Annual Report 2021
Manager's Report (James Baker)
Another AGM, another year... and what a year it's been! I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought (or perhaps hoped) that our first virtual AGM last year would also be our last - but here we are again. Things are looking brighter though, and I'm very hopeful that we'll be able to hold our AGM in person next year and start getting involved with some face-to-face events again!
The past year has been challenging for everyone in different ways - and no doubt everyone will have their own scars and stories from the past 12 months. I hope there's been some positives as well though, and I hope for some of you that the QSWP socials we've run this year have been one of those positives. A massive thanks to Hayley for all her efforts supporting these socials over the past year - I'm very glad that she's part of the committee and I'm very pleased she's staying on for another year!
I have personally enjoyed the socials enormously, and it's been a great opportunity to catch up with other QSWP members I haven't seen for a while - as well as meeting some of our brand new members, who despite having never been to a "real" QSWP event have jumped in getting involved with both our socials and supporting some of the virtual events. That sort of enthusiasm and willingness to get involved is one of the things the QSWP is known for, and it's great to have all our new members as part of the team!
On the subject of events, I'm pleased to say that after a year of only being able to support the occasional virtual event, we do once again have some real events on the horizon; and I hope before long we'll be able to add a few more to our calendar as things become a bit more certain. There will certainly be some more virtual events before then though, and I'd encourage everyone to get involved with supporting these.
The QSWP Portal continues to be our main way of managing the QSWP, and whilst it hasn't been getting much use recently I have been doing some work behind the scenes to ensure it remains secure and running smoothly. Unfortunately, we have now used up our "free" credits on our hosting provider - so the monthly cost has increased. But I believe the cost is still justified and within the means of the QSWP, and I am looking at ways that we might be able to reduce this further in the future.
As Claire finishes her term as membership coordinator at the AGM, I'd like to thank her for all her efforts over the past three years and everything she has done to support and welcome new members to the QSWP. And I'd also like to thank the other members of the committee - Phil, Matt, Hayley and Sarah - for their continued efforts keeping the QSWP running behind the scenes.
And finally, I'd like to thank all the members of the QSWP. For supporting virtual events and keeping Scouting going both nationally and locally; for attending our socials and helping people stay in touch; for supporting your local communities and epitomising the values of the Top Awards; and just generally for being awesome. Thank you everyone, and I hope that before too long I can say that in person!
Finance Report (Phil Jones)
This has been my second year as Treasurer and compared to last year it has been somewhat quieter, with a comparatively low income and expenditure.
This year's income has been greatly reduced as the committee extended everyone's membership by a year due to the lack of events, so the majority of the £289 membership fees are from the beginning of the year before the extension was put in place. Membership fee income has started to increase through March and will gradually return to the budgeted amount over the coming months.
Please remember if you are struggling financially with regards to QSWP membership, then please do contact either James or myself as we may be in a position to assist.
As you can see from the accounts presented, we have shown a small surplus of £135, caused by having no major purchases this year and our accounts have effectively been in tick over mode. The main expenses were web hosting, postage and committee expenses which included three months of Zoom licence fees which we paid before we were able to get a Scouts Zoom account.
This year's Weekend Away was cancelled so we received our £100 deposit back which was paid in the previous financial year, along with refunding the three people who had paid in the previous year.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support during these challenging times.
Events Report (Matthew Fox)
This year has shaped up to be a very different year for QSWP events, with all events either being cancelled, postponed or turned into virtual events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last 12 months we have supported a number of Headquarters run events. These events have included the "Great Indoor Weekender" and "Gilwell 24", where we ran sessions on making your own handwarmers and Winter Camp where we provided backwoods cooking and baking videos, the web-based game "Overwooded" and a factsheet to support working towards the International, Community and Values list. I would specifically like to thank Claudia, Oli, Emily, and Ellissa for their hard work in producing content for these events.
Between 29th October 2020 and 11th December 2020, the QSWP supported #RaceRoundTheWorld with 20 people contributing over 1200 miles to "Team Explorer Network+", as well as many others donating to raise money for Scout Groups hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. We also ran a race around the world evening which saw QSWP members produce international bunting, participate in a Scouting Kahoot and make an origami scout uniforms.
