Logo: 8th Wimbledon Scout Group
Image: OSM logo
STAY WELL - STAY SAFE - STAY SCOUTING!
Without the help of parents and guardians, we wouldn't have a Scout Group! THANK YOU to all of 8th Wimbledon's parents for all of your help and support in running the Group. Without your support, none of the activities we are able to run could exist.
The Parent Portal of Online Scout Manager, OSM
We use this amazing facility to keep track of our Members and their progress through Scouting, their badges gained and also for so many other reasons - and you as a parent/guardian of a child in the Group get to see their records and update us on any changes to things like contact details or next of kin etc. OSM and the Parent Portal are fully GDPR compliant.
How does the Parent Portal work?
When your child first looks to join the 8th Wimbledon you will probably have put their basic details onto our Waiting List. Once they are invited to start coming along to enjoy the fun we offer, we will internally move their information from off the Waiting List and into the main area of OSM, where we keep the data for Members of our Sections (Beaver, Cubs and Scouts). By us doing this you will then receive an email message inviting you to create your own free personalised login and to fully join OSM.
It is important that you only follow the link in the invitation email to create your own OSM login, which is then automatically linked to your child.
Once you are fully registered through the Parent Portal with OSM you can then view and amend details on your child’s record. It is also incredibly important that you let us know as much information as possible and that you also tick the approval for Gift Aid and for as many permissions as you feel happy with… for example, for us to use photographs of your child in our promotional material.
Through the Parent Portal you will receive email newsletters from us, you will find details of outings, special Meetings, Camps, Expeditions, social events and fund raising events, all relevant to your child and the Group.
You will be able to pay for all of the above and for termly Membership Subscriptions securely using the Parent Portal of OSM.
Please follow this link to find out more about the facilities of the Parent Portal. You can also use it to find out Badge placements and Badge Requirements so that you can help your child to gain more Badges and Awards outside of weekly Section Meetings. It offers so much.
Membership Subscriptions
As a parent/guardian of a child in the Group, we ask you to pay a Membership Subscription to the Scout Group each term, via the Parent Portal of OSM.
The Termly fee for 2022 is £50.00 per term for Beaver Scouts, Cub Scouts and Scouts: this money goes toward providing resources for use week in week out, including, but not limited to, purchasing badges, everyday equipment and paying rent for our meeting hall.
Additionally, part of this charge made to parents/guardians for each Beaver Scout, Cub Scout and Scout, we have to pay to UK Scout Headquarters for your child's Membership of the UK Scout Association. This covers such elements as Headquarters' producing all of the Programme of Scouting activities available, for running UK Scout Activity Centres and Campsites, for providing insurance cover for all Members, for providing every single service and initiatIve available for Leaders, including training, and for the youth Membership and the wider community.
When it is time to pay the fees above you will receive an email message from our Group Treasurer requesting payment. Just follow the instructions in the email and pay online to continue your child’s enjoyment of Scouting for that term.
Follow this link for instruction videos regarding Payments on OSM.
We never want lack of finances to be a block to starting or undertaking Scouting with the 8th Wimbledon and we are always ready to help and chat about any issues or concerns you may have, in confidence if needs be. We are a friendly and supportive bunch. You can always email us with the title via gsl@8thwimbledon.org to have such a chat
Gift Aid is vitally important to us
If you are a UK taxpayer and you earn more than the amount of your donation, we can claim back money from the Government on your donation, at no financial expense to you. This is such an important element to our fundraising and this, along with fundraising, helps us to keep the Termly Membership Subscriptions and our activity costs as low as possible.
All that you have to do is tick the Gift Aid box in your child’s Parent Portal entry - that’s it… we do the rest.
Please take 60 seconds out of your day to tick the box - because ticking that box helps us to provide Scouting when other Scout Groups are closing during the pandemic.
If you’re having problems logging on then please email info@8thwimbledon.org
Meeting times
We tend to operate our weekly Meetings for the Sections on the same schedule as Term Times for London Borough of Merton Schools. These dates may be found here: https://www.merton.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools/school-term-dates-and-holidays
On occasion weekly Meetings will be cancelled or moved to another location for an activity to happen - we let our parents know details of this through the Parent Portal of OSM.
Waiting Lists
We are a very popular Scout Group and our Waiting List is always busy and at times it may be closed, due to a high volume of names on the List. Please see each Section's page to see the status of the Waiting List.
We allocate spaces like this:
Potential new Members are selected from the Waiting List, when places become available and the young person is of an age to be admitted into a Section, according to the following priorities:
1. Children of the current Leader/Helper team.
2. Children who are moving up from lower Sections (Beavers, Cubs or Scouts) due to age.
3. Children of the current Executive Committee.
4. Siblings of current Members of the 8th Wimbledon Scout Group, as long as that young person has been on the Waiting List for 6 months.
5. Children transferring from other Scout Groups.
Helping out and Parents’ Rotas
On occasion you will see a request via the Parent Portal for volunteer parents for one of the weekly Section Meetings, for an outing or for a Camp/Expedition.
All of our Leaders and committee members are 100% volunteers and we sometimes need to get extra pairs of hands to help make an experience happen for our young Members. Please do consider volunteering. We like each family to at least volunteer to help with something once a year when a request is sent out and, in advance, thank you once again for your support.
If you are considering offering even more volunteering time then have a look at what The Scout Association says about Volunteering as an adult and then come back to us...
If you would like to find out about the opportunities we currently have in the 8th Wimbledon then please take a look at our ADULT VOLUNTEERS page.
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