location and activities which are accessible to everyone in the QSWP, so I hope to see even more of you attending some of the social events going on!
I have a few ideas on the back burner but if any members or friends of the QSWP have suggestions for Social events in the future, please let me know - see the socials@qswp.org.uk email inbox as a suggestions box!