Update from the County Commissioner 24/11

This from the CC, Mark Edwards: 

Dear Team North Yorkshire,

As always, I hope you and your families are all doing well and can see the light beginning to form at the end of this long tunnel as we hear of positive news about vaccines and treatments. We have emerging news about the new tier systems. However, in the days ahead we will need to wait and hear from the National Youth Service and HQ what this will mean for Scouting.

Our November challenge is………..
To aim for an online opportunity to be offered to every young person at least once during November. If we could do that, it would be amazing and a great achievement!

If anyone felt they would like to offer a badge or activity for others to join, then please let me know. To that end I have been asked to run the Beaver International Badge once again and so will be running it specifically for 1st Wensleydale Beaver colony on Tuesday 1st December. If there are a few others that wanted to join in, please let me know.

I heard some great news from Romanby Scout Group who have been working with the York Mosque Group this past week. Romanby were blown away by the support they got from the Mosque and are looking to strengthen their relationships as they go forward.

This led me to thinking what about sections holding a few joint sessions with another section from outside their District? If anyone is interested in a twinning session let me know and I can try and pair you up. When we gradually move out of lockdown, perhaps there is room for some joint activities or an afternoon visit to each others area.

We heard the sad news this week that the Euro Jamboree, planned for this year and rescheduled for 2021, has regrettably been cancelled. I know this will be very upsetting for our young people and leaders who have worked so hard for the last2 years fundraising and preparing for the event. However, at the end of the day, it is important that our young people and volunteers have a safe experience and unfortunately during these difficult times this just can’t be guaranteed. I know Dave Baker, our Unit Leader and the others in the team will be supporting the unit members through this. My thanks to our unit leaders.

I would like to let you know about a brilliant idea that Jack Turton, our Million Hands Ambassador has organised. Jack has worked with David in the County Office and Steve Snow, our IT Support to produce an online County Advent Calendar that you can sign post to our young people and leaders.

The calendar will be on the front page of the County website from 1st December.

Each day click on the calendar and it will share a message with a task or action we can all do to ‘Create A Better World.’ And every morning throughout Advent a link to the calendar will be posted on the County Facebook page. If you have any good ideas, then please contact Jack and he can add them into the days that have spaces for an act of kindness or thought for that day related to our Million Hands agenda.
You can contact Jack at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

An additional pressure that needs to be discussed in the coming months in preparation for returning to ‘Amber’ readiness is the issue of meeting places. We know a good 50% of Groups do not own their premises. Many schools and churches are not able or are willing to accommodate outside groups in their buildings. So, I wonder if we can begin discussions about how we might support each other to solve this. I am more than happy for you to contact me with any ideas and solutions.

Sunday 20th December should be in your diary for our Shortest Day Zoombaree. We will be publishing the programme at the beginning of December.

It is important that you do some work in the next few weeks to ascertain who is still active within your section/group in time for the 2021 census. I understand that there will be a few less questions to answer this year, but also a slightly tighter timescale.

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