Annual Report 2023
Manager's Report (James Baker)
Another year has gone by, and I think if I had to choose a single word to sum it up it would be "change". Since our last AGM, we've changed to the new Portal, we've changed our membership rules, and - of course - we've changed monarchs! This will be the last AGM of the QSWP - at least in my lifetime I suspect - and from the 6th May we will become the King's Scout Working Party!
I'll start with the Portal. As was discussed at our last AGM, a complete rewrite of the Portal was undertaken to modernise the Portal, simplify maintenance and significantly reduce the running costs. From this point of view, the new Portal has been a huge success, and we've dropped our average monthly costs from around £20 a month to around £20 a year! Hopefully, from a user point of view the new Portal has been a success as well - but I'll leave that up to you to decide! I'm aware there are still a number of features that the old Portal had that haven't made it across to the new Portal yet, and this is largely due to a lack of time on my part to do the development. If anyone would like to get involved and help develop the Portal further, please do get in touch!
There have been a number of changes to our membership rules over the last year, which I think have resulted in a more open and inclusive unit. We now accept applications from anyone who holds a Queen's Scout Award or a King's Scout Award, regardless of age. We've also got rid of the "Friend" status, which is no longer relevant or required, and brings us inline with how the rest of the organisation works. Anyone who doesn't pay membership for 2 years (i.e. they are inactive) is now automatically removed from our books - though, of course, they can now reapply again at any age. The expectation that members will commit to attending at least 2 events a year has not changed.
Of course, this year's report wouldn't be complete without mentioning the sad loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II last September. A huge thank you to everyone who was involved with Op Feather - and to everyone who offered their support but wasn't required. The change of monarch means a change of name and branding for us, and we will become the King's Scout Working Party on the day of King Charles III's coronation. A massive thank you to Caroline McCann for all her hard work producing our new logo, t-shirts and other branded items - I hope you all agree that it's a great design that both gives the KSWP it's own new identity whilst also still being recognizably related to the QSWP brand that everyone knows!
Whilst the change to the KSWP is largely cosmetic - and there are no plans to change how we operate as a result - it does give us an opportunity to reach out, remind people that we are still here, and reenforce the fact that we are much more than "an elitist group that just does formal events".
Finally then, I'd like to say a huge thank you to the committee, our membership, and those within wider Scouting who have supported both me and the QSWP over the past year. In particular, thank you to everyone who continues to support our whole range of events - from the small ones where we are only able to send 2 or 3 people, to the big ones like Windsor. The most important event to the 11-year old Scout is obviously whichever one they're at, and us being there and giving 100% regardless of whether we're stood in a muddy field in a waterproof or on show in full uniform is what makes that event for that 11-year old, what makes the QSWP the special group it is, and what will - I'm sure - make the KSWP continue to shine as the QSWP has.
Finance Report (Chris McCandless-Stone)
That's another year of Maths out of the way, and at the time of writing we have just under £1400 in the pot. That's a substantial decrease on last year, as we have now started to spend the money that has been set aside for some time for the transition to the KSWP.
We have ordered new neckers, and flags/banners will soon follow so that everyone knows at future events that the same group of great people are continuing to serve Scouting. We may also look at subsidising the first batch of KSWP clothing, dependent on how much we have left after we've bought the flags and banners; more details to follow.
Events Report (Matthew Fox)
This year has been a year of two halves. It has seen the return of some of the major events that we support, including A Day of Celebration and Achievement at Windsor Castle, Gilwell Reunion at Gilwell Park along with the Guard of Honour and the Festival of Remembrance over Remembrance Weekend. It has also seen some events that are more special than those we support annually, including supporting the Queen's Lying in State through Operation Feather - an event I am sure we won't forget - as well as Gang Show 90 at Eventim Apollo Theatre in Hammersmith, London.
Furthermore, there has been the continuation of QSWP supporting County based events including those at Ferny Crofts and Woodhouse Park, as well as with CarFest South and those based in Warwickshire, Wiltshire, and Avon. This year we have also managed our first Scottish based event in several years. I hope that this will be the first of many.
The next year is going to see the number of events increase even further then we have seen over the last year, as Counties and National start to increase the events that they are running. We are already signed up to support several events over the summer term, as well as A Day of Celebration and Achievement and Gilwell Reunion. Please make sure that as active members of the QSWP you attend at least two of these events a year.