It's also been great to see the "quiz" and "skills share" socials and "weekend challenge" being so well supported.
I am aware that in the absence of the usual face-to-face events, many QSWP members have supported sectional, group, district or county-based events over the last year and I would like to thank you for your ongoing support of Scouting on behalf of all those people that have gained something, learnt something, or enjoyed something because of the work and effort you have put in.
I hope that everyone is doing fine and looking forward to when we are able to support the events on a face-to-face basis up and down the country again. However, there are likely to be a few more virtual events as things get back to normal, so keep your eyes open for future opportunities to support upcoming events on the QSWP portal and sign up to get involved. If you hear of any events that you think the QSWP could support, feel free to get in touch.
Members Report (Claire Mollart)
There has been a significant reduction in new applicants this year, likely as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, but we've still welcomed in 19 new members, and there is 1 application outstanding at the time of writing. Our total membership stands at 291 people, with 187 active members and 104 friends. Changes to our membership spread throughout the UK have been only minor but we continue to have representation in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Thank you to those of you who have completed your training, as requested recently. I encourage those who have been asked to undertake training to get it done as soon as possible to help make the new Membership Coordinator's role easy to settle into and to ensure you can attend events (when we are more active again, of course!)
All in all, the application process seems to be ticking along fairly smoothly, thanks to James for his continued support and periodic updates to the application system. I will now look forward to supporting the new elected Membership Coordinator to settle into their role.
Social Media Report (Sarah Paget)
Social Media was particularly challenging this year. With very few events to support it was hard to find and share Scouting activities that are relevant to our mission in support of Top Awards.
Having reflected on the statistics for this year, the coverage has at least maintained a regular increase in followers and interaction. Where it was difficult to share stories of Top Awards we were able to use Volunteers Week to highlight the additional volunteering many of our members were giving to the pandemic and their local communities.
It is hoped, that with events returning to a more regular face to face format over the remainder of 2021, our feed will be able to return to the more staple events we support and encouraging others to engage with Top Awards.
It's been a challenging year to engage on Twitter, some perhaps due to personal circumstances but also with fewer events there was less to share and interact with. The content from Scouts and the nature of virtual Scouting didn't give us many opportunities to shout about Top Awards or the support we can provide.
That said:
- We have gained a further 35 followers
- April's figures for 2021/2022 will show that we have reached the milestone of 1000 followers
- Our top tweets were unsurprisingly about Day of Celebration and the celebration of adult awards
- Our involvement with Race Round the World and the sharing of the Virtual Hertfordshire ICV event certainly caught peoples attention. These are clearly areas we can work on.
| Period | Tweets | Impressions (Overall Total) | Followers/Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-2020 Figures | 284 (+98) |
61k impressions 6k average p/q |
921 (+101) |
| Apr - Jun 2020 | 17 | 6k | +19 |
| Jul - Sept 2020 | 2 | 1.7k | +13 |
| Oct - Dec 2020 | 12 | 10.4k | +4/-3 |
| Jan - Mar 2021 | 12 | 10.8k | +35 |
| Totals | 327 (+43) | 45k impressions 3.7k average p/q |
989 (+68) |
Our overall impressions are down and the follower gain was slower than previous years. This is not unexpected with the sporadic nature of the posts this year.
Top Tweets 2020-2021
| Tweet | Impressions | Engagements | Retweets / Likes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Congratulations to all of 2020's new Queen's Scouts & award holders. We're sorry we couldn't celebrate with you today. Here's some memories from the last few years. We hope to be able to support everyone next year! @UKScouting @RoyalFamily @BearGrylls #StayHome #dayofcelebration | 4448 | 407 | 7 / 41 |
| Congratulations to everyone who has received an award in the last year. You can view the national Roll of Honour 2021 here: | 2513 | 339 | 6 / 20 |
| 20 QSWP logged their miles for #RaceRoundTheWorld, collectively they logged 1274.62 miles as part of Team E&N+. An amazing effort with miles walked, run, jogged, hoovered, dusted, cycled, scootered and even swum! @UKScouting @DwayneFields @Meg_Hine @BearGrylls |
1213 | 13 | 0 / 10 |
| Need help completing the ICV section of your Top Scouting Award? Join Hertfordshire's Illuminate Sessions and discuss your ideas with their panel of experts. | 1183 | 90 | 3 / 6 |
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 | 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 |
| Total to 16/04/2021 | 480 | ||
Facebook have changed their rules and algorithms since Brexit so it not possible to show the breakdown we had 2019/2020 of our followers gender and age. It is a well recognised fact that any of the new Queen's Scouts are more likely to interact with our Instagram and Twitter accounts instead of Facebook.
