Annual Report 2025
Manager's Report (James Baker)
It's been another great year for the KSWP. We've seen a number of new members and new events, as well as our 80th Anniversary Dinner and an international social in Amsterdam. Rather than steal the thunder of the rest of the committee, I will let them tell you about our successes in their areas.
The KSWP Portal has continued to be a central part of how we run the KSWP, and I've added a few bits of functionality over the past year to help make the lives of the committee easier. Going forwards, the management, development and maintenance of the KSWP Portal will become the responsibility of a new KSWP Digital Coordinator role, and the Portal will hopefully continue to develop and support the running of the KSWP.
Of course, as you will all be aware, this is my final AGM as Manager after 10 years in the role (and more on the committee!). It took us a lot longer to go through the Gilwell recruitment process than we were hoping due to a huge number of delays and hold ups that were beyond the KSWP's control, but we got there in the end and I am looking forward to seeing how the KSWP grows under Freyja's leadership as she steps into the role. As Freyja was only appointed in March (not October, as we had originally hoped), there has been limited opportunity for a handover - so whilst Freyja is the new "KSWP Team Leader" as of this AGM, I will be continuing to support her over the coming weeks until we're happy that we've passed everything over smoothly. Please do bare with us as we do the handover though, and give Freyja your support going forwards.
As it's my last AGM as Manager, I want to finish by saying what an honour and a privilege it's been to lead such a fine group of people, and thank everyone for their support over the years. We've seen a lot of change over the past decade - from the type of events we support all the way through to the purpose and way we run the KSWP - but I'm proud of everything we've achieved as a team. We survived the COVID pandemic (thanks to almost 2 years of virtual quizzes), and of course we've seen the transition from the QSWP to the KSWP. We've gone from a handful of weekend events, to a wide range of events from single days all the way up to running entire Activity Zones at Jamborees for a week. We've celebrated both our 75th and 80th anniversaries with style. We've opened our membership up further to welcome all QSA and KSA holders, and have seen our membership base spread across the country. We've helped make memories for Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers, Network, SASUs and leaders. And we've had a lot of fun along the way!
None of that would have been possible without the time and dedication of a whole range of people both within and outside the KSWP. There are far too many to name - and I'm not sure I even could if I tried - so I'll just say a huge thank you to everyone who has held a committee position over the past 10 years, and a huge thank you to everyone else for supporting the events, supporting the KSWP, and supporting me. Thank you.
Finance Report (Chris McCandless-Stone)
The KSWP started the financial year with £2886.71 in the bank, though a large amount of this was payments for the well-attended 80th anniversary meal. Aside from the 80th meal and some merchandise there hasn't been much expenditure but with membership up our income has grown.
Unfortunately, and despite some endeavours, I have been unsuccessful in changing the bank account and Stripe account names from QSWP to KSWP. The new Finance Coordinator may find it easier to simply open a new account into which we can transfer the funds.
We ended the financial year with £1781.91 in the bank, which leaves the incumbent management team with a nice sum to use as required.
After 3 years with the money bags it's time to hand the loot over to the next bean counter. The accounts are relatively easy to manage, but you are also a valued member of the wider management team and so play your part in ensuring the overall success and growth of the KSWP!
Events Report (Jon Harris and Beth Headworth)
This year started off with a new event helping with a Major Incident Simulation, where we not only helped to set up and take down, but played casualties for the emergency service trainees to deal with. We then jumped back into some of our regulars such as the Big Fiesta at Woodhouse Park and Fundays at Gilwell Park. In the summer we finally attended Essex International Jamboree where we ran the Enterprise Zone, at long last, after trialling it at the 75th Weekend in 2019 before COVID stood on the brakes. It was so successful that we've since been asked for the recipe, and to host it at other events including NorJam this summer (sign up now).
Along with many of our repeat events such as the activity camps at Woodhouse Park and S&E (Strategy and Evolution) in Gloucestershire, we also saw a strong presence at our uniformed events, such as the Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace and Festival of Remembrance. Unfortunately we were not included in the Guard of Honour this year, but we were offered The Lord Mayor's Show which pulled in 20 members at short notice and looked like an absolute blast! We're still working on northern events, and have managed a few... Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire counts as North when you're from Sussex, but we've also been in Yorkshire and Durham which we hope can lead to more access to events for our northern members.
The only way of getting more events though, is to show attendance at those we gain access to, and then we can grow from there. Unfortunately they won't always be on the doorstep, which is why we arrange camping/overnight facilities wherever possible. Only 74 people in the last year have helped at 2 or more events, with 53 attending 1, and 81 not attending any. We need your support and attendance at these events. When joining the KSWP, members agree to support 2 events per year (not including socials), and we have 134 members who haven't met that which is a great shame. We are more than just the formal events. Scouting is more than formal events. So please help us by signing up.
In 2023-2024 we attended 22 events, and over the past 12 months (2024-2025), we attended 32. We already have 22 loaded between now and November, and are expecting more to appear as the year progresses. With the sign ups we currently have, particularly in June, I am feeling like I've over committed, but with the amount of members we have, we should be able to cover these events without any issue. So, again, please do sign up!
