FAQ’s

Answering Your Questions

We hope that the information below will be useful to parents & carer’s

Please, if at all possible, avoid asking our leaders for their time at the weekly meetings or at events and camps – they are always busy looking after the children in their care and are encouraged to do this. They may not, therefore, be able to leave the area unattended or concentrate on helping you efficiently with your query.

We hope that you will find the answer to your financial question here. If you can’t, please contact us and we will be happy to help you

Thank you for your understanding and support of our Scout Group.

Subs 

The scout group charges subs for each young member, this is currently £11 per month.

Subs covers:

Almost 1/2 of the subs we collect is paid directly to District, County and national Scouting, leaving a little over 1/2 for our Scout Group.

Your subs pay for:

  • your child’s membership of the Scout Association, which includes public liability and personal accident insurance, and national headquarters’ staff costs
  • Hertfordshire County Scouts and Stevenage District Scouts costs,
  • Uniforms and training for our adult volunteers,
  • Maintenance and running costs of our Scout HQ e.g. building and contents insurance, electric, water, cleaning, & maintenance,
  • The activities we run e.g. weekly activity equipment,
  • Equipment that is used by all the sections, both at the HQ and when they are out and about e.g. tents, cooking equipment,
  • Scarves and the badges that your child earns in Scouting,

How do i pay my subs?

It’s easy! Subs is £11 per month, subs is paid every month (even when we are not meeting) and is payable by direct debit through Online Scout Manager, or OSM for short.

We’ll send you an email from OSM asking you to setup a direct debit for £11 per month. That’s’ it!

We’ll cancel the payments if you child leaves the Scout Group.

Can’t I just pay cash or cheque?

If the leaders took cash or cheques each month (or week) this would take up a lot of time in the meeting during which the leadership team want to focus on delivering a fun and exciting evening for all the young members.

Paying through OSM is safer and easier – and you don’t have to remember to pay every month that way!.

Why do I pay subs for August when the Group doesn’t meet then?

All members pay a subscription to be a member of the Scouts. We could ask a annual fee in advance, like a gym, but we don’t feel that the right thing to do.

Our Group’s subs are not calculated by meeting dates, which happen both in term time and also on occasions in the holidays as the young people move up to Cubs and Scouts. We could ask for payment per term, but this is quite a large amount to pay in one go and a straight £11 per month makes the standing order payment simpler

Does the Scout Group get any other funding than our subs?

Your subs are what keep us going. Our Group does not receive any regular external funding. we do apply for grants to help keep subs down and also run Gift Aid

We record Gift Aid in OSM and send emails to parents asking them to opt in if they are eligible. If you need help, contact us and we will come to your aid! And …THANK YOU!

How do i pay for an event?

Just like subs we no longer accept cash or cheque as any kind of payment, all our events are paid for by our online payment system

How much do leaders get paid?

Nothing, nada, zilch, zero…

All of our leaders and every adult involved in our Group gives their time, skills and efforts voluntarily and without payment of any kind!

Online Scout Manager
(OSM)

what is OSM?

OSM is our young member database where we keep all our recorlds & persional information . the use of OSM helps us comply to our GDPR requirments.

How do i log in to OSM?

if you have receved the link? go to https://onlinescoutmanager.co.uk/ 

if you havent receved the link please contact us

I’ve lost my OSM password

No problem. Just use the Forgotten Password feature at https://onlinescoutmanager.co.uk/ 

Uniform

Scouting is a uniformed Organisation, our young member uniform is outlined in each of the section pages

Parent & carer helpers

As a small village group we run very low on leaders and for our beaver and cub sections we run a helper rota. this ensures that we have the minimum number of adults at each activity / meeting. and for our squirrels section we are currentley asking for a knowen adult to accompany each child.

For our scout section we occasionally ask for extra help.

Who is responsible for the Scout Group finances?

The Executive Committee (Charity Trustees) is responsible for ensuring that the Scout Group’s finances are secure and spent wisely. The committee meets requarley and a finance report is a standing agenda item.

If you have any questions about the Exec or are interested in joining to help out, please contact!

My child wants to attend an event but it’s a lot of money… can I pay it in small amounts?

No worries. Contact us and we will arrange for you to speak to someone in complete confidence.

The reason we Scout is to give the young people in our Group the opportunity to take part in a wide range of exciting and happy experiences – if your child wants to be a part of it, we want to help you find a way to make it happen.