The Facebook page continues to gather support and is more likely to have people comment on the posts than either of our other channels. This audience engagement is something that I am looking to develop over 2021/2022.
We will continue to post updates on Facebook as it does have an audience and allows wider Scouting audiences an insight into our work as most Districts and Counties only have Facebook Pages to keep their local areas updated.
Two years on and our Instagram account is continuing to gather slow and steady support. We posted more posts to Instagram that our other profiles and gained a further 30 followers for this effort.
Additional audience engagement is something I am looking at for this account with Stories and Polls to encourage interaction and attract more followers. Stories had been a goal for 2020/2021 and was restricted by the lack of content we were able to gather ourselves for unique stories and reels.
| Date | Posts | Followers | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 - 2020 | 22 | 161 | - |
| 2020 - 2021 | 26 | 191 | +30 |
| Total to 16/04/2021 | 191 | ||
Top Instagram Posts 2020-2021
| Date | Post | Likes | Impressions | Reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08/11/2020 | It might have been a very different Remembrance Sunday today, but the nation has found different ways to pause and remember... | 32 | 132 | 110 |
| 26/04/2020 | As Scouts around the UK reflect on a very different St George's Day to normal we have been reflecting on our usual roles... | 26 | 301 | 253 |
| 25/04/2020 | It's Windsor Weekend... Or it should be. Normally we would have gathered in Windsor for our AGM and a social ahead of our duties tomorrow... | 25 | 248 | 202 |
| 13/07/2020 | Many of you were in the #tgiweekender as it was @gilwell24 weekend we supported the programme of events "after dark"... | 6 | 235 | 216 |
Closing Remarks
Whilst still needing a little work, our social media presence continues to be relevant and attract followers as well as reach. With face to face events slowly returning it is hoped we can get back out and start supporting events, being seen and sharing our adventures.
If you do attend events, please do snap some photos and share them with media@qswp.org.uk, so we can keep our profiles up to date. We particularly like sharing images of our green and gold neckers or red t-shirts/hoodies. We always prefer natural images of people working and socialising than stages ones, where possible.
Social Report (Hayley Butterworth)
In a strange and sometime unpredictable year, I hope friends and members of the QSWP feel we've offered some escapism with our social calendar this year.
To date, we've run 35 pub quizzes - the 36th pub quiz taking place straight after the AGM. I estimate that we've produced roughly 1600 questions over the course of the year, and James has made some of the most eclectic music rounds most of us have ever seen (including Symphonic Rock, Helium Hits, Weird Al Parodies, Sea Shanty Covers, William Shatner Covers, Japanese Covers, and those are just the few I can remember)! There's been a healthy turn out for every quiz and usually around 8 teams taking part which is great.
Aside from the quizzes, we've also set some Taskmaster style challenges (#QSWPWeekendChallenge) when we've not had a quiz; supersized food, micro-origami, blanket forts, album cover recreations to name but a few.
Even more than that, Helen (well known for her party cake creations) ran a 'Skill Share' night and showed us how to make a climbing wall themed cake.
It seems amazing to me that during such an unusual time where 'Zoom fatigue' has definitely been endemic, we've managed so much well-attended virtual social activity. I hope everyone has felt included and that newer members have felt welcome.
Special shout out to James for all of his help and support with this years extensive social activity offering, and also to all of the QSWP members and friends who have supported and joined in with these social events.
Suggestions for future social activities, virtual or face to face (when permitted) are always welcome so please do shout up if there's anything you'd like to do!