We appreciate everything you're doing within the KSWP, and acknowledge that many of you hold other roles within Scouting at various levels. So we'd like to thank you for all that you do, knowing that it's making a difference.
Members Report (Eloise Jack)
This year has been a good year for membership of the KSWP.
As of 6th April, there are 207 active members, which is 14 more than last year, and 90 inactive members. We currently have 58 active members in the 18-25 age bracket and the largest proportion of our members fall into the 25-35 age bracket.
We have members spread across the UK including: Scotland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Isle of Wight.
Although the number of active members has only increased by 14 since last year, we have received lots of new applications. There were 3 events this year which afterwards saw our membership rise; these included Windsor, Essex International Jamboree and Gilwell Reunion.
Currently (as of 6th April) there are only 3 outstanding applications which were all received in 2024. Since taking over as membership coordinator last year I have removed all the oldest outstanding applications as there were some outstanding from 2021. Every application will get between 1-2 years to be completed before getting an email and the application being removed. For example, any outstanding applications made in 2023 were removed in January 2025, and any outstanding application from 2024 will be removed in January 2026. Doing one removal of applications each year makes this process more manageable.
As you all know scouting moved to the new adult membership system. This caused quite a few issues and we were unable to add new members for the first few months but these have been worked out and the membership system and KSWP portal are currently up to date.
With the issues with the membership system, I was unable to use it to assist with the Census earlier this year so thank you to everyone who completed the Google Form. From the 164 Members who completed it only 10 have KSWP as their only Scouting role. Hopefully the membership system will be working when the time comes next year.
You receive a reminder and are able to pay your membership 28 days before it is due to expire and a reminder also shows when you login to the Portal. If you do not pay your membership, you will be given 60 days after it's expiry before the role is removed from the Scout membership system. If you pay after this the role will be re-added but cannot be backdated and will be dated the day that it is added.
I look forward to reviewing more KSWP application over the next year and if any one has any membership questions please drop me an email and I will do my best to help. A final reminder please check and update your personal information on the Portal. It is super important that we have up-to-date medical and emergency contact details.
Social Media Report (Sarah Paget)
2024-5 has been a busy year all round and has provided plenty of opportunities for social posts to share our work and gather more interest and support in what we do.
Overall Facebook and Instagram remain popular and followers continue to grow. On Instagram, of our 456 followers, 82.7% are aged 18-44 saying we are relevant and of interest to the age group we most want to appeal to either to join us or request us to support events. Interestingly 0.9% are aged 13-18 so we can still use the platform to inspire the next generation of King's Scouts. Likewise almost 69% of our followers on Facebook are aged 18-44.
X (formerly Twitter) has left me a little confused as to the best course of action. With all the reputational queries over X many people have chosen to abandon it including our friends in Scouts Cymru. Scouts UK continue to be active. For this reason, I have only posted a few times throughout the year and retweeted and liked very little. This doesn't seem to have impacted our audience at all. If no one has any strong opinions, I will continue to follow what Scouts HQ are doing with their profile. If they choose to leave the platform we will review and likely follow suit.
Overall, we have an audience of 2557 followers across all three platforms and interact with a number of known profiles including Scout Adventures, Ferny Crofts, Essex International Jamboree, The Royal British Legion and even our Chief Scout Dwayne Fields. Future events planned for 2025 will give us further opportunities to interact with other new profiles.
Partly due to personal time but also due to the number of events we have had in any given month I have taken to posting monthly reviews. These appear to have gone down well with our followers and certainly show a more direct variety in the types of events we attend, as well as showing we are continuously active.
The WhatsApp community and events chats are not only useful for those attending the events but have proven to be a quick and easy way for me to gather the relevant information about the events along with any photos people have managed to gather. Pictures of us having fun, taking part, instructing or of events themselves as a whole are always welcome. Please remember that some of the photos you share will be taken for social so try to keep a few appropriate for an external audience!
Please continue to support our social media either by messaging the channels or emailing media@kswp.org.uk.
The following sections contain the break down of the analytics for all three social media platforms (X, Facebook and Instagram) for the period of April 2024 to April 2025.
