A word from our District Badge Secretaries...
Jenny and Nigel have recently swapped roles; due to Nigel’s work commitments, Jenny is now officially the Honorary Badge Secretary, while Nigel will continue as Jenny’s assistant during 2003-2004.
Nigel and Jenny
District Badge Secretaries
| Badge Secretary’s Report Badges gained in East (1st April 2002-31st March 2003) Summary |
 |
| Group | Beaver Scouts | Cub Scouts | Scouts | Total |
 |
0 | 128 | 0 | 128 |
 |
0 | 35 | 5 | 40 |
 |
0 | 19 | 24 | 43 |
 |
0 | 54 | 0 | 54 |
 |
0 | 79 | 0 | 79 |
 |
0 | 18 | 4 | 22 |
 |
0 | 84 | 19 | 103 |
 |
0 | 29 | 0 | 29 |
 |
0 | 257 | 21 | 278 |
 |
0 | 71 | 20 | 91 |
 |
0 | 15 | 2 | 17 |
 |
0 | 165 | 6 | 171 |
TOTAL |
0 | 954 | 101 | 1055 |
East's Cubs earned an impressive total of 954 Activity Badges during the last year (representing an increase of over 220 on the previous year's total); of these, ~60% were accounted for by 3 of the 12 Packs in the District (3rd, 30th, and 99th). Due to the changeover to the new programme, the total included a variety of old and new activity badges, with 99th and 30th Packs attempting 22 and 21 Activity Badges, respectively, from those available.
Badges such as Home Safety, Home Help and Scientist remained popular, while the new Emergency Aid and Adventure badges and the staged Nights Away badges were also popular choices. Opportunities provided at District level to complete badges such as the new staged swimming badges and the Cyclist badge boosted the overall total, and a similar opportunity to complete the Athletics Badge is to be arranged in the grounds of the Stormont Estate soon. A few of the Cubs also attempted some of the other new badges including Air Activities, Martial Arts and Equestrian although as yet none have attempted the Water Activities or new staged IT Badges. Some badges have inevitably disappeared with the introduction of the new programme, although parts of some of these, including Local Historian, Map Reader and Gardener have been incorporated into new activity badges or the challenge awards; the Cub Scout Leaders in East District were particularly sorry to see the demise of the Astronomer badge since 46 of our Cubs had earned this badge in 2002-2003. Perhaps we could lobby the NI Commissioner for Cub Scouts, Jean Stewart, to ask HQ to consider reintroducing this badge? I’m sure the staff from our own local Armagh Planetarium would be very supportive of such an approach.
Jenny is keen to re-establish the District Badge Exam Days and also to compile a new list of approved activity badge examiners. So if your Cubs have any ideas for badge courses that you would like Jenny to organise or could suggest someone who might be willing to serve as Examiner for one of the activity badges, why not contact Jenny during the summer break to see what can be arranged for the autumn? How about the staged IT badges since few Cubs have tried these to date?
Scout Section East’s Scouts gained 101 activity badges in 2002-2003 (a decrease of 50 on the previous year’s total). 14 different badges were attempted although more than half of the total was accounted for by swimming badges. Several Scouts completed the new Watersports badge and the staged IT badge, although disappointingly few attempted the ‘traditional Scouting skills badges’ again this year. Perhaps we can look at this again for next year?
Badge Secretary's Report 2003-2004
Badge Secretary's Report 2001-2002
Badge Secretary's Report 2000-2001
Badge Secretary's Report 1998-1999
(the report for 1999-2000 is unfortunately not available)
Information on Activity Badge Courses
Information on Activity Badge Examiners