I know that in addition to supporting our listed events on the Portal, as members of the QSWP, you also assist Scouting within your Groups, Districts and or Counties. This includes promoting the QSWP and Top Awards. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank you for your on-going support of Scouting, on behalf of all those people that have gained something, learnt something, or enjoyed something because of the commitment, effort, and work that you have put in.
Members Report (Nina Sparks)
In the last 12 months, Scouting has fully got going again post covid and we have been able to return to our "normal" QSWP duties. This has given us more visibility and meant that membership applications have been coming in steadily over the year, with a large number coming in post Windsor last year (2022), which was the first Windsor event since 2019!
This year was tinged with sadness in September, as we lost our Patron HRH Queen Elizabeth II. However, after a very successful Operation Feather, it meant that QSWP received a number of new recruits wanting to join our ranks, after having seen us in action.
Over the last year, we have welcomed 49 new members to the QSWP, who have hopefully had a chance to get stuck in at events. At the time of writing my report, there are 13 applications still pending. The biggest cause of a hold up in terms of getting applications processed is the references coming back to me, so if you know of anyone wanting to join QSWP, please make sure they choose reliable referees We have 181 members and still have representation in all corners of the UK, as well as one of our members who is based in Europe.
Last year saw some changes to our membership constitution, which were received well by the majority of our members. This has led to us gaining some new QSWP members who would have previously been ineligible to join us.
As we look forward to becoming the KSWP this year, we hope to continue to expand our ranks. I hope to see more of you at events this year, which for active members is a minimum of two!
Social Media Report (Sarah Paget)
Following two years of restricted events and interaction with the wider world 2022-2023 has seen a return to a more normal time table of events for QSWP. With this more normal schedule of events it was hoped to see more interaction on our three social channels.
This year's interaction has been significant. While I changed jobs in July and saw a change to how I managed much of my time I have still managed to maintain the average posts on all three channels we have become used to over the last few years. This is usually in the form of a summary, with photos and quotes, after each event.
We have seen the most significant increase in our followers across the channels in this last year. Our followers clearly enjoy celebrating what we do and want to engage with us. Our top posts on all channels relate to Day of Celebration, QSWP's condolence notice for the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, and the trip to Everest Basecamp.
In 2022-2023 we have shown a breadth of activities that we take part in from national events such as supporting Operation Feather to local events like arMudgeddon. We hope to continue to support all of these events and share our experiences on our social channels.
The re-brand of QSWP to KSWP should provide an excellent platform to engage with existing and new followers in the next few months and offers exciting opportunities as we change our public identity. The change should be relatively simple with the Instagram and Facebook simply needing new tag names on the profile page. There is a plan for twitter - a fellow Queen's Scout has reserved the names @KSWP_UK for us and we hope to be able to simply change the tag without loosing our followers. Standby to help push notifications of our change of identity!
As always we want to keep our presence relevant and interesting; this is only possible by everyone helping to guide and support it. Thank you to those who do already support by sharing, liking, retweeting and even sending photos and videos when you are out and about being QSWP. Please keep this up.
Please continue to support our social media either by messaging the channels or emailing the social media e-mail.
Below is the break down of the analytics for all three social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) for the period of April 2022 to March 2023.
