Virtual meetings to the Rescue!

We hope you are all well in these trying and unusual times.

It’s sad but its true! as a result of the current social distancing rules ours and all other Groups Scout meetings have been suspended until further notice.

But that isn’t going to stop us…. All our Groups Section Meetings are being held virtually, using video conferencing tool 'ZOOM' to host our meetings and so far it has been successful.

This is important information about our virtual sessions.

1. Virtual Section meeting

The virtual meeting will be held at the same time as it would normally have been held.

Your Section leaders will confirm the relevant Zoom dial-in details for your meeting.

We adhere to guidance provided by the Scout Association (which can be found here). In addition, we’ve ensured that safety features (such as disabling chat, having passwords for meeting and turning off any recording of the meeting) are activated. We also plan to ‘lock’ the meeting shortly after it starts. This means that any latecomers will not be admitted.

Guidance on using Zoom & Virtual meetings

We want this to be a fun experience, so don’t forget:

• Please join in on time - latecomers may not be admitted

• The young person must use their own name (no alias) in the meeting, if they join with your name by accident we shall change it

• Ideally, everyone should join meetings from public rooms (living room, kitchen, dining room, etc) although it is recognised this is not always practical.

• Ensure a parent is in the same room as your child during our virtual meeting. This is both from a safety and help with technology perspective

• Ensure any other people in the room are dressed appropriately and behave appropriately as they will be visible to everyone on the call

• The young person needs to be in their Uniform

• We expect the same standard of behaviour online as we do in our face to face meetings from the young person.

3. Badges

Your Section leaders will confirm which badges they will be working on during the virtual meetings.

In addition, to give the young person the opportunity to earn more badges, we have already asked you log into OSM and look at the ‘Badges at Home’ section. This allows the young persons to complete badges at home and upload evidence for the tasks they’ve completed.

Your Section leaders will confirm how this will work.

4. Online Scout Mangaer

In order to facilitate Badges At Home, we’ll be using Online Scout Manager. Parents will also be aware and familar with this as you may have received email from it or used it to update personal details and payments.

You will receive a separate email for you to access OSM. Please can you log in to ensure you have access and to confirm the details we hold are correct. Note that we are in the process of updating the information on this site, so details of current badges awarded to your children and programme and event details will not be up to date.

Use the following link on the The Scout Association website, for further information on Badges at Home.

Finally, thank you for all the messages our Leaders have received over the last couple of weeks on our virtual sessions.

We’re grateful for your support and positive comments.