X (formerly known as Twitter)
| Period | 2024/2025 Post Count | Impressions (Overall Total) | Followers/Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-2024 Figures | - | 12.6k impressions 789.5 average p/q |
1156 (+31) |
| Apr - Jun 2024 | 2 | 1384 | - |
| Jul - Sept 2024 | 1 | 437 | - |
| Oct - Dec 2024 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Jan - Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 | - |
| 2024-2025 Totals | 3 | 1821 impressions 455.25 average p/q |
1112 (-44) |
Top Tweets 2024-2025
| Tweet | Impressions | Engagements | Retweets / Likes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Congratulations to all the King's & Queen's Scouts who celebrated their achievements last weekend. As always it was a pleasure to support and celebrate everyone achievement #kswp #KSA #Scouts | 868 | 64 | 3 / 18 |
| Congratulations @DwayneFields we're looking forward to working with you! (Retweet of Scouts announcement of Dwayne as new Chief Scout) | 442 | 11 | 0 / 8 |
| 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 | - |
| 2023 - 2024 | 15 | 854 | +247 | 930 | +267 | 2024 - 2025 | 16 | 916 | +62 | 989 | +59 |
| Total to 21/04/2025 | 916 | 989 | |||
Top Facebook Posts 2024-2025
| Post | Impressions | Reach | Engagement |
|---|---|---|---|
|
28/04/24 As King's & Queen's Scout we always love supporting the National Day of Celebration at Windsor Castle... |
867 | 789 | 412 |
|
10/11/24 This weekend members of KSWP have taken time to celebrate and reflect on the service of others by attending Remembrance related events... |
1320 | 569 | 326 |
|
31/12/24 2024 has been action packed with a huge variety of events for us to support... | 816 | 461 | 101 |
|
19/04/24 Spring has been varied for KSWP. We've had a weekend away social to Amsterdam... |
672 | 353 | 125 |
| Date | Posts | Followers | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 - 2020 | 22 | 161 | - |
| 2020 - 2021 | 26 | 191 | +30 |
| 2021 - 2022 | 16 | 229 | +38 |
| 2022 - 2023 | 19 | 291 | +62 |
| 2023 - 2024 | 12 | 377 | +86 |
| 2024 - 2025 | 13 | 456 | +79 |
| Total to 21/04/2025 | 456 | ||
Top Instagram Posts 2024-2025
| Date | Post | Likes | Comments | Impressions | Reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28/04/2024 | As King's & Queen's Scouts we always love supporting the National Day of Celebration at Windsor Castle... | 96 | 0 | 515 | 411 |
| 10/11/2024 | This weekend members of KSWP have taken time to celebrate and reflect on the service of others by attending a number of Remembrance related events... | 54 | 1 | 1340 | 892 |
| 19/04/2025 | Spring has been varied for KSWP... | 37 | 0 | 340 | 211 |
| 12/10/2024 | September whizzed by with a flurry of events. We had teams at an event almost every weekend... | 28 | 0 | 473 | 298 |
Social Report (Hayley Butterworth)
What a year to reflect on my actual final definite last year as Social Coordinator!
Last year, the KSWP (formerly the QSWP, formerly the KSWP) celebrated it's 80th Anniversary! Unfortunately there were no founding members available but Mr Andrew Falconer, as one of the most longstanding members, raised a toast in their place.
We got our gladrags on and headed to the Malmaison in Birmingham for a formal dinner followed by drinks. Members past and present came along, shared memories and made plenty of new ones. Many made a weekend of it and sandwiched the dinner between laser quest and games, drinks and brunch. Roll on the 85th celebrations in 2029!
Back in December, we had a great Christmas Social day in Cardiff planned, and then in true Welsh fashion it rained a bit hard and got a bit windy. The Met Office, UK Government and the train companies had a party we weren't invited to and decided they didn't want the tourists visiting Cardiff that weekend. Unfortunately Michael Worthy missed the memo and reported back it was "Wet. Most buildings still standing though".
Nevermind! In February we caught flights instead of feelings and headed to Amsterdam, a long-awaited sequel to our pre-pandemic trip to Dublin!
The KSWP was in double digits of attendees and stayed in a lovely hostel, which despite looking like a prison and being called 'CLINK', was actually very nice and only a short ferry ride away from opposite Amsterdam Centraal station.
We started the weekend with a guided cycle tour - who knew Amsterdam could get so many uphill parts into such a flat country! We discovered Dutch bikes have only 3 gears and you definitely need to gear down to go over any bit of water. The tour guide took us round the sights including West India Trading Company house, Vondelpark, Anne Frank Haus, Museum Square and we even cycled through the middle of the Stedelijk Museum!
After cycling around 14km, what better way to recover than with a pint at a brewery with a huge windmill on top?! Some of us branched off for a variety of activities that afternoon, including geocaching, canal cruising, and even an immersive art experience about Van Gogh and Rembrandt. We rounded off the day with a busy street food market hall for some dinner and some drinks, before heading back to the hostel.
On Sunday we put our minds to the test and had a go at Escaping the Sherlocked escape rooms - half of us were stuck in the basement of the abandoned Beute van Berlage Stock Market building and had to get out; the other half of us started in a car park, had to break into a hidden vault in an art gallery, dodge some guards, solve some puzzles, and save the world (or something like that). We regrouped at Tony's Chocolonely Superstore for some overpriced goodies, before we went our separate ways to find tourist tat, taste some cheese or head home. All in all, another top social weekend, where the memories live on in the form of Dutch Tulips in David's garden.
And with that, I wrap up yet another year as your Social Coordinator — despite confidently announcing my resignation what feels like more times than I've co-hosted a virtual pub quiz at the Squiffy Woggle. Here's to some great social occasions over the last few years, the one and only outgoing Manager, James Baker, and the faint hope that someone else is able to find and book good venues for KSWP social events in the future! Best of luck to Freyja and the new Social Coordinator!