At the end of each January Scout Group across the UK are required to take a census of members to submit to Headquarters. This year 4th Ashby has grown by a third, largely due to the two new beaver colonies.

Group Scout Leader, Jonathan Bloor was keen to thank the Regional Services Team of the Scout Association for their support in addressing the shortage of places in the town. "Working with our friends at Ashby (Hastings) and the RST, we've cleared over 100 names from our waiting lists," Jonathan said. "I'm really pleased with the position we find ourselves in, although we have plans to continue to grow during 2018, especially for the 10-14-year-olds.

We welcome volunteers, whether they have a Scouting background or not". At the time of writing (early Feb) places are available in Beavers (Ages 6-8) and Cubs (8-10 1/2), please get in touch to enjoy a free trial!

We were delighted to visit the Co-op to receive a cheque for our share of their Members Charity fund.

Go Fourth! An occasional newsletter for 4th Ashby Beavers, Cubs and Scouts www.4thashby.org.uk Last call for Family Camp If you haven't signed up yet, the closing date for our family camp 14-16 September is Friday.  Check your My.Scout for your own link If you haven't yet sorted the Scouts DBS, do this ASAP, please Families who have signed up will get an email with more information later. Land Search We rent the Scout HQ from the other group in town and it is now at capacity. In the future, we will need additional Cub and Scout group to meet demand We are looking for land or buildings in or near Ashby to buy or rent on an "affordable" basis Do you know of anywhere?  Can you help with grants and funding?  Could you help us to manage the relationship and existing building better? Group Executive Committee Effectively the parent support and also the trustees of the group, we need to recruit new members to enable the leaders to run the sessions effectively.  We have meetings 3-4 times a year plus the AGM.   We organise group events, like the family fun afternoon and fireworks Our single fundraiser, the Scout Post, needs support If you can help, please hit reply or talk to a leader Driving to the Scout HQ Please take car turning into and out of the Scout centre. Do not block or turn in our neighbours drive Consider lift sharing or cycling/walking where you can, please Gift Aid / Online Scout Manager / Census Please take a moment to review the details we hold on OSM for you and your family.  Watch out for emails asking you to sign up for Gift Aid - it's simple and free and should make us several thousand pounds per year from the taxman.  We don't see any financial information about you. Likewise, OSM will be used for an anonymous census questionnaire which we are required to collect for the national scouts.  Please complete it asap - it should only take a couple of minutes.  Other than knowing who has/hasn't completed the return, we don't see individual data. Marie Eccleston Our thoughts are with the family and those close to Marie, who was our secretary for many years.  Marie lost her battle to cancer over the summer. Bath Grounds As a group, we make regular use of the Ashby Bath Grounds.  Please consider signing the online petition to oppose planned development on part of the site. https://chn.ge/2LdWyhB Easy Fundraising Don’t forget to use easyfundraising next time you shop online!  It’s a really simple way to raise money for 4th Ashby through your everyday online shopping with retailers like Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com, eBay, Boden, and M&S and it’s completely free! Over £20million has already been raised for good causes in the UK by easyfundraising shoppers so please help us get our share! https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/4thashby/ Fireworks Event Your feedback on previous events and thoughts for our free group fireworks event would be appreciated - this event takes a lot of organising and we'd like to know what you like, what you would change and anything new we should try. Remembrance Sunday Beavers, Cubs and Scouts are invited to join us to take part in the town's remembrance Sunday activities.  More details will follow; but it will be the morning of Sunday 11th November.  Most sports clubs take part or are supportive.  Beavers and Cubs will attend the family friendly service at Holy Trinity whilst the Scouts will join the formal service at St Helens.  All will then rejoin the parade and take part in the wreath laying at the War memorial. Christmas Post As mentioned earlier, this is our single fundraiser and is a great way to do a little bit to make a big difference We organise the town and surrounding villages into rounds and ask families to deliver any cards in one or more rounds over a couple of weekends. Stamps and special postboxes are in at least half a dozen local shops and we have a stand in town on Saturdays in December (and, if we can, on the street market).  If you can help with organising this, please get in touch now - a small team would make light work of it Keep your eyes open for details later in the year about the rounds and see if you can help. Your Support Thanks for your on-going support.  If you feel you can help us in any way, we'd be very grateful.