| Period | Tweets | Impressions (Overall Total) | Followers/Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-2022 Figures | 357 (+30) |
28.5k impressions 7k average p/q |
1042 |
| Apr - Jun 2022 | 7 | 15k | +49 |
| Jul - Sept 2022 | 9 | 8k | +24 |
| Oct - Dec 2022 | 5 | 3k | +4 |
| Jan - Mar 2023 | 3 | 2k | +6 |
| 2022-2023 Totals | +24 | 29.6k impressions 2.4k average p/q |
1125 (+83) |
Top Tweets 2022-2023
| Tweet | Impressions | Engagements | Retweets / Likes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday was a busy day for @QSWP_UK as we provided support to @scouts 1st #NationalDayofCelebration in two years. It was exciting to be back at Windsor Castle to celebrate so many achievements. Congratulations to all of the Queen's Scouts on parade & all the other award recipients (Photo) | 5719 | 301 | 66 / 8 |
| On behalf of her Queen's Scouts, the thoughts of QSWP are with Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family at this difficult time. @RoyalFamily | 3516 | 192 | 74 / 21 |
| For the last 10 days,15 intrepid QSWP members have travelled half way across the world, trekked through rainforests, mountains, across rivers, valleys & glaciers. Visited monasteries & met locals, yak trains & yetis. Today they made it to 5,364m & Everest Base Camp! #ReachTheTop (Photo) | 782 | 60 | 3 / 22 |
| Happy Founders Day/World Thinking Day to all our brothers and sisters. Founder's Day is a day to reflect on the many opportunities we have all enjoyed thanks to the vision of Robert Baden Powell. #FoundersDay #scouts (Photo) | 714 | 32 | 1 / 17 |
| Date | Posts | Likes | Increase | Followers | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 - 2016 | 19 | 195 | - | - | - |
| 2016 - 2017 | 7 | 248 | +53 | - | - |
| 2017 - 2018 | 9 | 284 | +36 | - | - |
| 2018 - 2019 | 23 | 345 | +61 | - | - |
| 2019 - 2020 | 14 | 411 | +66 | - | - |
| 2020 - 2021 | 21 | 480 | +69 | - | - |
| 2021 - 2022 | 23 | 519 | +39 | - | - |
| 2022 - 2023 | 31 | 607 | +88 | 663 | - |
| Total to 31/03/2023 | 607 | 663 | |||
Top Facebook Posts 2022-2023
| Post | Impressions | Reach | Engagement |
|---|---|---|---|
|
26/04/2022 We were so glad to be back supporting the The Scouts Day of Celebration and Achievement at Windsor Castle on Sunday... |
2.4k | 2190 | 394 |
|
08/09/22 (Image - QSWP statement of condolence) |
6.4k | 5957 | 480 |
|
07/10/22 After travelling half way across the world, driving off road for a day and a half, trekking for 9 days through rainforests and mountains, crossing rivers and valleys, traversing moraine fields and glaciers, visiting monasteries and meeting locals, yak trains and yetis, and climbing to 5,364m our team of intrepid QSWP explorers have made it to Everest Base Camp! #ReachingTheTopAgain |
10.9k | 10402 | 663 |
|
11/02/2023 It's our annual weekend away. This year we're in Staffordshire at Chasewater Activity Centre. After an evening of arrivals on Friday, Saturday has been a day of adventures... |
1.2k | 1133 | 381 |
| Date | Posts | Followers | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 - 2020 | 22 | 161 | - |
| 2020 - 2021 | 26 | 191 | +30 |
| 2021 - 2022 | 16 | 229 | +38 |
| 2022 - 2023 | 19 | 291 | +62 |
| Total to 31/03/2023 | 291 | ||
Top Instagram Posts 2022-2023
| Date | Post | Likes | Impressions | Reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07/02/2022 | The @Scouts are incredibly proud to unveil the King's Scout Award: the highest award available to Scouts. Find out more how it was developed and why it recognises incredible service, commitment and #SkillForLife [Scouts short link] | 53 | 339 | 317 |
| 25/09/2022 | During the Lying in State of Her Majesty the Wueen, Members of QSWP had the honour to support Operation Feather and the 120 young people from around the country who responded to the call to not only represent Scouting but complete our last duty to the Queen... | 51 | 243 | 193 |
| 08/09/2022 | Image: QSWP Condolence Statement | 42 | 244 | 201 |
| 26/04/2022 | We were so excited to be back @theroyalfamily Windsor on Sunday to support @Scouts Day of Celebration & Achievement... | 39 | 474 | 408 |
Social Report (Hayley Butterworth)
Last year I ended my report by wishing the new Social Coordinator luck... little did I realise I'd entered the race as a one-woman relay team!
So what have we been up to over the past year? Well... trekking around some big mountains, another black tie camp, and of course another virtual pub quiz featuring James 'eclectic' music tastes.
Several (more than expected) years in the planning, we finally saw members make their journey towards Everest Base Camp back in September 2022, with the QSWP flag flown at every opportunity. Please do ask them about their experience if you didn't see their presentation at Weekend Away; I couldn't do their adventure justice in this report.
Another Christmas, another virtual pub quiz! This was quiz number 48 which included another Taskmaster special, another 'typical James' music round and only one reference to Eurovision!
February 2023 saw us gather for our Annual Weekend Away. We walked, cycled and kayaked around Cannock Chase, painted pots, escaped a room in record time, squeezed in rugby matches, and heard first hand experiences of the trials, tribulations and wonders of the Everest Base Camp trip over a Nepalese-themed black tie dinner.
As we start a new chapter as the KSWP, please do let me know of any suggestions or offers of help for social activities; we're large in numbers and varied in location so it's really nice to get together socially as well as working events.