To All Members, Lonsdale District Scouts
Re: Membership Fees & District Budget 2018
We are writing to confirm arrangements for the District Membership Fee for 2018. Despite an increase in the HQ membership fee this year, the District Executive have taken the decision to once again freeze the membership fee for Young People in Lonsdale District, thus absorbing the increase within our District budget. The membership fee and District levy do not apply to adult members.
The fee for 2018 is as follows:
HQ membership fee: £27.00
District Levy: £9.50
Total: £36.50
Over the past few years the District Executive and District Team have been increasingly focused on improving support to Scout Groups through a range of grant funds (The International Fund, Scouting4All Fund, Development Fund and in the careful management of the Sharpe’s Bequest). This year we are announcing a number of new initiatives, within the budget, to provide further support.
From the 1st January 2018:
- All Young Leader Training (excluding First Aid) will be paid for by the District, ensuring that all young leaders can access the training that they need free of charge.
- All Adult Leader Training, for the Wood Badge, (excluding First Aid) will be paid for by the District. We hope this will enable new volunteers to complete their training quickly, and support them as they start out in their new role.
- We are introducing a new Activity Permit Fund. This new fund will enable adults to access training and assessments to enable them to gain permits in a full range of adventurous activities.
Within the first quarter of the year we will be investigating ways to offer cheaper first aid training for leaders, and how we can work together to obtain a discount for the use of Online Scout Manager. We are investing in purchasing equipment to help us manage our large scale events, and will also be funding 5 places (instead of the usual 4) for young people to attend the World Scout Jamboree in 2019, and will be covering the full cost of the selection weekend for all applicants.
We hope that these initiatives will further support our Scout Groups, Explorer Scout Units and Scout Network as we continue to focus on ensuring our programme is the very best that it can be, and that Scouting is accessible to all.
With best wishes for 2018,
Craig Dewar, District Commissioner
Tony Andrews, District Chairman
18 December 2017
