The below email was just sent to our current A Colony membership. Enrollment is not yet complete, and there are a couple of new youth to be added to our Colony, we'll have our membership firmed up prior to next Tuesday.
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Hello Parents, just a quick welcome email from the volunteer leadership team of your 1st Manotick Beavers, A Colony.
I'm going to jump around a little and put most of this into Q/A bullet points to save from writing a book, but I feel that it is important for all of us to get off on the right foot, to provide everybody with the same answer to most of the common questions. At the bottom, I'll be providing links to help find more answers as well.
Leadership - Today, we have 4 leaders. I was an A Colony leader last year and have taken over as our Colony 'Contact Leader' from Guy "Ringtail" L'Anglais who has moved on to a Cub Pack this year to continue Scouting with his youngest son. Returning to lead A Colony with me, are Bill Coleman, and Melissa Collins, who were also both part of our leadership group last year. New to A Colony is Sarah Strickey - the four of us make up your Beaver's leadership team. On behalf of all four of us, Welcome to A Colony :)
NOTE: Due to the fact that we have fewer volunteer leaders this year than in other years, A Colony is going to be slightly smaller to maintain proper ratio. Scouts Canada has a policy in place that stipulates that we can not exceed 5 youth to every leader, so with 4 leaders we are capped at 20 youth. ..........As you can see we're a little short on parent volunteers this year, if you are at all interested in stepping up and joining us ~please let me know. It is unfortunate that we have had to turn away youth in the neighborhood for lack of volunteer Colony leaders.
First Meeting? Tuesday September 18 in the St Jerome School Gymnasium. We meet from 6:15 to 7:15 every Tuesday. We'll be providing you with a calendar shortly so you can plan your family calendars accordingly.
Uniforms? Available online or at the Scout Shop on Baseline Road (Link below). Your beaver will require a vest, and a hat to be in proper Beaver dress for our weekly meetings. In a couple of weeks, we will be providing your beaver with his Colony Neckerchief and slide to complete his uniform. If you want to pick up a Beavers T-shirt that is available also, please go ahead, but it is not required for our weekly meetings (Beavers can wear whatever T-shirt they like under their vests). As our meetings do take place in a Gym, we like to have some big games and activities from week to week. Please send your Beaver with indoor shoes as well.
The Uniforms look different? Last year all Scouts Canada uniforms were refreshed, so you might notice a slight change from the old light brown vests and 2 tone hats to the new darker brown vests and blue bucket hats. Either style is welcome for our meetings.
Additional Costs? Between now and May, we'll be keeping your Beaver quite busy. Certain 'extra curricular' events will have a nominal cost associated with them. Camping trips, sleepovers, special events that occur outside of our weekly meetings might have an additional cost for participation.
Fundraising? There are 2 major initiatives in the Scouts Canada program plan for Beavers, that directly fund and benefit our Colony. Apple day, and Popcorn sales. You will be hearing more about both of these soon, and I will break down exactly how both programs impact the quality programming that we plan to deliver for your Beaver.
More information? We have a blog (Link below) and will use it to keep everyone on the same page. firstmanotickbeaversacolony@gmail.com is our Colony catch all email, that ends up in my inbox. I'm typically quick to return emails, please let me know if you have any questions.
http://1stmanotickbeaverscolonya.blogspot.ca/ > Our blog.
http://www.scouts.ca/ca/programs > Scouts Canada, programs overview. ........at the bottom of that page, there is a 'SHOP' link, where you can purchase your uniforms online.
http://goo.gl/maps/Bd4jw > St Jerome Catholic School, this is where we meet every Tuesday at 6:15
http://goo.gl/maps/2PBDt > Scouts Canada HQ, also the home of theScouts shop where you can buy the Beaver uniform.
Thank you for reading, and we look forward to meeting everyone Next Tuesday!
Dan Auns - Contact Leader
1st Manotick A Colony Beavers
613.327.23028 - Cell
