About Us
We are the 51st Ormskirk (1st Upholland) Scout Group and are presently operating on a registration from 1960 although the group was originally registered in 1918, in common with many Scout Groups who were set up by returning soldiers who had survived the First World War.
We are members of the UK Scout Association whose HQ is at Gilwell Park in Essex. Locally we are part of Ormskirk and District Scouts which, in turn are part of West Lancashire Scout County. This covers the whole of Lancashire other than East Lancashire from Lonsdale (Lancaster), via Wyre, Fylde, Preston, South Ribble, Preston and Chorley to Ormskirk.
We operate to a national set of standards for Scout Groups-the Policy, Organisation and Rules of the Scout Association which sets down our minimum standards and includes all the basic functions of Scout Groups in the UK including safety, safeguarding, group organisation and activities.
In Upholland we have 3 section…
Each section meets weekly on Friday evenings.
Squirrel Scouts-boys and girls age 4-6 Watch this space! We’re raring to go with our brand new Squirrel drey in 2024.
Beaver Scouts: boys and girls age 6-8 – St. Thomas’s 6pm-7pm
Cub Scouts: boys and girls age 8-10½ or 11 – Upholland Methodists 7pm-8.30pm
Scouts: boys and girls age 10½ or 11 to 14 – St. Thomas’s 7pm-9pm
We feed Scouts 14 and over to the associated Osprey Explorer Unit based at Crawford.
All the section leaders and officers are volunteers who hold down full time jobs as well or are home makers or retired.
The governing body of the group is the Group Council, which, in effect, is all the parents of current members who can attend periodic Group Council meetings and vote, when necessary.
Day to day the Group is run by an Executive Committee which is:
Group Scout Leader (Chris Sinnott),
Assistant Group Scout Leader (John Lechmere),
Scout Leader (Adam Lechmere),
Cub Scout Leader (Craig Kirby),
Beaver Scout Leader (Kerri Kirby),
Treasurer (David Hall),
Secretary (Sarah Lechmere)
Plus half a dozen or so volunteers from parents, supporters, Assistant Leaders, Skills Assistants, and representatives of our sponsoring churches in Upholland.
The Group is sponsored by the three churches in Upholland who help us with places to meet-an arrangement we’re pleased to support and which has been in place for more than 60 years.
What we expect from parents
1. Please pay your membership subscriptions on time. Presently the annual subscription is £96 in three parts of £32 payable in January, Easter and September. About half of this sum we pay annually to Scout HQ for their services to us and for other centrally negotiated elements like members insurance. If, at any time, you are not in a position to pay the full subscription we operate a principle that no child will be denied access to Scouting because they cannot pay-have a word with Chris Sinnott or John Lechmere and we’ll be able to sort something out.
Groups are all independent organisations responsible for complying with the rules and financing themselves. It helps greatly if you are in a position to agree to Gift Aid your membership subscriptions which helps with many of our day to day expenses.
2. After your boy or girl has attended for 4 weeks please get a uniform, this is a national requirement except when we are on camps, residentials or expeditions. We only ask that members wear the appropriate uniform top. For Beavers and Cubs this is a sweatshirt and for Scouts a green shirt. The scarves (neckers) are group specific and we supply these. Badges will be supplied by section leaders.
3. Do what you can to support the group. This may be help with fundraising, help with trips or adventures or supporting leaders at local meetings. You may be able to help with transport to District or County events. Perhaps you have a skill or interest which you could pass onto our boys and girls? And don’t forget that every current leader is, or was, the parent of a young member. There’s no central recruitment we can dip into for leaders so if you have a genuine interest in the development and welfare of young people you may be able to help. Help with training and development, including costs, will be given by the group and our leaders have had some fantastic experiences and visited some memorable places with our boys and girls over the years.
At the time of writing we’re the last remaining uniformed young people’s organisation in Upholland. We’ve helped out by absorbing many of the members of other closed down groups.
Help us to develop and grow please.